Started meeting and Frank Tate
was the song leader back then. That's how young he was. And
I'm 20 years, if it's been 20 years, I'm 20 years older. I
don't know what that makes you. But turn with me to Luke 22. But I remember when Charlie and
them got together and built this building and started meeting
in here and this place was lots and lots of people in here. Been
a lot of good meetings here. A lot of good meetings. Let's start reading at verse
31 down through verse 37 of Luke chapter 22. And the Lord said unto Simon,
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 sent 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." When
you read, when I read these scriptures, I think When our Lord told Simon
that, behold, Satan's desired you, that he may sift you. But
he said, I prayed for you. This makes me think about what
a wonderful Savior is Jesus our Lord. What a wonderful Savior
to me. He hideth my soul in the cleft
of the rock, in a dry and thirsty land. He hideth my soul in the
depths of his love, covers me there with his hand. That's what
he's doing with this man. He's protecting him, meeting
his needs. And oh my, that's why we have
here, as our Savior says, Simon, Simon, Satan hath desired you. He wants to get his hands on
you. He wants to destroy you. He wants to sift you, like sifting
weak. You know, when I was a kid, back
in years ago, people used to have these cabinets, and they
had sifters in them. They had them sitting in their
kitchen, and whenever they bought a flower or something, they'd
have to dump it in that thing, and they would crank it, and
then they'd stick a thing underneath it and crank it, and the better
flower would come out the bottom. Well, that's what's happened
to him. God's gonna put him in more of them things, and he's
gonna crank it, and he's gonna see how he's gonna act on it.
And oh, my. But our Lord said, here's my
subject. Will your faith fail? Will your
faith fail? I've seen a lot of folks over
the years, baptized a lot of people, and I've seen a lot of
folks go on for several, several years. I've even known some preachers
that's gone on for several years, and then they quit, they quit.
And here's Simon, our Lord says to Simon, Simon, Simon. He didn't call him Peter, didn't
call him the Rock. It didn't call him The Rock until
verse 34, and he said, I say unto thee, Peter, the rooster
shall not crow. And you know, when our Lord repeated
His name, He said, Simon, Simon. I believe our Lord said it in
such a tender, compassionate, soft way. I believe His voice
was very soft. I believe it had such compassion
in it. I believe it had a little pity in it when He said, Simon,
Simon. Oh, Simon, Simon. You know, what
a blessed Savior. But here He talks when He told
Simon, Simon, Satan hath desired to sift ye as wheat. And He's
told us when He told Simon Peter this, He told us what an awful,
fearful enemy that there is to the souls of men. And that enemy,
He said, Satan. And that word Satan, see, it's
capitalized. Got a personality. He's a person.
and all He hath desired you, to have you, to put you in His
hand and sift you and destroy you if He possibly can. And here's
the thing, they had no idea that Satan was within a hundred miles
of them. The only person that knew Satan
was there was our Lord Jesus Christ. It was the same way when
Job The Scripture says that the sons of God came together to
worship, and when they came together to worship, Satan presented himself
among them. But the only conversation that
they had in the book of Job was between God and Satan. He said
those men did not know that Satan was there. And our Lord said,
God said to him, said, Satan, Satan, what are you doing here?
He said, I'm running to and fro upon the face of the earth, seeking
whom I may devour. And the first thing he said was,
have you ever considered my servant Job a perfect and an upright
man? And he hates evil. So they have
these conversations. And here Satan is there. Peter
didn't know it. John didn't know it. James and
John and none of these other brethren, they knew, they didn't
know Satan was there at all. They didn't know he was working.
He was among the sheep and they didn't know it. And he only wanted
one of the sheep out of the whole bunch. And I tell you, Satan
is an enemy of our Lord and an enemy of his people. And he's
so, you know, the Bible has a lot to say about him. He's called
subtle. for His craftiness, for His ability
to deceive. You know, if you KNEW He couldn't
deceive you, you wouldn't be deceived. And a person that's
deceived wouldn't be deceived if they KNOW they're deceived!
