is found in Mark chapter 14 verses
66 through 72. The paragraph before us records
the terrible, terrible denial of the Lord Jesus by his faithful,
faithful servant, the Apostle Peter. Let's begin reading at
verse 66. And as Peter was beneath in the
palace, there cometh one of the maids of the high priest. And
when she saw him 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 when he went
out into the porch and the cock crew, 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 after they that
stood by said again to Peter, surely thou art one of them? For thou art of Galilee, and
thy speech agreeth thereto. But he began to curse and to
swear, saying, I know not this man of whom thou speakest. And the second time the cock
crowed. And Peter called to mind the
word that Jesus said unto him. Before the cock crowed twice,
thou shalt deny me thrice. And when he thought thereon,
he went. Such a solemn story as this,
I think, probably is best handled without any introduction, though
I have prepared a considerably lengthy introduction. Let me
just show you three things in this text of scripture and seek
to show you some lessons to be drawn from. First, let's look
at the circumstances of Peter's fall. How did such a great man come
to commit such a horrible sin? We're not talking about a lost
man, we're not talking about a religious hypocrite, we're
not talking about an apostate. Our text is talking about a man
who is a child of God, redeemed by the blood of Christ, sanctified
by his spirit. A man who is chosen of God, kept
by his grace, a saint, a genuine saint. In the tenor of his life,
Peter was a faithful giant among faithful giants. Very few before
him or after him could stand shoulder to shoulder with this
man. He was a man strong in faith, firm in conviction, bold in preaching,
unrelenting in his zeal for Christ. This man was eminent even among
the apostles, a leader among leaders, an example among examples,
a preacher among preachers. But this man, great as he was,
was just a man. Like you and like me, he was
a man whose heart by nature was full of sin, whose flesh was
weak. On that dark, dark night in the
high priest's palace, this man's evil heart broke out in a terrible
display of ungodliness. He did something that is as horrible
and evil as any act I know I was ever committed in the history
of the human race. I thought about that a long time
before I wrote it down. Peter's denial of the Lord Jesus
is as horrible, as hideous, as ungodly, as vile, as reprehensible
as any act committed by any man in the history of humanity. The
godly apostle Peter blasphemously denied three times in the matter
of an hour the Son of God. And he did so with foul urge. Now when I read that, I won't
know how to re-account for it. As we look at the circumstances
of Peter's fall, let me remind you that there are no extenuating
circumstances recorded to excuse or to any way mitigate his guilt. But everything recorded, and
it's recorded three times, or four times rather, Matthew, Mark,
Luke, and John, all inspired by the Spirit of God, record
the details of Peter's fall. And there's not one single word
of mitigation in the text. Not one. Those men were his friends,
Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, his companions. His fellow servants,
if we had been writing that, if you were writing it about
me, or I were writing it about one of my preacher friends, and
they had in some way messed up somewhere, I'd do my best to
try to mitigate the circumstances. But you've got to understand.
You've got to recognize the circumstances. This is just out of character.
But not one word is spoken to in any way excuse Peter's guilt. Because God the Holy Spirit deals
honestly with us. And this is God's Word we're
reading. Peter's fall was a very strange thing. Because this man,
Peter, was one of the Lord's most highly-favored, most greatly-blessed,
most richly-honored disciples. The Lord had done so much for
Peter. He'd done so much for him. Peter,
if you read John chapter 1, verses 40 through 42, Peter was one
of the very first in this world to whom the Lord Jesus Christ
came in human flesh and made himself known as the Christ of
God, the son of the living God. The Lord Jesus came to Andrew
and showed himself to Andrew. He was Simon Peter's brother.
Andrew went home and said, brother Peter, let me tell you, I found
the Christ. Peter said, where is it? And
he went and showed him. And the Lord showed himself to
Peter as well. Peter was in the inner circle
of the master's friend. I don't mean to suggest by any
way that there are some believers who are more and some believers
who are less accepted of God in Christ. But remember, our
Lord Jesus was a man. And as a man, he walked in this
world with men. And there were men whose company
he most intimately enjoyed. Other men whom he loved dearly,
but their company as men may not have been quite so pleasant
to him. Peter was one of those, along with James and John, who
went everywhere with the Master for three and a half years. Where
he prayed, they prayed. Where he ate, they ate. Where
he slept, they slept. Where he preached, they either
listened or they preached as well. The Lord Jesus made Peter
to be one of his most intimate companions and he seems to have
been the chief spokesman for the early church. Now I said
that because I want you to understand. The greater our privileges, the
higher our honors, the greater our responsibility. the more
horrible I would think. Say, well, we don't want to put
anybody up on a pedestal. We're all up on some kind of pedestal.
