If you'd open your Bibles with
me to Matthew chapter 26, that's what we'll be looking into this
morning, Matthew chapter 26. Before we begin, let's bow together
in prayer. Our Father, we come into your
awesome and holy presence, daring only come for your throne of
grace in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ. Pleading his blood
as the remission of our sins. Pleading his obedience as our
only righteousness. And Father, we come a thankful
people. How thankful we are for our Lord
Jesus Christ. Redemption in him that's full
and free, that is completely finished by him. given to us
as a free gift of His grace. Father, how thankful we are.
How thankful we are that we can come into your presence boldly,
confidently, because of who the Lord Jesus Christ is. That our
praise and our thanksgiving and our petitions can all be heard
before the throne of Almighty God in the person of our Lord
Jesus Christ, our Savior, our King, our Mediator. Father, we're
thankful. And Father, beg of you that you
would enable us to exalt and lift up the name of the Lord
Jesus Christ this morning. Everything that is said and done
here, let that be our heart's concern to exalt the Savior. That we would exalt his name
as it ought to be exalted. And his name would be exalted
and that you would give us faith that we might see him and worship.
That you'd cause us in the heart to bow and to worship believe
in our Lord Jesus Christ. Father, we're thankful that you've
given us this place and this opportunity to worship, and pray
that you would protect it for many, many years to come, for
future generations, that this might be a place where sinners
can come and hear of the Savior. Father, it's what we pray for
ourselves, we pray for your people everywhere as they meet together
today, that you'd bless your word, that you'd cause it to
go forth in power, to reach the hearts of your people, accomplish
the purpose whereunto you sin. In this dark and difficult day
that's full of so much unbelief and false religion, Father, we
pray you'd show us your glory, your redemptive glory in redeeming
your people by the sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ. For
it's in his precious name, in his name and for his sake we
pray. Now I've titled our lesson this
morning, Peter's Fall. And I hope we can learn some
very important lesson for our souls from this text this morning.
It begins in verse 69. Let me read the text and we'll
come back and make a few comments. Matthew chapter 26, verse 69.
Now Peter sat without in the palace and a damsel came unto
him saying, thou also was with Jesus of Galilee. But he denied
before them all, saying, I know not what thou sayest. And when
he was gone out into the porch, another maid saw him and said
unto them that were there, this fellow also was with Jesus of
Nazareth. And again, he denied with an
oath, I do not know the man. And after a while came unto him
they that stood by and said to Peter, surely thou also are one
of them, for thy speech betrayeth thee. Then began he to curse
and to swear, saying, I know not the man, and immediately
the cock crew. And Peter remembered the word
of Jesus, which said unto him, before the cock crow, thou shalt
deny me thrice. And he went out and wept bitterly. Now this is a very sad story. This is a sad story. But this
story also shows us God's saving grace to his people. And that's
what I hope we'll see this morning. And the first lesson I want us
to take from this, what we call Peter's fall, his denial of the
Savior. First thing I want us to see
is the truth of the scripture. Now we know this. Every word
of the Bible is true. It's true because it's the word
of God who cannot lie. Now the Holy Spirit moved different
men to write what God said. They didn't write what they wanted
to write. The spirit moved them to write what God said. So this
is not the words of men. This is the word of God. And
that makes every word of it true. This word is the truth. And the message, all the Bible
has one message. The message of the Bible is that
the Lord Jesus Christ is a savior of sinful people that the father
chose to save. That's what every page of this
book tells us. And the passage we just read shows that. If we'll
stop and think about it for a minute, it shows us that Christ came
to save sinners. Now consider for a minute who
it was that fell here and denied the Savior. It's Peter. Peter
is one of the 12 handpicked men, handpicked by the Lord to be
his apostles, to go into all the world and preach the gospel.
Peter's one of them. Peter was chosen to be a child
of God. He was chosen to be a preacher
of the scriptures. He was chosen to be a writer
of the scriptures. Peter was a man, now I know he
denied the Lord here, but you also know this about Peter, Peter
loved the Lord. He believed him. Peter believed
the Lord with all of his heart. He was a man of great faith.