That's why it's so easy for Satan to deceive people. I read a little
article this week where a fellow says, you know, if you have God,
you preach to people that you've got a FREE, FULL, COMPLETE, SALVATION,
PERFECT, FINISHED, Completely for you. Everything's done for
you. That's everything that you need
before God Almighty, God has provided for us in Christ. You
preach that and folks will get angry. They'll say, oh no, no,
no, that's not right. That can't be right. But they'll
go off to join a free will church or a Pentecostal church or an
Armenian church and they'll go there and you give them something
to do and they'll start working. Now you tell me how deceived
a person is to walk away from the gospel and go somewhere and
put them to work, and they go to work, and they'll work, and
they're deceived, they're subtle, and you're talking about a DELUSION! And I know what I'm talking about,
I've been there! I've been there. Oh my, He deceived
our Mother Eve through His subtlety! And you know what else he's called?
He's called a lion for his fierceness, for his aggression, for his power. He goes about as a roaring lion. And oh, here's the way that he
acts more than anything else. He comes as an angel of light.
He called him an angel of light. And you know, as an angel of
light, he comes to dazzle. He comes to impress. He comes
to make people look really at him. He's really something or
somebody. And then He's called an accuser of the brethren. Revelations,
you know, John called Him accuser of the brethren. And I tell you
what, He's always got something to accuse us of, and He can find
plenty in us to accuse us of. But I tell you what, just like
when Satan said, you know, you've got a hedge around Job, and the
only reason Job's serving you, because what you do for him,
you take that hedge down, and he says, you know what Satan
will do, or Job will do? He'll curse you to your face.
He's just serving you for what you put in his pocket. And oh
my, took that hedge down, he got in there and destroyed Job.
But you know what Job said? He said, the Lord gives and the
Lord takes away. Blessed, blessed be the name
of the Lord. And he got down and worshiped
the Lord. Oh my, I've seen some fellas
go through that and they worship the Lord. And I'll tell you what,
he, you know, when you sow the seed, he comes along and takes
a seed, steals it away. So I'll tell you what, that's
a great enemy of our soul. I tell you what, I'm no match
for Him. He's been in practice for 6,000 years. 6,000 years,
and I've been here just a few days. He could turn me every
way but loose if it wasn't for the grace of God and the Lord
Jesus Christ. And I'm not fixing to play with
Him in any way, and I'm thankful for what our Lord said. I prayed
for you that your faith fail not. Second enemy we have is
the world, it's a snare, but the greatest enemy I think we
have as believers is this flesh right here. I think that's our
greatest enemy other than Satan himself. Oh, ain't this flesh,
ain't it the sorriest thing ever was? The only people that absolutely
knows anything about the flesh, and the flesh is that old man,
that old naked. That old rotten corruption that's
in us, that old vain imagination, that pride, that self-righteousness,
that arrogance. that know-it-all that we have,
that all those things that we have. And oh my, no wonder Paul
said, Oh wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from this
body of death? And Paul said, I have no confidence
in this flesh. I have no confidence in myself,
and I got no confidence in your flesh. If you would have been
around when you saw David with Bathsheba, you'd say, that man
don't know the Lord. You know that? If you saw Noah
laying drunk in his tent, you'd say, THAT FELLA CERTAINLY DON'T
KNOW THE LORD! And you see Simon Peter here denying the Lord three
times, saying, OH MY GOODNESS, THERE'S NO WAY IN THE WORLD THAT
MAN CAN BE A SAVED MAN! That's why we have no confidence
in the flesh. And be careful what judgments
you judge, because whatever you judge out, that's exactly what's
going to be meaner right back to you. you've got your little
bushel, you've got your little basket, and you start putting
stuff in there, this, that, I don't believe this, I wouldn't do that,
and I wouldn't do this and that, next thing you know, God'll get
your little basket out and just, oh, I would not, I did do that,
I did do that. Oh my, but oh my, this flesh,
it's what an awful, awful thing it is. This old fallen nature
that we still have, what a horrible thing it is. And you know, I'm
sure if you've been a believer very long that there's one thing
about you, there'll be times that you'll loathe yourself more
than anything in this world. There'll be times that you'll
wake up in the night, and there'll be days that you'll go for DAYS.
