some scripture I want to read
to you, the book of Matthew. And we'll go to Matthew chapter
16. Matthew chapter 16. Let's do continue to remember
the folks that are sick and remember our brother Clarence Weissman. He is still in down here in the
hospital, doing a little bit better, but he's been a very
sick man, and he's not quite out of the woods yet. He's got
infection throughout his blood, and he's maybe go home by this
weekend. We'll see how that goes, but
even then, he's gonna have to stay on IV antibiotics for month
or so. And so if you would continue
to ask God to be pleased to heal. We have missed him in our worship
services. He's such a delightful man to
fellowship with. He certainly misses the worship
of God. He has got an excellent attitude
and I just enjoyed visiting with him so very much, and he recognizes
that all of these physical things that have happened to him are
according to the purpose of God, and the Lord is good whatever
he sends the way of a believer. And so if you would continue
to remember him in prayer, of course, remember his wife also,
Cheryl. And then also continue to remember
our dear Secretary Pat. She had procedure today in the
surgeon's office and having some discomfort as a result of it. if all goes well, she's supposed
to come home tomorrow. And she's heard that, and we've
heard that before. But hopefully she'll be able
to go home tomorrow, and then she can stay there. And so we
pray that God would give her grace and strength through this. And then continue to remember
Diane Powell. that God would strengthen her
and be gracious to her, and others
of our congregation. And then, of course, remember
Brother Eisen. He's in Africa preaching and
going into some back villages. And he needs the strength that
the Lord, we ask God to give him. give him grace as he preaches
over there and visits and tries to encourage the preachers and
also the saints of God. And we're asking God to give
him safety as he comes back too. There's quite a bit of unrest
in that particular part of Africa. And we ask the Lord if he'd be
pleased to give him safety as he comes back. Others of our
congregation who are ailing and have afflictions of the flesh,
we ask God to do His will, and His will is always best for all
of us, whether we're sick or whether we're healthy. It's good
to know that our God reigns in all situations, and He always
does what's best for His children. Let me read a few verses to you
here from Matthew chapter 16, and I'll start with verse 13. Matthew chapter 16, verse 13.
When Jesus came into the coast of Caesarea, he asked his disciples,
he said this, he said, whom do men say that I am the son of
man am? They didn't ask this for information. Our Lord never asks a question
because he doesn't know what the answer is. Our Lord, he's
kind of setting things up for another question that he's going
to raise. And verse 14, and they said,
well, some say, and I would, let me tell you this, the disciples
were very merciful to him because there were some people who said
he was Beelzebub. But they didn't answer that.
They said, well, some say that thou art John the Baptist, that
is, resurrected. And others said Elijah, because
he did have such power with God. Others said Jeremiah, because
he was the mourning prophet and the weeping prophet, and our
Lord was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. or one
of the prophets? And now here comes his question
to them. He saith unto them, but whom
say ye that I am? Who do you say that I am? There is only one right answer
from the scriptures as to the identity of this one Jesus of
Nazareth who is the son of man. And the only answer that is right
is the answer that comes from the word of God. And he is the
very Christ of God, as Simon Peter answered. Verse number
16, and Simon Peter answered and said, thou art the Christ. Thou art the anointed. Thou art the Messiah, the son
of the living God. And Jesus answered and he said
unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon bar Jonah, and you know that
means Simon who art the son of Jonah. For flesh and blood hath
not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. And I say also unto thee that
thou art Peter, and upon this rock upon this great confession
that you've made, I will build my church, and the gates of hell
shall not prevail against it. The Lord said, I will build my
church. How is it his church? Well, it's
his church by gift. It's his church because he bought
her. It's his church by his absolute authority. It's his church. Who
is He? He is the Christ of God. And we rejoice in Him and we
bow to His authority as the Lord of lords and the King of kings. Let's ask God to bless our service
tonight. Our Father, we come into this
building with a desire to worship in spirit and in truth the living
God. We ask that you'd give us a spirit
of reverence, of seriousness, and give us a desire to know
more of our Lord Jesus Christ. Open to us the things of our
Savior, Even as our Lord said to Simon
Peter concerning this great confession of his faith, when he said, Thou
art the Christ, the Son of the living God, the Lord said, You're
blessed. You're blessed. You didn't get this from flesh
and blood. Somebody didn't talk you into
this. He said, My Father has revealed
this to you. And we know that a real understanding