He was a man of very strong conviction and a man of great zeal. Peter's
zeal often burned very hot, didn't it? Peter was a man who was greatly
blessed of God. He was with the Savior for three
years. Hearing him speak face to face
every day for three years. Peter is a child of God. who's
accepted by the Father in Christ Jesus. Peter right now is in glory. Yet Peter still fell and denied
he even knew who the Lord Jesus was. And it seems like he did it under
no direct threat. I mean, to the people that come
to him here, it says they're damsels. Young women, I mean,
who had no power or authority over Peter whatsoever, and he
still denied the Savior, you know? The best way to describe
Peter is the same way to describe each of us, each believer. We're
sinners. Sinners who are saved by grace.
God may have been pleased to save us. He may have been pleased
to reveal his Son to us and in us, But I'm telling you, as long
as we're in this flesh, we'll be sinners. And the highest station
we'll ever rise to in this life is a sinner who's saved by grace. A sinner who is weak and frail
and prone to falling into sin. And a lot of the writers talk
about this, Henry used to say this too, I believe it's true,
that the scriptures are the only book, it's the only book, if
you read biographies and different things, it's the only book that
exposes the faults of its main characters. You know, usually
if you write a biography about a man, you know, whatever faults
are there, either hidden or glossed over, you know, but the scriptures
don't do that. The scriptures don't hide the
faults or the sins of Adam, Noah, of Abraham, Jacob. Samson, David,
Solomon, Ezekiel, Peter, James and John. The scriptures make
no effort to hide their failures and their weakness and their
sin. And the scriptures are playing
and pointing this out. Pointing out the sins and failures
of these men and women we would call great believers. So that
we'll know God save sinners. If the, If the scripture hid
Peter's fault, he would just pop off at any moment. He'd just
act on anger and emotion and these different things. If the
scripture hid that from us, and then we act that way, we'd think,
well, I can't be saved. Now we read here about Peter,
we read about David's fall, we read about Jacob, we read about
these, and we're not looking to that as an excuse to sin.
No believer is looking for an excuse to sin. But when we see
that, we see God saves sinners. That means there's hope for me.
That means there's hope for me. God saves sinners who are real,
genuine, lost, hopeless sinners. That's why the Savior came, to
save real sinners. He came to save sinners who can
only be saved by the power and grace of God. We're so weak,
we have no works we can offer whatsoever. Saved completely
by the work and grace of our Savior. And like I said a minute
ago, no believer's ever gonna rise over that station. A sinner
saved by grace, a sinner who is completely dependent on Christ. I know the scripture talks about
believers as babes in Christ. Young men, young women in Christ.
Old men, old women in Christ. I sure hope we grow, don't you,
in grace and knowledge of the Savior. But here's one thing
we don't do. We never grow stronger in ourselves. A big part of growing in grace
is growing more dependent on Christ. More dependent on Him. your need of Him even more clearly
than you ever did before. Sinners are saved by God's grace
and they're kept by the same grace. Sinners are saved by the
power of God and they're only kept by that very same power,
the power of God. We're never gonna grow strong
enough to take one step on our own. Spurgeon has a quote, I've
read it and then I've heard it several times recently. Spurgeon
said, if I was brought right, I told you. Right to the threshold, Lord.
And all I had to do was step in. We're completely dependent. And
I hope we remember this. We who believe we're not better
than anybody, anywhere. We're cut from the exact same
cloth. The message of scripture is we're so weak and we're so
frail, we're always dependent on God. And I like it that way,
don't you? I know I'm not dependable, but
God is. I like being dependent on Him.
And if the Lord would give us that attitude, I'll tell you
what, it'll keep us worshiping Him because we're dependent on
Him. All right, number two, now God's word is true. And the second
thing is, God's word is full of warnings. Someone, Cecil,
I think it was your dad, I think it was Jeff Thornberry first
said this, that God's word hedges us about on both sides. On one
side, he hedges us about with the precious promises of God,
lest we despair. On the other side, he hedges
us about with the judgments of God, lest we presume. lest we presume on his mercy
and on his grace. And both those precious promises,
both these hedges, the precious promises of God's grace and the
warnings of God's judgment, both of them are just as real. They
are. And the Lord, he warned Peter. Peter didn't go into this without
any warning. The Lord warned Peter about this
fall. He said, Peter, you're going
to deny me three times before the rooster crows in the morning.
and Peter was too proud and too self-confident to listen. The
Lord asked Peter. Mary took Peter and James and
John there in Gethsemane and said, Peter, watch and pray with
me. My soul is exceeding troubled,
even unto death. The Savior was, the weight and
the burden and this awesome thing he was getting ready to do to
be made sin and suffer for God's people. was causing him so much
agony, he thought he was gonna die before he ever got to the
cross. And he said, Peter, watch and pray with me. And what did
Peter do? He fell asleep. And the Lord
came back and said, watch and pray lest you fall into temptation.