When you was talking about the chastisement of the Lord, you
know the greatest chastisement He said He scourges you? The
greatest chastisement that God can do is leave us to ourselves
for about a week, and Him not give us any of His presence whatsoever. Read the Bible, and it's dead.
Pray, and the ceiling's brass. God said, I'll let you go for
about five or six days on your own. And then all's you can do
is, Lord have mercy, Lord have mercy, Lord have mercy, Lord
have mercy. That's all you can say. Can't say anything else.
Because he got you shut up to nothing. Oh my. That's chastisement. That's chastisement. But oh my, look what he says
here. Oh, Satan has desired to sift
his wheat. And he had his own flesh. And
look, that's what, you can see how his flesh is there, he said
in verse 33. Lord, he said unto him, Lord just told him what
was going to happen, but he turned right around and he said, Lord,
I'm ready to go with you both to prison and to death. Lord just told him, said, You're
not going to happen! The only reason you're not going
to FAIL and your FAITH is not going to fail is because I've
prayed for you! I've prayed for you! But thank
God for those words! I prayed for you. I prayed for
you. He said that your faith may not
fail. And when your strength converted,
strengthen your brother. Oh, what a blessed, blessed,
blessed truth. Peter had somebody to take up
his cause. Peter had somebody that loved
him. Peter had somebody that understood
how frail he was. Peter had somebody that absolutely
knew what he was, and his inability, and his weakness, and his flesh,
and his sinfulness, and his pride, and his self-confidence. Our
Lord knew all that about him. And he says, you know, I prayed
for you. I prayed for you. And how many times you reckon
our Lord's prayed for us? I WONDER HOW MANY TIMES OUR LORD
HAS TAKEN UP OUR NAME, TAKEN UP OUR CAUSE. OH MY! AND I'LL TELL YOU, PETER HAD
A HIGH PRIEST, A HIGH PRIEST, AND HE SAID, I PRAYED FOR YOU,
I PRAYED FOR YOU. HE DIDN'T SAY, YOUR BRETHREN
PRAYED FOR YOU. AND OUR LORD DIDN'T EVEN SAY,
BRETHREN, YOU NEED TO PRAY FOR SIMON PETER. HE DIDN'T SAY, THE
CHURCH PRAYED FOR YOU. HE DIDN'T SAY, SIMON, YOU PRAYED
FOR YOURSELF. HE SAID, I PRAYED FOR YOU. I
prayed for you. You know, there's a verse of
Scripture in Matthew 12, and it's also in Isaiah, where it
says that he would not cry nor strive or lift up his voice.
And the reason it says that, our Lord has nothing to strive
for. He's perfect. He's all-powerful. He's sovereign. He's the only savior. He's almighty.
So we don't have to strive for anything. He didn't need to cry
on the streets and let everybody know what he's gonna do and how
he's gonna do it and let everybody look at me and see what I can
accomplish. He didn't do that. And he said
this, though. He says, but the bruised reed
I will not break, and the smoking flax I will not quench. Now,
I don't know if you know what a reed, you get a reed that comes
up out of water, you step on that thing, and it's bruised.
And it would not take nothing to break it. And sometimes we
get so bruised, and we have such trials, and we have such heartaches
and such dreams, and go through these, dark, dark days and dark
nights and have such sorrows and heartaches and think sometimes
lose a loved one or something. And then, but you think that
thing's gonna break. And our Lord said, a bruised
reed, I won't break it. I won't let it be broken. And
I'll tell you what, when you feel like you're a bruised reed,
you're gonna just break plumbing too. And Lord said, you ain't
gonna do it. No, no. And then there's a smoking
flax. You know, and smoke is just what,
there ain't no fire there, just smoke. Do you ever feel like,
you know, that you're so empty that you ain't got no fire? You're
so cold that the fire's gonna plum out. Ain't nothing in there. But oh my, when it gets like
that. If Satan had his way, it'd just
go out. But our Lord said, I ain't even
gonna, I'm gonna keep that smoking flax. I'm gonna keep it from
going plum out. He gonna take care of his people.