and faith and confidence in the Lord Jesus, in His identity,
and in His great work of redemption, and in who He is and what He's
doing now, it all comes by revelation. Lord, reveal to us more of Your
Word. revealed to us more about the
Son of God. We desire to know him, as the
apostles said in Philippians, we desire to know him and the
great power of his resurrection. Lord, show us Christ. Make him
known to each of us. And may we grow in grace and
in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. To know Him, to
know Him in the power of His resurrection, to know Him as
our Lord, to know Him as our Savior, to know Him as our great
surety, to know Him as the Sovereign, to know Him as the King, the
Lord. This is our great desire to know
Christ Jesus. We ask that, Father, that your
Spirit would therefore teach us of Him. And, O Spirit, make known to
us the things of Christ Jesus. Lord, we do lift up to you these
few that we've mentioned and others that we haven't mentioned. Lord, you know the things that
are the desires of our heart. We all have friends and relatives
and folks that mean a great deal to us who have some physical
issues. And we all definitely know people
who have serious spiritual issues. And these are the greatest, this
is the greatest disease, the disease of sin. Lord, there are
many that we know quite well, many of our family members who
are dead in sins. They don't know their danger.
They're ignorant. They have no idea of the justice
of God, the judgment that awaits unbelievers. They have no comprehension
of the wrath of the Lord against sin. Lord, would you wake them
up from their sleep of death? Lord, would you do something
for them? Oh, how we pray for the outpouring of your spirit
upon our congregation, upon those who frequent these four walls. And yet, though they sit under
the sound of the gospel, don't have a heart knowledge of Christ.
and people to whom we preach by way of the internet. Lord,
how we're burdened about them as well. Reveal the Savior to
them, and may all of us who know him rejoice in Christ, and rejoice
in his marvelous work of redemption. And may we walk with him every
day, and may we have sweet and blessed fellowship and communion
with our Savior. Lord, how good it is, how wonderful
it is to be a child of the King and to know that we're beloved
of the Lord with an everlasting love. And what a great privilege
it is for us who are the people of God at any time, day or night,
to enter into the presence of God, to present to you our petitions. And Lord, to lay our weary heads
upon your bosom, knowing that you're always there and you care
for us. You love us and you're gracious
to us. Your ears are always open to
our cries. Your eyes are always open to
see us. The things that we encounter
in this life They're by the direct purpose and will of our Heavenly
Father. And Lord, may that encourage
us, and even in the midst of maybe pain or agony or some kind
of discomfort, to know that the Lord is directing our path. And
we rejoice, Father, in You, and we seek to be a contented people
We seek to be a people who are satisfied totally with your sovereign
will. And so give us patience and give
us a spirit of willingness to bow to your authority, to your
will. Let us in every situation seek
to glorify Christ. Bless our congregation. Make
us to be a loving people. A people who are bonded to one
another through a mutual love for the gospel of God's free
and sovereign grace. Help us to lift up one another
in prayer. There are lots of things we can't
do for each other, and we go sometimes a week without seeing
each other. But this is one thing we can
do. We can call each other's name in prayer. and ask you,
oh God, to minister to the needs of these, our spiritual family
members. And now, as we open the word
of God and seek to find out what you've got for us tonight, Lord,
we ask for an unction with the Spirit of God, from the Spirit
of God, and may the Spirit come upon me, and may the Spirit of
God come upon these who listen. Magnify your name and bless us
all. For Jesus' sake we pray. Amen. Well, let's go back to the book
of John. And we started last week in chapter
18. And so we'll go back. to John chapter 18, and I wanna
briefly just go back and revisit a verse which I dealt with last
week, and specifically really just look at one section of the
verse, and that is verse five. Let me just draw your attention
to the end of the verse, John chapter 18 and verse five. Jesus saith unto them, I am. You notice the word he is in
italics, which simply means our King James translators They put
that in there to kind of make a complete sentence, but it really
didn't do us any favors in doing that, because what the Savior
is saying, he's identifying himself as Jehovah. He said, I am. And in this, he's identifying
himself as the same one who spoke to Moses out of the bush that
burned but wasn't consumed. So he said, I am he. Now here's the sentence, though,
that I want you to look at. And Judas also, which betrayed
him, or was betraying him, stood with them. This aptly describes an apostate. He switched over to the other
side. He was with the master, He was
with the Lord Jesus. He was with the rest of the disciples,
but he isn't with them anymore. He's not standing with the Savior. He's standing with the enemy.