What did Peter do? He fell asleep. The Lord warned
Peter, Peter, you're gonna deny me three times before the cock
crows. The Lord warned Peter, Satan has desired you. That ought
to get our attention, buddy. Satan has desired you to sift
you as wheat. This is not going to be hard
for Satan to do, to sift Peter or us, to sift us as wheat. And
what did Peter do? He still followed the Lord far
off. And then he went in to the place where Satan was working
in the house of the high priest in this fake mock trial of the
Savior. And once he got in there, what
did he do? He sat with the enemies of Christ around a fire warming
himself. Peter didn't do one thing to
avoid the fall the Lord warned him about. He was warned, wasn't
he? And look over here, Mark 14.
I had never seen this before. Peter got another warning. Mark 16, verse 66. 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 what thou sayest. And he went
out into the porch and the cock crew. The cock gave him a warning.
And after the cock crew, it never dawned on Peter's mind. This is a warning, this is, but
he never dawned on him what the Lord said, and he denied him
two more times before the cock crew. Peter was warned, wasn't
he? Peter was warned. Now I said
all that to say this, not being hard on Peter whatsoever. If
any of us cannot understand what Peter's doing here, we're lying
to ourselves by who we are. We ought to, all of us, be able
to understand what Peter's doing here. And I hope that we'll take
close heed to the many warnings of God's word. And just in case
you're wondering, the warnings of God's word are not believer,
keep my law or I'm going to get you. It's not, we're not talking
about the law here. God's word has filled many warnings
to God's people, and the only reason we won't take heed to
them and pray, Lord, deliver me from this, keep me from this.
The only reason we won't do whatever it is we can do to avoid them
is we're too proud and too self-confident, just like Peter was. God's word
is full of warnings about the damning nature of self-righteousness
and false religion, isn't it? So many. The scripture warns
us about false gospels. The scripture warns us about
those who would try to tear us away from Christ. Do we stay away from them? Or
do we think, eh, they won't suck me in? Are we really careful to guard
against this? We're not gonna be able to stop
self-righteousness from coming up in our heart, because that's
the nature of this flesh. But are we really careful about
that? Do we start thinking, well, you know, I don't just attend
service on Sunday morning. I attend the Bible class. And
then I attend Wednesday night. Oh, I read my Bible. I listen
to a message on sermon audio, you know, go through the week. That add into our righteousness
now? If we do that, we become proud
of it and think we're a guard against that, that self-righteousness
is damaged. We're gonna trust Christ, we
gotta trust Him and Him alone. We're warned in scripture about
absenting ourselves from the public worship of God. And we're
warned about our attitude. And this is what I wish I could
get across to some folks. It's not just that we're doing
the right thing, that we're giving creed to the right doctrine,
that we're attending a place where the gospel's preached, Worship is attitude. It's bowing
before God in a broken heart. God saved me, the sinner. It's
an attitude. Our attitude of worship, our
attitude toward each other. You know, the only reason that
we start picking at each other and say, oh, you know, they shouldn't
be doing that, and they shouldn't be doing that, is I'm not saying
all the things I shouldn't be doing. Of course we're doing
stuff we ought not be doing. We're sinners. But ought not
our attitude be one of love and forgiveness and praying for one
another rather than being like the Pharisees of old and judging
one another, looking down our noses at each other? This thing
of attitude and worship is vital. And I pray that we don't fall
into this, all these things, you know, that God warns us about
and fall in such a painful manner as Peter did, so we learn. so
that we learn to stay away from, learn to heed these warnings.
I pray we don't begin to doubt God's word. I mean, I'm just
sure of this. Peter, I mean, the Lord warned
Peter, this is gonna happen. And the only thing, the only
conclusion I can come to is Peter just didn't believe it was gonna
happen. He doubted the word of God. And where'd he get that
from? Well, I know what happened to
Eve in the garden. Satan said, oh, you eat this
fruit, you won't die. You'll be as God. And Eve doubted
the word of God. She ate that fruit. And I just
wonder if she was telling Adam, look, I ate the fruit and didn't
die. The serpent ate the fruit and he didn't. Maybe Adam began
to doubt God's word. I don't know what happened there
at all. I just know, look where it leads
when we doubt God's word. You know, and if we fall into
it, There's not a person here who can't say we weren't warned.
