If the Lord will enable us to
hear the message this morning, I believe we'll realize just
how great a debtor we are to His grace. The Lord has commanded
me to comfort you who are His people. And I believe He's given
me the message this morning that we'll do that if He's pleased
to use it that way. Turn to John chapter 13. And look at verse 36, John 13,
36. Simon Peter said unto him, Lord,
whither goest thou? Jesus answered him, Whither I
go, thou canst not follow me now, but thou shalt follow me
afterwards. Peter said unto him, Lord, why
cannot I follow thee now? I will lay down my life for thy
sake. Jesus answered him, Wilt thou
lay down thy life for my sake? Verily, verily, I say unto thee,
The cock shall not crow till thou hast denied me thrice. Let not your heart be troubled. You all know that the chapter
divisions in the Bible are not inspired. They're put there just
as a matter of reference. The Lord said to Peter, will
you lay down your life for me? He told Peter exactly what he would
do. You'll deny me three times before the sun goes down. Don't
let your heart be troubled. Is not he a gracious Savior? You believe in God. Believe also in me. In my Father's house are many
mansions. If it were not so, I would have
told you. I go to prepare a place for you,
and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and
receive you unto myself that where I am, there you may be
also. The title of the message this
morning is I will, I will. And I didn't repeat the
title, I said it one time. There are two places in this
passage where these words are spoken. I will. Two wills are
expressed. First, in verse 37, where Peter
says, Lord, I will. And then the Lord says to Peter,
with more detail than this, but says to him, in effect, you will
not. Is that what he said to him? You will not. But don't
let your heart be troubled. I will. This is the gospel. My friends,
you and I are like Peter. We say, I will. I will decide
for Jesus. I will live for him. I will separate
myself from this world. I will follow him. They sing
a song in religious circles called, I have decided to follow Jesus. Have you done that? Peter did
too. I've sung that song before and
meant it. And Peter would have sung it
here if he had known it. I have decided to follow him even to
the death. And then graciously and yet in
clear rebuke, the Master reveals to you and I that we will do
no such thing. We have some additional detail
in Mark's account of this. Turn over to Mark chapter 14
and let's look at it together. If this is you we're talking
about this morning, then this will be a blessing to your heart.
If the Lord is pleased to use it, and it'll do what I said,
it'll cause you to see what a debtor to his grace you are. And it
will comfort you at the same time. Mark 14, 27, And Jesus
saith unto them, All ye shall be offended because of me this
night. For it is written, I will smite
the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered. But after that
I am risen, I will go before you into Galilee. But Peter said
unto him, Although all shall be offended, yet will not I."
I can see John maybe. turning back, I can see maybe
some of the other, but not me, not me. And Jesus saith unto
him, Verily I say unto thee, that this day, even in this night,
before the cock crowed twice, thou shalt deny me thrice. But he spake the more vehemently.
Peter came back at him. If I should die with thee, I
will not deny thee in any wise." Man's will is anything but free,
my friends. Anything but free. Paul said
in Romans 7, 19, the good that I would, I do not, but the evil
which I would not, that I do. Does that sound like a free will
to you? Peter, though plainly warned in advance and not that
long in advance, was unable to resist denying the Master. And
you won't be able to either. When they went to Gethsemane,
he was unable to watch with the Master for even an hour, though
he was privileged with James and John to witness things that
no other human eyes on this earth have ever seen. Would that keep
you awake? It would. If the Lord had mercy
on you, if not, it wouldn't. You'd go to sleep just like he
did. And I'll tell you this, Peter
was unable to heed the exhortation that the Lord gave him here in
the early verses of John chapter 14. He wasn't just unable to
resist denying the Lord, though he was warned that he would do
it, and came back at the Lord a second time and said, in no
wise, under no circumstances will I do that. He was unable
to resist it. because of his evil nature. But
not only that, he didn't heed the exhortation in the early
verses of chapter 14. The Lord said, all right, you're
going to deny me. Don't let it trouble you, Peter.