He's standing with those who don't love Christ. He's standing
with those who don't believe Christ. The word, if you look
up the word stood, it means to remain immovable and to remain
steadfast in your mind. And that's Judas. And he stands
with them. He doesn't blush. He isn't ashamed. He has no remorse. He has no
grief. He used to stand with the Savior,
but now he stands against Him. And really, all along his black
heart has been with them anyway. This isn't an instance of a man
losing his salvation, because that can't happen. Because salvation
is of the Lord. This is an instance of a man
who made a profession of faith, who walked with Jesus Christ
for the better part of three years, and yet his heart was
never in it. He never believed. He never embraced
the Savior. He never saw the glory of Christ
Jesus. He never saw the connection of
Jesus of Nazareth to the Old Testament. He didn't see him
as that one whom God promised, and that one who was pictured
in all the types and pictures of Messiah. Judas never saw him
that way, and now he finally makes his real feelings known.
He stands with them. In this, he's a lot like Lot's
wife. You know, Lot's wife, she was
with her husband, and then when the messengers came to take Lot
out of the city, Lot's wife goes with him, but her heart was never
in love with Lot's God. The Scripture says in 2 Peter,
Lot was a just man. He was a righteous man. His soul
was vexed by all the ungodliness around him. But his wife wasn't righteous.
His wife didn't believe. And when they were out of the
vile city of Sodom, her heart was still back there. And the
Lord had already said, don't even look back. But she did. And the reason she looked back,
because that's where her heart was. or where her treasure was,
that's where her heart was. And she looked back, God changed
her, turned her into a pillar of stone. And here's Judas. He now makes known his real feelings
toward Jesus of Nazareth. He is not a believer, he's an
unbeliever. He doesn't love the Lord Jesus
Christ, and if you don't love the Lord Jesus Christ, there's
only one other attitude toward Him, you hate Him. Judas hated
him. And it says, he stood with them. This is astonishing. This is
amazing. But there is actually, in this context of what I want to speak
to you tonight, there's actually a more astonishing thing. Because
I want you to look down here at verse 18. In fact, I'll back
up and read verse 17. John 18, 17. Then the damsel
that kept the door unto Peter, or she said She said
to Peter, art not thou also one of this man's disciples? And
he saith, I am not. Of course, we're very familiar
with Peter's threefold denial. And the servants and the officers,
they stood there. Who are the servants and the
officers? The officers are the temple police. They're Jews. These are men who hated Christ
Jesus. They stood there who had made
a fire of coals, for it was, the scripture says, cold. And
they warmed themselves, now look at this, and Peter stood with
them. I'm not so shocked that Judas
would stand with them. When we read Judas stood with
them, that's not so shocking because we've already had some
words from the Savior indicating to us Judas was not a believer. But here's Simon Peter. He stood
with them. He stood with the enemy. He took,
can you imagine this? He took a public, a very public
stand against Christ Jesus. But wait a minute, he isn't an
apostate. Because he really loves the Lord. Which leads me to say this, whenever
a person denies the Lord Jesus and seems to switch sides, you
can't immediately judge their condition before God. Because
in this passage, here's Simon Peter, he did exactly what Judas
did. He stands with the enemy. He's
not standing with the people of God. He's not standing with
the disciples. He's not standing with the women
who believed on the blessed Redeemer. He's standing among those who
despise Jesus Christ. He's with the temple police.
They've wanted to kill Him. They've wanted to have Him arrested.
These men represent the Sanhedrin. They have the authority of the
Sanhedrin behind them. And here is Simon Peter, he's
with them. He's with the wrong company.
