to 1 Peter chapter 1. Tonight I want to bring the first
message of several I trust the Lord will allow me to bring from
this first letter of Peter. This letter, again, is one of
those letters that men have called a general or Catholic letter. And it's called Catholic because
the word Catholic means universal. And it's called general because
it was not directed, as the apostle wrote it, to any particular church
or to any particular individual. We looked at the letter of James
recently, several Sunday mornings. It also is one of these general
epistles. James is the first one, then
first and second Peter, first, second, third, John and Jude. All of these are called general
or Catholic epistles. And of course, those names or
designations are given by men and not inspired by God. Just
like in the Old Testament of all the prophets, the books of
the prophets that we have, we have several that are called
major prophets and 12 that are called minor prophets. And the
only difference is the length of the prophecies. And so the
reason these are called general is they were not designated to
any particular church, like the letter of Romans to the church
at Rome, or 1st and 2nd Corinthians to the church at Corinth. One
of the books that I have appreciated for many years is a commentary
on this letter. It was written by Bishop Lighton. One of the best commentaries
I think I've ever read. And I'll just give us tonight
what he said about this letter. This excellent epistle, full
of evangelical doctrine and apostolical authority, is a brief and yet
very clear summary, both of the consolations and instructions
needful for the encouragement and direction of a Christian
in his journey to heaven, elevating his thoughts and desires to that
happiness and strengthening him against all opposition in the
way, both out of corruption within and temptation and afflictions
from without. And this is the point I especially
wanted us to get. The heads of doctrine contained
in it are many, but the main that are most insisted on are
these three. Faith, obedience, patience. Those are the three teachings,
according to this man of God of many years ago, are insisted
upon or given to us in this letter. Faith, obedience, and patience. to establish them in believing,
faith, in directing them in doing, obedience, and to comfort them
in suffering, patience. Now tonight, I want us only to
look at the first few words at the author of this letter, Peter,
an apostle of Jesus Christ. And I have five things I want
to bring out to us about the Apostle Peter. All of them are
things that we're all familiar with, but we'll look at them
again tonight. First, his first coming to Christ. Peter's first coming to Christ. I want you to turn with me, if
you will, to John chapter one. We're going to turn to a number
of scriptures And if you feel comfortable turning with me,
fine. If you don't, just listen. But here in John chapter one,
Peter's first coming to Christ. In John chapter one, and beginning
in verse 40, reading through verse 42. One of the two which heard John,
that is John the Baptist, One of the two that heard John the
Baptist speak and followed him was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother. Now the other one was, I believe,
John. One of the two disciples, it
says. One of the two which heard John speak. And what they heard,
Andrew, who is named, was a disciple of John the Baptist. And what
they heard was Behold, the Lamb of God which taketh away the
sins of the world. And these two disciples of John
followed the Lord Jesus and spent the evening with him. One of
the two which heard John speak and followed him was Andrew,
Simon Peter's brother. And I say, I believe the other
was John. One was Andrew, one was John.
And that's keeping with John's practice all through this narrative,
this gospel that carries his name that he wrote, always referring
to himself in the third person. Never calling himself by name,
but it is always that other disciple, or the disciple which leaned
upon Jesus' breast, or the disciple that Jesus loved. He always,
throughout the letter, throughout the book rather, refers to himself
in the third person. Now there's, to me, there's a
big lesson right there. Humility. Humility, right? This is all about Christ. This
book is all about him. It's not about any of the apostles
or any of the prophets. It's all about Christ. But anyway,
let's read on here. This Andrew, Simon Peter's brother,
he first findeth his own brother Simon, This is the day after,
and saith unto him, we have found the Messiah, the anointed one,
the promised one. We have found the Messiah, which
is being interpreted, the Christ. And he brought him to Jesus.
