Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Let's all stand
together and we'll sing hymn number 70. Number 70. Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty. early in the morning our song
shall rise to thee holy holy holy merciful God in three persons, blessed
Trinity. Holy, holy, holy, all the saints
adore thee. casting down their golden crowns
around the glassy sea. Cherubim and seraphim Falling
down before Thee, Which wert, and art, and evermore shall be. Holy, holy, holy, though the
darkness hide thee, though the eye of sinful man thy glory may
not see, Only Thou art holy, There is
none beside Thee, Perfect in power, In love and purity. Holy, holy, holy Lord God Almighty
All thy works shall praise thy name In earth and sky and sea Holy, holy, holy, merciful and
mighty, God in three persons, blessed Trinity. Thank you. Be seated. Sing hymn
number 67. 67. O Savior, as my eyes behold
the wonders of thy might untold, The heavens in glorious light
arraign The vast creation Thou hast made. And yet to think Thou lovest
me, My heart cries out, How can it be? How can it be? How can it be? That God should love a soul like
me? Oh, how can it be? As at the cross I humbly bow,
And gaze upon thy thorn-crowned brow, And view the precious bleeding
form By cruel nails so bruised and torn. Knowing life's suffering
was for me In grief I cry, how can it be? How can it be? How can it be? that God should love a soul like
me. Oh, how can it be? How can it be? How can it be? Was ever grace So full and free
from heights of bliss to depths of woe, In loving kindness Thou
didst go. From sin and shame to rescue
me, O love divine, how can it be? How can it be? How can it be? That God should love her so like
me. Oh, how can it be? Let's open God's word and read
from Luke chapter 24 this morning. Luke chapter 24. I'd like to begin in verse 36
and read to the end of the chapter. And as they thus spake, Jesus
himself stood in the midst of them and saith unto them, Peace
be unto you. But they were terrified and affrighted,
and supposed that they had seen a spirit. And he said unto them,
why are you troubled? And why do thoughts arise in
your hearts? Behold my hands and my feet,
that it is I myself. Handle me and see, for a spirit
hath not flesh and bones as you see me have. And when he had
thus spoken, he showed them his hands and his feet. And while
they yet believed not for joy and wondered, he said unto them,
have you here any meat? And they gave him a piece of
a broiled fish and of a honeycomb. And he took it and did eat before
them. And he said unto them, these
are the words which I spake unto you while I was yet with you. that all things must be fulfilled
which were written in the law of Moses and in the prophets
and in the Psalms concerning me. Then opened he their understanding
that they might understand the scriptures and said unto them,
thus it is written and thus it behooved Christ to suffer and
to rise from the dead the third day. and that repentance and
remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations,
beginning at Jerusalem. And ye are witnesses of these
things. And behold, I send the promise
of my father upon you, but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem until
ye be endued with power from on high. And he led them out
as far as to Bethany, And he lifted up his hands and blessed
them. And it came to pass while he blessed them, he was parted
from them and carried up into heaven. And they worshiped him
and returned to Jerusalem with great joy and were continually
in the temple, praising and blessing God. Amen. Our kind and gracious and merciful
Heavenly Father, we once again join our hearts together to.
Offer the praise of our lips, the praise of our hearts. As
we think on the as we read and read your word. Thank you, Lord,
for our dear Savior, who lived and died and rose again. Is now seated at the right hand.
Where he's making intercession for his sheep, for us, for the
believers. Thank you for him. We ask, Lord,
that you come down among us today and by your spirit enable us
to worship and live in our hearts as we
hear the word preached. May the word speak And may we
hear our savior say to us, peace be unto you. Speak peace to our
hearts. Or this. This world is flesh
in which we live. It is much grief and sorrow.
