It is a joy to be back with you. I want you to turn with me, if
you would, over to Luke's Gospel, chapter 22. Luke's Gospel, chapter
22. May the Lord be pleased this
evening, as the brother has already prayed, to bless his word to
our hearts. In Luke chapter 22, I just have
two verses of Scripture, two verses this evening that I want
to share with you. In Luke's Gospel chapter 22,
in verse 31 and verse 32, you remember the context of this,
I'm sure, that this was the Passover. The Lord was eating the Passover
with His disciples, and that's the context in which Two verses
is given. And the Lord said, Simon, Simon,
behold, Satan hath desired you, he 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. Peter, Peter, Satan hath desired
you." And I'm sure not only him, but all of these apostles. I'm
sure that these apostles had no idea of the danger that they
were facing here at this time. Their hearts were so full of
pride. We are told here in verse 24
that they had this discussion among themselves which of them
should be the greatest in the kingdom, which one would have
the highest position or the most influence, what pride had filled
their hearts. And then, of course, all this
presumption full of self-confidence at this very time I'm sure they weren't aware of.
The Lord had told Peter in the other Gospels that he would be
offended in him. All of you, he said, will be
offended in me and because of me this night. And he quoted
a scripture to them to prove that they would be. He said,
For Isaiah foretold that you would, that the shepherd would
be smitten and the sheep would be scattered. And Peter especially
was so full of vain confidence, so full of himself, he said,
Lord, though all be offended in thee, I'll never be offended
in thee, even though the Scripture says you will be. And it wasn't only him, but the
Scripture said they all said that. And the Lord went ahead
to tell Peter, he said, Before the cock crows, you'll deny three
times that you know me." And he said, Lord, I'll go to prison
before I'll do that. I'll die with you before I'll
deny you in any wise. How full of presumption, self-confidence,
relying upon themselves. And yet before this night was
over, Peter did deny. three times, even with an oath. Judas betrayed him with a kiss.
They all forsook him and fled." Oh, flesh! What is flesh? It is unstable as water. The will can be a powerful thing
if the Holy Spirit works in it and upon it. But you leave it
to itself. And it's unstable as water. It
falls, and human resolve and human reliance is like a vapor
before the hot sun. It's short-lived. We will never,
I will never, that was their resolve. But I think probably
the most dangerous thing that afflicted these poor disciples
here was their ignorance. And I mean they were ignorant
as to what was going on behind the scenes, things that they
could not perceive with their natural mind. They were ignorant
of that. And the Lord tells them here
in this text that I read to you, He said, Simon, Simon, Satan
hath desired thee that he may sip thee as wheat. If these apostles had only known. the power and the force that
was coming against them at this time. All this vain presumption
would have been turned to awe and diligence. Their pride would
have been humbled, but they had no idea the power and the rage
of this one that was ready to set himself against them. Satan
hath desired thee. Don't we read a lot in Scriptures
about this being? This one here that's called Satan?
The Scriptures are full from Genesis to Revelation. We're
told about this mighty creature. The Scripture calls him the great dragon. That, no doubt,
relates to us his cruelty. His very nature is cruel. He goes about as a roaring lion,
seeking whom he may devour. Our Master said he's a murderer.
He's a dragon. He's cruel. He's called the old
serpent because he's subtle. He deceives people. He's called
the devil. And he's the accuser and slanderer. And then he says here that he's
Satan, that adversary, the enemy of God and the enemy of man. And the Scripture says about
this one, that woe be to the inhabitants of the earth, because
the devil is come down to you. And he has great wrath because
he knows he has but a little time. This one that the Scripture
calls Satan. And what's he doing here? He's going about deceiving men. He's deceived the entire world.
And the very thing that he's deceived them about is the thing
that they must hear and believe to be saved. And that's the gospel. He's blinded the minds of those
who believe not, lest this light of the glorious gospel of Christ
should shine in unto them. He's taken men captive at his
will when God suffers him to. A lion just walking about in
this world, seeking whom he may devour. And what's the attitude
of most people about this one that the Scripture calls Satan?
They joke about him. They write their little cartoons
and stick them in the newspapers. And the world is amused by it
all. And Satan continues walking through this world devouring
men's souls. I've never found one verse of
Scripture, not one single verse of Scripture, that would even
imply that Satan cares anything about humanity. He hates humanity
with a passion. He despises it. He's the chief
enemy of humanity. Being damned himself, he takes
great pleasure in damning all of humanity that he can. I think
Martin Luther had it right when he said, wherever you find him,
he's armed with cruel hate. He's armed with cruel hate. And
here in verse 31, the Lord Jesus tells us what Satan's desire
is. This is why he lives. This is
where he gets his gratification. He says this, his desire is,
Simon, to sift you. That's his desire. He doesn't
care anything about bank accounts. He doesn't seek for property.