He said, I prayed for thee. I prayed for thee. I prayed for
thee. Oh my. And our Lord, I tell you, he
prayed for them before the temptation. I want you to keep Luke and look
over with me in John 17. Look in John 17. I prayed for
thee. And he prayed for them before
the temptation ever came. The temptation hadn't started
yet. But over here in John 17, look what our Lord said here.
He said, I prayed for you. And this whole John 17 is our
Lord praying for his people, for his elect. He said in verse
nine, I pray for them Who? Them that you give me, them that
believed on your word. I pray for them, I pray not for
the world, but for them which thou hast given me, for they
are thine. And look what he says down in
verse 12. While I was with them in the world, I kept them in
thy name. Those that thou gavest me, I
kept, and none of them's lost, but the son of perdition that
the scripture might be fulfilled. And then in verse 15, listen
to this now. This is the way our Lord deals
with us in this world. I pray not that thou shouldest
take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them
from the evil or from the evil one. Now that's, our Lord prayed
that for us before you and I ever existed. Centuries, 2,000 years
before you and I ever come into existence. He prayed that prayer
for me and for you. I pray, I pray. And the only
reason, the only reason that Simon Peter's faith did not fully,
finally fail, and he fell away, was because of the Lord Jesus
Christ. It's the only reason. You know
what I, Lord Jesus Christ, I want you to look again with me in
John, oh my. You know, I quote these verses. You looking at them, I think
it's better if we look at them. That's the way I do it at home.
And look in John 6, 37. Everybody knows these verses,
everybody. I bet everybody here could quote
them. But the only reason he did not fall away and finally
completely have Satan destroy him was because of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And the reason he did, because
Christ promised that he would not lose one that the Father
gave him. He said here, all that John 6, verse 37, ALL THAT THE
FATHER GIVETH ME, EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM, SHALL COME TO ME.
AND HIM THAT COMETH TO ME, I WILL IN NO WISE CAST OUT. WELL, SIMON
PETERS IS GOING TO DENY YOU THREE TIMES! I'M NOT GOING TO CAST
HIM OUT! DAVID COMMITTED MURDER AND COMMITTED ADULTERY! I'M NOT GOING TO CAST HIM OUT!
THERE'S NOTHING THAT A PERSON CAN SAY OR DO OR ACT and do anything
in this world that would make Christ to deny them. If God could throw somebody away
and cast somebody away, He would have cast me away LONG, LONG,
LONG, LONG AGO! If Christ said, Listen,
you've said ONE TIME TOO MANY! You've been rebellious ONE TIME
TOO MANY! You've said the WRONG THING ONE
TIME TOO MANY! You've been ill and hateful one
time too many, and I'm through with you." Would he do that? No, no, no. You know, I do things that surprise
me, but I've never done nothing surprised him. And so he goes on here, look
what else he says now. I came down from heaven, not
to do my will, but the will of Him that sent me. And this is
the Father's will, which has sent me. Now listen to it. Of
all which He hath given me, I should lose nothing, nothing, but that
I should raise it up again at the last day. Oh, I tell you
what a promise, what a promise. I'll never cast him out, never
ever cast him out. Oh, never, never, never catch
them out. And he promised, he said, I give
unto them, I give it to them, eternal life, and they shall
never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. And my Father which gave them
me is greater than all, and no man's able to pluck him out of
my Father's hands. And as I heard Tim James say
one time, he said, we got a two-fisted salvation. We in God's hands
and Christ's hands, we got two-fisted salvation. two different hands, and powerful
hands, glorious hands. And oh my, he promised that one
day, he said, I go to prepare a place for you. And if it were
not so, I'd have told you. But I come again, I come again,
and I'll receive you unto myself, that where I am, you may be also. And I tell you what, we're gonna
be there one of these days. And I prayed for thee that thy
faith fell not. And Beloved, if FAITH FAILS,
if FAITH FAILS, EVERYTHING FAILS! Your COURAGE IS GONE! Your PATIENCE
IS GONE! Your HOPE IS GONE! Your LORD'S
LOVE IS GONE! Your JOY IS GONE! PEACE IS GONE!