He's with the wrong crowd. This is the man who, when multitudes
of disciples left the Lord Jesus back in John chapter six, This
is the one who answered the Savior when the Savior said to His disciples,
will you also go away? Here are hundreds of men who
had left, women too. They had followed the Savior
and then He said some things that offended them. And they
left, they forsook Him. He had talked about election,
He had talked about spiritual feeding on Christ Jesus, that
His words are spirit, His words are life, and they got offended
and they went away. And our Lord Jesus says to His
disciples, here are the 12 of them left, it's all that's left.
He said, will you also go away? And you know who answered then?
Simon Peter. He answered for the 12. He said,
Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal
life, and we believe we're sure Thou art that Christ, the Son
of the living God. This is a man who just that very
night, this is early in the morning now, but that night, late Thursday
night, here was a man who said, though all men should be offended
because of thee, yet I will never be offended. I will never stumble. I will never fall. He said that,
he said that, and he meant it, I'm sure. He just did not understand
what He was capable of. He did not know His own heart,
just like we don't fully know our hearts. And unless the Lord keeps us,
unless the Lord holds us unto Himself, we may very well deny Him too.
In fact, if He doesn't keep us, we will deny Him. And we'll say,
we don't know him. Simon Peter three times. I don't
know him. I don't know him. I don't know
him. He even took an oath. I don't know him. He stood with them. And that'd be the
title of this message. Peter stood with them. Well,
what exactly led to this fall? Let's look at the sequence of
events leading up to this. First of all, I'll give you three
or four points here. Peter's zeal. He had a foolish zeal. Look over
in verse number 10. Chapter 18 still, verse 10. Then Simon Peter, having a sword,
drew it. He smoked the high priest's servant
and cut off his right ear. And the servant's name was Malchus.
And then Jesus said unto Peter, put up thy sword into the sheep. The cup which my father hath
given me, shall I not drink it? He's such an impulsive man. And he's just ready to take them
all on. Here are all these enemies of
our Lord Jesus. He shows courage, He shows bravery,
but He also shows foolishness. He has a foolish zeal. Of Peter's
action here, let me say five or six things. Number one, it
was unavailing. Because he was no match for the
forces of evil. He didn't understand what sometimes
we forget, the Lord will fight your battles. That's what Moses,
speaking for the Lord, said to the children of Israel when they
saw Pharaoh and the Egyptians advancing toward them, and there's
the Red Sea in front of them. Moses said, stand still and see
the salvation of the Lord. The Lord will fight for you.
The Lord will fight your battles. And indeed, the Lord Jesus is
going to the cross of Calvary to fight the war of all wars,
the war for our soul. He's going to battle against
the forces of evil. He's going to battle against
Satan himself. Here is the seed of the woman
in fulfillment of Genesis chapter three and verse 15. He's going
to crush the enemy's head. Judas or Simon Peter rather is
no match for the enemy. He's no match for the soldiers.
They greatly outnumber him. His Foolish zeal is unavailing. You see, the Lord Jesus, he is
the sword of God's excellency. Listen to this verse of scripture,
Deuteronomy 33, 29, where Moses said, happy art thou, O Israel,
who is likened to thee, O people, saved by the Lord, the shield
of thy help, who is the sword of thy excellency. You see, the
Lord Himself is the sword. And the words that come out of
His mouth, that's the sword you have in your hands there tonight,
the sword of the Lord. It's the only offensive weapon
that the people of God have, is the Word of God. In Luke chapter
22, after the treacherous kiss of Judas, All of the disciples
said, Lord, shall we smite with the sword? And apparently before
the Lord Jesus could answer, Simon Peter took matters into
his own hands. Luke tells us that he cut off
the servants right here. We're reminded in 2 Corinthians
10, This warfare that we're involved
in, it's a spiritual warfare. And there is no need nor use
for weapons that are carnal in spiritual warfare. We don't war
against fleshly things. We war against spiritual things
in heavenly places. In high places, rather. Simon
Peter's zeal, it's unavailing, and I'll tell you something else,
it's unlawful. Did you know in the law of God, it was against
God's law for a Jew to carry a weapon on a feast day? You're not even supposed to have
a sword anyhow. And I guess he felt like, and they had two swords
among all the 11 apostles, they must have felt like, well, the