And would swallow us up. If we did not have. A merciful
and mighty savior to flee to. To cast our care upon. plead before him and for grace
and mercy, and expect he provide it, provide us a way, provide
everything we need to continue on. And Lord, we pray that you
do that this morning in the preaching of your word, this blessed time,
where your people gather to hear your word preached in a place
where you've established a church, a body of believers, where the
truth goes out, the truth is proclaimed, the gospel is preached
faithfully. How we do thank you for this
wonderful time that we look forward to, anticipate, where we can
shut out the world to some measure, think on its eternal things,
which are lasting, and put aside the terrible things of this world,
the things which are seen, while we look on things which can't
be seen with the natural eye, but with the eye of God-given
faith. Give us faith, Lord, to believe your word. May we be
established in the word, established by your grace. Establish our
hearts and keep us looking to Christ,
our all in all. Thank you for the dear brother
you brought to us to preach to us. Thank you. Enable him and
strengthen him as he stands before us and opens your word. We remember
those that are weak and can't be with us. We remember Jim and
Debbie as they fight this trial that you've sent them. Thank
you, Debbie, able to be here today. Remember Rick and Helen, Lord,
hold them up, strengthen them, give them grace. Oh, Lord, we
need your grace. We need your mercy. We need your
guiding hand. We need you to hold us up. We
need you to see us through. We need you to keep us. And Lord,
we know you are able. We look to you to do it all for
us. Save our children. Forget them not, we pray, and
our grandchildren, O Lord, intervene in their lives. Bring them under the sound of
the gospel and keep them there, we pray. Bless our time together. Honor the Savior who alone is
worthy. Lift him up in our midst that
we may adore him and love him and bow and embracing by your
grace and your enabling in Christ's dear name, amen. Let's all stand and we'll sing the
hymn of the day in the bulletin. Jesus, our priest, forever lives
to plead for us above. Jesus, our King, forever gives
the blessings of His love, the blessings of His love. Thou hast redeemed our souls
with blood, has set the prisoner free. Has made us kings and priests
to God, and we shall reign with Thee. And we shall reign with
Thee. The whole creation joins in one
To bless the holy name Of Him who sits upon the throne And
to adore the Lamb And to adore the Lamb He breaks the power
of reigning sin. He sets the prisoner free. His blood can make the palace
clean. His blood avails for me. His blood avails for me. Well, I'm sure you all know that
our pastors away, him and Shirley, have taken some time off, and
we're so delighted to have our dear brother. Everybody knows
Cody, Cody Henson from Kingsport, him and his wife, Rachel. I'm
sure his kids are here, too. We're always delighted to see
you, brother, and look forward to the message. So you come on
and bring the message God's laid on your heart. Lord be with you. Good morning. It's good to see
you all again. Felt like it's been a while.
Just a few months. Your brethren in Kingsport send
their love and greetings. I invite your attention to 1 Peter chapter
5. 1 Peter chapter 5. If I talk a little fast, please
forgive me. There's a lot of scripture I want to turn to,
I want us to see today to support the message. I feel like that's
a good thing. Hopefully that's a good thing.
For our text here, look in 1 Peter 5, starting in verse 8. 1 Peter
5, verse 8. It says, be sober. Be vigilant, because your adversary
the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he
may devour. Whom resist steadfast in the
faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished
in your brethren that are in the world. But the God of all
grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus,
after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, establish,
strengthen, settle you. To him be glory and dominion
forever and ever. Amen. My subject this morning is the
God of Peter. The God of Peter. I'm putting
emphasis on the fact that Peter was inspired to write this. What
did Peter call God right here? A phrase we've probably all heard.
the God of all grace. That's how he referred to God.
Now, for our message, I wanna look at several accounts of our
Lord and Peter. The Lord called him to be one
of his disciples, his apostles. He walked with him. He learned
much from our Lord face to face, all right? Now, I hope and I
pray that as we see each of these accounts, that we'll see very
clearly why Peter referred to God in this way. He said, this
is the God of all grace, this is the God to whom be glory and
dominion forever and ever, amen. And I pray this, by the time
this message is over, I sincerely pray that you and I can say the
God of Peter is my God. That's my God, all right? And
what God did for Peter, he's done for me, all right? All right. The first account I want us to
look at here is in Luke chapter five. Turn with me there. Luke
chapter five. I want to make this clear to
this message is not about Peter. I'm looking at it from Peter's
perspective, if you will, but it's not about Peter. It's about
Peter's God. It's about Peter's Lord. All
right. Look here in Luke chapter 5 verse 1. Luke 5 verse 1 says, And it came
to pass that as the people pressed upon him, that is the Lord, to
hear the word of God, he stood by the lake of Gennesaret and
saw two ships standing by the lake. But the fishermen were
gone out of them and were washing their nets. And he entered into
one of the ships, which was Simon's, that's Simon Peter, and prayed
him that he would thrust out a little from the land. And he
sat down and taught the people out of the ship. Now when he
had left speaking, he said unto Simon, launch out into the deep
and let down your nets for a draft. And Simon answering said unto
him, master, we have toiled all the night and have taken nothing.