EVERYTHING'S GONE! If FAITH IS GONE, EVERYTHING'S
GONE! But our Lord said, But I prayed
for you. If I hadn't have prayed for you,
your faith would have failed. But I prayed for you that your
faith would not fail. Oh my, that's why the scripture
says Christ is precious unto us which believe. And Peter called
faith precious, precious, precious. And you know our faith will not
fail. It will not fail because you
know why? Christ won't fail. Christ cannot
fail. Isaiah 42, 4 says, He shall not
fail or even be discouraged. shall not fail. You know the
reason I haven't already quit? Somebody asked a preacher one
time, How many times have you quit over here? He said, Oh,
a thousand times. You know the reason I haven't
really quit? It's because Christ won't let you. You can't! What
are you going to do? It's like I've got a bunch of
disciples following Him around and our Lord done told them,
He says, No man can come unto Me except the Father which sent
Me drawing. And he told them that and told them that, and
one day, a GREAT big crowd followed him around, I mean, hundreds
and hundreds of people followed him around. And he told them,
he said, I TOLD you that no man can come to me except the Father
which sent me drawing, and the FLESH profits nothing. And they
said, Boy, this is a hard saying, who can hear this? And they turned
and walked away from Christ, walked away from the Lord. And
our Lord looked at the twelve. Looked at the 12, looked at Peter,
and John, and James, and all of them, looked at them, looked
at, and said, are you gonna go away too? And I tell you, this
is the heart cry of everybody that's ever believed for, I mean,
for a moment. Lord, to whom shall we go? Who
are we, who are we gonna, didn't say where are we gonna go, but
to whom shall we go? To whom shall we go? Lord, you,
you, you. Got the words that I need to
hear. You got the words of life. You
got the words that quicken the soul. You got the words that
gives us sight. You got the words that gives
us hearing. You got the words that gives us a heart to keep
on. You got the words, Lord, and
I wanna hear what you got to say. I wanna hear what you got
to say. And oh my. And oh, our faith
won't fail because HE won't fail! And He sets, you know, He sets
NOW at the right hand of God with our POWER in Heaven and
Earth given unto Him. And the Scripture says He appears
NOW in the PRESENCE of God for US! NOW! NOW! Right now! Oh, bless His Name! I tell ya, look what happens. We have an enemy, but oh, we
got somebody that loves us and prays for us. But look what happens,
he said, back over here in Luke 22. He said, I've prayed for
you. Satan sought to have you. He
did. And I believe he did assist him,
but his faith didn't fail. And he said unto him, no, our
Lord said in verse 32, and when thou have converted, strengthen
thy brethren. Now what in the world is he talking about being
converted? He's an apostle. He's an apostle. He's an apostle. What do you mean being converted?
Well, conversion just means that you turn from one thing to another.
And this fellow here, you know, is there any danger of him not
being converted? Well, the scripture says he's
going to fall. He falls. He's going to deny his master
three times. He will be sifted. And people
say, well, how in the world is this going to do him any good?
What good is going to do him? How will it do, what will it
do for the cause of Christ? Why is this gonna help the gospel?
Well, I'll tell you why. Because see, this is the reason.
