Likewise, buddy, likewise. Luke
22. Luke 22. I have thoroughly, thoroughly
enjoyed this meeting up to this point. These preachers have just been
doing some real preaching. Every one of them. Is this worked
on? It's on. Is it on? I'm pushing to be on. Well, I'm waiting till I get
started. Yeah, this has been such a wonderful
meeting. See some old friends and folks
that you see at about all the meetings. They come to all the
meetings. And so a lot of our folks are here. And I love and
appreciate seeing some folks I haven't seen in years. And
it's always a blessing. Thanks for having me, Don. I
appreciate you very much. All right, let's get started
here. This is going, map, split. I think it's working for me. That
means I can go all I want to, can't I? All right, Luke 22. It is such a blessing to be here.
In verse 31 here of Luke 22, down through verse 37, I want
to read, and hopefully by God's grace bring a message that, as
Don said, will be a comfort to the Lord's people. 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. And he said unto him, Lord, I
am 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. And he said unto them, when I
sent you without purse and script and shoes, lacked ye anything?
And they said, nothing. Then said he unto them, but now,
he that hath a purse, let him take it, and likewise his script. And he that hath no sword, let
him sell his garment and buy one. For I say unto you, that
this that is written must yet be accomplished in me. And he
was reckoned among the transgressors, for the things concerning me
have an end. There's an old hymn that I love
very, very much. For a little bit, I'd start singing,
but might get off tune. I don't want to do that. I don't
want to embarrass myself or you either. But a wonderful Savior
is Jesus, my Lord. A wonderful Savior to me. He
hideth my soul in the cleft of the rock, as shadows of dry, thirsty land.
He hideth my life in the depths of His love, and covers me there
with His hand. and covers me that with his hand. And that's what we have here.
A wonderful savior for Simon Peter. A wonderful savior for
us. And our Lord said here, Simon,
Simon, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you
as wheat. But I prayed for thee that thy
faith fail not. What a firm foundation God has
laid for us in his excellent word. And I want to ask this
question tonight. Will your faith fail? Will your
faith fail? Our Lord Jesus Christ prayed
for Simon that his faith fail not. That his faith fail not. I know this before I start. If
Christ does not uphold me, my faith won't last no longer than
the snap of my fingers. I know that. I know that. But
I want to go through this a little at a time and see what the Lord
says. The Lord said, Simon, Simon. He didn't call him Peter until
down in verse 34. And here's the one that gave
him that surname, Peter, Petra, rock. But he repeated his name
twice and he said, Simon, Simon. And I believe our Lord Jesus
was very tender with him. Very patient with him. Very kind
to him. Very gracious to him. Because
he knew how frail. You know, our Lord is full of
tender pity, for he knows how frail we are, that we're just
dust. And he said, Simon, Simon. Simon, Simon. Satan. Satan. Has sought to sift you. And this tells us about an awful,
awful enemy that all of us has, and he had, Satan. He said, Satan
has desire to have you. He wants you, Simon Peter. He
wants you. And he's desired to have you,
and he wants to sift you like sifting wheat. And here's the
thing about it. No one knew that Satan was anywhere
around but our Lord Jesus Christ. Simon didn't know it. The other
apostles didn't know it. He was there with them He said
he talked to all of them and he asked him he said when I sent
you did you lack for anything? They said nothing And they didn't
know he was working, and yet he was so close to them, and
was working, and they didn't seem even conscious of him being
around. That's like it was with Job.
Job was off worshiping God, and here comes Satan walking up,
and he's walking to and fro, and God asked him, the Lord Jesus
said, who's seeking you walking to and fro? He said, I'm looking
for somebody to devour. He said, have you considered
my Job a perfect and a just and an upright man? And I tell you
what, Job didn't know what was going on. And we don't know what
God's doing with us at any one given time. But this is one of
the enemies of our Lord and of his people. Don already says
that Christ has already judged him. But he has several names
and he's known for his subtlety. He's very subtle. He deceived
Eve by subtlety. He's very crafty, very subtle.
And one thing I'll tell you about him, he packs a Bible. He packs
a Bible. He carries a Bible. And the only
thing he wants to do is stop the gospel. He's like a, you
know, it's like a, Satan wants to come along and he's like a
funeral director. You know if a funeral director
and he somebody dies they got to paint them up and fix them
up where they look like they're alive And you go to some funerals
and they make the people that's dead look better than they did
when they last saw And that's what Satan does is he wants to
make dead people look alive. I And that's what he's doing
here, you know, he says, well, listen, I'll get ahold of this
fella here. And like he said, Job, I'll make Job cuss you to
your face. And then not only is he known
for his subtlety, craftiness, but he's known for a lion for
his fierceness and his aggression. He's fierce, he's aggressive.