He's not seeking the kingdoms of this world. There's one thing
that gives him pleasure. He wants to sift those who profess
to know and to love the Lord. When they used to sift grain,
they would take it out and put it on a sieve and they would
throw it up in the air and let the wind blow the husk away.
And what Satan wants to prove to himself and prove to this
world that there was no grace in these men. And what he said,
you let me sift them, you let me tempt them, you let me afflict
them, and I will sift them and prove there's nothing in them
and nothing to them. That's what he takes great delight
in doing. One man said, Satan attacks us
at our weakest point. Our strongest point before Him
is utter weakness. On earth there is not His equal,
Mr. Luther said. No creature like
Him. Our strongest point is nothing
before this Being. Did we in our own strength confide,
our striving would be loosed. He doesn't have to attack us
at our weakest point. He attacked these apostles at
their strongest point, at the point they were most adamant
about. I will not deny you that was Peter's strongest point.
And Satan defeated Peter by the most weakest means, a little
maid. He didn't take a mighty soldier.
and hold a knife to his throat and make him deny the Lord Jesus,
he used this little maid. And Peter looked at that maid's
face, and you know what he saw? He saw a roaring lion. That's
how Satan can affect the minds of an individual. And Peter became as unstable
as water, and all his resolve, I will never, was short-lived.
And why was that, brothers and sisters? It wasn't because these
apostles were not serious. They were as serious as they
could be. They were as honest as they could
be. They really had resolved in their
heart, Lord, we will not be offended in you, and we'll never deny
you. They were as honest and as resolved
as they could be, but they were ignorant about the force and
the power that they were facing. That's why Peter later wrote
and said this, be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary is stronger
than you are. He's wiser than you are. And
you may have your human resolve, but he can get you at your strongest
point. I'm not bragging, brothers and
sisters, on the devil. I'm not doing that. But I'm just
telling you the truth. I'm telling you what the Master
said he's like. His chief ambition, that which
gratifies him, is to sift men, especially the children of God,
and if he can, prove to himself and to the world that there is
no real grace in them. That's what he seeks to do. And
his goal are these three things. He has these three goals. Number
one is this, to change our attitude towards God. To change our mind, to change
our opinion towards God. You remember when Satan accused
Job before the Lord. And the Lord said, if you consider
my servant Job, there's nobody like him. And Satan said, let
me at him just a little while. You let me tempt him. You let
me afflict him. You let me sift him, and I'll
tell you what he'll do. And here's his goal. You think
he loves you now. You think he trusts you now.
But I'll tell you what I can do. I can change his whole attitude
towards you, and I'll have him cussing you to your face. Ain't
that what he said? I'll have him so offended with
you that he'll cuss you to your face. All of you shall be offended
in me this night, and you can bet Satan had something to do
with that. You remember when the Lord gave
us the parable about the seed that was sown on stony ground,
and it sprang up, and the sun had risen up, and the seed withered
because it had no depths of earth. And the Lord interpreted that
for us, and he said it like this. When the seed is sprung up, those
who believe for a while, they suffer afflictions and persecutions,
and then they're offended. They're offended. Afflictions
come. Temptations come. And they said,
I had no idea the cross was this deadly. I didn't know it was
this difficult to follow the Lord. I can't take this, and
they're offended at that. That's Satan's goal, is to cause
us to change our minds, our attitudes, the thoughts of our heart towards
the Lord, to be offended in Him. And secondly, his goal is this,
to tempt us to despair of mercy and salvation. No sooner had all the trouble
come on Job, and he heard that voice in his ear, curse God and
die. Why don't you just give it up,
Job? Stop hoping. Stop waiting. Stop believing. Just give it up. You'll be on
help. You'll be on hope. Curse God
and die. Despair of mercy. Who do you
think that was whispering that? That wasn't his wife. That was
the devil through his wife. Boy, if you've ever been in a
dark trial, especially if you've sinned and you've fallen, you
know what it is to have that voice whisper to your conscience,
there's no hope for you. Give it up. John Bunyan went for years in
almost black despair because he was convinced he had committed
the sin against the Holy Ghost. You remember when they had the
fire in Metropolitan Tabernacle? George Spurgeon almost had a
nervous breakdown. For days, nobody could even talk
with him. And he said what afflicted him
most, he was certain that God had turned on him. God was his
enemy. Why would a man believe that?
That's Satan's work in the minds. That's his goal. That's the way
he was going to sift these men. And you bet when Peter went off
weeping after he denied the Lord, this being spoke to him and said,
give me that. And I tell you probably, this
Peter, this Simon Peter would have done the very same thing
that Judas did probably if the right man weren't on his side.
