Mark 14 verse 50. They all forsook
him and fled. And there followed him a certain
young man having a linen cloth cast about his naked body. And
the young man laid hold on him. And he left the linen cloth and
fled from them naked. And they led Jesus away to the
high priest and were with him, and with him were assembled all
the chief priests and the elders and the scribes. And Peter followed
him afar off, even unto the palace of the high priest. And he sat
with the servants and warmed himself at the fire. And the
chief priests and all the council sought for witness against Jesus
to put him to death and found none. For many bare false witness
against him, but their witness agreed not together. And there
arose certain and bare false witness against him, saying,
We heard him say, I will destroy this temple that is made with
hands, and within three days I will build another made without
hands. But neither so did their witness
agree together. And the high priest stood up
in the midst and asked Jesus, saying, Answerest thou nothing?
What is it which these witness against thee? But he held his
peace and answered nothing. Again the high priest asked him
and said unto him, Art thou the Christ, the son of the blessed? And Jesus said, I am. And ye
shall see the son of man sitting on the right hand of power and
coming in the clouds of heaven. Then the high priest rent his
clothes and saith, What need we any further witnesses? Ye
have heard the blasphemy, what think ye? And they all condemned
him to be guilty of death. And some began to spit on him,
and to cover his face, and to buffet him, and to say unto him,
prophesy. And the servants did strike him
with the palms of their hands. And as Peter was beneath in the
palace, there cometh one of the maids of the high priest. And
when she saw Peter warming himself, she looked upon him and said,
and thou also was with Jesus of Nazareth? But he denied, saying,
I know not, neither understand I what thou sayest. And he went
out into the porch and the cock crew. And the maid saw him again,
and began to say unto them that stood by, This is one of them.
And he denied it again. And a little after they that
stood by said again to Peter, Surely thou art one of them,
for thou art a Galilean, and thy speech agreeth thereto. But
he began to curse and to swear, saying, I know not this man of
whom ye speak. And the second time the cock
crowed. And Peter called to mind the word that Jesus said unto
him, before the cock crowed twice, thou shalt deny me thrice. And
when he thought thereon, he wept. Now, as we begin this, chapter
or these verses that we're looking at here, a curious account is given here of a young
man. It's only given in this one gospel,
which leads us to believe that a certain young man who is spoken
of here is most likely John Mark, who was the writer of this book. Now that's speculation. Nobody
can prove that. And it doesn't really matter
who it was or the purpose for which the Lord has given us this
account. Many have speculated upon it.
But we take it at face value for what it was and the Lord
has a purpose in recording this for us. Perhaps it was the testimony
of John Mark as he was following the Lord from afar off and got
caught up in the thing, but he too fled. One thing we do know
is that none stood with the Lord in this hour. Not the bold and
boastful Peter, nor the rest of the disciples who all agreed
with Peter that they would never deny the Lord. They all, as the
scripture says, forsook him and fled. And so it was, it was ordained
that it be so. That none might say, well, you
know, I stood with the Lord, I was faithful. Well, the Lord
would demonstrate the unfaithfulness of men. And you know, whenever
we see Men deny the gospel. When we see wicked men go contrary
to the gospel and deny the truth of God, as we see so plainly
evident in our society, what it ought to stir in us is not
feelings of superiority or condemnation, but it should cause us to realize
that apart from the grace of God, we would be just like them. And we would have forsook the
Lord had we been there. Knowing what we know, we'd have
been right there with them. And so it is that men are what
they are by nature. And you nor I can change that. And only the grace of God can
turn a man's heart to seek the Lord, to call upon him, to follow
him. and what a mercy and grace is
visited upon the sons of God, that we might call upon him,
and that he does hear his people. And so he was brought before
the Sanhedrin, and keep in mind that these were Jews. The Jews
were those that went out into the garden and took him. and brought him back there to
the temple and so that they might interrogate him. Now this was
a mock trial. They knew what the outcome of
this trial was gonna be when they brought him there. They
wouldn't have paid somebody money to betray him into their hands
if they hadn't already determined that they were going to find
him guilty. And they had these men, these
witnesses, that they had paid to come up there. I'm reminded
somewhat of the January 6th commission. You know, what a mockery such
a thing was is that because they knew what the outcome was gonna
be when they started because they took off anybody that might
object or, you know, bring. And that's a poor, I'm not trying
to equate those things here, I'm just showing you an illustration
of when men are determined to find somebody guilty of something,
they will find a way to do it, because all men are guilty. You see, if they brought you,
if they arrest you tomorrow, and their intent on bringing
you to account for something, they'll find something, won't
they? I mean, if men knew all the things you have done, they
can find you guilty of something, and you'd be going to jail for
a long time. So that's the way of men. And
unfortunately, our justice system sometimes falls prey to such
things as that. It's unfortunate, but the Lord
used the wickedness of men as he does for his purpose. As he, by the ordinate counsel
of God, Ye, he said, have taken him by wicked hands, crucified
and slain the Son of God. Men are guilty, but God ordained
all those things to come to pass. Those two things don't ever cross
paths. They don't ever one rule out
the other. Men often say, well, if all things are predestined,
then men are off the hook. It's not our fault. made a man who are now the replies
to give you up you say the lord might mean to
be what they are he might add them to be what it was a lot
of people try to say what you know and i mean he was uh...