The lion, he's a lion. And oh, this is the most dangerous
way he is as an enemy. He comes as an angel of light.
And as an angel of light, he comes to dazzle, he comes to
impress. He comes to make people feel
so good and make them say, boy, that's just, oh, I've never seen
nothing like it, never heard anything like it. And oh my,
to dazzle and impress people. And then he's called an accuser
of the brethren. And that's what he said, you
know, Job did not know the conversation between the devil and God. And
Satan asked God, he says, did Job fear God first? Not. You know, he only fears you,
he said, the only reason he fears you because you give him things.
The only reason he, and that's the way a lot of people are,
the only reason they want God is like a man keeps a milk cow
to get milk out of it. And God is only useful is what
you can get from him. And that's what preachers tell
you, and I wish this would work. They'll say, listen, you give
me $100 and God will give you 1,000 back. Boy, I'd like to
find an investment like that. Wouldn't you like to find one
of them? Somebody said today that their mom gave them prayer
cloths. You know, put it in your billfold and God will bless you.
Listen, I'll give you one of my handkerchiefs and you throw
it away. But that's what he did. He said,
God doesn't, Job don't fear you for nothing. He said the only
reason he fears you is because you gave him everything that
he could possibly want in this world. everything he could want, you've
given it to him. He's got more money than he can
count, he's got 10 children, he's got houses, he's got servants,
he's got, oh, he's got everything. And Satan said, listen, you take
all that down, and I guarantee you, he'll turn against you.
You know what happened? God took it all down. You know
what Job did? shaved his head, got before his
face before God, and he said, the Lord gave it. The Lord has taken away. Blessed,
blessed be the name of the Lord. God, everything we got belongs
to him. We ain't got nothing. We ain't
got nothing that God didn't give us. If you got a good house,
God gave it to you. If you got a job, God gave it
to you. If you got money in your pocket, God gave it to you. If
you got health, God gave it to you. And if you got bad health,
God gave you that. I mean, God's running this outfit. He's good to us as long as we're
well. But I tell you what. I'd rather listen. And that's
what he does. He comes, he said, oh, listen.
But oh, Job, Job, Job. But let me tell you this, let
me tell you this. The world is a snare. Oh, what
a snare the world is. People will move to better themselves
with a job, but how many people move and go down in station to
go hear the gospel? Move where the gospel's at. The world is a snare. He'll dazzle
something out there for you. Well, you're going to get a $100,000
raise. You're going to get a $30,000
raise. You're going to make some more
money. You can get a new car and you can get a real nice house.
Just build it up, build it up, build it up. It's a snare. And this flesh, oh, this flesh,
oh. Paul said, oh, wretched man that
I am. Who shall deliver me from this
body of death? And what he was talking about,
he's talking about carrying an old dead man on his back. That's
what this flesh is. It's like carrying a dead man
on your back. And he gets so stinking, and
gets so corrupt, and he gets so nasty, and gets so rotten,
and he feels, he just gets where you love him, and if you could,
you'd just jerk him off. But you can't. Sometimes he's
worse than others, but there's never a time he ain't there That's
why Paul said I didn't know that in me that in my flesh dwells
no good thing That that I would do I don't and that that I wouldn't
do I do No on the flesh is an awful burden
I But there's no enemies like this Satan is. He's invisible,
he's experienced, and he had the audacity, he had the audacity
to even come and go and tempt our Lord Jesus Christ. That's
what kind of audacity he had. And he overthrew our first parents.
He overthrew David, and he overthrew Peter, and Simon was sifted,
but we have a promise. I want you to look at it with
me in Romans chapter 16 and verse 20. Look at this with me. Romans 16 and verse 20. We have
a promise, a promise. And I know this, I know this,
I am no match for him. I'm no match for him. I'm no match for him, but look
what our Lord told us here. Romans 16, 20. And the God of peace shall brew
Satan under your feet shortly. Oh, the God of peace. Go put
him down. Under our feet. Go bruise him. And then look what he says. The
grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you till that time happens.
But oh, go back over here in our text. I don't wanna, you
know, I've said enough about him. Let's say something about
something else. But look what it says. But thank God for these
wonderful, wonderful words. Back up there in verse 31, the
Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you
that he may sift his wheat. But, great big doors on these
little bitty hinges, but I have prayed for thee. I've prayed
for you. I prayed for you. Why did he
pray for him? I'll tell you why. So your faith
won't fail. He was such a weak creature,
so frail in himself as we are. You think it would be any different
for us? No, he said, I prayed for thee
that thy faith fell not. What a glorious, glorious, blessed
truth that Simon Peter had a high priest that already, he said
in John 2, he said he was in heaven and on earth at the same
time. He said, I'm up there with my
father and I'm down here. How can he be in two places?