master's life may be in danger, we're gonna be here to protect
him. But what they didn't understand was they didn't need to protect
Him. They needed Him to protect them,
which is what He was going to do. Because He's already said
to these who came to arrest Him, nearly a thousand people came
to arrest Him, He's already said, if you seek Me, let these go
their way. Our Lord's going to make certain
that these men are kept in safety. He's looking after them. Oh,
Simon Peter, you should have trusted the Lord. You should
have believed His word. You should have listened to Him,
but no, He is so impulsive. He's got to do something. There
is a time to do some things. There's no question about that,
but there's also a time just wait and watch God do His work. And this is what Simon Peter
should have done now. He should have just waited. Our
Lord had often spoken of His upcoming death, how He must suffer
many things, and He must give His life, and He must be raised
again from the dead. But Simon Peter and the rest
of the disciples seem to have forgotten all of that. And Simon
Peter is going to take matters into his own hands. But this
is unlawful for him to do it. And here's the third thing, his
action, his foolish zeal was unnecessary. Because the Lord would say to
him, I could have called 10,000 angels. I don't need you with one little
measly sword to come and defend me. If I needed to be released
from this, to be freed from this predicament, I could call and
my father would send the angels. But he said, how else should
the word be fulfilled, the prophecy be fulfilled? It's unnecessary. I mean, the Lord, think about
this, the Lord had already said, I am, in response to when He
said, who are you looking for? And they said, Jesus of Nazareth. He said, I am. And they all fell
down on the ground. Simon, do you think He needs
you? You think He needs your power?
You think He needs your protection? With His Word, He knocked down
a thousand people. You can put your sword up. He
doesn't need you. It's unnecessary. I'll tell you,
fourthly, he's unchristian. You see, Peter's action was in
opposition to that which the Lord had said in his sermon on
the mount. In Matthew 5, 38 and 39, you've
heard that it hath been said, an eye for an eye and a tooth
for a tooth, but I say unto you, resist not evil, but whosoever
shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other
also. The people of God are not supposed
to retaliate. You see, the world understands
revenge. The world understands vengeance.
The world understands retribution, but they don't understand mercy.
Listen, we're a people who've been shown mercy, and we are
to show mercy to those who wrong us. I don't know, maybe Peter
felt like when he pulled his sword out and he tried to cut
this man's head off and the man must have kind of ducked to his
left and so Peter only whacked his right ear off, which the
Lord then picked up and reattached the man's head. Peter probably
thought the Lord's gonna say, well done. Oh no, he's not gonna
say well done. Our Lord had strong words of
disapproval of this. You see, when you and I as children
of God now, when we're wronged, Are these people doing wrong
by Jesus of Nazareth? Well, absolutely. And I'll show
you in a little bit. Of course, it's the will of God
for him to suffer, bleed, and die, but these people, they're
without excuse. There's full responsibility on
their part for doing what they did to the Lord Jesus Christ. But our Lord had strong words
of disapproval for Simon Peter. And think of this, though we
have wronged God so many times, He has never rewarded us according
to our iniquities. He never has, and He never will. Because all of the wages for
our sins, they were paid by Christ. He has suffered the wrath of
God in our stead. And rather than the Lord rewarding
us for our transgressions and our iniquities, He forgives us. He forgives us. And that's the
way we should be. I know we can be a hard-headed
people sometimes. I tell you what, you do wrong
to me, I'm gonna get you. I'm gonna get you back. And you
say some angry words to me, some hurtful words to me, I can give
it back to you just like you gave it to me. But we're not
supposed to be like that. The Lord said, if you love those
who love you, what thank have you? But what if you love those
who despise you? Ah, that takes the grace of God. But that's the way we're to live.
You see, Peter's action here, it is very unchristian. It's not Christ-like. And my friends, my brothers and
sisters in the Lord, We need to look to our Savior as the
example in this. He did exactly what He told us
to do. If they smite you on the one
cheek, turn the other cheek. Our Lord Jesus willingly endured all the malice, all the
hatred they had for Him, and He was altogether innocent. He didn't give it back the way
they gave to him. In fact, you know what he did?