Not one of us. So Peter was warned and he still
fell. So far it's been kind of depressing, hasn't it? Now I
got some good news. Peter fell, but Peter was preserved. Now how was Peter preserved?
Peter fell, but he didn't perish. Peter's faith was weak, absolutely,
but it didn't fail. Peter sinned, no denying it,
but he wasn't cast off from God. Peter forsook the Lord. But the Lord didn't forsake him.
Peter denied the Lord, denied even knowing. But our Lord did
not deny Peter. You think of the grace and the
eternal, unchanging love of God. saw Peter, denied him, and almost
immediately went to the cross and didn't deny Peter. He kept
Peter's name on his breastplate and suffered and died to put
his sin away. That's how Peter was preserved. Peter sinned and
he did wrong, And Peter suffered for it. I mean, you know, now
our sin is forgiven. The sin of God's people is forgiven,
but don't think there's not consequences for it. There's still consequences
for this. And Peter suffered. He wept. He was brokenhearted
over this, but Peter was preserved and he did not perish. And the
only explanation for it is God's grace. Isn't it? Peter didn't
hang on by a fingernail. He was plumb gone. except for
God's grace. God saved him by his grace. You
know, being saved by grace doesn't mean that we're so strong we
can stand in our own and now we've gained some wisdom and
you know, we can stand in our own wisdom and our own strength
and our own behavior. Being saved by grace means that
God keeps us by his grace. And we're not gonna make excuses
for our sin. None whatsoever. I hate my sin. You believe God, you do too.
But our comfort is when we sin, we're saved by grace, not by
sinning less. Look at Proverbs chapter 24. Proverbs chapter 24. Here's how
Peter was preserved and why he didn't fall away from Christ. Proverbs 24 verse 16. For a just man, this is a man,
he's just, he's been justified in Christ. This is talking about
a saved man, a man who knows and trusts Christ. A just man
falls seven times and riseth up again. But the wicked shall
fall into mischief. Now why when the righteous fall
seven times do they rise up again? And why when the wicked falls
into mischief do they stay there? It's because the Lord lifts the
righteous up. It's not because the righteous and the just lifts
himself up by his own steam. The Lord lifts him up by his
power and by his grace. And the wicked stays where he
is because the Lord leaves him alone. It's grace. Look at Luke
chapter 22. Here is another precious, precious
reason that Peter failed, but he was preserved. Luke 22, verse
31. And the Lord said, Simon, Simon,
behold, Satan hath desired you 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 my brethren. Peter's faith didn't fail because
he had an advocate with the father. Christ the Savior was making
intercession for him. That's why he is preserved. Remember
when the Lord was teaching one day and he said, I give unto
my people eternal life and they shall never perish. Do you know
the Lord meant that? His people will never perish. He'll do all the work to save
them and he'll do all the work to preserve them. and bring them
to glory. He won't let them fall away.
And we'll never, you know, we'll be like Peter. We're just not
gonna make an excuse for our sins. It's just never okay to
sin. I hate it when people sin and
say, well, you know, God meant for me to do it. And you know,
God's sovereign over everything. God's gonna work it out for good.
Well, I mean, I have no doubt God could work it out for good,
but now, I'm not going to use God's sovereignty to excuse for
my sin. I'm not going to make an excuse for our sin. We'll
be like Peter, we'll hate our sin. I mean, God help us, weep
bitterly over it. But when we sin, our comfort
is God will not cast off his people. He won't do it. He will not cast off the people
which he foreknew. God's not going to punish his
people for their sin. Because he already punished Christ
our substitute. for our sin. I hope we don't ever get over
that. I was at the conference this week and hearing these different
brethren preach. And they didn't say anything
you never heard before. But the enormity of God's grace,
that he would be gracious to people like us, that he would
love people like us, that he'd slaughter his son in order to
save people like us, that he'd punish his son so he didn't punish
his people and show them mercy and grace. I hope we don't ever
get over that. You know, that'll make us, you
know, hate our sin. I don't want to sin more that
caused my Savior to suffer so much. But now we're going to
sin. I mean, it's just true. And here's our comfort. We in
any man's sin, we have an advocate with the Father. Jesus Christ
the righteous and it's him who's making intercession for his people
just like he did for Peter He's making intercession for each
of us just like he did for Peter See God saves us by his grace
Even though we don't deserve He saves us anyway That's grace
and God keeps us and preserves us for the exact same reason
anyway, in spite of us. That's the reason 6,892,456 reason
I love salvation by grace. God preserves his people anyway.