Well, he's God. He's God manifest in the flesh.
But oh, a glorious, blessed truth. He had an intercessor. He said,
I prayed for thee. I prayed for thee. He didn't
say it, your brethren didn't pray for you. He didn't say the
church prayed for you. He didn't say you even prayed
for yourself, but he said, I prayed for you. I prayed for you. You know, John 17 is all about
our Lord Jesus Christ praying for us. He even prayed for them
that would believe Them through his word through his word. I
prayed for you I've prayed for you before the temptation ever
come I prayed for you our Lord said in John 17 and 9 I pray
not for the world but Everybody talks about God so loving the
world. There's a fella down home, says all the time, he says all
the time, said, quote John 3, 16, says, God loves you, and
don't you know that your heavenly Father loves you, and we do too.
But our Lord Jesus said, I don't pray for the world. That world
lies in wickedness. But who does he pray for? I pray
for them that thou hast given me. God gave us to him. And he said, oh, and another
place said, Father, he said, I have prayed for them and not
only one's lost, and I've lost none but one. And that was the
son of perdition. And our Lord Jesus said, I pray
that you take them not out of the world, but that you keep
them from the evil that's in the world. And the only reason
that Simon Peter didn't fall completely was because Christ
prayed for him. And I'll tell you something,
when Christ prays for a man, he don't say anything about the
man, he says the whole thing about himself. What could he
say about us? What in the world, if he looked
at us right this minute, where we're at, what we're doing, what
we're thinking, how we're feeling, we'd be in a mess, wouldn't we?
But no, he don't do that. The only reason he did not fully and finally
fall away was because of Christ. He promised that he would lose
none. And if one could be lost, I'd
be one of the first ones to go. He promised that he would lose
none. He said, all that the Father gives me shall come to me. and him that cometh to me, there's
no way, under no circumstances, anything they can say, do, act,
or anything that would cause me to cast them out. You think
of all the things you said, all the things, ways you've acted,
and all the envy and pride and self-righteousness and sin that
we have committed since Christ saved us. And our Lord Jesus
Christ still says, I will not cast him away. There's nothing that a believer,
if God was gonna ever cast a man away, he'd have cast David away.
If a man's ever gonna cast anybody away, he'd have cast Simon Peter
away. If a man was ever gonna cast somebody away, he'd have
cast a multitude of people away. But our Lord Jesus Christ's blood
is so powerful. His life is so affectionate.
His blood is so powerful. His prayers, God hears them all. Listen, he said in one place,
I don't know who said it already, but our Lord Jesus was praying.
When he's getting ready to raise Lazarus from the tomb, he said,
Father, I know that you hear You hear me all the time. I know
you do. But I'm praying, not for my sake,
but for these that are here listening, that they may know that you're
with me. Oh, he promised that he'd lose
none, and not only that, but he would take those that was
given to him and he would raise them up at the last day. Lash
him up at the last day. And here's another thing. He
promised eternal life. He didn't promise life until
you messed up. He didn't promise life until
you failed. He didn't promise life until
you acted foolish. He didn't promise life until
you made a fool out of yourself. He didn't promise life until
you got mad at your wife and had an argument. He didn't promise
life if you didn't get mad at the preacher. He promised life
regardless. And let me say this. Eternal life Eternal life is
what we got right now This body's not eternal but life is eternal
and The minute this body this does this heart ceases to be
and the last breath we take Gone Life And on he preached
the joint gene priest this morning. He promised that one day He said, I'm gonna come again
and take you unto me to be with me where I am. And he said, Father,
I will that they whom thou hast given me be with me where I am
that they may behold my glory. Well, I tell you, that's why
he's not gonna follow. And I tell you what, and he said,
here's another thing, why his faith didn't fail. Of course,
he prayed for him. He said, I'll never, ever leave you nor forsake
you. I won't do you. Having loved
his own, he loved him to the end. And I prayed for thee that
thy faith fail not. Me and one of the men in the
church was talking the other day, and we was talking about if Christ
took his hand off of us, He was working. Down on his knees, he
was working. He said, if Christ, I said, well,
if the Lord lets to let us go, he said, yeah, if Christ took
his hand off of us, we'd go just like that. And this is one of the most amazing
things in the world to me. I don't know what you think about
it, but I know this is the most astounding thing in the world.