He said, Father, forgive them. They don't know what they're
doing. I tell you, living the Christian
life, living a life that's honoring to the Lord, ain't so easy sometimes,
is it? But it's the right way to live.
It's the right way to conduct yourself. To forgive those who
wrong you. Not hold grudges. Not hold ill
feelings. Let it go. Let it go. I'll tell you something else
about this. Simon Peter's foolish zeal. It's unwise. He was very unwise. because he
immediately put himself and the other disciples at risk. That's
what happened. Actually, one of the friends
of Malchus recognized Simon Peter later. Look down at verse 26. And one of the servants of the
high priest, being his kinsman, he's kin to the guy whose ear
Peter cut off, said, didn't I see you in the garden with him? Wasn't
that you? Was that you hold that sword? Was that you tried to
cut my friend's ear off or cut his ear off? And Peter said,
no, it wasn't me. You didn't see me. You see Simon unwisely put himself
and the other men in danger. Our Lord had already demanded.
that his disciples be not taken. Why didn't Simon Peter listen
to him? Simon, you're safe. Because the Lord who knocked
all those people down with his words, he had already said, if
you seek me, let these go their way. Simon, you're safe. You'll
be okay. But he unwisely, unwisely, acted
with foolish zeal. You see, it says in verse eight,
Jesus answered and said, I've told you that I am, if therefore
you seek me, let these go their way. The Savior was to be the
only sacrifice that day. The only sacrifice that day. The one that mattered. The only
one that, it's the only death that mattered that day. You've probably heard of John
Knox, Scottish preacher. Reformation in Scotland many
years ago. He was converted in Scotland
under the minister of a man by the name of George Wishart. When Wishart was arrested on
orders from the Catholic Church, when he was arrested, he was
sentenced to death. Well, John Knox loved him because
he learned the gospel from him. He was converted under Wishart's
ministry. John Knox had been following
the 72-year-old preacher, and he He followed him right out
to the place, almost to the place, to where Wizhardt would be burned
at the stake. And Wizhardt, he looked back
and he saw John Knox trailing him. And he said, go home to
your barn, because he was a farmer. John Knox was a farmer. He said,
go home to your barn. One sacrifice today is sufficient. And Knox went home. And of course,
they strangled Wizhard and then burned his body at the stake.
One sacrifice today is sufficient. And I'll tell you, Simon, Peter,
and all the rest of the disciples, and all of the people of God,
one sacrifice that day was sufficient. One sacrifice. Simon, don't put
your life in jeopardy. Our Lord had already said, you
know, He said, I have a baptism to be baptized with. They said,
we'll go with you. He said, yeah, you will, but
not now. And then later he tells Simon Peter that he's going to
die for his cause, but not this day. Not this day, it's like
I said last week. The Lord Jesus will lay down
His life for the sheep. And none of His disciples will
be with Him. Because number one, nobody could
help Him. He must walk this path by Himself. He said in Isaiah, I have trodden
the winepress of God's wrath alone. Nobody else could redeem. Nobody else could reconcile.
Nobody else could do business with God. He must go this route
by Himself. And then secondly, None of the
disciples are gonna be sacrificed at the same time or crucified
at the same time, lest somebody say, well, Simon Peter was in
on it too. He's kind of a co-savior. No, that's not gonna happen.
Not gonna happen. One sacrifice is sufficient for
today. And I'll tell you something else
about this foolish zeal. It was unreasonable. because this was the hour the
Lord had spoken about so often. It was ordained that He would
lay down His life. If I had continued reading there
in Matthew chapter 16, that's when our Lord told His disciples,
the Son of Man must suffer many things at the hands of the chief
priests. He must be killed. He must be
raised again. All of these things must happen.