I'm not going to leave you in your misery. I'm going to go
prepare a place for you. And when I do, I'm going to come
back and get you. I'm not going to leave you in
your depravity and misery. and evil. When I go to the cross,
Peter, I'm going to go there for you. I go to prepare a place
for you, Peter. Don't let this trouble you."
But he did let it trouble him. He did let it trouble him. In
fact, he went out and wept bitterly when he realized what he had
done. This calloused, rough, rugged
old fisherman wept like a little girl with a broken heart And
then he quit the ministry. He went back to his old profession
of commercial fisherman, didn't he? He said, I go fishing. He
wasn't talking about vacation. He quit because he believed that
the Lord had forsaken him. But the Lord said, don't let
your heart be troubled. We're just like Peter, aren't
we? The Lord has comforted us. He gives us the gospel of his
grace. He says, it doesn't depend on you. You haven't chosen me,
I've chosen you. And then when we start looking
at ourselves, we're troubled, aren't we? It breaks our heart
and we weep and we fret and we worry and we have no peace. And yet he said
before we even do the things that he knows and says that we'll
do, don't be troubled. We have an advocate with the
Father, don't we? So don't be troubled. I confess
to you this morning, I am exactly like the Apostle Peter. Exactly
like him. I say, I will, and then I don't. As a believer, I want to honor
him. I want to worship him. I want to be consecrated unto
him. Don't you? If you know him, he's
worthy of it. He deserves it. I want to please
him. To will is present with me, but
how to perform that which is good, I find not. How about you? How about you?
I don't find it in me. Do you? I find what Paul did
in me, that is, in this wicked, vile flesh. Well, it's no good
thing. Like Peter, I have one hope.
One hope. And that's that the Lord doesn't
leave me where I am. Look at what the Lord said to
Peter. Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God,
Believe also in me. When I speak to you, Peter, God
is speaking to you. When I make you a promise, God
is making you a promise. When I tell you what you will
do, when I reveal yourself to you, God is revealing yourself
to you. Let not your heart be troubled.
Believe. Don't do this. Do this. Believe in me. But what if I can't perform that,
which is good? What if I cannot believe? What
if I fail? You will fail. But don't be troubled
when you do. Don't be troubled. What if I fall? What if I cannot
live up to the vow I make to Him, to follow Him, to trust
Him? to believe on him. You remember
the difference between Simon Peter and Judas, but I'll remind
you again. In Luke 22, 31, the Lord said,
Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you. Satan set
his heart on Peter. He said, that one's mine. That
one there, he's not going to honor the Lord. He's not going
to be one of his. He's mine. And he said, when he has you,
when you're his altogether, he's going to sift you as wheat. But
I have prayed for thee. What did he pray for? Do you
remember? Believe in me. Let not your heart
be troubled. You believe in God, believe also
in me. I prayed for you that your faith
fail not. His courage failed. His commitment
failed. He failed. Period. But what God gave him never,
never fails. Here is why you and I should
not be troubled if we truly believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. If
the Lord gave you faith to begin with, He intercedes on your behalf
that though all else fail, that faith that He gave you will never
fail all together. It'll be weak, it'll be fickle,
it'll be human. It's our faith, after all, isn't
it? It's our faith. And therefore,
there won't be much to it as long as it's my faith. But it's
God-given faith. It's the gift of God. There's
nothing for us to boast of. There's no boasting in this,
you see. By grace are you saved through faith, and that not of
yourselves. It's the gift of God, not of works. How come?
So you can't boast. And you're not going to if you
have faith. True God-given faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. The
gifts and calling of God are without repentance. He didn't
change His mind about that. If He gave you faith... Paul
said in Philippians 1.6, I'm confident of this very thing.
He said in another place, I don't have any confidence in the flesh.
But here's what I am confident of. He that hath begun a good
work in you will finish it. He gave you faith in His Son.