Judas despaired and said, there's no hope, and hanged his wretched
self. That's the goal of the devil.
And thirdly is this. It's to bring shame upon the
name of the Lord Jesus Christ in this world. It's to bring
his name down and trample it in the mud. I think that's what
hurts when a believer falls or a professor falls into sin. It's
not just the shame he brings on the church. But when David
fell into that awful sin with Bathsheba, the Lord said, David,
you have given great occasion to the enemy, to blaspheme my
name. If that's the Lord's way, I don't
want anything to do with it. If Christ can't save any better
than that, I don't want anything to do with it. Simon, Simon, Satan hath desired
to have thee. that he may sift thee as wheat."
And what's the difference, brothers and sisters, between Peter and
Judas? It wasn't so much their sins.
If anything, I think sometimes Peter's sins were worse than
Judas' sins. I really think that. It wasn't
that Peter's sin was not as great what wretched sin they both committed. But the difference in the men
was this, Peter hadn't an advocate. That's the difference. This is
why one went out and hanged himself, and the other at last rose to
walk again with the Lord. That's the difference. Peter,
I have prayed for thee, and brothers and sisters, I challenge you
to find another reason for Peter being saved. and Judas hanging himself. This
is the only reason the Holy Ghost gives. I have prayed for thee. That's the only thing that kept
him and all these other apostles, the ten of them, from being overthrown
by this trial. Sometimes the Lord intercedes
for His people and He prays like this. Father, I pray that You
would keep them from the evil. But He doesn't always pray that.
Sometimes he has to pray, Father, deliver them from the evil they've
fallen into and forgive their offense. And why does our Lord
and our Savior pray for His people who have sinned? Because it's
His intercession that secures their forgiveness. We confess our sins. Sure, we
do. But it's not our confession that
secures forgiveness. It's not our confession that
merits forgiveness. But it's the merits of our advocate
that secures forgiveness. I have prayed for thee, he says. They hadn't even sinned yet.
They were still denying that they would sin. But yet all along,
the Lord Jesus says, I have prayed for thee. It wasn't their confession, though
they confessed. But they had an advocate already,
who had already secured forgiveness for them, for their fault. We got an advocate when we don't
even know it. We've got an advocate before
we sin. If any man sin, we have an advocate. I remember when David had committed
that awful wickedness, and the Lord sent Nathan to him, and
Nathan confronted him about his sin, and suddenly it dawned upon
David the wickedness that he had committed. And he said, I've sinned against
the Lord. And Nathan said, you're not going to die. The Lord hath
put away your sin. Isn't that amazing? The Lord
hath put away thy sin. David had an advocate just like
these apostles did before he knew that he needed an advocate. And what does our advocate plead?
I have prayed for thee. How does he pray? How would he
pray for these men? What could he plead in the court
of justice? Could he plead their ignorance? Could he plead the promise that
they'll never do it again? I don't think that would stand
in the court of heaven. I don't think he would plead
insanity, though they were crazy. What does he plead? I have prayed
for thee. You know what he pleads, don't
you? If any man sin, one man says,
if you want Jesus Christ to be your advocate, you better make
sure your cause is good. If my cause is good, I don't
need an advocate. If any man sin, the Lord Jesus
prayed for these men because they were guilty. You're going
to deny me. You're going to be offended in
me. What could he possibly plead? Nothing from them. He pleads
Himself. We have an advocate with the
Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And He is the perpetuation. He is the atoning victim for
our sins. He pleads His blood. He pleads
His own obedience. He pleads His own righteousness.
He pleads what He's done in the days of His flesh. And that's
enough. Nothing else is given while these
men were brought off from their offense but this one thing, I
have prayed for thee. And what does he pray for here?
Some places he prays, Father, keep them from the evil. Some
places he pleads because they have sinned and brings them off
from the condemnation. But notice what he prays for
here. I have prayed for thee. that
thy faith fail not." Thy faith. That it won't be destroyed. That
it won't be overcome. Faith. What is faith? Well, we
know it's a gift of God. The Scripture tells us that it's
a gift of God. Nobody's born with it. It's given
to us. And it's given for Christ's sake.
It's given to you to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ for
His sake. And God will never revoke it.