kind of it on a neutral ground here that make no mistake about
it and i'm saying to get storm i think god But the Lord purposed all those
things to come to pass exactly as they did. And no man can say
when he is tempted, I'm tempted of God. But yet, all these things
come to pass. When David went up the stairs
to the roof to look upon Bathsheba, every step that he took was marked
out by Almighty God. But make no mistake, it was David
who lusted in his heart. It was his wickedness. And so
when you stand before Almighty God, if you stand there apart
from being covered in the blood and the righteousness of Jesus
Christ, you will plead guilty before God because you have no
excuse. None at all. That's why we press
upon men the need for a savior. See, all the world is gonna come
guilty before God. God commandeth all men everywhere
to repent. Nobody can hide behind anything
that they didn't know or whatever. What about all those people that
never heard the gospel? You've heard that before. Well,
in the first place, very few people actually left in the earth
that have not in some measure heard the gospel. But regardless
of that, if they never heard the gospel, you see, men are
not judged on the basis of whether or not they hear the gospel,
they're judged on the basis of whether or not they have sinned
before God. And all men, the scripture says,
have sinned and come short of the glory of God. So it does
not matter if a man has ever heard the gospel or not. God
doesn't give men chances to be saved. God saves men according
to the good pleasure of His will. And He is a mighty Savior and
He's able to save whom He will according to His good pleasure.
And those whom he will save are those who call upon him. Those
two things are true. What a glorious thing. The Lord
Jesus said, all that the Father giveth me shall come to me. And
then he said, in him that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast
out. You see, both of those things
are absolutely true. What a glorious thing it is.
See, no man will ever be able to say, well, I wanted to come
to the Lord, but I couldn't. I wasn't one of the elect. How
foolish. The Lord doesn't ever tell you
to determine if you're one of the elect. He says believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. And so there arose many that
bear false witness but they couldn't even get their story straight.
That didn't matter. See, these guys come up and they'd
already been probably kind of schooled and now here's what
you say, but they couldn't get the story straight because they
wasn't telling the truth. Now, you know, isn't that the way
it is when you tell a lie? You've got to figure out how
to make the lie work. And if you don't remember how
you made it work the first time, it won't work the second time.
And that's why it is that, you know, the truth's truth. There's
no such thing as a partial truth. The truth is the truth. And you
know, these men sought to, they were just doing what they were
told, probably paid to come in there. And when the scripture
says, all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, that
is, he has not in his mind and heart and understanding given
glory to God. Now, a lot of men, they'll recognize
that God has done great things. Most people, when they get in
a bind, they'll call on, Lord, help me, Lord. I mean, I need
some help down here. That's just natural. I mean,
men will do that. But it is not a normal thing
for a man to want to fall on his face and give glory to God. All have sinned and come short
of that glory. See, we have not praised Him
as we ought. We've not been filled with love
for Him and recognize who He is. And so it is, as that was
the place these men were at. See, they claimed, see, if you'd
have asked any one of these men, do you love God, they'd have
said, yes, we do. While they were smiting Him because,
you see, they hated the glory of God. They loved their religion. And as Peter was beneath in the
palace, there cometh one of the maids of the high priest, and
she saw Peter, and she said, and thou also wast with Jesus
of Nazareth. Now Peter didn't even think about
what he had told the Lord, did he? Isn't that the way sin is? It darkens the mind. See, we
can resolve. Many times men make resolutions. You ever made a New Year's resolution?