He will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. He is both author and finisher. If He's begun it, He'll finish
it. He'll make sure it doesn't fail. Your faith will not fail
if you have any. Is that clear in the Scripture? So when Christ says to Peter,
Believe in Me, He says that with power, doesn't He? He says that
effectually because He's already made it so. He prayed it and
He said, the Father always hears me. And He prayed to the Father. Keep Him. Keep Him. Don't take
Him out of this world, but deliver Him from the evil. The evil that's
in us and the evil all around us. He keeps us in this world. And upholds us. And continues
and finishes that faith that He gave us to begin with. Why
did he exhort him this way at all? If the Lord has prayed that
Peter's faith fail not, and he's already made it so that Peter's
faith cannot fail, then why does he say, believe in me? Of course
Peter will believe in him. God has made it so. Well, that's
his way, isn't it? All through the scripture, he
commands, and he gives the power to obey the command, and then
he says, well done. That's the grace of our Lord
Jesus Christ. He gives what we need when we
need it. Hebrews 12, 2, looking unto Jesus,
the author and finisher of our faith. Our faith, our faith. He said, Peter, I've prayed for
you that your faith fail not. It's our faith, but where did
it come from? He authored it. The word author
there means that by which anything begins to be. The origin, the
active cause. Christ is the active cause of
my faith, not my wicked natural heart. It doesn't come from there.
It comes from God. It's the gift of God, not of
works, let's think. The fruit of the Spirit is faith.
That's where faith comes from. And then he said he's the finisher
of our faith. To finish means to accomplish,
to finish, to bring to an end. How long would my faith hold
out if he didn't finish it? About as long as Peter's did
here. His faith failed not, but as far as the exercising of any
kind of personal commitment to Christ, how long would that last?
How long would that hold up? Faith, your faith, if it's God-given
faith, it will take you all the way to the presence of God. because
he gave it to you. And he will make it happen. He
said, believe also in me. And he prayed as our great mediator,
as our great high priest, that it be so. Your faith, Peter,
won't fail. Why? Because Peter's, you know,
he's got great commitment. You know, he's a spiritually
mature. Yeah, he really acted like it, didn't he? But why won't
your faith fail? because I prayed it. Because
I prayed it. Believe. Believe. I go, what are we to believe? In me. In me. And we've talked
about this before many times, but faith is not just believing
that there is a God or that there is a Jesus who died on a cross.
It's believing God. The book says Abraham believed
God and it was accounted to him for righteousness. We're talking
about in on wednesday nights that the hebrew children in the
old testament in the day of the great provocation where they
where they they denied god and and prove that they didn't believe
god he said there's the promised land i've given it to you know
go take it and they start talking about how big the inhabitants
were we can't beat them there there's more of them than we
are in what why couldn't they go get it why couldn't they go
do what god said because they didn't believe god if god says
i've given it to you it's yours go take it you believe that you
do what he said If you don't believe it, you murmur and you
find reasons not to do it. That's our nature. That's our
nature. I go, here's, do you believe
this? This is the Lord Jesus speaking,
this is the Son of God saying, I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place
for you, I will come again and receive you. Is that a promise to you? Let me ask you a question. Has
the Lord rung you out yet? Has he rung you? Are you still saying, I will? Have you been emptied of self? If so, then you're ready to hear
this next part. Well, I know you say emptied
of self, Chris. I know self keeps coming back.
Believe me, I know that. I know that it's never really
gone. I know that the old nature has not improved and it hasn't
gone anywhere. My evil heart is still in me.
I know that. That's why to find that which
is good, to perform that which is good, I find not. I know that. I know this also. Once the Lord
Jesus Christ has wrung you out, you never completely forget it.