Nevertheless, at thy word, I will let down the net. And when they
had this done, they enclosed a great multitude of fishes in
their net break, and they beckoned unto their partners, which were
in the other ship, that they should come and help them. And
they came and filled both the ships, so that they began to
sink. Now look here, verse eight. When
Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, Depart
from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord. Now here's the first
thing we need to see, all right? Who is the God of Peter? Jesus
Christ. That's who came to him. That's
who revealed himself to him as the God man, not Peter knew very
quickly here. This is no ordinary man. No ordinary
man could do the miracle that he just did for them. And I love
this. You know, there's a there's a
great misconception that when it comes to being saved, being
a Christian, a believer, is that is that it starts with us. It
don't start with us. Peter, Peter was wrapping things
up, he and James and John, they were they were washing their
nets. They were done. They were heading home. But God. But the God of Peter, the God
of James, the God of John came to them. He came to them. He came to them. That's not hard
to see, is it? He came to them. He purposed to do so. And I'm
sure they're glad he did. Glad he was. All right. He came
to them. You know, we don't just decide
to come to God. God must first come to us. And
call us. Reveal himself to us. You know,
Peter learned something right here that he'd never seen before.
He saw his sin. We don't see our sin until God
shows us. And even then, this old man is
awful good at convincing us that we're all right. We're half good.
But we're not. Peter said, depart from me. I'm
a sinful man. Oh, Lord. Christ revealed himself
to him as Lord and revealed Peter to himself as a sinner. That's what the God of Peter
does. Is that what your God has done? That's who God is, all
right? Now we cannot know God except
he come to us and do for us what he did for our brother Peter,
all right? Now look here, verse nine, it goes on to say, for
he was astonished and all that were with him at the draft of
the fishes which they'd taken, and so was also James and John,
the sons of Zebedee, which were partners with Simon. And Jesus
said unto Simon, fear not, from henceforth thou shalt catch men. And when they had brought their
ships to land, They forsook all and followed him." Again, that
was not their intention when they set out to go fishing. That
was the furthest thing from their intention that could have possibly
been. The Lord coming to them, revealing himself to them, revealing
themselves to them, and calling them to be his disciples, to
forsake everything and follow him. I've preached on this, it's
probably been years now, but I love this account so much.
I can tell you, this is what God has done for me. I didn't
make a decision. He came to me, the decision was
all His. But I'll tell you this, I'm so glad it was His decision
for me to believe on Him and follow Him. Our own way is not the way. It's
right in our own eyes, but it's not right in His. The way is
Christ, all right? Now, God comes to His people
according to His will, and He calls them with an effectual
call, And here's how it goes, follow me. Not, won't you follow
me? I really want you to follow me.
That's the way religion talks. No, follow me. Period. And immediately they followed
him. That's pretty simple, isn't it? That's pretty simple. All
right, turn over to Matthew chapter 14 with me. Matthew 14. In Matthew 14, look with me at
verse 22. Matthew 14, 22. In a straight
way, Jesus constrained his disciples to get into a ship and to go
before him unto the other side while he sent the multitudes
away. And when he had sent, the multitudes away, he went up into
a mountain apart to pray. And when the evening was come,
he was there alone. But the ship was now in the midst
of the sea, tossed with waves, for the wind was contrary. The
God of Peter put him and the other disciples into a ship.
He told them to go before him, and he went up into a mountain
to pray, and he sent the multitude away. He sent them into a ship,
the disciples, okay? knowing that there was gonna
be a bad storm. It's interesting. He sent them out into a bad storm. That's how this account right
here begins. Let me just say this. The life of a child of
God is not easy street. It's full of storms, isn't it?
Has that been your experience? The God of Peter, that's what
he's pleased to do. He's pleased to put us through
the fire, okay? Put us through the storms, all
right? God sends the storms. We need
to acknowledge that. Now, let's go on here, verse
25. And in the fourth watch of the night, Jesus went unto them,
walking on the sea. Again, as only he could. Now
look at verse 26 here. And when the disciples saw him
walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, it is a spirit. And they cried out for fear.
But straightway Jesus spake unto them, saying, be of good cheer,
it is I. Be not afraid. I could not help
but think of this song. God moves in a mysterious way.
It says, he plants his footsteps on the sea and rides upon the
storm. Can you picture this? It was storming really bad when
we got here Friday night. We lost power for a while. And
you and some others said, this is a bad storm. And I thought,
because I was looking at this and I thought, picture Peter
and the disciples out there in a boat. I can tell you the last
place I want to be in the water on a boat during a bad storm.