That is, Andrew brought his brother, Simon, to Jesus. And when Jesus
beheld him, now this is his first coming to Christ. When Jesus
beheld him, he said, Thou art Simon, the son of Jonah. Thou shalt be called Cephas. And then John tells us the interpretation,
which is by interpretation, a stone. Now, the word that is here translated
a stone The Greek word is Petros. Keep that in mind because I'll
make reference to that again in a moment. So there we have
the first time that Simon Peter came to the Lord. And when he
did, the Lord changed his name. And just off the top of my head,
isn't that the way it is when anyone comes to Christ? We have
a change, not our name changed, a changed person. If any man
be in Christ, he is a new creature, a new creation. All things are
passed away. Behold, all things are become
new. Now the second thing, his call
to follow Christ. First, his first coming to Christ,
but now second, his call to follow Christ. Look with me in Luke
chapter 11, or Luke chapter 5. Simon was a fisherman. He earned
his living by the sweat of his brow. And that's one thing to
go fishing as a sport or recreational fishing, isn't it? That's fun. But to earn your living by fishing,
that's work. That's work. And it came to pass, Luke chapter
5 and verse 1, that as the people pressed upon him, that is Christ,
to hear the word of God, he stood by the lake of Gennesaret, that's
the lake of Galilee, and saw two ships standing by the lake.
But the fishermen were gone out of them and were washing their
nets. They worked all night, as we're
going to say. Worked all night fishing. And they've come to
shore, taken the nets out of their of their ship, washing
them to dry. And he entered into one of the
ships, which was Simon's, and prayed him that he would thrust
out a little from the land. And he sat down and taught the
people out of the ship. That's the way it was in those days. When our
Lord delivered his sermon on the mount, he was sitting, the
people were standing. The speaker stands and the people
sit. But our Lord said, think of the
voice, think of the voice of the Lord Jesus Christ. What a
powerful voice he must have had. A gentle voice, grace poured
into his lips, but still to be able to sit in that ship a little
ways from the shore and to teach the people, what a voice. Our
Lord must have had. He sat down and taught the people
out of the ship. You might say, well, what was
he teaching them? Well, if you notice back in verse
one, the people pressed upon him to hear the word of God.
What was he teaching? What was he preaching? The word
of God. That's what every preacher, every man that's called of God
to preach is to preach. Preach the word, Paul said to
Timothy. Be instant, in season, and out
of season. And Paul warned that there would
come a time, and you know we live in that time today, when
men would heap to themselves teachers having itching ears. People always wanting to hear
something new, something novel, something different, something
exciting. The gospel is exciting to those
who are given ears to hear. Stay with the word, preach the
word. Our Lord preached the word, taught the word. Now when he
had left speaking, he said unto Simon, launch out into the deep
and let down your nets for a draught. And Simon answering said unto
him, master, we have toiled, we've worked all the night and
have taken nothing. We're fishermen. We know something
about this business. We've been doing it all our lives.
And we worked last night all night, and we've taken nothing. Fishing's not good. Nevertheless,
at thy word, I will let down the net. You see, this is a good
teaching on faith, isn't it? At thy word. The basis of our
faith is the word of God. We believe because God has spoken,
because God has given us his word. Nevertheless, at thy word,
I will let down the net. And when they had this done,
they enclosed a great multitude of fishes and their net break. They beckoned unto their partners,
which were in the other ship, I believe that was James and
John, that they should come and help them. And they came and
filled both the ships so that they began to sink. Now these
were not little boats, little six foot boats, 10 foot, 12 foot
boats, these were ships. They could carry a great weight.
This tells us something about the amount of fish that they
caught. When Simon Peter saw it, verse
eight, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, depart from me,
for I am a sinful man, O Lord. For he was astonished and all
that were with him at the drought of the fishes which they had
taken. And so was also James and John, the sons of Zebedee,
which were partners with Simon. And Jesus said unto Simon, fear
not, from henceforth thou shalt catch men. And when they had
brought their ships to land, they forsook all and followed
him. His call to follow Christ. There's much in those 11 verses. We say that he worshipped him. He fell down at Jesus' knees. He worshipped the one that he
called Master, Rabbi. He worshipped him. And also he
admitted his unworthiness. I'm a sinful man, O Lord. Some people have wondered at
his saying, depart from me. But he was so overwhelmed with
the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ and so moved by his own unworthiness
even to be in the presence of the God man, the glory man. It
wasn't that he really wanted the Lord to leave him alone,
but he expresses his unworthiness in these words. Depart from me,
for I am a sinful man. He later would learn that Jesus
came to save sinful men. That's the reason he came. He
came to save sinful men. Those who say they have no sin,
those who say they can see but do not confess their blindness,
they're going to remain blind. And those who do not see their
need of a savior because they do not see their sinfulness will
remain lost. What a blessing it is when God
opens our heart to receive the truth about ourselves. When you look at this passage
of scripture, what is said here about Simon, I say this is a
man, this is a man, this is a common man, this is a working man. This
is a man from whom we can learn some things. This is not the
professor in the seminary. This is a man who knew what it
was to labor. And he's now called to fish for
men, not with a line and a hook, but with a net. And he's going
to be casting that net out, as we will see in just a few minutes.