And God put us there. God put us there. It was called
Charlotte Nye. That little girl there, you're
her mother. And what you do, good or bad,
has a much more profound effect than what she's I'm your pastor. What I do, good or bad, has a
much more profound effect in many ways than what you do. Because
God has put us in positions of responsibility. And the greater
our privileges, the greater our responsibilities, the greater
are our falls and the consequences of them. Peter's fall is especially
sad because he was plainly, faithfully warned of his great danger. We read in Luke 22. Now that
our Lord Jesus told Peter in the plainest terms possible exactly
what was going to happen to him, he even gave him the details.
Peter was told the danger he was in, and he was told what
he must do to preserve himself from the temptation. Satan, our
Lord said, desires to have you, that he may seek you as well. Your faith is about to be severely
attacked, Peter. And you must watch and grow,
that you're not in temptation. But Peter, he stuck his fingers in his ears.
Isn't that amazing? Not too amazing, we do the same
thing. He ignored the word of God. He
ignored the revelation of God's word. He ignored that which God
the Son spoke plainly, directly to him. Peter's guilt is aggravated also
by the fact that it came so soon after he had so confidently declared
his loyalty to, love for, and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Turn over to Matthew's account in Matthew chapter 26. Matthew
chapter 26. Look at verse 31. Then Jesus saith unto them, all
of you shall be offended because of me this night. For it is written,
I will smite the shepherd and the sheep of the flock shall
be scattered. But after I'm risen again, I'll go before you into
Galilee. And Peter answered, this is what is said, They might
sure enough do it. They might sure enough do it. I've always been kind of suspicious
of them anyhow. They might sure enough deny you.
Though all, and notice the word men is in italics, that means
it's added by translators, and I think it was added by mistake.
He's saying these, my companions. These other disciples, these
other apostles, though they all shall be offended because of
you, yet will I never be offended. Nothing can cause me to forsake
you. Jesus said unto him, verily I say unto thee, that this night
before the cock crow thou shalt deny me three times. And Peter
said unto him, now listen, the Lord said to Peter, this is what's
gonna happen to you. And Peter said, you're mistaken. You're
wrong, buddy. He said, should I die with thee? Yet will I not deny thee. In
Luke's gospel, Luke records these words. Peter said to him, Lord,
I'm ready. I'm ready to go with you both
to prison and to death. And then just a few hours after
this proud, confident vote, We see Peter cussing, saying, I don't know that man.
I don't know him. Oh, Ron Wood, how fickle we are. How fickle. Peter's fall didn't come at once,
but by degrees. Now I hope you're listening to
this preacher. Peter followed the Lord afar
off. I heard a story once about a
man who was seeking to hire a shilpa and when he called me and Ian
for an interview. He'd take them out and have them
drive. And he said, I want to see how you drive. And he'd take
them out along a terribly, terribly winding road in the mountains
and no guardrails and they just real, real steep, fall off. And he said, I want to see how
good a driver you are. And this fellow would get in the car and
he'd start to drive. He'd get over just as close to the edge
as he could. Just as close to the edge as he could. And drive
around that road just as close to the edge as he could. One
after the other, he was just as close to the edge as they
could. I wanted to impress him how good they could handle that
car and how good they could handle the road. Finally, he got a fella
in there and he was interviewing him. He said, I want to take
you out and see how well you can drive. And that fella got
on that mountain road and he hugged up just as close to the
side of the mountain as he could hug on. Stayed just as tight
as he could stay. The fella hired him. He said, I don't want to run
with anybody who plays dangerously. Children of God, don't play dangerously
with your souls. Hug up just as tight as you can
to a son of God. Peter Sacks in the seat of scorners. I realize that somehow we gotta
recognize a clear line of distinction and responsibility. We live in
this world, we have sons and daughters mothers and fathers
and brothers and sisters who are lost, husbands and wives
who are lost. We don't isolate ourselves from
them. We don't cut ourselves off from
them. We don't live like hermits. That's irresponsible. That's
contrary to scripture. We must never, never even entertain
such thoughts. The idea of living in convents
or monasteries or in communes, that's totally foreign to the
scripture. Nothing but self-righteousness
involved in it. Yet at the same time, Bobby Estes,
you and I are fools if we choose for our companions, our constant
friends, our intimate acquaintances, men and women who don't know
our God. You're just fools. You're asking for trouble. Peter
sought to comfort himself with the warmth of the fire that the
Lord's enemies had provided. And he denied the Lord Jesus
by degrees. At first when the maid said,
said, you're one of them. He said, I don't understand you.
