Mark chapter 14. Mark 14. Before we begin, let's bow before our Lord together in prayer. Our Father, how thankful we are that you, out of your multitudes of your goodness and mercy and grace to your people, you've allowed us one more opportunity to meet together and to worship your precious name. And father, I pray that you would give all of us here this morning, the spirit of worship to worship you from the heart. And that father, then in, in hearing your gospel and hearing of the Lord Jesus Christ, you might mix everything we hear with faith that the father from the heart, we might believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, how we pray that you would deliver us from just going through the outward motions of religion, But Father, let us worship from the heart. Let us believe you from the heart with God-given faith. Father, unless you send your spirit upon us and enable us to worship, enable us to hear, enable us to preach, enable us to pray, we can do nothing. We'll have met here in vain. But Father, if you would be pleased to send your spirit upon us. Oh, how our hearts will burn within us. as your word is open to us, and that's our heartfelt desire and prayer this morning.

What we pray for ourselves, we pray especially for our children's class this morning, Father, that you might use this time to plant the seeds of faith in their heart, that they have been taught the scriptures from young children, and Father, that in your time, you might cause that to grow to faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. Show them, Father, who and what they are and cause them to run to Christ the Savior. And your other people, Father, wherever they're meeting together today, we pray you'd bless, cause your word to go forth in power, bring glory to your name. Father, all these things we ask and we give thanks in that name which is above every name, the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

I've titled our lesson this morning Stumbling but not lost. We have a very sad and familiar story this morning about the incident when Peter denied the Lord. It's a solemn warning to all of us. We see in Peter what all of us would do if the Lord just lifts his finger off of us for even a second. And I want us to take that warning very, very seriously. But also the thing that I want us to the hope that we take from this lesson this morning is that our hope is in Christ alone and His grace alone. That's the only way we'll ever be saved.

So first, I think it's good for us to see Peter stumbling, but he's not lost. Peter was a believer. We know the life of Peter and how the Lord called him. He was with the Lord all throughout his public ministry. Peter spent his life preaching the gospel. He gave his life to preach the gospel. They martyred him. What the historians say is Peter was crucified upside down. He said he wasn't worthy to die and suffer like the Savior did and was crucified upside down. He was martyred for preaching the gospel.

This man was a believer. We know about his confession before our Lord was ever crucified. He said, we believe and are sure that thou art the Christ. You're the son of the living God. We believe that. We're sure of that. We're not leaving you. We're not going anywhere. Only you have the words of life.

And then after our Lord was crucified and he was risen, we have Peter's confession again. Lord, you know, all things, you know, I love you. My friends probably don't know why I love you. Remember how I bashed them? How I said, oh, they'll all forsake you, but I won't. They're all weak, but I won't be weak. I denied you. I've led them astray. I've led them to go fishing instead of waiting on you like you said. But Lord, you know all things. You know my heart. What man cannot look on, you know that I love you.

And Peter meant that. Those weren't just words to him, because like I say, after that, The Lord told him, feed my sheep. And Peter spent the rest of his life doing it. He made lots of mistakes, even after that. Peter made lots of mistakes, and thank God that he recorded these things in scripture about Peter, because it gives us hope. There's no excuse for the mistakes and the sins. You know I'm not making any excuse for that. But Peter was still a believer. Same way Abraham was, and Lot was, and David was, and Solomon was. They all made bonehead mistakes, but they're still believers. They're saved not by their faithfulness, but by the faithfulness of God.

And the second thing about Peter is this, that he's a genuine believer, but he fell gradually. He fell gradually. It wasn't all at once. He fell gradually despite being warned. Look at verse 30 of Mark chapter 14. And Jesus saith unto him, Verily I say unto thee, that this day, even in this night, before the cock crow twice, thou shalt deny me thrice. Now the Lord warned Peter about that. And you would think the wise thing to do after being warned like that is just steer clear of the whole situation so you don't put yourself in the place where you could deny the Lord. That would have been the wise thing to do, but that's not what Peter did. Verse 53, and they led Jesus away to the high priest and with him were assembled all the chief priests and the elders and scribes. And Peter followed him afar off. If Peter would have just, he could have never put himself in this situation, but he couldn't stay back. He followed him afar off. into the palace of the high priest, and he sat with the servants. He sat with the servants of the high priest, and he warmed himself at the fire.