All right, third, at first, his first coming to Christ, second,
his call to follow Christ, follow me and I will make you to become
fishers of men. And they left all. Isn't that
what the scripture said? Verse 11, and when they had brought
their ships to land, they forsook all, forsook all and followed
him. He now had a new occupation,
didn't he? And this occupation would be
first. be first. He forsook all. He
was a married man. We know that because the Lord
entered into his house and Peter's mother-in-law was sick and the
Lord healed her and immediately she rose up from her bed of sickness
and waited on them. He was a married man and I would
assume he had children, though we are not told that. But I would
assume that he had children. To be a pastor, a man ought to
have a wife, really. I'm not saying that every pastor
and every missionary has to have a wife, but God saw it was not
good for the man to be alone, and he made him a helpmate, Eve. How a man who is not married,
who has no wife and no children, how he can really pastor and
empathize and sympathize with those who are part of his church
who are married and have children and problems that come from having
a family. It's just not wise. Peter, he
was a man that he knew what it was to work and he knew what
it was to have a home and a family to support. All right, here's
the third thing. He's called to be an apostle.
Look with me in Matthew chapter 10. He's called to be an apostle,
one of the 12 apostles of the Lord Jesus Christ. In Matthew
chapter 10, in verse two, Now the names of the 12 apostles
are these. The first, Simon, who is called
Peter, and Andrew, his brother, and so forth. So in the list
of the apostles, Simon is always named first. And that is most
likely because of his age. We don't know that for sure,
but Most likely he's listed first because he was the oldest. We
know that, or we believe at least John was the youngest. John outlived
all the other apostles. But he was called here, named
to be an apostle. And that term, an apostle, that's
the way the letter begins that we are looking at Peter, an apostle
of Jesus Christ. The word apostle means messenger,
a person who is sent by another. And he was named an apostle and
he sent by the Lord Jesus Christ. And if you look in the verse
before the one we read there in Matthew 10, verse one, as
an apostle, they were given special gifts. When he had called unto him the
12 disciples, he gave them power. He gave them power against unclean
spirits to cast them out and to heal all manner of sickness
and all manner of disease. This power was given to them
as apostles of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now there were several
requirements to be an apostle. And when you hear and read these
requirements, It stands, it's obvious that there can never
be any more apostles. When these apostles died, that
was the end of the apostles. Because the apostles, as we see
here, they were given power to heal all manner of sickness and
diseases. That was one requirement. They
also had to have received the gospel immediately from Jesus
Christ. You and I, if you know the gospel
tonight, you've learned it from some man like I have and like
every other man today. These that were apostles, they
learned the gospel that they preached directly from the mouth
of Jesus Christ our Lord. Even, yes, even the apostle Paul,
though he was as a man born out of due season, but the Lord appeared
unto him. Not only did they learn the gospel,
but they had to have seen the resurrected Christ. Resurrection
is a very important part of the gospel, isn't it? His death,
how he died for our sins according to the scriptures and was buried
and was raised again the third day according to the scriptures. They had to be able to testify,
to witness, I saw him. I saw his body taken down from
the tree and laid in a tomb, and I saw him three days later
alive. So it stands to reason there
cannot be any apostles today. You know, our Lord said, you
have not chosen me, but I have chosen you. Now that's true of
all of God's people, I understand that. But it was true of these
apostles. He chose them. He called unto
Him, another gospel tells us, He called unto Him, that is the
Lord did, after a night in prayer, those that He chose to be apostles. And He gave them this power as
we read here. But Peter, along with John and
James, They're oftentimes referred to as the chosen out of the chosen. He chose all 12 of them to be
apostles, but he chose these three men to witness some things
that the others were not privileged to see. They were with the Lord
Jesus Christ when he went into the house of Jarius. When everyone
outside was laughing, and ridiculing the Lord Jesus Christ because
he said she's not dead but sleeping. They were invited into that room
when the Lord took her by the hand and said, young maid, I
say unto thee, arise. They witnessed that. And they
were with him also on the Mount of Transfiguration when Elijah
and Moses appeared. And they were with him the night
before his crucifixion in the garden of Eden, when our Lord
left 11 or not 11, but eight of the apostles here, just entering
into the garden. And these three went a little
farther and the Lord Jesus Christ a little farther. They, Peter
was one of those three. The fourth, I want us to see
his great confession. So his first coming to Christ,
his call, his being called to be an apostle, and here in Matthew
chapter 16, his great confession. Matthew chapter 16, and we'll
begin with verse 13. When Jesus came into the coast
of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, whom do
men say that I, the Son of Man, am? And they said, some say that
thou art John the Baptist, some, Elias or Elijah, and others,
Jeremias or Jeremiah, are one of the prophets. He saith unto
them, but whom say ye that I am? And Simon Peter answered and
said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. His great confession. Now I asked you to keep in mind
that word, that name, that the Lord gave him, Petros. The word
ends with an O. And just like in the Spanish
language, that means it's masculine, masculine. Thou art the Christ, the Son
of the living God. And Jesus answered and said unto
him, blessed art thou, Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood
hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.