That would make me very uneasy. And yet here they are, and then
the Lord comes to them walking on the water, which we'd say,
well, that's impossible with men, yeah. And yet he comes to them, and
the sight of him scared them. You saw that, right? But what
gracious words he said to them. Be of good cheer. Be not afraid. The Lord sends the trial, and
then he is the comfort. He sends the comfort. He sends
the peace, and that's himself. He came right up to them. Now,
let's go on here, verse 28. And Peter answered him and said,
Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water. And he
said, come. And when Peter was come down
out of the ship, he walked on the water to go to Jesus. But
when he saw the wind boisterous or strong, he was afraid. And
beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me. This right here, this is Peter's
God. This is the God of all grace, verse 31. And immediately Jesus
stretched forth his hand and caught him and said unto him,
O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt? And when they
were coming to the ship, the wind ceased. The God of Peter,
is the God who saves. He's the God who saves. The God
who is willing to save, and the God who's able to save. Look at verse 33. Then they that
were in the ship came and worshiped him, saying of a truth, thou
art the Son of God. He causes his people to worship
him, in good times and bad. They experienced a lot right
there. Peter walked on water. But moments before, he was terrified
on a ship in a storm. And moments later, he's sinking
in the water. Now he's worshiping the Lord. Back and forth, isn't
it? All right, turn over a page or two to Matthew chapter 16.
Matthew 16, verse 13. Matthew 16, verse 13. When Jesus came into the coast
of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples, saying, Whom do
men say that I, the Son of Man, am? And they said, Some say that
thou art John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah,
or one of the prophets. He saith unto them, But whom
say ye that I am? And Simon Peter answered and
said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus
answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jonah, for
flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which
is in heaven. The God of Peter blesses his
people. What's that mean? Does he bless
them with health, wealth, and prosperity? Easy life? Nope. What's he bless
them with? Revelation and knowledge of himself.
You know, they just said at the last verse we read in chapter
14, It said basically the same thing, didn't it? Of a truth,
thou art the Son of God. That's the same thing he said
right here. Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. That's
a blessed person that knows that. If God has caused us to know
that and believe that, oh my soul, I don't care what we lack,
we have everything. Because we have Him. And He is
everything. Christ is all. You know, it's
sad to me when I hear and I witness firsthand people lost in religion. My heart yearns for them because
they've not so learned Christ. People love to throw around the
name Jesus, yet they don't know he's the Christ. They don't reverence
him as the Christ. They don't know him as God Almighty,
the Savior. He who needeth nothing. He who
upholds the world. In his hand, who has all power
over all flesh, over everything. But if we can say with Peter,
this is my God, this is the God of all grace. He's blessed us
to know him, to truly know him. Whom to know is life eternal.
Read that in John 17. We've been taught of God. And
I tell you this, if he doesn't reveal himself to us, give us
a saving knowledge of himself, we're not going to know him.
If he doesn't come to us, we're not going to come to him. Love
God. If he doesn't reveal his love
to us in Christ, we're never going to love him. It's all in
Christ. And he must do it. He must start
it. He must finish it. Work the whole thing. It's his
work. Look here in Matthew chapter
17. Verse one. And after six days, Jesus taketh
Peter, James, and John, his brother, and bringeth them up into a high
mountain apart, and was transfigured before them, and his face did
shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light. Here's what's happening here. God was pleased to show Peter
and James and John his glory. took him out up here on the Mount
of Transfiguration, was transfigured before them, shining, glistening.
He caused them to see that. And I wasn't going to say this,
but it says in another account that, you know, this is a glorious,
this is a glorious account. You know what they did? They
fell asleep. That's telling, isn't it? Spirit's willing, but
the flesh sure is weak. Where do we see God's glory?
We're told in Corinthians, we see God's glory one place, in
the face of Jesus Christ. And they saw it right here. They
saw it. Verse three says, and behold,
there appeared unto them Moses and Elijah talking with him.