All right, here's the last thing. Peter was preserved. He didn't
fall away. God didn't cast him off. But
Peter's got a problem, doesn't he? How was Peter restored? It says in our text, Peter went
out and he wept bitterly. Peter was very sorry, wasn't
he? Peter shed real tears, but Peter wasn't restored to the
Savior because he was sorry and because of his tears. Being sorry
is not repentance. Maybe sorrow, you know, over
over what we used to trust in, and maybe sorrow is part of repentance,
but repentance is not sorrow. Repentance is turning to Christ
from our idols. That's what is repentance. And if you're still there in
Luke, look at verse 60. Here's what made Peter's tears even
more bitter. Verse 60. And Peter said, man, I know not
what thou sayest. And immediately while he spake,
the cock crewed. And the Lord turned and looked
upon Peter. And Peter remembered the word
of the Lord, how he said unto him before the cock crow, thou
shalt deny me thrice. And Peter went out and wept bitterly.
Apparently the Lord was being taken from one room to another
here in the high priest palace. Maybe they were getting ready
to take him to Pilate or something, I don't know. But he was passing
by where Peter was when Peter denied the Lord the third time. and the Lord turned and looked
at him. Now that was not a look of anger. It wasn't a look of judgment.
It was a look of pity. It was a look of grace. It was
a look of love. It was a look that said, Peter,
I know you've sinned. I knew it before you knew it,
but I'm gonna go suffer for your sin. Peter, I'm gonna suffer
being cut off from the Father, so you won't be cut off for your
sin. It was a look that said, Peter,
I love you, and it's not gonna change. I've chosen you, I've
promised I will never leave you or forsake you, and I won't. I won't forsake you, because
my blood's gonna blot out all your sins. The father's not gonna
cast you off because my blood's gonna blot it out and take away
any reason that my father would cast you off. I'm gonna shed
my blood to make it happen. Peter, I know you've sinned,
but your righteousness is not your action. I'm your righteousness.
Peter, you denied me, but I'm not gonna deny you because I
love you and I'm getting ready to show you. Greater love hath
no man than this. that a man lay down his life
for his friends. Peter, you denied me. You and
me are still friends because of me. And I'm gonna lay down
my life to put your sin away. He proved it, didn't he? Having
loved his own, he loved them to the end. He went to the cross
willingly. Peter was not cast off because
the Lord does not change. I change not, therefore you sons
of Jacob are not consumed. The look from the Savior, the
Savior that Peter trusted, the Savior that Peter loved. Oh my. That must have broken his heart
in pieces, don't you reckon? And Peter went out and wept bitterly. But Peter's tears didn't restore
him, did they? Peter fell, but now the Lord
is going to lift him back up in grace. And when is it that
Peter's gonna repent, turn to the Lord? See, repentance is
not a one-time thing, is it? This flesh is constantly trying
to bring us into captivity to the law and to worship our good
works and our obedience, and we're constantly turning. Repentance
is a constant thing. We're turning to Christ. Peter
said, to whom coming? To whom coming? Constantly coming
to Christ, constantly turning to Him. You know when Peter repented
and turned to the Lord, when was he restored? After the Lord's
resurrection, what did the Lord do? He appeared to the disciples
as He said. He told the ladies at the tomb,
you go tell my disciples. And Peter, I'll appear to you. And he did. Peter saw him. Remember,
he's out there on that boat and he saw the Lord on the shore.
He said, it's the Lord. And he just jumped. He hadn't changed,
hey, he just jumped in the sea and started swimming. And the same thing is true of
you and me today. We hate our sin. Hate our sin,
it caused the Lord so much suffering, it brings us so much shame, doesn't
it? Sin is all we do. And the Lord continually keeps
his people by his grace. And you know how he keeps turning
us to him? By revealing himself through the priest's word. He's
not going to appear to us bodily, but the eye of faith in the preaching
of the gospel sees Christ just as clearly as Peter saw Him on
that shore. And it makes us say, it's the
Lord. I've heard old time preachers
say often, sink or swim, I'm going to go to Him. And we've
seen, we say it's the Lord, that's where like Peter, just jump in
the ocean, ask questions later, you know, I'm going to the Lord.
We'll do that when he reveals himself to us through the preaching
of the word. All right, I hope the Lord will bless that to you.