Let us turn in our Bibles this
morning to Mark chapter 14. Mark chapter 14 and reading verses
26 through 31. And when they had sung in hymn,
they went out into the Mount of Olives. And Jesus saith unto
them, all ye shall be offended because of me this night. For
it is written, I will smite the shepherd and the sheep shall
be scattered. But after that I am risen, I
will go before you into Galilee. But Peter said unto him, Although
all shall be offended, yet will not I. And Jesus saith unto him,
Verily I say unto thee, that this day, even in this night,
before the cock crow twice, thou shalt deny me thrice. But he
spake the more vehemently, If I should die with thee, I will
not deny thee in any wise. Likewise also said they all. I want to speak to us today on
what must be called Peter's fall and restoration. You know, one
of the evidences that is often given as to the truth of the
inspiration of the scriptures is that the falls of men who
are great men in the Bible are given to us. Men like Noah, who
after he was the only one with his family saved in the flood,
planted a vineyard and was drunk. Men like Abraham, who is called
the father of the faithful, and yet we know that he told a half-truth
at least concerning Sarah, his wife, and exposed her to danger. Men like David, who the scripture
says was a man after God's own heart, and yet everyone is familiar
with David's sin with Bathsheba and having her husband killed
in battle. And then in the New Testament,
someone like Peter, Peter who was certainly the most outspoken
of all the disciples that we know of, of the Lord. And he
gave such a glowing testimony on at least two occasions. When
our Lord asked his disciples, whom do men say that I am? And
you remember some say you are John the Baptist, some Elias
or Jeremias. And our Lord said, but whom do
you say that I am? And it was Peter. It was Peter
who said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And
our Lord said to him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona, for
flesh and blood hath not revealed this unto thee, but my Father. And then in John chapter six,
after After our Lord taught in the synagogue in Capernaum, and
the scriptures tell us that many people who had followed Him actually
referred to as His disciples, they turned and went back. And
our Lord turned to the twelve, and He said, Will you also go
away? And it was Peter who said, To
whom shall we go, Lord? Thou hast the words of eternal
life, and we believe and are sure that thou art the Christ,
the Son of God. And yet the Word of God and all
four Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, all four Gospels
record the fall of Peter and of course his restoration. Now this is part of the all scripture
that is given by inspiration and is profitable for doctrine
for reproof For rebuke and for instruction in righteousness. And so that's what this is. It
is for our instruction in righteousness. The Bible not only teaches us
how it is that we are made righteous before God. And that is by the
imputed righteousness of Christ. By faith, when we trust in Him,
His righteousness becomes our righteousness, and we're justified. But the Word of God, the Scriptures,
not only teach us how we're justified before God, how that righteousness
is received by faith, but it also instructs us in the way
of living a life of righteousness. It's not only a rule of faith,
it is that, but it is also a rule of practice. And we may learn
a lot, I trust, by looking today at what I call Peter's fall and
his restoration. We don't do this to belittle
Peter in any way. I believe he was a man of God
and we'll see that, the Lord willing. But we may learn by
his, his fall and his restoration. First of all, I want us to think
about the frailty or weakness of men. As men, none of us like
to hear this. We like to think of our strength
and of our ability, but the scriptures paint a completely different
picture of all men. Man at his best state is altogether
vanity. That's what the scripture says.
At our best state, altogether vanity. What Jacob said concerning
his oldest son Reuben is true of all of us. Weak as water. Weak as water. In ourselves,
weak as water. I have four things that stand
out to me that we should say about Peter's fall. I know there's
others, but I want to point out four things to us today. First
of all, Failure to recognize the absolute certainty of the
fulfillment of the scriptures as we should. Now I say this
because in the passage which we just read, you notice that
the Lord Jesus Christ told them, told his disciples, all you,
all you shall be offended because of me this night. Now, if the
Lord just made that as a prophecy, if the Lord just prophesied to
His disciples, it would have been true, it would have been
sure, it would have come to pass. But the Lord doesn't prophesy,
but rather He quotes a prophecy from the Word of God. He quotes
this prophecy from the book of Zechariah, He said, all you shall
be offended because of me this night, for because it is written,
I will smite the shepherd and the sheep shall be scattered. In spite of this, in spite of
what our Lord told his disciples, we see that when Peter heard
that, he contradicts not only the Lord, he contradicts the
word of the Lord. He says, no, no, look in verse
29. But Peter said unto him, although
all shall be offended, yet will not I. What did the word of God
say? What did the Word of God say?
The Word of God said, all ye shall be offended. Now, I think
we must recognize, I'm talking about you and I, the possibility
as a believer, as a child of God of our falling, that we must
recognize the certainty, the absolute certainty of the fulfillment
of God's Word. This word which we hold in our
hands today is not the words of man, although God used men
to write it, but it is the word of Him who cannot lie, who cannot
change. You know, the Lord Jesus Christ,
and we saw this, I think, last Sunday evening in that passage
in John, He testified to the Scriptures, and He said this,
the Scripture cannot be broken. It cannot be broken. That's the Lord's testimony to
the Word of God. When God says something, when
we read something here in the Word of God, we only fool ourselves
and deceive ourselves if we think somehow the Word of God is not
going to prove to be so, to be true. It seems to me that Peter,
that's the first thing I see, he failed to recognize the absolute
certainty of the fulfillment of the scripture. We must never
forget that this is God's word. In Isaiah chapter 55 and verse
11, God said this about his word. So shall my word be that goeth
forth out of my mouth. It shall. I know, I love the
shalls and the wills of God, don't you? And this is one of
them. It shall not return unto me void,
but it shall accomplish that which I please, whereunto I said
it. The Lord said heaven and earth
shall pass away, but my words will not pass away. And I encourage
all of us here today, remember, we never outgrow the Scriptures. We never outgrow the Word of
God. We never outgrow the teaching
of the Word of God, and we never outgrow the warnings in the Word
of God. One warning we find in the scripture
the Apostle Paul wrote is, wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth
take heed. Do you think you're standing
today? Do we? That word's to us, isn't it?