Then answered Peter and said unto Jesus, Lord, it is good
for us to be here. If thou wilt, let us make here
three tabernacles, one for thee, and one for Moses, and one for
Elijah. While he yet spake, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them,
and behold, a voice out of the cloud which said, this is my
beloved son in whom I am well pleased, hear ye him. And when the disciples heard
it, they fell on their face and were sore afraid, and Jesus came
and touched them and said, arise and be not afraid. And when they
had lifted up their eyes, they saw no man, Save Jesus only. The God of Peter was pleased
to show him his glory. Well, then he allowed Peter to
start glorying in the mountaintop experience, in Moses and Elijah,
the sight of them. He that glorieth, let him glory
in the Lord. The Father, who is also the God
of Peter, the triune God, God the Father, God the Son, God
the Spirit. The Father spoke. He said, This is my beloved son
in whom I'm well pleased. Hear ye him. I mean, I'm sure
I'd have been blown away by seeing Moses and Elijah, too, would
we not? I do like how Peter at least says good for us to be
here, Lord, if thou will. I mean, that was that was good,
right? But we must glory in Christ alone. God will see to it that
his people glory in Christ alone. In Christ alone. And I love the wording here at
verse eight, it says, They saw no man. When God the Father spoke,
he caused them to fall down, and they look up when our Lord
touched them, and fear not, be not afraid. And then they just
saw him. Well, where'd Moses and Elijah
go? We must see him. God will cause
his people to see no man save Jesus only. Jesus only. There's no one else we need to
see. There's no one else we need to hear. There's no one else
our hope is found in. Only in Christ. Pray God will cause us to behold
him and hear him, hear his voice. Turn over a page to Matthew chapter
18. Matthew 18, verse 21. Matthew
18, 21. Here's a good question for us to ask ourselves right after reading
that verse. How many times do we need God to forgive us? Seven
times? Is that good? Is that good enough? If that was my prayer for God
to forgive me seven times when I woke up today, I'm already toast. Do we not need forgiveness continually
from our God? He was gonna teach Peter something
here. Look at the next verse. Matthew 18, 22. Jesus saith unto
him, I say not unto thee until seven times, but until 70 times
7. Does that mean 490 times? Well, I'll forgive you 490 times. Now, 491, you're on your own.
No. God's forgiveness is continual. God's forgiveness, which is because
of and through the blood of Christ, is forever. Their sins and iniquities
will I remember after 490 times? No, no. No more. No more. He's going to look for it. He
said, I'm not going to find it because it's gone as far as the east
is from the west. So far have he removed our transgressions
from us. I would love to, I would love
to be able to forgive like that. Oh my God, cause me to, may God
teach us true forgiveness. No limit to his forgiveness.
In Psalm 130 verse three and four it says this, if thou Lord
shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand? But, I love
the buts in the scripture. But there is forgiveness with
thee that thou mayest be feared. Aren't you thankful? I tell you
who was thankful, Peter. I was so thankful. All right,
turn with me to John chapter six. I tell you, we read so much about
Peter. That was a man that constantly needed forgiveness, just like
me. Just like me. Look here, John six towards the
end of the chapter, verse 66. John six, verse 66. Let me let me preface this by
saying our Lord had been declaring the gospel, he'd been declaring
the glorious truth of the gospel, how that it's him. You must eat
his flesh. You must drink his blood. He's
the bread come down from heaven. You must be vitally joined to
him. The chapter starts with some men wanting to make him
king. We don't make him king. He is king. All right. Now, some
people had followed him. He'd filled the multitude. But they didn't know him. And
when he started preaching the truth to them, they didn't like
what they heard, and they went back and walked no more with
him. They said, this is a hard saying. Who can hear it? Now,
look what the Lord said here in verse 66. From that time,
many of his disciples went back and walked no more with him.
Then said Jesus unto the twelve, Will ye also go away? Then Simon Peter answered him,
Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal
life. Though the gospel, though the
word of God, is contrary to us. Though it is not only hard to
hear, it's impossible for us to truly hear it, receive it,
love it, and believe it. The God of Peter is pleased to
cause his people to have faith to hear it, to have faith to
truly rejoice in it, to need it. He gave Peter faith. He gave
Peter that very faith. And Peter told us in his epistles,
he said, this is precious faith. And this precious faith believes
the precious promises given to God's people within his word.