What are you talking about? And then another came and he
said, he said, I don't know him. I don't know that man. Now this
is what he said. This is what he said. It's not
written, just thrown in there, it's written for a reason. He
said, I don't know the name. This same apostle, he said, thou
art the Christ, the son of the living God. Thou art the son
of God. Now, when the chips are down,
he said, I don't know that name. He's just what you said he was,
he's a man. He's a man. And another came along and said,
but your speech betrays you. You sound like one of his disciples.
He said, they saw you in there, I saw you there, and they saw
you there, and besides that, your speech betrays you. He's
right, fix that. And he begins to cuss like a
sailor. He said, I don't know him. I don't know him. He took
the language of a base, ungodly, vile man to prove that he was
no follower of the Holy Lamb of God. He said, well, that was
a great trial. He's gone through more than this
many times. The fact is, Bob, it takes very,
very little to catch us, trip us, and bring us down if God
just leaves us to ourselves for a minute. Peter was in the garden facing
a band of Roman soldiers and single-handedly he whips out
his sword and goes to war. That's bold. Well, I wouldn't have been there.
I'm a scrapper, but I wouldn't have been there. I'd have been
hiding in somewhere way outnumbered. Let's get out of here. But Peter
boldly stands for Christ. Now, there's a little young girl,
young woman. She seemed to have no power,
no influence. The word of God doesn't suggest
that she had any authority of any kind. She was just a servant
of the high priest. And she said, I saw you down
there. So it took. How come? Because the Lord purposefully
left Peter to stand alone for just a little bit. Because he's
determined. He's determined, one way or another,
we're going to find out what we're made of. One way or another. But generally, these falls don't
come suddenly. I've been pastoring for nearly
30 years, and I've seen a lot of people
fall. Fall horribly. Some fall into utter apostasy,
never to return. Some fall into some grievous
error, some sin, which they wallow for a long time, for which they
suffer much. But I'll tell you what I have
never seen. I've never seen it happen, buddy, for what they
want signs to indicate this is where it's going. I've never
seen it happen. Here's another great aggravation
of Peter's sin. Of all this time, the Lord Jesus is standing right
in front of you. bearing his reproach, beginning
to suffer in his day, hearing every word. What was the reason for Peter's
fall? What happened to him? How can we account for his terrible
sin? Pride cometh before the fall
in a haughty spirit before discovery. Now then, let me not leave it
there. Let me show you the means of
Peter's recovery. Peter fell, but he didn't perish. His faith weakened, but it didn't
die. He sinned, but he wasn't cast
off. He forsook Christ, but Christ
didn't forsake him. He denied the Lord, but the Lord
refused to deny him. You see, Peter belonged to Christ,
and Christ can never lose one of his own. The good shepherd
can never lose one of his sheep. Peter fell, but the Lord Jesus
graciously raised him up. As the wise man says in Proverbs
24, 16, the righteous fall seven times in a day, and the Lord
raises him up. The righteous fall seven times
in a day. That is, there is a completion
about falling in us continually every day, seven times a day.
And the Lord continually raises us up. How did the Lord Jesus
raise this fallen servant up? Well, there are four things clearly
revealed in the gospel narratives. First, there was a work of providence. Oh, God's good providence. Oh, thank God for his good providence. Pastor, what's so evident here
about God's providence? There's a rooster crowed, aren't
you? Aren't you? You see, our God, when he's determined
to speak, when he's determined to make a man hear, The Lord
God can just as easily speak through an ass's mouth as speak
through a prophet's mouth. He can just as easily speak through
the crowing of a rooster as to speak through the words of an
apostle. Peter, now you're gonna deny me, but before the rooster
crows the second time, before the sun rises and the rooster
crows the second time, You're gonna deny me three times. Looks
like first time you heard that, Mr. Crowley, you just shook.
Looks like you just shivered. And then there's a work of grace.