And then Peter, now he's with him, and he just keeps at it. Look at verse 66. And as Peter was beneath in the palace, there came one of the maids to the high priest, or maids of the high priest, and she saw Peter warming himself, and she looked upon him and said, Thou also was with Jesus of Nazareth. You know, Peter was warned, and here he puts himself in this situation. He never should have been with the enemies of Christ for any reason. He shouldn't have been with the enemies of Christ for any reason. And you and I shouldn't either. We should not find ourselves with the enemies of Christ warming ourselves by their fire for any reason.

Peter put himself in this situation despite being warned, and look what happened. Verse 68. But he denied, saying, I know not, neither understand I what thou sayest. And he went into the porch and the cock crew. Well, you know, you'd think as soon as he heard that rooster crow, you know what you'd think he'd do is leave right quick before crowed a second time. Not Peter. And a maid saw him again and began to say to them that stood by, this is one of them. And he denied it again. And a little while 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. And he began to curse and to swear saying, I know not this man of whom you speak.

Now, if you look over at Psalm one, Here is a, this is, what David is writing here, I assume David's the writer of this psalm, is exactly what happened to Peter. Our Lord warned Peter, and there's a warning to all of us in the scriptures. Psalm 1, verse 1. Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. See, here's a gradual, Gradual fall. First, you walk by. Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly. You just walk by. You're just looking, you're just kind of seeing, you don't plan on staying, you're not gonna, you know, stop and talk to anybody and fellowship with them. You just walk by. That's the first thing you do. I'm just looking, just window shopping, just walking by. And then you stand. Nor standeth in the way of sinners. You stop and stand there with them for a minute. For whatever reason. Maybe they've been friends of yours for a long time. Maybe you have advantages by being friends with them or whatever. You still don't plan on staying. You're standing. You don't plan on staying for too awful long. But then you sit. Nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. Walking by ends up with you sitting in the seat of the scornful. You're sitting with the enemies of Christ. instead of sitting at the feet of Christ.

It's a gradual decline, isn't it? And I've seen this play out so many times, and you have too. You see somebody and they do something that's opposed to the way of God's word. Now you and I are not under the law. Believers are not under the law. We're under grace. But God has laid out in his word, his way, there's just certain things a believer should do and shouldn't do. And you see somebody do it, and it's opposed to the way that's taught so clearly in God's word. And they say, well, that's not gonna affect me. I still believe what I've always believed. I still trust Christ like I always, it's not gonna change me doing this. Maybe I take a promotion in my job to a place where the gospel's not preached or something. Things like this happen. But here's the problem. That starts a gradual slide. Because once you ignore one part of God's word, It's easy to ignore the rest of it. And it just starts this gradual slide.

And pretty soon, this person, they're not as faithful to attend the services as they used to. They don't pray like they used to. They might go through the motions of prayer. But you know, and I do too, when we're going through the motions of prayer and when we're really crying to God and praying from the heart. And that praying from the heart seems to be gone. the need to hear the word of God seems to be gone. The need for Christ, the need for his mercy, the need for his grace seems to be gone, and then they just leave and don't come back. Now, maybe they will come back. If they're the lords, they will, just like Peter, right? Maybe they will come back. Maybe they won't. Maybe they'll be like Judas and they never will come back. To do something contrary to the word of God, and then to leave the gospel and just presume, well, I'm gonna come back. I'm gonna come back to Christ. I'm gonna come back to the gospel. I'm gonna come back to the people of God. This is not forever. That's to presume on God's grace. Now, God's gracious, but he don't have to be. I mean, isn't that the very definition of grace? What we don't deserve. What we don't deserve.

And Peter was a believer, and Peter had, boy, he had experiences, didn't he? He was on the Mount of Transfiguration. He saw the Lord work all those miracles. The Lord Jesus, the Son of God, taught Peter the gospel himself. I mean, all the experiences and the things that this man went through. The faith that he had expressed in the past. We believe and are sure that thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God, but you can't rest on past experiences. You can't rest on past faith. Saving faith is always right now. Saving faith believes Christ right now. Faith needs Christ now. I mean, I need him now just as much as I've ever needed him. I need him now. Saving faith seeks Christ now. By God's grace, I seek Christ more fervently and earnestly today than ever before. But now, Shawn, tomorrow I better not rest on that. Tomorrow I better be seeking Christ again, right? Saving faith seeks Christ out. You can't rest on past experiences. And as soon as you do that, boy, that slide is gonna, downward, is gonna quicken.