And not a hard saying anymore, is it? We love it. Gabe was reading
the other night in his message from Psalm 119, how he kept saying,
I love thy law. I love thy law. In Christ we
do. Because we're looking to him
who kept it. And we acknowledge everything God says in his word
is good, it's pure, it's right. God gave Peter faith to look
to Christ and to cling to Christ. I like what he said here in verse
69. And we believe and are sure that thou art that Christ, the
Son of the living God. Where are we gonna go? Lord,
where are we gonna go? Will you also go away if left
to myself? Yes, I will. I know it. God has shown me enough
of myself to know, yep, I'm gone, that's it, I'm out. Peter also
told us in his epistles, he said that we're kept by being strong
in the faith. He did write about being in the
faith. We're kept by the power of God. We're kept by the power
of God through faith. The faith is his gift, he gives
it to us. That's why it's precious. That's why it's saving. Because
it comes from God. The faith of Christ, that's the
faith I need. It's the only faith that's gonna
help me. That faith causes us to look to Christ and nowhere
else Nowhere else. You know, Peter, he often, he
often got lifted up in pride, arrogance. Well, if he did once,
I did 10 times over. Not keeping myself. I mean, God
would keep me, just like Peter did. Just like Peter. I'm not
gonna turn for time's sake, but in John chapter 13, our Lord
washed his disciples' feet. And when he came up to Peter,
Peter thought that that was just a, Hmm. He had a problem with it. I believe he said, thou shalt
never wash my feet. Thou shalt not wash my feet.
And Lord rebuked him. He told Peter, Peter, if I don't
wash you, you can't have anything to do with me. Now, Lord gave
him faith to respond in a great way. Wash my hands and my head
too. Wash me thoroughly. That's what
the psalmist prayed in. Wash me thoroughly. Purge me.
All right. Something glorious about that
text is we see substitution. We see our Lord taking his disciples
filth upon himself. That's what he did for all his
children, for all his people. He took our sin and gave us his
righteousness, took our poverty, gave us his riches, beauty for
ashes. He took our death and gave us
his life, eternal life. That's grace, that's the God
of all grace right there. It's the God of all grace turned
to Luke chapter 22. Luke 22. Luke 22, verse 31. Luke 22, verse 31. And the Lord said, Simon, Simon,
behold, Satan hath desired to have you that he may sift you
as wheat. But I have prayed for thee that
thy faith fail not. And when thou art converted,
strengthen thy brethren. The God of Peter prayed for him.
And not just once. Our brother just mentioned it
a minute ago about how our Lord ever liveth to make intercession
for us. And I'm so glad he does. I'm so glad he does. I need him
to. You know, the only reason our
faith fails not, he gave it to us and he prays
for us. He's keeping us. He's the watchman over us. We're
in him. We're in his hand. I love thinking
about just being wrapped up in him. And we are. We are. Look here, verse 33. Peter said unto him, Lord, I'm
ready to go with thee both into prison and to death. And he said,
I tell thee, Peter, the cock shall not crow this day before
that thou shalt thrice deny that thou knowest me. God of Peter
knows all things. His purpose shall stand. I don't think I'd ever thought
of it in this way, but this is just a fact. Peter's Lord purposed
Peter to deny him. That was according to God's purpose.
That was his good pleasure. Now, right after this here, our
Lord takes Peter, James, and John into the garden, and he
tells them to watch and pray lest they enter into temptation.
The Lord goes, he prays three times, and they fell asleep every
time. Again, the spirit's willing, but the flesh is weak. It was
the Lord's work to come and to save his people. It ain't up
to us in any way, no way, shape, or form. He came to work the
work of salvation so that we can rest in him and labor to
enter into that rest. Oh, Lord, cause me to rest, rest
in thee. Now down here in Luke 22, here's
where here's where Peter denies the Lord. Look at verse 61. Luke 22, 61, and. The Lord turned
and looked upon Peter, he had just denied him three times.
The Lord turned and looked upon Peter and Peter, remember the
word of the Lord, how he'd said unto him before the cock crow,
thou shalt deny me thrice. And Peter went out and wept bitterly. We just read where. Peter was
adamant that he would go with the Lord and he would die with
the Lord before he would deny the Lord, and yet he denied the
Lord not once, not twice, three times. In one of those instances,
he denied the Lord before a little girl. We're not strong, are we? It
doesn't matter how resolute we are. We're dependent on him at
all times for all things, especially when it comes to our faith. Oh,
my soul. Oh, yeah. A little faith. Peter went out. Denied that he
knew him. No wonder he wept bitterly. All
right. And right after this, our Lord goes, he'd been taken
already, and he goes and he's crucified for Peter. Just as he said he would be.