How long did that last? I mean, resolutions don't last
because men are weak. And so Peter just, Peter no different
than you or me. Peter was in a position, he was
doing what was best for Peter. Because he was thinking, you
know, and he might have been thinking, you know, I want to
be here near the Lord, but you know, I don't want to put myself
in jeopardy here. I mean, if I can, you know, kind
of follow the Lord far off and yet not put myself in a bind,
I mean, you know, the mind starts working. Well, that's just good
thinking, isn't it? I mean, that was pragmatic thinking
on Peter's part. He said, no, no, not me. And a maid saw him again, and
he began to say to them that stood by, hey, he's one of them.
And what did he do? I mean, he got a second chance. You ever done something and then you pray,
Lord, if you'll forgive me, I won't do that again, huh? You have. Everybody does that. But what'd you do? You probably
did it again. Yes, you did. Peter no different. He denied it again. A little
after, they that stood by said again to Peter, Surely thou art
one of them, for you are a Galilean in your speech. See he evidently,
I have people tell me I have a distinct voice. People come
in the store and say, well, you know, are you on the radio? And
they say, I thought that was you. I mean, I don't think I
sound any different than anybody else, but I guess I do. And so
this was, evidently the people from Galilee were like people
from the south. And you go up north and people
think you talk funny. I think they talk funny. But
anyway, so they, he said, thou art a Galilean, thy speech great.
And he began to curse and to swear. See, by this time, as often is
the case when we become entrenched in sin, it becomes easier then
to continue on in that way. And he said, no, with a curse. It's not me. I don't know this man of whom
you speak. Though all men forsake thee,
I will not." And the second time, the cock
crew. You know, that old rooster, he'd
probably been crowing every day for whatever. And every time he crowed, it
was because God ordained him to crow. But this particular
time was a special time. And the old rooster didn't know
any different. But Peter did. Because the Lord brought his
word to Peter's mind. And there wasn't any place for
him to go. Just like when Nathan came in to David, and he said,
Thou art the man. And there wasn't any place he
could go. He knew the Lord knew. Oh, you know,
Peter's heart broke in that moment because he realized he had done
exactly what he told the Lord that he would not do. But the Lord's mercy is demonstrated
right here. Because you see, repentance is
a gift from God. And for a man to be broken for
his sin is not something that he can conjure up. You can't
make yourself to be sorry for your sin. You can't do it. You might want to. You might
say, well, you know, I need to be sorry for this, but you can't.
You'll never shed one tear for your wickedness, apart from the
grace of God. But the Lord does visit His people,
and He causes them not just to see that they've done bad things,
but that their crime is against the Holy God. And see, here was
the place where Peter's heart was broken. Because he recognized
that he had not only done what he said he wouldn't do, but the
very Son of God, the one not many days before, he had said,
thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And he remembered. The Lord said
to him, Peter, flesh and blood didn't reveal that to you, but
my Father which is in heaven. And his heart broke. Not simply
for what he'd done, but for the one against whom his crime was
committed. You see, that's what it is to
know what the glory of God is. And
only the Lord can teach a man that. And when he thought thereon,
he wept. Just like David. He said, Lord, against thee,
and thee only have I sinned. Now that was not, in some ways,
entirely true, was it? Because David had sinned against
himself. He had sinned against the nation
of Israel. He had sinned against Bathsheba. He had sinned against
Bathsheba's husband. Can't call his name right off
the top of my head. But you're right. He had sinned against
all these. But see, all of that just fell
by the wayside. That doesn't mean anything compared
to the one against whom he had sinned. against thee and thee
only have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight. And the Lord as we know him mercy
restored David even as he restored Peter. See isn't it a glorious
thing that the story doesn't end there. Think if the story
ended and all we ever knew about Peter was that he denied the
Lord. It'd be a sad thing, would it not? But see, Peter went fishing,
and I'm sure grief was upon his heart the whole time he was doing
this. And the Lord brought him to the
seashore with a net full of fish. And the Lord said to Peter, Peter,
do you love me? You remember Peter denied the
Lord three times. Three times. The Lord ministered his mercy
and grace to Peter. He said, Peter, do you love me? Peter loved him. Peter loved
him. But you see, Peter's love for
him was Only present because of the love
Christ had for him. And that which we remember is
the mercy of God towards Peter. Not Peter's brand or whatever
before the Lord. Oh, what a merciful Savior he
is. That he does save sinners. That
he saves those that call upon his name. that He saves those
even that deny that they know Him. Oh, may He give us a mind and
heart today to see Him for who He is, the Lord of glory, and
to know that our sin is what it is because it's against His
glory. It's against His person. It's
against His majesty. When we knew Him, find him not
as we ought. Oh, that he might give us a heart
and mind to do so today.