And I say also unto thee that thou art Peter, Petros, And upon
this rock, Petra, feminine word, Petra, I will build my church
and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. It was his confession, his confession
of Christ. Christ is the rock upon which
the church is built. He's a living stone. And all
who are gathered unto him are gathered unto him, and through
him we have life. We become living stones. The idea that the church of the
Lord Jesus Christ is built upon a man is preposterous. As many people believe, this
is a deception, my friends, that has taken millions, if not billions
of people in. That the Lord built his church
upon this weak man by the name of Simon Peter. No, Christ is
a rock. My hope is built on nothing less
than Jesus' blood. and righteousness. On Christ
the solid rock I stand, all other ground, I don't care if it's
Peter or John or James or whoever, all other ground is sinking sand. Christ is the rock upon which
all of us must be built to have life and His church is built
upon Himself. And the gates of hell shall not
prevail against it. All these years now, millenniums,
two millenniums at least, the enemies of Christ have come against
the church. And it's sad to say, but many
of the enemies have been from within. Have been from within. Those who confess to love Christ
have denied him. But the gates of hell shall not
prevail against his church. He's always had a church in this
world and he will. when he comes again to receive
his own. So first, fourth, his great confession. Now fifth, his fall, his fall
and his restoration. I want you to look in Luke chapter
22. And we're all familiar with these things. And people say,
well, why would God, why would God have this recorded? Luke chapter 22. In verse 33,
first of all, our Lord said unto, or yes, our
Lord said to Peter, Satan hath desired to have you that he may
sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for thee that
thy faith fail not, when thou art converted, strengthen thy
brethren. And he said, that is Peter said
unto him, Lord, I'm ready to go with thee both to prison and
to death. It's boastfulness. Now look down
in that same chapter to verse 60. And Peter said, when a maid said,
he's one of his disciples, his speech betrays him. He's a Galilean. Peter said, man, I just said,
I'm ready to go to prison, yes, and even to death with you. But
now the third time, he's charged with being one of our Lord's
disciples, and he says, man, I know not what thou sayest.
And immediately, while he spake, the cock, the rooster, crew,
and the Lord turned and looked upon Peter, and Peter remembered
the word of the Lord, how he had said unto him, before the
cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice. And Peter went out and
wept bitterly. His fall. Well, look in John
chapter 21, and you're familiar with this as well. John chapter
21, after our Lord's resurrection. And it's interesting to be reminded
that when the angel told those women who went out to the tomb
on the morning of our Lord's resurrection to go and tell his
disciples and Peter. And Peter. Tell his disciples and Peter. Don't forget Peter. Peter may
have felt, probably did, well I've blown it. No hope for me. No hope for me. How many believers
have ever felt like that? because of some sin, because
of some failure, something. And Satan jumps on your back
and says, no hope for you. And we agree and say, no hope
for me. No, you go tell my disciples
and Peter to meet me in Galilee. And then we say here in John
chapter 21, when our Lord revealed himself to his disciples there
by the lake, Verse 15, so when they had dined, Jesus saith to
Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these? You said you did. You said you
did. You said, if all men forsake
you, Lord, I won't. I'm ready to go to prison. I'm
ready to go to death with you. Simon, Peter, son of Jonas, lovest
thou me more than these? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord. Notice he didn't say, I love
thee more than these others. He didn't say that, did he? No,
he said, Yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee. Didn't look
like it, maybe, but I love thee. And he saith unto him, Feed my
lambs. He saith unto him again the second
time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? And he saith unto him,
yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee. That's the second
time. He saith unto him, feed my sheep. And the third time, how many
times did he deny the Lord? Three times. He saith unto him
the third time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? Peter
was grieved because he said unto him the third time, Lovest thou
me? And he said unto him, Lord, thou
knowest all things, thou knowest that I love thee. Jesus saith
unto him, feed my sheep. So we see his restoration, his
fall, yes, but also his restoration. And the last thing, the sixth
thing that I want to mention has been given the keys to the
kingdom. Let's go back to Matthew 16.