Right there after the Lord told Peter, he said, blessed art thou,
Simon Bar-Jonah. Right after that, the Lord spoke of his death,
that he was gonna die. And Peter said, be it far from
thee, Lord. Lord told him time and time again that what was
gonna happen, And how he was going to do it alone, all by
himself. That all his disciples were going to forsake. I'm not
going to forsake you. No, Lord, you can't die. No. What he purposed must come to
pass. The God of all grace hung on
that cross for Peter. Now, there are so many texts
we can look at. I just want to show you. I think
this might be the last one. All right. Look at John, chapter
21. This is after our Lord had been
crucified, after he had risen. He'd already shown himself to the
many. Well, here in John 21, this is
such a precious scripture. We're not going to read the whole
thing, just just a handful of verses here. John 21, look at
verse one with me. After these things, Jesus showed
himself again to the disciples at the Sea of Tiberias. And let
me point this out. The Sea of Tiberias, it's the
same place where the Lord came and called Peter the first time.
The Sea of Tiberias, the Sea of Galilee, Lake of Gennesaret,
same place. I never knew that either. That's
interesting. Right where it all began, all right? He showed himself
to his disciples at the Sea of Tiberias, and on this wise showed
he himself. There were together Simon Peter
and Thomas called Didymus, and Nathanael of Cana in Galilee,
and the sons of Zebedee, and two other of his disciples, seven
disciples. Verse three, Simon Peter saith unto them, I go a
fishing. They say unto him, we also go
with thee. They went forth and entered into
a ship immediately, and I notice this key detail here, and that
night They caught nothing. That sounds familiar, don't it?
Same place, same thing going on here, except a lot's happened
since the first time. I've no doubt Peter was mourning
over his sin. I have no doubt Peter was discouraged.
I have no doubt Peter was suffering, suffering internally, suffering
inside. And here he goes fishing and the other disciples say,
we're right here with you, Peter. And here they are toiling all
night, catching nothing. Look at verse four. But. Yeah, I just, every time
I keep reading that word but in all these texts we come to,
I can't help but think where we are on our own and where we
are by the grace of God. But when the morning was now
come, Jesus stood on the shore. But the disciples knew not that
it was Jesus. Just like at the first, our Lord
is there. You know, when he was standing
there the first time, and he saw Peter, James, and John washing
their nets, I don't know how close he was, but he was standing
there, and he was watching them, and they had no idea. They didn't
know who he was. They didn't know he was there.
Here they are again. Our Lord has been crucified.
Our Lord has risen. And they're all over here discouraged
and fishing, and they can't catch anything. I'm sure they're just
frustrated. And there is our Lord, there
stands their Lord, watching them. You know, maybe you're out somewhere
and you see somebody and then you think about saying hello
and, ah, nah, just gonna go away. That's not what he's gonna do
here. He's gonna come to them. He's gonna comfort him. He's
gonna do something for them. And I'm so glad to know it. Look
here, verse five. Then Jesus saith unto them, children,
Have ye any meat? They answered him, No. And he
said unto them, Cast the net on the right side of the ship
and you shall find. You know, we don't we don't read
of Peter saying we've been doing this all night. We don't read
that now. We don't read that now. They cast therefore, and
now they were not able to draw it for the multitude of fishes. Therefore, that disciple whom
Jesus loves saith unto Peter, John, it is the Lord. Now look at this, bless my heart
so much. Now when Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he
girt his fisher's coat unto him, for he was naked, and did cast
himself into the sea. Where was he headed? He was swimming
right to his Lord. Swimming as fast as he could
to get to the God of all grace. Who once again, though he denied
him, though he forsook him, Lord never left him. The Lord never
forsook him. He died for him and he came right
back here for him. Is that not precious? Is this
a hard saying? This is the God of all grace. You know, this is for us. Weeping
may endure for the night. I'm telling you, they were sad,
but joy is coming in the morning. It said now when the mornings
come, here's the Lord. Here he is. May grace for today. Do we need
the God of grace today? Might be a rough night, but our
Lord's coming in the morning. We'll have him in the morning
by his grace. So glad to know that. Look back where we began,
1 Peter 5. You know, this is the same chapter
where in verse 7 it says, casting all your care upon him for he
careth for you. Let's not forget that. That's good news. I need
that. I need him. 1 Peter 5, verse
10. But the God of all grace, who
hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after
that you have suffered a while, make you perfect, establish,
strengthen, settle you. Have we seen the God of all grace
this morning? Have we seen who he is? Have
we seen his glory? Have we seen his kindness and
his mercy and his grace to his people? Have we seen how kind
he was to Peter? You know, Peter wrote a lot about
God's grace right here. Right here at the end of verse 12,
he said, this is the true grace of God wherein we stand. We're
standing right here in God's grace and will never fall. Not
in him. Not in him. The God of Peter
called him unto his eternal glory. You know, Peter suffered a while.