Now, Peter fell. But he didn't lose his salvation. And two reasons I can think of why Peter did not lose his salvation.

Number one is this. because Christ our Savior made intercession for Peter before he ever fell, before he ever slipped. Look at Luke chapter 22. This is such a precious thing to think about and to see if the Lord will show it to us. 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've prayed for thee. Peter, I've already prayed for you, that thy faith fail not. And when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren. Now Peter failed, didn't he? Boy, Satan came and sifted him like wheat. Same way Satan would sift you and me. He'd sift us like wheat. I mean, there's no resistance whatsoever. But Peter didn't fall and lose his salvation because Peter had an advocate with the Father. Peter had an intercessor with the Father, and Peter stumbled, and Peter fell, but his faith didn't fail. See, Peter made this big mistake, but his faith in Christ didn't fail because Christ prayed for him, that his faith would not fail. We always have an advocate. We who believe always have an advocate with the Father for any man who sins, not just before conversion, but after. We have an advocate with the Father. And that's the only reason you and I don't fall and lose our faith too, because we have an advocate who's prayed for us.

And second, Peter did not lose his salvation because the Lord brought Peter to repentance, and that's what he'll do with all of his children. Sooner or later, he's gonna lead them to repentance. And remember, repentance is not just being sorry that I sinned or being sorry that I got caught sinning, not just being sorry for the consequences of my sin, it's a turning. The Lord's always turning his people back to Christ, and that's what he did for Peter. Look again in our text at Mark 14. Verse 72, and the second time, the cock crew. And Peter called to mind the word that Jesus said unto him, before the cock crow twice, thou shalt deny me thrice. And when he thought thereon, he wept. He wept.

Now the Lord led Peter to repentance by three means. First, providentially. Providentially. He worked the events of providence together so that when Peter fell, he stumbled, he did not lose his salvation, but he was brought to repentance. The rooster crowed just like the Lord told Peter he would. But have you ever thought of this? No, I don't know. I've never been, you know, on farms too often. I've been there and I heard roosters crow in the morning and stuff, And maybe they crow at night, and I don't know that. But as far as I know, roosters don't crow at night. This one crowed twice. I mean, you talk about the Lord being in control of this thing. And then Peter remembered. Then he remembered. So the Lord used the events of Providence to bring Peter back to himself.

Second, Peter was led to repentance by grace. Look at Luke 22 again. Verse 60, Luke 22, verse 60. And Peter said, man, I know not what thou sayest. And immediately while he spake, while he was still speaking, the cock crowed. And the Lord turned and looked upon Peter. They must have been leading the Lord out at that time. He turned and looked upon Peter and Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how he had said unto him before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice. And Peter went out and wept bitterly. I can only imagine poor Peter. He denied the Lord. the third time, and while he was doing it, that rooster crowed, and the Lord looked at him. The Lord had already started suffering physically for the sins of his people, how he'd been beaten and the things that they'd done to him already, and he looked at Peter. Now, that was a look of grace. It was not a look to get Peter to feel sorry for him. Peter, look at how I've already been suffering. I've been buffeted and beaten. You know, all these things that have happened to me. It wasn't a look to get Peter to feel sorry for the Lord. Because you remember the Lord told those women who were crying, don't you weep for me. He wasn't trying to get anybody to feel sorry for him.

He looked at Peter, not with a look of wrath. Not like, Peter, I'm going to get you. I'm going to get you. You just wait. There's coming a day you and me are going to be alone. I'm going to get you. That's not what he did. It was a look that said, Peter, you're forgiven. You're forgiven. The same look that in a few hours, he's going to look at that thief and say, today shalt thou be with me in paradise. It's a look that Peter, your sins are forgiven. And then our Lord kept going. All it took was a look. And then he kept going to pay the price for the sin of his people. It's grace. Nothing breaks the heart of a believer other than grace. Nothing breaks the heart of an unbeliever that in turn makes them a believer other than God's grace. To think of Christ our substitute and what he willingly suffered to put our sin away. Now that's grace isn't it? And that's what breaks the heart of a believer. And that's what broke Peter's heart. So he went out and wept bitterly and turned back to faith in Christ alone. There's no more Peter saying, I'll die with you and I'm gonna go with you. No, Peter ran away. Now he's trusting Christ alone.