And it was Simon Peter who said, no, don't even talk about dying. He pulled the Savior aside and
said, I don't want to hear that kind of talk. And the Lord Jesus
said, get thee behind me, Satan. Now you would think on that momentous
occasion when Simon Peter made that tremendous confession of
faith, thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God, and the
Savior said, blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jonah. Flesh and blood
didn't teach you that, but my Father which is in heaven taught
you that. You'd think that he would remember
those words and then remember what the Savior said when he
talked about going to Jerusalem and giving his life a ransom
for many. And you'd think Simon Peter would
have remembered the foolish thing he said then. No, I'm not going
to let that happen. Don't go to Jerusalem. And you'd
think he would have been mindful of the rebuke that the Savior
gave him. This is unreasonable. The Lord
came into the world to die. Simon, would you prevent me from
fulfilling my Father's redemptive will? This is the reason I came
into the world, to save the people of my father's choice. Those
whom he gave me in covenant grace, I came to lay down my life for
them. I'm the good shepherd, the good shepherd giveth his
life for the sheep. Simon, don't you remember those
words I talked to you about? Well, foolish zeal of Simon Peter. Here's the second thing briefly
I wanna show you. Christ must drink of this cup. Verses 11 through 14, then Jesus
said unto Peter, put up thy sword into the sheep. The cup which
my father hath given me, shall I not drink it? I'll just read
that verse. This cup which my father hath
given me, shall I not drink it? You know, in the Bible, we read
of several cups. And I certainly don't have time
to go into all of them. I'll give them to you. There's
a cup of consolation, Jeremiah chapter 16 in verse seven. That's a cup that the people
would give. It could be a cup of water, typically
a cup of wine to somebody who was distressed, It was called
the cup of consolation. And you and I, God gives to us
the cup of consolation. We drink in the promises of God. When you who are the people of
God, you face difficulties, you face trials, you face afflictions,
the Lord gives to you the cup of consolation. The cup of comfort. He comforts us. How does He give
us comfort? From His Word. It's His Word
that gives us consolation. And then there's the cup of salvation. Psalm 116 verse 13, I will take
the cup of salvation and call upon the name of the Lord. We
drink in the cup of salvation. We drink in His grace. We drink
in His mercy. Why, we put that cup to our lips
right now, don't we? Aren't you putting that cup to
your lips right now, the lips of your soul, and drinking in
the grace of God, the mercy of God, the atoning work of Christ
Jesus? You drink, and like a cup of
cold water on a thirsty day, it so soothes your soul. The cup of salvation in 1 Corinthians
10 and verse 16, there's the cup of blessing, which is the
cup of the Lord, the cup of fellowship, And then there's the cup of the
divine vengeance of God, the fury of God, the wine cup, it's
called, the cup of trembling. It's also called, it's called
the cup of his indignation. It's called the cup of the wine
of the fierceness of his wrath. That's the cup our Savior is
talking about drinking from. I actually read just a few days
ago a person's had some comments on this passage of Scripture
and he said, our Lord was going to drink the cup of sin. I never
read in the Bible of a cup of sin. I never read in the Bible
of a cup of iniquity. I don't read in the Bible of
a cup of transgressions. And this author went on to say
he drank it into himself and became part of him. The Bible
never says that. The Bible says he drank of the
wine, the wine press of God's wrath. He put that cup, the cup
of God's anger, the cup of God's wrath to his lips and he drank
it down to its last bitter dregs. It's the wrath of God that he
drank and he says to Simon Peter, my father has given me this cup,
shall I not drink it? If I don't drink it, you won't
be saved. If I won't drink it, your sins
won't be put away. If I don't drink it, my father
won't be satisfied. If I don't drink it, the law
won't be honored. I've got to drink this. And Simon
Peter is, as it were, standing in the way. Get out of the way. No wonder he said, get thee behind
me, Satan. You're an offense to me. You
tried to cause me to stumble. He had to drink this cup. Our Lord Jesus came to do the
Father's will. It's the will of redemption. And then let me give you this
quickly. Peter stands with the enemy. He stands with the enemy. What business does he have standing
with those who hate Christ? These men he's associating with,
he's standing by their fire. He's warming himself. He is associating
himself with men who despise Christ Jesus. What are you doing
there, Simon Peter? You're in the wrong company.