You never forget. Every time the rooster crows,
you remember. He's got a way of making that
rooster crow at just the right time, doesn't he? The Lord has
a way of reminding us what we're made of once he's taught us to
begin with what we're made of. Then, when we can say with Paul,
we have no confidence in the flesh, then he says to us, Let not your heart be troubled. My heart need not be troubled
because though I can do nothing, and when I say I will, it doesn't
mean anything without Him. Yet, I don't need to be troubled
because He says Both said this regarding something
that they would do for the other. Peter said, here's what I'll
do for you. I'll follow you to the death. And the Lord said, what I'm going
to do for you is go and make a place for you in glory and
then come get you and take you there. Let me ask you a question. What
have you ever ever, ever done for God. Have you ever done anything
for God? Romans 11, 34. Who hath known
the mind of the Lord, or who hath been his counselor, or who
hath first given to him? And it shall be recompensed unto
him again. Who first gave God something,
and then God gave it back to you? It's exactly the other way
around, isn't it? Exactly the other way around.
Through Him and to Him are all things. Of Him are all things. If you have anything, what hast
thou that thou didst not receive? To whom be glory forever. Amen. David said in 1 Chronicles 29,
14, Who am I, Lord, and what is this people that we should
be able to offer so willingly after this sort? For all things
come from thee, and of thine own have we given thee." This
is at the dedication of the temple, or the building of the temple,
when everyone was asked to give jewelry, gold, silver, coins,
money, whatever you had worth anything, and we're going to
build a house for the Lord, a temple. And before they did, and as they
were doing so, David said, Lord, we're just giving you back what
you gave us. Why would you privilege us in such a high way? Why would you do that? People
that know that, you don't have to beg them to give. You don't
have to spend the time in the pulpit figuring out ways to coerce
people to do what believers just naturally do. You don't have
to have bake sales in order to keep the lights on and such.
Wedge drives and things like that. Not necessary. Not necessary. And it's this way with more than
just money. The Lord Jesus Christ said, without
me, you can do nothing. Is that clear? Do we think maybe
he was exaggerating the matter when he said that? If you're
going to give anything, he's going to have to give you something
first. Do you understand that? If you're going to give Him devotion,
He's going to have to give it to you first. If you're going
to worship Him this morning, why do you think we pray, Lord,
enable us to worship? We've got nothing to give Him.
You understand that? If we're going to give Him anything,
He's going to have to give it to us first. When anyone except God says,
I will, it's evil. Look it down. Anyone but God. Isaiah 14, 12,
How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning? How art thou cut down to the
ground which didst weaken the nations? For thou hast said in
thine heart, I will. That's what Satan said when God
kicked him out of heaven. This is why he cast him from
his presence because he said, I will. I will ascend into heaven. I will exalt my throne above
the stars of God. I will sit also upon the mountain
of the congregation in the sides of the north. I will ascend above
the heights of the clouds. I will be like the most high
God. How many times did he say it?
I will, I will, I will. And I get tired of hearing people
say it too. I get tired of hearing myself
say it. I will. Yet thou shalt be brought down
to hell to the sides of the pit." Did you notice the language there?
He said, I will also sit upon the mount of the congregation
in the sides of the north. That's where Zion is. God said,
you'll be in the sides of the pit. That's what sides you'll
be in. And us with him, if he leaves us here saying, I will. James said in 4.13, Go to now,
you that say, today or tomorrow, we will go into such a city.
We will. You that say that, what are you
saying, James said? Listen to what you're saying.
You're saying, we will go into such a city, and we will continue
there a year, and we will buy, and we will sell, and we will
get gain. Whereas you know not what shall
be on the morrow, for what is your life? It is even a vapor
that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away. For
that you ought to say, If the Lord will, there's the will,
there's free will right there. If the Lord will, we shall live. And we'll do this, and we'll
do that if the Lord will. But now, he said, you rejoice
in your boastings. All such rejoicing is evil. Anybody
that says, I will, unless you're God, it's evil. It's evil. We shouldn't even say, I'm going
to go to Publix in the morning without at least having the attitude
and the mindset, if God is willing, I'll go do that. Is that what
he said? May God give us grace to honestly
say with the apostle Philippians 3.3, we are the circumcision.