God's put these things in the scriptures to let us know that
without Him, we'd do exactly what this man's done. Exactly,
huh? Oh, my. And our Lord says he's
got no confidence in the flesh. The flesh profits nothing. But
when he's converted, And what does he need to be converted
from? Well, look there in verse 23, and he's converted from himself. Lord, I'm ready to go to prison
with you. I'm ready to die with you. And
he believed that. He really meant what he said. But that's what he needs to be
converted from. That's what he needs. His conversion,
his conversion from that pride and self-righteousness and self-confidence
and the arrogance. You know, do you all remember
the time, I think it's in Matthew 16, where our Lord just told
Simon, How blessed you are! Flesh and blood didn't reveal
this to you, but my Father which is in heaven. Well, you know
what Simon did, and our Lord said, The Son of Man HAS to go
up to Jerusalem, be delivered into the hands of sinful men,
and MUST DIE! You know what Peter did? The
scripture says that Peter laid hands on him. Said, Master, oh
no, no, no, being far from you, this ain't gonna happen. There's
no way in the world we can't let that happen. And our Lord
turned around and rebuked him, said, get thee behind me, Satan.
You don't enjoy, you don't enjoy and love the taste of the things
of God. You love the things of the flesh.
And what he was saying was, I want Christ, but I don't want his
cross. I want Christ, but I'm not a sinner. I don't need his
blood. I want Christ, but I want him without a death. I want him
without suffering. I want him without justice satisfied.
I want him without law being fulfilled. I want him on my terms. That's what Simon Peter was saying.
I want him on my terms. And our Lord said, you get behind
me. You get behind me. And oh my, here's the thing. He could fall by himself, but
he couldn't get up by himself. You and I can fall by ourselves. The righteous fall seven times,
but the Lord holdeth him up. We can fall by ourselves, but
we can't get back up. Every one of y'all had babies.
Everybody's had babies. And you just follow them little
fellas around. I ain't gonna tell you how many
hundreds of miles I walked behind my kids and my grandkids and
my great grandkids. You follow them everywhere they
go. Afraid they gonna fall, afraid they gonna fall, afraid they
gonna fall. And I tell you what, when they
fall, they can't get up by themselves. So you've got to get them up,
hold them up, and that's the way our Lord does us. We can
fall, but our Lord has to reach down and get us and pick us up. We can get down, but we can't
get back up. That's that old, like that thing
you have on TV, I've fallen and I can't get up. That's our condition. I've fallen,
Lord, and I can't, that's the way it is. We fell in at them
and we can't get back up. Christ gotta come where we are,
and gotta pick us up, gotta give us a new heart, gotta do everything
that, you know when you have those babies, all a baby can
do is make a mess. And somebody has to clean up
their mess all the time. And that's the way we are, we're
just like a bunch of babies, you know, all we can do is make
a mess, and Christ is the only one that can clean it up. We
can't clean one another's mess up, only Christ can do that.
We can dirty ourselves, but only Christ can cleanse us. We can
fall and skin ourselves, but only Christ can heal us. Only
Christ can heal us. And oh, my! I tell you, His conversion,
when Christ converts Him and He's converted, what a glorious
display of the grace and faithfulness of our Lord Jesus Christ! Oh,
my! And He MUST be converted! He
has to be TURNED! That's what conversion is, it's
a turning. It's a turning. Let me give you an illustration.
In the new birth, in the new birth, we're entirely passive. We have nothing to do with the
new birth. We're entirely passive. God gives us life. He gives us
sight. He does everything for us. He
gives us a new heart. We're passive in that. But once we are regenerated
and we have that new birth and God regenerates us and gives
us new life in Christ, then the first thing we do is we turn
from ourselves and turn to Him. And once we do that, we're constantly
turning from something to Him, constantly turning away from
something to Him. And that's what conversion is,
and that's what he's talking to Simon Peter here about. He
said, Simon, when you're converted, when you turn, thinking that
you've got the power, got the ability, that you've got the
strength, that you can actually go through what I'm going through, Drag on yourself. Oh my, here's
the thing about it. He didn't know himself. He didn't
know himself, but he learned himself. He found out what he
was. Oh my. Jeremiah said it like
this, Turn us, Lord. Turn us, O Lord, and we shall
be turned. We shall be turned. You know,
who better, who better to tell the bitterness of falling than
one who has fallen? Who better to tell the weakness
of the flesh than those who have trusted in the flesh. Huh? Who better? Look over here at
Luke 22 and verse 60. This is when His conversion started.