Look at this. The scripture tells us in Luke
22, 61, the Lord turned and looked at Peter. Looked at him, skips like I'm
looking at you. Not with eyes of scorn. Not with eyes of anger. Not with eyes of disdain. But
with eyes of tenderness. Love. Mercy. What a Savior He is. Silently,
He spoke through His eyes. directly to Peter's heart. I
can almost hear him speak. He looked at him, he said, I
have loved you with an everlasting love. He said, greater love has no
man than this, the man laid down his life for his friends. He looked at him, he said, I'll
never leave you. I'll never forsake you. He says, I am the Lord,
I change not. Therefore, you, sons of Jacob,
are not consumed. He said, I, even I am he that
brought us out by transgression. He said, Peter, I gave you eternal
life, and you'll never perish. In me is thy righteousness found. I have redeemed thee, so fear
not, neither be afraid. I am thy strength. Return unto me. Return unto me,
and I will pardon you. And then there's a work of the
word. A work of providence with the
crawling of the rooster. A work of grace with the look
of the master. But God's work is always done
in conjunction with his word. The Lord said to Peter, he said,
this is what's gonna happen. And when the cock crew, Peter
remembered the word. He thought on the Word. But there
was more than that. There was also the work of our
advocate. You remember what the Lord said
to Peter? We read it earlier. He said, Simon, Satan has desired
to have you that he may run you through his rough, rough seal.
Nevertheless, I have prayed for thee. He prayed for him. before he
fell. He's his great high priest, and
he prayed for him. Oh, children of God, listen to
me. The Lord of glory, the Son of
God, our great high priest, is our advocate in heaven. And if
any man sin, the scripture says, we have an advocate with the
Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our
sins. For what security then is ours?
If you're a believer, if you're truly born of God, if truly you
trust the Lord Jesus Christ, I'm telling you something I want
you to hear. I want you to hear. If you just got a profession
of faith, if you're just a religious hypocrite, if you just You know,
you got a name to wear but it's not real. God just may let you
live forever until you die in your sins and go to hell, presuming
everything's all right with your soul. But I want to tell you
this, if you're His, if genuinely you're born of God, He's going
to keep you. Nothing will ever separate you
from His grace. Nothing will ever pry you from
His hands. Nothing will ever tear you from the heart of his
love. Nothing. Not even your sin. So you can't
tell that meant I just did. I'd like to shout it from the
house to house. Not even your sin. Blessed is the man to whom
the Lord will not impute iniquity. So that'll cause men to just
want to live like hell. Only folks who are children of
hell. That's all. That's all. Say, well, I can
do what I want to. The Lord won't, he won't, he
won't deal with me cause he won't deal with me with sin. I'll still
stay in his grace. I've got news for you. You listen
to me. If that notion is in you, your
religion's a joke. It's a hoax of hell fixed in
your heart. That is not the spirit of Christ.
Well, what are the signs of Peter's restoration? But this trial in
this fall was no accident. Oh no. Satan ran God's child through
his rough sifter, and a rough sifter it was. But Peter lost
nothing in the process of the trial. He came out on the other
side of this thing a better man than he was before. That's right,
that's right, there's no accident. The Lord God, our Savior, deliberately,
according to his purpose of grace, in his sovereign providence,
used the devil, the fiend of hell, as a vassal to his own
purpose, to accomplish his good pleasure toward his apostle Peter. And Peter could never, I don't
hesitate for a moment to tell you this, Peter could never have
preached like he did on day Pentecost. He could never have spoken as
he did to the Sanhedrin in Acts chapter 4 if he hadn't been here
and experienced this. Oh, thank God for his absolute
overruling of prophets. Here are the evidences, the signs
of his restoration. Peter went out of the place.
As soon as grace had rekindled a fire in his soul, he didn't
need that fire which the high priest servants warmed themselves
by. He went out and wept bitterly. The word of God, the grace of
God, the providence of God, worked repentance in his heart. Let me ask you something, do
you know anything about repentance? Really? Believers constantly
experience it. I have repented. I am repenting
and I shall repent. And except you repent, you shall
likewise perish. But what do we learn from all
this? Let's learn something about ourselves. Don't be presumptuous. We're all too much like Peter. We're all fickle, sinful wretches
by nature. So don't think too highly of
yourself. Wherefore, let him that thinketh he standeth, take
heed lest he fall. Amen. Amen.