We are the covenant people of God because God chose us. That was the mark of the covenant
that God made with the people. And he said, I didn't make this
covenant with you because you were a great nation. I did it
because I loved you. And that's what that was a mark
of, a sign of an outward sign of that inward covenant that
God had made with his people. That's who we are. We're the
elect of God. Identified as such in the scriptures
more than any other way. that were identified as believers,
were identified as the sheep, were identified several ways
in the Word of God. More than any, were identified
as God's elect, the chosen of God. Does that identify you?
Is that your testimony? God chose me. He said, I'll have
mercy on whom I'll have mercy. He said, I give life to whom
I will. And He wanted to give me life.
That's why I'm His. We are the circumcision, aren't
we? which worship God in the Spirit. By His grace, we're not
just putting on a show this morning. We're not just here to play church.
We're not just here to get a checkmark by our name. We're not just here
because we're afraid we won't have the favor of God if we don't
show up. God, I won't get that raise. I'll have a flat tire.
Bad things will happen to me. It's superstition. We're here
to worship God because He's worthy of it. That happens only by His
Spirit. Is that right? And we rejoice
in Christ Jesus. We're still in Philippians 3.
We're the circumcision. We're the elect of God. And that's
a symbol of it. We're identified in that God
has chosen us and made a covenant with us. And we worship God in
the Spirit by His grace. And we rejoice in Christ Jesus.
God forbid that I should glory The glory is to boast, to delight
in, to rejoice in. We rejoice in Christ and Him
crucified. God forbid that I should glory
save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. We rejoice in Him,
not in what we've done. We don't delight in our own works.
We don't delight to give our testimony and tell people how
bad we used to be and how good we are now. We don't delight
in that. We have no pleasure in the flesh. We rejoice in Christ
Jesus. And there's something else we
don't have in the flesh. It's the fourth thing in Philippians
3, 3. No confidence in the flesh. We don't take any pleasure in
the flesh. The flesh grieves us and burdens us and limits
us. We don't have any confidence
in it either. And yet, like Peter, sometimes
we say, I will. Oh, but by God's grace, he's
wrung us out. He's emptied us of self. He's
taken us to the place of no boasting. Where is boasting, then, in this
scheme of grace, in this gospel? It's excluded. It's excluded. The law came that every mouth
may be what? Stopped. Stopped saying, I will. Stopped talking about what you'll
do, what you have done, what you are going to do. that every
mouth may be stopped and all the world become guilty before
God. We have no confidence in the
flesh. May God give us grace to be able to honestly say that. Now look at the comfort here
given and we'll be through. Look at the comfort he gave you.
I go to prepare a place for you. Now think with me this morning
for a little while. When we get done in here, we
won't have to, maybe we will, but we won't have to really think
about anything for the rest of the day. But we got to think
about this now. Look at what he said here. I
go to prepare a place for you. These are some of my favorite
words now in verses 1 through 3 of chapter 14 of John. Some
of the most comforting, wonderful, glorious words in the scripture.
And I'm not going to try to expound on these three verses this morning,
but just this first phrase and just a thought or two on this
first phrase. Peter said, I will go with you
and die with you. And we see the result of that.
And then the Lord said, I'm going to prepare a place for you. Not
to die with you, but to die for you. Peter denied the Lord Jesus
Christ, but the Lord Jesus will never cast off His people. He
will never deny us. Why not? Why in the world not? Didn't He say in Matthew 10.33,
Whosoever shall deny Me before men, him will I also deny before
My Father which is in heaven. That's what we deserve, isn't
it? But Peter deserved it. Peter deserved for the Lord Jesus
Christ to go back to glory and say to the Father, this Peter
fellow, I don't know him. That's exactly what he deserved.
And that's what you deserve. Why then did not the Lord deny
Peter? Did not this shoe fit Peter?