I'm going to show you where His conversion started. Look over
here in verse 60 of 22. Now, this is the third time that
Simon Peter has denied the Lord. And Peter said, man, I know not
what thou sayest. And immediately while he yet
spake, the cock crew, our Lord said, you're gonna deny me three
times and the rooster's gonna crow. And listen to this, and
the Lord turned and looked upon Peter. Peter's standing over
there. Our Lord's in the same judgment
hall. Peter's over there with the enemies
warming in a fire. He's standing there and he just
denied the Lord and that rooster crowed. turned his head and looked at
him. And those eyes, I believe those eyes, you know, two times
our Lord wept in the scriptures, but I don't know if he wept that
day or his holy tears fell from his eyes, but I do know that
he looked at Peter. And I believe looked him with
such compassion and such sorrow in his eyes. He looked at old
Simon Peter and look what happens now. And Peter remembered the word
of the Lord, how he had said unto him, before the cock crow,
you're gonna deny me three times. And look what happens. And Peter
went out and wept bitterly. Oh my. Who better, who better to tell
of the grace and mercy of Christ than someone that experienced
like Simon Peter did? Who better to tell of the mercy
and forgiveness and the power of Christ than someone like Simon
Peter who felt so? Who better to tell of Christ's
faithfulness than those who have been unfaithful? Oh, to be so unfaithful. Let
me show you something over in John 21. You know, this is such
a glorious thing over here. In John 21, where Simon, Peter,
and them, they went back fishing. You all probably know this story.
But they all went back fishing. And the Lord, they went back
to their profession. And look what happens now. I
want you to look with me, I think it's verse 4, yes. They's all been out fishing.
And when the morning was now come, oh, we've been made dear
for a night, but joy cometh in the morning. And when the morning
was now come, Jesus stood on the shore. But the disciples
knew not that it was Jesus. You know, even us, we can't see
Christ and experience a thing with Christ, experience His feelings
and things until He allows us to, even as believers. But look
what He says here. And Jesus saith unto them, Children,
oh, children, my little children. He said, have you got anything
to eat? No, no, no, we ain't got a thing. We don't have nothing. We don't have anything. We're
hungry, but I ain't nothing to eat. But look what he said. He
said unto them, cast the net on the right side of the ship.
That's happened to him one time before when he was on the Sea
of Galilee one time. And he said, you shall find.
They cast therefore, and now they were not able to draw it
for the multitude of fishes. They had so many fish that they
couldn't pick up the net. And look what it says. Now watch
what happens now. Therefore that disciple whom
Jesus loved, that's John, saith unto Peter, said, Peter, it's
the Lord! Ask the Lord to done that. The
Lord told us to do this. Nobody else can do this. Remember
when he done it before? And oh my. Now when Simon Peter
heard that, now he had just denied the Lord three times. But when
Peter heard that it was his Lord, He put his fish's coat on him
and cast himself into the sea. You know what? Even though he
had denied the Lord and he went back fishing and didn't catch
a thing, his whole night was spent useless. But when he found
out it was the Lord, he said, he felt so, he felt such grace
and mercy and power and love from his master that he said,
as bad as I've done, I've got to get to him. He jumped in the
sea and swam to get to shore to get to Christ like anybody
else did. And I don't care what you do, how bad you do, and whatever
you say, you know what you do? I've got to get to Christ. I've
got to get to Him. I've got to get to Him. It's
like that woman with the issue of blood. Oh, listen, if I could
just touch the hem of His garment. She had to get on her hands and
knees to do that. There was a crowd around her.
She couldn't get there. So there's a great press. And
she got down. She had to get down. She touched
the hem of his garment. She's down on her face, her knees. Touched the hem of his garment.