Not only that I was saved by God's grace, but that I saved
every single day. I'm astounded that after all
these years, God has kept me in spite of my sin. In spite
of me, God's kept me. Don't that astound you when you
look at yourself? How in the world could I still
be saved? How could I still be saved? How can I, how's this happen? How did I start way back there
40 years ago and 35 years ago, 38 years ago? How did I start
back there and still here today? How's that happen? I know it
has nothing to do with me. Certainly has nothing to do with
my flesh. Certainly has nothing to do with my own strength or
abilities. He prays for me. Praise for me. I know this, if faith fails,
everything fails. If faith fails, everything fails. You'll cease to have courage.
And that's what, didn't that what Simon Peter did? He was
scared to death around the maid. He lost his courage. If your
faith fails, you lose your hope. Faith fails, you lose your love.
Faith fails, you lose your joy. And if faith is gone, I prayed for you. I prayed for you. I prayed for you, Simon Peter,
that your faith don't stop, that your faith does not stop, that
it does not fail. No wonder Christ is precious
to us who believe. No wonder faith is called precious
faith. And you know why faith won't
fail? Because Christ can't fail. Christ can't fail. I've already
failed. You know, I don't know about
you all, but I'm pretty much at a failure at everything I've
ever done. Us trying to cut some stuff the
other day. Have a straight line, Donald,
have a straight line, a mark on there, straight line. Shh. Down home they say it ain't where
salt goes in his biscuit, that's the way I feel. But I do know
this. that our faith won't fail because
Christ cannot fail. Christ cannot fail. In fact,
he sits right now at the right hand of God. And as that high
priest went into the presence of God and he had this breastplate
on, this high priest breastplate on. And he had the names of the
children of Israel on this breastplate across there. And then he had
these little pouches up on his shoulders, and he had the names
of the children of Israel there. And so that means that when he
went into the presence of God with his garments on, he had
all the children of God on his heart. And then when he showed
them on his shoulders there, that means he carried the weight
of them. So our Lord Jesus Christ has us in his heart, and he carries
the weight of us, and I'll tell you, he is so great and so glorious
and so majestic and so powerful, so gracious, so kind, and so
compassionate, that he can put us all on his shoulder at the
same time and not feel the burden. In fact, he's holding every one
of us up right now on his shoulders. He ain't never, listen, we can't
walk without Him. We desperately need our Lord
Jesus Christ every moment of every day. I need Thee, oh I
need Thee. Blessed Jesus, blessed Savior,
I need Thee. And oh, now He appears in the
presence of God for us. Our Lord Jesus appeared three
times. He appeared once in the end of
the world to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. He appeared in heaven itself
right now in the presence of God for us. appears in the presence
of God for us right now. And then he's gonna appear the
third time without sin. No sacrifice for sin. Sin's already
been put away. When he appears the second time,
our salvation will be complete then once and for all. As old
Barnard used to say, we'll be plumb saved. Plumb saved. But here's, look what happens
here now. Here's a sure thing. Our Lord Jesus Christ Said to
him, he said, he said down here, he says, when you are converted,
down there in verse 32, I pray for you that your faith fail
not, and when thou art converted, strengthen thy breath. When you
are converted, what in the world's it mean to be converted? It means
to be turned from something And where you at now? Eternal. Jeremiah said, turn us, Lord,
and we shall be turned. Turn me and I shall be turned.
He's gonna fall. He's gonna deny his master three
times. Well, how in the world is this
gonna do him any good? How's it gonna do Simon Peter
any good to do this? How will it be to the cause of
Christ? What will it do to the cause
of Christ? Here's an apostle denying his master three times.
How's this going to do anything for the cause of Christ? How's
it going to do the gospel any good? How's it going to do that? Well, I know one thing. It teaches
me what I'm not supposed to. It teaches me what I'm not to
do. It does that. But I'll tell you what. It teaches
us this, that you have no confidence in the flesh. and that the flesh
profits nothing. And when he was converted, he
said, when you're converted, you strengthen the brethren.
And he's gonna have to be turned. What's he gonna have to be turned
from? Well, look what he said in verse 33. He said unto him,
Lord, I'm ready to go with thee, both into prison and to death. Now, he meant that. He really
meant that. I believe that he really believed
he could do that. I believe that he thought he
could do that. But oh my, he has to be turned
from himself and his self-confidence and his self-assurance, he got
to be doing that. And his conversion from that self-confidence and
that self-righteousness, turned from that trust in his own strength,
his own ability, He didn't know himself and he had to learn himself.