If you deny me before men, I'll deny you before my Father. If
the shoe fits, wear it. Why then? The answer is here
in the Master's words. I go to prepare a place for you. There's no place for us in the
presence of God by nature. We don't deserve to be there.
We can't possibly be there. God is of purer eyes than to
behold our evil. But Christ went just for the
unjust that he might bring us to God. I go to prepare a place
for you, Peter. Though there's no place for you
there by nature, I'm going to make one for you. We sing a song
sometimes that says, he gave me a seat at the table of grace.
I love that thought. What did David say? My food to
share is going to sit at my table. But no, there's a lame, worthless
man that could not do a stinking thing for David. Neither could Peter, though he
boasted of it. But David said, here's what I'm going to do for
you. You're my son from now on. You'll eat at my table as one
of the king's sons. The servants don't eat at the
table. The son eats there. I go to prepare a place for you. When Moses said to God, show
me your glory, God said, you can't see my glory. But I'll
show you what I can show you without killing you. And then
God said this, there is a place by me. There was a place there
for Moses. If you believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ, he went and prepared a place there for you, a place
by God, a place in the very presence of the glory of God Almighty,
a place I go to prepare a place for you." How did he do that?
How did he prepare a place for us? Let me read you the whole
text that I just quoted from. 1 Peter 3.18, Christ also hath
once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might
bring us to God. That's how he did it. He took
my place, suffered in my place, that I might have a place with
him. He switched places with me. It's that simple. It's that
simple. The just or the unjust. That's substitution. It really
is that simple for you, Peter. I go to prepare a place for you. Maybe you're thinking, well,
wait a minute, Chris, this was a promise. I thought I could embrace this
promise and call it mine. You're saying he's talking specifically
to Peter here. Can I claim this promise? Well,
it depends. It depends. Are you a bungling, cowardly,
God-denying failure like Peter was? Then this promise is yours. If not, then it's not. If you
still can say, I will. I will. Without repentance. without faith in the Lord Jesus,
then this promise is not for you. But if you can, if by God's
grace you can say what Peter said later, then we're
going to see in a moment. Mark 16 and verse 1, turn there
with me. I want you to show this. The
Lord comforted Peter. He promised Peter a place with
Him in glory. Realize what he said. We're not
looking at all three verses. But he said, I go to prepare
a place for you. And once that place is prepared,
I'm going to come back and get you and receive you unto myself. What's this place? Unto myself. That's the place. What is this
place by me that God talked to Moses about? He said, I'm going
to put your feet on a rock and hide you in the cleft of the
rock. That's the place by me. Christ. I'm gonna receive you
into myself that where I am, that's where you're gonna be.
That's what he went to the cross to accomplish. Me being with
him. And he's comforting Peter. Though
Peter had denied the Lord and was in despair, wept bitterly,
brokenhearted, truly brokenhearted. Mark 16, one, when the Sabbath
was passed, Mary Magdalene and Mary, the mother of James and
Salome, had bought sweet spices, that they might come and anoint
him. And very early in the morning, the first day of the week, they
came unto the sepulchre at the rising of the sun. And they said
among themselves, Who shall roll us away the stone from the door
of the sepulchre? And when they looked, they saw
that the stone was rolled away, for it was very great. And erring
into the sepulchre, they saw a young man sitting on the right
side, clothed in a long white garment. And they were affrighted. And he saith unto them, Be not
affrighted. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, which was crucified."
That's who we seek, isn't it? Christ and Him crucified. God forbid that I should glory
save in the crucified one. He is risen. He is not here.
Look at the place where they lay Him. He's not there. He's not there. But go your way. Tell His disciples and Peter. This is a messenger from God.
I don't know who it was. May have been the Lord Himself.