And our Lord said, who touched me? They said, well, Lord, everybody
around here is touching you. What do you mean who's touching
you? But I got a touch from somebody that something comes out of me
towards them when they touch me. And he looked around, and the
scripture said he looked right at that woman. He knew he'd done
it. He knew he'd done it before he'd done it. And he said, that
woman said she told him everything about it. She told him all the
truth. And that's what happens when
you touch Christ, you tell him the whole truth about yourself. He knows it, but you're gonna
tell him anyway. You're gonna tell him anyway. All right, let
me wind this thing up. I'll tell you. You know why our Lord does things
like this. He takes the weak to confound
the mighty. Here was an apostle. Here was
an apostle. God used him mightily in the
book. 3,000 souls got converted the first time he preached in
the book of Acts. 5,000 the second time he preached.
So God used him mightily. But right here, he's as weak,
he is so weak. Christ's strength is made perfect
in weakness. He takes the weak and said, boy,
you Pharisees and all your might and you fellows with your mighty
free will and the fellows with your right to choose and all
that. He said, I'll take this weak man over here and I'll make
you understand just how foolish your might really is. Oh my. And why, here's why Christ, For
whom Christ died will never perish. Never, never perish. And back
over in our text, let me show you that. Let me show you that. This is why Christ, for whom
Christ died will never perish. It says in verse 37, look what he says. For this 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. You
know why those for whom Christ died will never perish? Because
all things must be accomplished by him. And everything's got
an end. When he says it's an end, that
means it's gonna be finished. Salvation's gonna be finished.
HOLINESS IS GONNA BE FINISHED! RIGHTEOUSNESS IS GONNA BE FINISHED!
EVERYTHING YOU NEED IS GONNA BE FINISHED! GONNA BE FINISHED! AND HE SAID HE'S NUMBERED WITH
THE TRANSGRESSORS! AND WHAT HE'S SAYING WITH SIMON
PETER? I WAS NUMBERED FOR YOU! AS ALL THESE TRANSGRESSORS THAT
CHRIST DIED FOR, HE SAID I WAS NUMBERED AMONG THEM! I WAS NUMBERED
AMONG THEM! WHEN WAS HE NUMBERED? WHEN GOD
PUT HIM ON THAT CROSS! God put him on that cross. He's
not dying for himself. He's dying for those that the
Father gave him. And that's why the first thing
our Lord, you know, the first cry from our Savior's voice,
the first thing he said when he's hanging on that cross, first
words out of his mouth, Father, forgive them. They don't have
a clue what they're doing. Father, forgive them. And ain't
that what he did for us? Father, forgive them. They know
not what they do. And God brings the gospel to
us, comes across our path. And I believe, and you believe
if you want to, but I believe that when he comes to get one
of his, he'll get him by the nap of the neck, and he gonna
bring him. And once he picks him up, he
never sets him back down. That's where He brought me. He
said, Whoa, yeah, in the day of His power, you're made willing.
When His power comes on you, here I come, Lord. Oh my, all things are gonna be
accomplished in me, in me. I was a transgressor. He numbered
among them. And He says, the things concerning
me have an end. Our Lord, the last thing He said
on the cross, was it is finished. There was an end. There was an
end. Our Father, blessed be your holy,
glorious, righteous name. Thank you for your immutability.
And Lord, the reason you were not consumed is because you changed
not. And Lord, we thank you that you
pray for us. We thank you intercede for us.
We thank you that we have an advocate with the Father. Oh,
Jesus Christ the righteous, thank you, Lord, that you bore our
sin in your own body on that tree, put every bit of it away,
not once held against us. Thank you for bearing the judgment
of God for us. Thank you for bearing the wrath
of God for us, and God will never, ever be angry with us. Never
judge us for anything we've ever done. because, Lord, you done
done it for us. And I thank you for it. I bless
you for it. Thank you for this blessed privilege
to be here with these children of God, to be among these saints. And Lord, bless this congregation.
Oh, bless it abundantly. Bless it, cause it to flourish,
cause it to grow, enlarge its border, send in sheep to hear
the gospel. Bring glory to yourself through
this body of believers. Honor yourself here. and do it
for our Lord Jesus Christ, Saint. And bless the services at Lantana
Grace Church today for our Lord Jesus Saint. Amen, amen. Thank you all for having me.
I really, really appreciate it. I hope it won't be as long.