Matthew chapter 16. We've read from this just a few
minutes ago. Verse 18, we read, and I say
unto thee that thou art Peter and upon this rock I will build
my church. and the gates of hell shall not
prevail against it, and I will give unto thee the keys of the
kingdom of heaven. And whatsoever thou shalt bind
on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt loose
on earth shall be loosed in heaven. What are the keys to the kingdom
of heaven? It's the gospel. It's rightly
dividing the word of truth. It's opening up the scriptures,
preaching the truth. preaching the gospel. And we
know that Peter was privileged to use the keys on the day of
Pentecost when 3,000 Jews heard him preach the gospel. And then
later, he was the one who was chosen of God to take the gospel
to the house of Cornelius, a Gentile. He used the keys. But as far
as what We're told here it wasn't Peter alone who was given the
keys. It wasn't Peter alone who was
given this statement, whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall
be bound in heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall
be loosed in heaven. Look over to chapter 18, Matthew
chapter 18. This was given to all the apostles,
all the apostles. Luke chapter 18, verse 18, he's
not speaking specifically here to Peter. Verily I say unto you,
whatsoever you shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven,
and whatsoever you shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
Say, what does that mean? Well, after the coming of the Holy
Spirit, That old dispensation, the dietary laws and those things
that the law prohibited the Jews from doing and things like that. We know that those things were,
how can I say it? They were bound. Remember, they had that meeting
there in Jerusalem and They could now, the Gentiles, they didn't
have to be circumcised and come under the law like the people
of God had in the Old Testament, the Old Dispensation. They could
eat pork. They could eat meat. We're not
bound by those Old Testament laws like they had been. The apostles, under the influence
of the Holy Spirit. These laws, they bound and they
loosed certain things. Let me close, let me close tonight
with this. What are some of the things for
us to take away from this very short biographical sketch of
Peter's history? I have four things. Number one,
the importance of witnessing to others. Remember back where
we started, it was Andrew who went to his brother. He didn't
have a long theological discourse to give to his brother. He just
said, we found the Messiah. We found the Messiah. Our Lord
dispossessed that demoniac of Gadar, remember, lived out there. among the tombs, naked, couldn't
chain him, couldn't keep him, couldn't control him. And the
Lord cast those demons out of him, and that man wanted to go
with the Lord. And the Lord said, no, you go
back. You go back to your home, your family, and you tell them
what great things the Lord has done for you. And I think this
is a good way to witness. I try to do this myself when
I meet someone Let me tell you about someone
who has changed my life. Let me tell you about someone
who means everything to me. And then I try to tell them about
the Lord Jesus. But it's important that we witness
to others. We don't hear much about Andrew.
We hear a great deal about Peter, how God used him. The second
thing is, that awful deception of those who teach that the church
is built upon Peter. Only God can forgive sin. Even
those Pharisees, those lost Pharisees, when our Lord spoke to that paralytic
and said, thy sins be forgiven thee, they reasoned in themselves
why only God can forgive sin. They knew that. What they didn't
know was that it was God who was standing there, the God man. Only God can forgive sin. What
a horrible lie and deception for those who believe they can
go to a man and he has some power to forgive sin. It ain't true. It's just not true. Number three. All of us, we need to walk humbly
with our God. Peter boasted, I'll never deny
thee, but he did. Paul said, wherefore let him
that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall. And the last
thing, the amazing grace of our God to forgive and to restore
fallen believers. I love those words in the prayer
of Nehemiah, speaking of God, when he said, Thou art a God,
now listen, ready to pardon. Isn't that wonderful? No matter
how we've fallen, how we've sinned, to know that our God, not as
an excuse for sin, I'm not saying that, but as an encouragement,
to ask God for forgiveness. Thou art a God ready to pardon,
gracious, merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness. Great
kindness. God's words to fallen believers,
I will love them freely. I will love them freely. I pray
the Lord would bless these words to all of us here this evening.