I don't know. But I know this. It was God's message. It was
Christ's message. And He said, Be sure you tell
Peter specifically. Tell the disciples. Well, Peter's
one of the disciples. Peter didn't think so. I'm sure he didn't, at this time,
think he was one of them. That's why he quit. He said,
I'm going fishing. This thing's over with. Tell
Peter that Christ goes before you into Galilee, and Peter,
you're going to see him there. Just like he told you. He told
you that you would deny him, and you did. He told you that
he'd go prepare a place for you, and he has. He told you that
He'd come again. And He does. He will. He told you that He wouldn't
forsake you. He said, I'll never leave thee. I'll forsake thee. And He hasn't. He hasn't. You'll
see Him there, just like He said to you. Turn to John 21. We're
almost through, but I want us to look at some Scripture here.
You're very familiar with this, but look at it with me again.
John 21, 15. When they had dined, the Lord
Jesus met with them on the beach there,
and they ate together. And Jesus said to Simon Peter,
Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these? Peter had said, I'm going fishing.
I'm going back to what I used to do. And the Lord's not saying,
do you love me more than John loves me? That's completely out
of the context here. Some have said that. He's saying,
do you love me more than these things, than your business, than
your concerns? And he saith unto him, yea, Lord,
thou knowest that I love thee. And he said unto him, feed my
lambs. That's your business. You see the context here? Do
you love me more than these? Then quit doing your business
and do my business. You see the context there? He
saith to him again the second time, Simon, son of Jonas, do
you love me? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord,
thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my sheep. And he said to him the third
time, How many times did Peter deny the Lord Jesus Christ? And
he said to him the third time, Simon, son of Jonas, do you love
me? And Peter was grieved, because
he said unto him the third time, Do you love me? Peter knew what
this meant. He knew why he asked him three
times. And he said unto him, Lord, thou
knowest all things. Thou knowest that I love thee.
The Lord Jesus Christ had prayed that Peter's faith fail not.
And it had not failed. It had not failed. Peter had
failed. But the gift of God is without repentance. He doesn't
take it away once he gives it. He finishes it. And he said,
Lord, you know everything. You know that I love you. And
he said unto him, feed my sheep. You're not going to be fishing
anymore. Didn't he say the first time he called him, I'm going
to make you fishers of men. You don't need to be catching
fish with scales on them anymore. I've got some other business
for you. Verily, verily, I say unto you, when you were young,
you girded yourself and walked whither you would. You did everything
you wanted to do, or thought you did, at least. But when you
are old, you'll stretch forth your hands, and another shall
gird thee, and carry thee whither thou wouldest not. This spake
he signifying by what death he should glorify God. And when he had spoken this,
he said unto him, The same, the first words that Peter ever heard
from him. Follow me. You see, following Christ is
not a one-time event. It's a life. It's a life. Peter would die for Christ's
sake. Notice this with me now and we'll be through. Peter was
going to die for the sake of Christ. just as he boasted that
he would do. He said, I'll go with you and
I'll die with you. He did die for Christ's sake, but first
he had to learn some things. Who would have gotten the glory
if Peter had been allowed to boast, I'll follow you anywhere,
I'll go with you and I'll die with you, and then the Lord had
secretly enabled him to follow through on that? Who would have
gotten the glory? Peter would. Who did Christ say here in John
21, 19 was going to get the glory now? This spake he signifying
by what death he should glorify God. Without me, Christ said, you
can do nothing. Paul said, I can do all things
through Christ, which strengthens me. You see, it's a question
of who gets the glory. It's a question of who's the
author of faith? Who's the finisher of faith?
It's my faith. I believe. Help thou mine unbelief. Increase
my faith. The only one that can do that
is the one that gave it to me. Where did it come from? Who sustains
it? And who's going to get the glory?
I'll tell you this. If you got any glory, in what
you consider to be the experience of your salvation, then you're
not saved. And neither am I. All glory goes unto him. And when he does come and do
a work of grace in our heart, that'll be our song. Not unto
us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory. For
thou art worthy. Bless Bowie.