And Christ had to teach him that. But what a glorious display of
the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and his faithfulness to save
this man, to turn this man from the way he was. He could have
left him like that, but he didn't. And I'll tell you what, how many
times have you said, Lord, turn my heart to you? Turn my thoughts
to you? You know the thing is, is that
you don't ever have a problem until you pick up a Bible and
then your mind goes, whew, whew, whew. You get ready to pray and the
first thing you'll think about, oh, I need to be doing this,
I need to be doing that, I need to be the other thing. Has that
happened to you all? Huh? Well, I'll tell you something. You know what we do when that
happens to us? Say, Lord, oh God, turn my mind to you. Turn
my heart to you. We got to be converted from this
old flesh and how weak it is and how frail it is. And oh my,
and who better to tell the bitterness of falling than one who has fallen? Simon Peter you go over and read
his read his epistles and he said brethren. I put you in remembrance.
I put you in remembrance He remembered he remembered and all who better
to tell the weakness of the flesh than those who have trusted the
flesh and Look, I'm gonna show you where his conversion started.
Look here in verse 60 of chapter 22 Look at here in 60 verse 16
chapter 22. This is where he's conversion
started and And Peter said, man, I know not
what thou sayest. And immediately, while he yet
spake, the cock crewed. And the Lord turned, listen to
this, and looked upon Peter. Can you imagine? He's standing there. That's the third time he's denied
his master. And our Lord Jesus is, He's captive. They've got him there to judge
him. And they're gonna take him out
here and they're gonna mistreat him and crucify him the next
day. He's out there at night. And oh, and the Lord, as he's
there in that judgment hall, he turned when he heard Peter
say that. And that rooster crowed. He told
him, said, it's gonna crow three times. I mean, go watch if you're
gonna deny me three times. And the time that rooster crowed,
our Lord just turned around and looked at Simon. Can you imagine how he felt when
Christ looked at him? Can you imagine how he felt when
our Lord Jesus Christ turned and looked at him? And look what
it says. And Peter remembered the word
of the Lord, how he had said unto him, before the cock crow,
thou shalt deny me thrice. And here's where his conversion
started. Peter went out and wept bitterly, bitterly. Who better to tell of God's blessed
grace God's blessed mercy, God's blessed forgiveness. Who better
to tell of the power of Christ than one like Peter who failed
so? Who better to tell of Christ's
faithfulness than one who's been unfaithful? You remember the
story in John 21 when Simon said, I go back fishing. And all the
fellows went with him. And one day, our Lord Jesus Christ
was standing on the seashore, and this is after his resurrection,
and he hollered out there and said, children, caught anything?
No, not caught a thing. He said, cast your net over on
the right side. They cast it over on the right
side, and they caught so many fishes, they couldn't pull them
in. And John said, Peter, that's the Lord. Now here's the man
that denied Christ three times. He's back out there fishing,
went back to his old profession. And John said, Simon Peter said,
Peter, that's the Lord. Peter didn't even wait for that
boat to get, they're still trying to get the fish in the boat.
Peter jumped off of there and went just as straight to Christ
as a marten to its gourd. He said, I gotta get to my master.
You know, I gotta get, that's how compassionate Christ is.
Whatever we do, however we act, however fallen we may be, Our
Lord Jesus Christ, when we hear of Him, we cannot help but go
to Him. We have to go to Him. We must
go to Him. Who else can we go to? Who else
can we go to? And here's a perfect illustration
of our Lord. He takes the weak to confound
the mighty. He takes this, he said, there's
an apostle of yours. This is an apostle. And he denied
you three times and you still love him? You still gonna use
him? Yeah, yeah. He takes that weak
to confound the mighty. He takes the foolish to confound
the wise. And let me show you here in verse
37, why none for whom Christ died will ever perish or their
faith will never fail. Over here in verse 37. For I say unto you that this
that is written, it must be accomplished in me. In other words, what I
came to do, I'm gonna do. And it said here he was reckoned
with the transgressors, or among the transgressors. We know that
that speaks to the two men he was with, but yet, we're numbered
among the, Peter was a transgressor. I was a transgressor. I was a
number among them. And he was numbered among us.
And then look what he said, for the things concerning me have
an end, a completeness, a fulfillment. And you know when it was done? It is finished. Done. Done. It's a done deal. And thank God that I have a person. I have a person. I have a high
priest, a person. A person that I see, that I know. I see him and I know him. And
he sees me and he knows me. And when there's something wrong
with me, and which it always is, I go to him, I go to that
person, setting in glory. And He takes me to the Father
and makes me acceptable. He even makes my groans and all
the weakness, He makes everything about me acceptable. Acceptable. And if He didn't, I'd be unacceptable.
And oh, he prays. He don't say, I'm praying for
Donnie Bell. No, he said, I'm praying for one of my sheep.
Just one of my sheep. Thank you all. Appreciate you.