Where is he at now? Eternal glory. You know, he was
standing there in the flesh, seeing our Lord on the Mount
of Transfiguration. Well, now he's there, just like Moses and
Elijah, in glory, in a form of glory, with the Lord. That's
the key. He's with the Lord. Not everybody
dies and goes to be with the Lord. He's with the Lord in glory. He was called into eternal glory. Now, let's make no mistake, we're
going to suffer a while. I look out in this crowd, I see
some suffering. Most of the suffering here, I
don't have a clue about. Lord has gifted us with our own
suffering. But that's all right, because He's called us unto His
eternal glory. And after we've suffered a while, what's it say
here? Make you perfect? We're perfect in Christ, aren't
we? He perfected us forever. Just as He is, that's how we
are. He said in this world right now, that He's coming back for
us, just like He came back for them. Make you perfect? You know,
when the Lord sends trials our way, does that not establish
us in the faith? Does that not ground us in Him?
Draw us closer to Him? Every time we have a hard trial,
does that not bring us closer to Him? Does that not make us
more and more dependent on Him? Establish you. Strengthen you. Every time we hear the Word preached,
does that not strengthen the faith God's given us? Faith comes
by hearing. Every time we hear it, does that
not strengthen us? Strengthen our determination to know nothing
but Jesus Christ and Him crucified be found in Him. And I love this one there, the
end of verse 10, settle you. You know, I'm realizing that
I, my nerves can just plum get out of whack sometimes. I don't
handle trials or pain well. But God will settle me right
here. There's no, where are we gonna
go? Lord, to whom shall we go? We believe we're sure thou art
the Christ. You have the words of eternal life. He prays for me that my faith
doesn't. He said, I'll settle you. If that don't confirm my need
to hear his word time and time again, nothing will. I need him
to settle me. Settle me in Christ, verse 11.
It's a good conclusion right here.
To him be glory. and dominion forever and ever. Amen. That's the God of Peter. Can
we say that that's our God? Can we say the God of Peter is
my God? I pray we can. Let's have a word of prayer. Oh Lord, our God, thank you so
much for your word. Thank you for making it so clearly
point to Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And Lord, thank you
for giving us faith to see that. Thank you for giving us eyes
to see Him who is altogether lovely. Thank you for coming
here into this wicked world to draw your people out of it, to
save them, to die on a cross for them. Thank you for all these
glorious accounts we just read about. Peter, and how you dealt
with him so graciously. Lord, I pray that you would do
the same for us. Cause us to know you through
your word. Cause us to believe on you more
and more by the things you send our way. Cause us to truly trust
in you and you alone. Lord, please forgive us of our
sins. We're so sinful. Thank you so much for your grace
that is greater than our sin. Your grace is sufficient. You
give more grace. Lord, give us grace. Please shed
your grace on us. Thank you for this time of worship.
May we all be drawn to the feet of Christ. May we all call upon
you from the heart. May we all be found in Christ,
robed in him and him alone. Pray for this congregation. Be
with all those afflicted. You said you will nourish your
little ones. Lord, nourish us. Cause us to always remember who
you are and that you do all things well. Lord, be with us. Keep us, pray for your will to
be done in all things, be glorified in all things. May Christ be
exalted both here and everywhere today. In his name we pray, amen. Thank you, Cody. Thank you for
telling us about our savior. We find all we need in him, don't
we? He's our all in all. I was thinking
as you preach, you know, how many centuries that he's been
preached by his preachers and has not been told, haven't even
started to tell the All there is to tell about our Savior.
What a wonderful Savior. We heard the joyful sound this
morning. Christ was honored, lifted up, and we heard the gospel.
Thank you, Cody. Let's all stand together. We'll
sing a parting hymn, Rock of Ages, number 126. Rock of Ages, cleft for me, let
me hide myself in thee. Let the water and the blood from
thy womb side which flows. Be of sin the double cure. Save from breath and make me
pure. Could my tears forever flow? Could my zeal no longer know,
Thee for sin could not atone, Thou must save me. than thou alone. In my hand no price I bring,
simply to thy cross I cling. While I draw this fleeting breath,
When my eyes shall close in death, When I rise to worlds unknown,
And behold thee on thy throne, Rock of Ages, We'll not have any service this evening
or Wednesday, but we'll meet again, Lord willing, next Sunday
morning. You're dismissed. Thank you.