And the third thing that the Lord used to bring Peter to repentance was his word. When that caught crew the third time, or the second time, then Peter remembered the word that the Lord had said, and he remembered the word. Now, Peter remembered the Lord's spoken word. But you know what the Lord uses to constantly bring his people into repentance, turning again to Christ, turning again to looking to him, to trusting him? It's his written word. It's somebody preaching Christ the written word to us, And every time a believer really hears that now, really hears this message of Christ and Him crucified, the message of His grace, the message of our substitute, the whole message of the gospel, you can't help but turn back to Christ. And you're looking to Him and Him alone, aren't you? It's a constant thing. And we hear this so many times, and this is so true, repentance is not a one-time act. It's not a one time thing, it's constant. It's constant because that old man that we are forced to live with never quits. He never quits trying to get us to look to ourselves, to trust in our works, to trust in our goodness, to trust in our morality, to trust in anything about ourselves. And every time we hear the word of God, it's a reminder, isn't it? and I turned it to trust Christ and Christ alone.

If I start to listen to that flesh in any way and think, oh, God's gonna be more pleased with me because I'm so faithful or I'm this or I'm that or I do this better than somebody else. If we start listening to that old man and start thinking it for a minute, the only thing it takes for a believer is to hear the word again and be reminded and we turn to Christ again.

I suspect That happened to Peter nearly every morning the rest of his life. They didn't have alarm clocks. When that rooster crowed every morning to wake everybody up, Peter was reminded, wasn't he? He was reminded of his shame, of his sin, of his weakness, of his faithlessness. And every morning Peter began his day hearing that rooster and remembering and looking to Christ and Christ alone.

And you and I need the same thing. This flesh I mean, do you know of anything, I mean, some of you younger ones, you might not see it yet, but do you know of anything that decays and falls apart faster than this flesh? I mean, really? I don't know of anything that falls apart faster than this flesh. And you know, you can be strong one day and you get a microscopic, you know, germ or virus or something, and you're on your deathbed, you know, in a half hour. So I mean, it's just, shoo.

then why do we need constant reminders of our weakness? Because even though nothing's falling apart faster than this flesh, this flesh is so proud of itself. Oh, it will trust in itself and want some glory for itself. And we need to be reminded of our weakness. We need to be reminded of our need of Christ. We need to be constantly reminded all this flesh is is grass. It's grass. It's going to grow for a little while and it's going to be cut down and burned in the fire. We need to be constantly reminded so that we're constantly looking away from the flesh and looking to Christ.

And I just bet you that's what happened every morning the rest of Peter's life. Betcha.

All right, here's the fourth thing. We are completely dependent on God's grace. Completely dependent. and it's a good place to be. You can't be in a better place where the Lord's taken away every hope from you other than his grace.

Peter went out weeping. He ran away, didn't he? He was so ashamed and he ran away. And he would have run away from Christ forever. He would have thought, I'm lost. I'm a reprobate. I've been a pretender and a hypocrite all this time. And he would have run away from Christ forever if it wasn't for God's grace.

When the Lord arose and he appeared to those women, what did he tell them? You go tell my disciples and Peter. You especially be sure to tell Peter, I'm going to come see you. Tell Peter. That's grace. That's God's grace.

Judas realized he did wrong. He said, I've betrayed innocent blood. He knew this man's innocent. This one he betrayed is innocent. He was so ashamed. He tried to take it back. He tried to stop it and he couldn't. And Peter went out and hung, or Judas went out and hung himself and went straight to hell. Peter essentially did the same thing and ran away. but found himself running away into the arms of Christ because our Savior's always gracious. Always gracious.

And after this humiliating experience, I mean, I feel so sorry for Peter having so many of his mistakes recorded in scripture for, you know, millions of people, you know, to read and hopefully learn from.

You want to know something else about grace? This is the man. that God used to preach the gospel in Jerusalem. My goodness. That's grace.

And remember, the Lord told Peter, now Peter, I prayed for you, that your faith fail not. And when you're converted, Peter, you strengthen your brethren.