And you're standing, you're steadfast there. It's like you're firm,
you're immovable. Whose side are you on anyway? He stands with the enemy. But
hold your place here. Let me show you a passage over
here in Acts chapter four. Sorry, Acts chapter four. I'll
tell you one thing, Simon Peter learned from this. Learn from
your mistakes. What is it that you history teachers
say? You know, if we don't learn from
history, we're bound to repeat it, something like that. And
that's the way it goes, Ron. Something along those lines. Well, I'll tell you what Simon
Peter, he learned from this experience. I'll give him that. And we all
mess up. We all fail. But let's learn
from our failures. Let me show you an interesting
passage. I was reading this today, and it blessed me. You know,
Simon, Peter, and John had been arrested because they healed
that man who was lame and he was a beggar, right? He was poor.
And they healed him. And they'd been arrested, had
to go forth to Sanhedrin, put him in prison, and then they
released him. Now look at verse 23. I don't
have time to go through all this, but look at chapter 4, verse
23 of Acts. And being let go, they went to their own company.
He wised up. He went to his own company. He
went to be among people who love Christ. He ought not been with
these folks over here in John chapter 18. He's with the wrong
company. But over here in Acts chapter
four, he's wised up. He's not with the wrong company
anymore. He's among those who worship
God. They went to their own company
and told them all the things that had happened. But in John 18, he didn't remain
with those who loved the gospel, who delighted in Christ, who
believed in salvation by grace alone, in Christ alone. He's
standing with the enemy. He's standing with the enemy. Be careful who you stand with.
Give you that admonition. And I'll give you a verse of
scripture, one more verse. Look over in 1 Corinthians chapter
15. And this verse I'm going to read
to you, it's true concerning every facet of life. It's true
for children, it's true for adults. but it's especially true with
regard to the things of God. 1 Corinthians chapter 15, verse
33. You there? 1 Corinthians 15,
33. Be not deceived. Evil communications corrupt good
manners. Let me read that to you out of
the Amplified. And I use the Amplified because
every once in a while it does help to make things a little
bit clearer. The Amplified reads, do not be
deceived and misled. Evil companionships, that is
evil communion and evil associations, they corrupt and deprave good
manners and morals and character. Be careful who you hang with.
You know, Jack Shanks, we were such good friends. God, to be
so close. He'd been with the Lord for a
few years now, but he said one of the biggest mistakes of his
ministry, he resigned the church there in New Caney, Texas, and
he moved to Memphis, Tennessee, to be the headmaster of a big
Christian school. He said that's one of his big
mistakes in life, going from the pastorate to be the principal
or the headmaster of the big Christian school. And he said,
man alive, did I hear, he said, I heard everything. He said,
and this one boy, he said, I'll just call him Little Johnny.
He said, Little Johnny was in trouble all the time. And he
said, finally, I called, I had my secretary call Little Johnny's
mama. and said, you've got to come
down here and meet with me in my office with little Johnny.
And so she came down at such a time as they had set up as
an appointment. She came in. She said, Brother
Shanks, I know he's in trouble, but you need to understand, he
fell in with the wrong crowd. And Jack said, honey, your son
is the wrong crowd. Hey, be careful who you hang
around. Because if you hang around with
the enemies of the gospel, you may be influenced by them,
affected by them. Simon Peter, you wouldn't have
thought he would never do this. Yeah, but look who he's standing
with. He's standing with the enemy.
And you stand with the enemy, and then the occasion arises
where the enemy says, do you believe that gospel? Is that
your Savior? Is that your Lord right there?
And Simon Peter said, I don't even know Him. But he was forgiven because our
Lord When our Lord arose and He saw the Marys, He said, or
the angels said to them, said to the women, go tell His disciples
and Peter that He'll meet Him in Galilee.
And don't you know that sure did help Simon Peter after he
had messed up so bad. Because Scripture says he went
out wet bitterly. It just broke his heart. He's
made a mess. He just figured he'd ruined his
life, ruined his ministry, ruined his effectiveness. But the Lord
had a word of mercy. He'll tell him, I'll meet him
and the rest of the disciples in Galilee. Boy, thank God for
forgiveness. Aren't you grateful that the
Lord forgives us when we fall, when we blunder, Mess up. Be admonished though. Be careful
who you hang around. You hang around the enemies of
the Lord. That just can't have a good effect on you. Unless
God gives you grace to stand. That's what he has to do anyhow.
Well, let's sing a closing song here.