He'll never take it back. The gifts of God are without
repentance. And faith is also sustained in
the heart. You can't sustain it. I can't
sustain it. The same One who gave it must
sustain it in the heart. Listen to this. Paul told the
Ephesians in 119, I pray for you that you might know the exceeding
greatness of his power to usward who believe according to the
working of his mighty power. How do we believe? According
to the working of his mighty power. And listen to 2 Thessalonians
1.11. We pray always for you that our
God would count you worthy of His calling and fulfill in you the work of faith with power. We're not born with it. It's
given to us, and it's sustained in us by the power of the Holy
Spirit. And you add to this the intercessions
of the Lord Jesus assures us that that work of faith will
not fail because He prays that it will not. I pray for you that
your faith will not fail. And Satan's temptations and his
fiery darts may weaken it, but he can't destroy it. any more than he can destroy
God who gave it, or the Holy Spirit who operates it in our
hearts, our advocate who prays that it will not fail. John Bunyan and his pilgrim progress. He took pilgrim up to the house
of the interpreter, if you remember that. And he was going to teach
him something about the grace of faith. And he took him to
this fireplace that had a fire in it. And there was a man there
in a black suit, and he had this bucket, and he was dipping buckets
of water and pouring it on the fire, but the fire didn't go
out. And the pilgrim was amazed. He said, how could this man be
dumping all this water on the fire, and the fire not go out?
And he took him around behind the fireplace. And there was
a man in white. and he was pouring oil on the
fire. That's the grace of faith, he
told the pilgrim. The devil dashes it and does
all he can to diminish it or destroy it, but the author of
it keeps it up in our soul. I have prayed for thee that thy
faith not fail. Are you a believer this evening?
You are one by the gift of God. You are one by the grace of God.
You weren't a believer when you were born into this world, and
you didn't muster up faith to believe. It was granted to you. And you have continued to this
day because the Spirit of God works in you to will and to do. And you will finish the race.
because you have one that has prayed to that end already. I
have prayed for thee that thy faith fail not. How do we know? And here is a good question.
How do you and I know? How can any individual know that
he has one in heaven who has prayed that his faith fail not? How can I have the assurance
that I have one in heaven who has so prayed for me? Not when we've escaped temptation,
but when we've endeared temptation. Then we can know. Not when you've
avoided afflictions, but when you've bore up under those afflictions. When you've endeared hardness.
When you've felt the weight of the cross and you bear it. When
it seems like heaven is shut up against your prayer and you
can't pray. When you open the Bible and it
still seems like a sealed book. When the world accuses you and
friends turn on you and you bear witness of the cross of Christ
and you blush when you do it. When your valley is so long and
dark and cold and yet you get through it. When the hill of
difficulty you are climbing seems like you are never going to get
to the top and yet you keep climbing. when you're chastened every morning,
and yet in spite of all this, you hold out, you hold on, you
keep waiting, you keep hoping, you keep seeking, and you say
with Job, though he slay me, yet will I trust him. Then you
can have some evidence. There's one in heaven who has
prayed for you that your faith will not fail. When you sinned
and you've fallen and your heart's full of shame and you water your
face with your tears, and it seems like you're cast out of
His sight, but you look again to His holy temple. When you think He's forgotten
you, and yet you remember Him, and you hope in mercy and you
hope in grace, and you patiently wait for Him, and your confidence
is reduced to this one thing, my only hope and my only plea,
I have one in heaven that has prayed for me. When you have
got there and you have endured that, then you can have some
assurance, brothers and sisters. One in heaven has truly prayed
for you because your faith has not failed. Hell has opened its
gates against you. You've struggled in all your
unbelief and your shame and your burdens of life, but you just
keep on keeping on. And you know why? One in heaven
has prayed for you that your faith fail not. And when thou art converted,
strengthen thy brethren. Look here at the confidence the
Lord Jesus has in this intercession. And when, not an if, you're converted. Not if you make it through this
trial. I wish we could have some confidence that he gives us right
to have confidence. If he said, if you make it through
this, strengthen your brother. But he doesn't say that. He's
got all the confidence in the world that his Father will give
to him the desires of his heart. Whatever he requests with his
lips, the Heavenly Father will give it to him. And if he prays
to the Father that they would indeed not fail in their faith,
then they will not fail. So he says, therefore, when you
are converted, strengthen your brethren. You
know the kind of preacher I like. I want a preacher that God has
turned his world upside down and opened the gates of hell
against him, and he's been tried and tested and tempted till he's
almost despaired even to live. That's the kind of preacher I
want. Because when he comes to this pulpit, he'll preach to
my heart and not just to my head. He'll tell me where I'm at and
what I'm going through, and he'll give me some confidence that
the Lord's with me Give us preachers whose pride
has been humbled and they've brought to the end of themselves.
And then send men like that to the pulpit to preach to us who
work eight and ten and twelve hours a day. Face this ungodly,
perverted generation. And face the devil. Let them tell us what they know
in their hearts. I have prayed for thee. And since
I have, your faith will not fail. It will not fail. God bless you
forever.