Well, as Peter was feeding the sheep and strengthening his brethren, what are some of the things that he said? What are some of the things that Peter learned from this experience. We're just gonna read a few of these in closing. A few of the things that Peter undoubtedly learned from this situation.

First, look at 1 Peter 1. 1 Peter 1. At the end of verse three, Peter's talking about begotten us again, caused us to be born again unto a lively, a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance as incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed at the last time. What Peter could write that and he believed it because he experienced it. The only way any of us are kept is by the power of God, through faith unto salvation. That's the only way we'll ever be kept. Look at verse seven. That the trial of your faith be much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ.

Now I have yet, to find a believer that could honestly say, you know, I'm looking forward to this next trial that the Lord sends me. It's going to be hard. It's going to be a trial. It's going to be a fiery, burning trial. But I'm looking forward to it because the Lord's going to teach me something from it. We just don't think that. We just don't think that. But a believer will also tell you this. The trials that the Lord's already brought me through, they were good for me. They were good for me. They strengthened my faith. They taught me more of the faithfulness and the sufficiency of Christ my Savior. And boy, Peter went through that, didn't he? A trial of his faith. And his faith didn't fail, remember, because the Savior prayed for him. The only way that we could ever say that the trial of our faith is good for us is if we've experienced God's grace in it. And Peter did.

Verse 13. Wherefore, gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. You know, Peter learned from this experience. It's not good for us, it's not wise for us just to pop off and say these things and kind of just take God's grace for granted and take, you know, Oh, I won't fall. I would never do that. Peter said, be serious about this thing. Gird up the loins of your mind and be serious and hope for grace. You look for God's grace that is found at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Be serious about this thing, because how easily you could start that gradual decline.

In verse 23, he says, being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever. For all flesh is his grass, and all the glory of man is the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away, but the word of the Lord endureth forever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you.

" Well, after Peter remembered the words of our Savior, oh, how important it was for him to preach the word to others. It's the only thing that will do any of us any good. It's the word of God. This is the word that gives life. This is the word that sustains the life of God's sheep. Preach the word. Preach the word.

Then chapter two, verse one, wherefore, laying aside all malice and all guile and hypocrisies and envies and all evil speakings, all evil speakings like saying they'll never deny you, you know, or They'll deny it, but I never will. That's an evil speaking, isn't it? But as newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word that you may grow thereby. What Peter learned, don't ever think you've grown and got any strength in yourself. You stay a newborn babe, and you desire the sincere, the simple, plain message of God's word, just like a newborn baby desires that mother's milk.

Verse nine, chapter two. You are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar purchased people that you should show forth the praises of him who has called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. And if he calls you out of darkness into his marvelous light, he'll never send you back to darkness. Peter learned that, didn't he?

Verse 25, old Peter learned this. For we were a sheep going astray, but now we're returned. unto the shepherd and bishop of our souls. All of us will go astray, all of us will fall just like Peter did, but if we belong to Christ, the shepherd's gonna bring us back, isn't he?

Look at chapter four, verse 14. If you be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are you, for the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you. On their part, he's evil spoken of, but on your part, he's glorified. Peter said, if the world hates you and approaches you for the name of Christ, be happy about it. Be happy about it. When they say, you're with him, you're one of him, you say, yes, sir, I'm one of them. And if you're approached for his name, happy are you.

Chapter five, verse eight. Be sober, be vigilant. Because your adversary the devil is a roaring lion, walketh about seeking whom he may devour. Boy, Peter learned that by experience, didn't he? Whom resists steadfast in the faith. You don't resist Satan by putting up your deuce and fighting it out with him. You resist him steadfast in the faith by looking to Christ, by trusting Christ alone, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world.

But the God of all grace, who have called us into his eternal glory by Christ Jesus. After that you suffered a while, he'll make you perfect. He'll establish you, and he'll strengthen you, and he'll settle you. This matter of being strengthened and settled is not something that we just strengthen ourselves to do. It's the God of all grace does it for us.

So now I go back to where I started in the lesson. We make no excuse for Peter's fall, do we? Just like we make no excuse, I hope we don't make excuse for our own sin. But our hope is in the grace of God. Our hope is in Christ, it's not Christ plus my faithfulness, it's Christ and Christ alone. And if we're looking to him alone, he'll always keep us.

All right, hope that'll be a blessing to you.