It's to you, it's to me. Wherefore, let him that thinketh
he standeth take heed, lest he fall. Peter. He thought for sure
He was going to stand. He proclaimed that. In fact,
He tells us, or the Scripture tells us, if I should die with
thee, I will not deny thee. Take heed. Take heed. So the
first thing, failure to recognize the absolute certainty of the
fulfillment of the Scriptures. Now second, Failure to recognize
the power of Satan as we should. I mentioned this, I believe,
in a message recently. Don't listen and don't make jokes
about Satan. Just don't do it. Satan is a real being. Our Lord
spoke of him. Our Lord was tested by Satan.
If Satan had the audacity to come to the Son of God as he
did and say, if thou be the Son of God. Do you think you're above? Do
I think I'm above the power of Satan? I want you to look with me in
Luke to see this over just a few pages in Luke chapter 22. Luke chapter 22 and verse 31. And 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. Now it is true Don't misunderstand
what I'm saying here this morning. We know it is absolutely true
that Satan cannot possess a child of God. The scriptures declare,
greater is he that is in you. Who is in a child of God? Christ
in you, the hope of glory. God the Holy Spirit dwells in
every believer. What? Know you not that your
body is a temple of the Holy Spirit? We know As the scripture
says, greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world. Satan cannot possess a child
of God. We know that. But listen, he
can harass a child of God. He can do that if the Lord allows. Now he can't do anything unless
the Lord allows. I recognize that. Our Lord taught
His disciples, when they came to Him, and they asked Him, Lord
teach us to pray. You know, part of that prayer,
that model prayer, is lead us not into temptation, deliver
us from evil. And most people say, deliver
us from the evil one. That should be part of our prayer. Lead us not into temptation.
Deliver us from the evil one. And we should remember that it
was to believers. It was to believers in the churches
in the New Testament that the Apostle Paul wrote of Satan's
devices. Satan's devices. Of Satan's walls. of Satan's snares, of Satan's
fiery darts. And he didn't write the warning
about those things to unbelievers. That's the point I'm making.
He wrote the epistles to believers and in his epistles we see these
warnings that Satan, yes, he has his devices. And thank God
Paul said we're not ignorant of his devices, or we shouldn't
be. But he has many ways to deceive
and attempt and to snare believers. Just as Peter's faith, we see
this, our Lord told Peter, I have prayed, Satan hath desired to
have thee, to sift thee as wheat. And you know how they sifted
wheat, don't you? They just threw it up in the
air, didn't they? And they let it come down and the wind would
take the chaff away. And that's what our Lord told
Peter. Satan hath desired to have thee, to sift thee as wheat,
but I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail not. And Peter, his faith was kept. It was kept from failing. And
it was so because of the Lord's prayer. So you and I today, what
a comfort to us to recognize that he as our great high priest
ever lives to make intercession for us. He said in his high priestly
prayer in John 17, I pray not that thou shouldest take them
out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the
evil, or again, from the evil one. When we reach home, those
of us who know Christ as our Lord and Savior, when we reach
home, no doubt we're going to find out just how many times
our faith too was kept from failing. And it was kept from failing,
and we didn't turn back. We didn't quit. We didn't give
up the faith because our high priest ever lives. Aren't you
thankful? Aren't you grateful this morning?
Our high priest ever liveth to make intercession for all them
that come unto God by him. That's the second thing that
stands out to me, failure to recognize the power of Satan
as we should. Number three, failure to recognize
that pride goes before a fall. Pride goes before a fall. You know, in Proverbs chapter
16 and verse 18, the scripture says, pride goeth before destruction
and a haughty spirit before a fall." You know, in two accounts, in
Matthew, an account of this, and Mark's as well, Peter said,
though all men, though all men shall be offended because of
thee, yet will I never be offended. Sounds like pride to me, doesn't
it to you? Sounds like pride to me. And
you know the awful thing about pride? As one old Puritan said,
it can grow on a dunghill. None of us are exempt from it.
I don't care who you are here this morning. If you are a child
of God, you know in your heart you are not exempt from the temptation
to be proud, to be proud, proud of yourself. One preacher we knew used to
say, proud of a face? What did you have to do with
that? Proud of race? What did you have
to do with that? And proud of grace, which is
the worst of all. Pride. A haughty spirit goes
before a fall. Pride is a wicked sin that we
must all learn, not only learn, but to crucify. When we first
sense it rising up, when that ugly head of pride is rising
up in us, we must mortify that sin, crucify that sin. It would be good for all of us
to remember that in ourselves, in ourselves, We are not above
being guilty of any sin that any other person has committed. It would be good if we just remind
ourselves of that. When you watch the news and some
heinous crime has been committed, just remind yourself, I'm capable
of that. But by the grace of God, Whatever
it is, however awful it sounds and is, I'm capable of doing
that. My flesh, Paul said there, no
good dwells in my flesh. And number four, failure to recognize
the bad influence of evil company, as we should. Evil company. If you look back to Mark Chapter
14 with me, failure to recognize the bad
influence of evil company as we should. I remember when our children were
young in the home, they couldn't understand why we would not allow
them to go with certain people and and participate in certain
things. And your children will never
understand that until they get older. But by the grace of God,
they'll understand. But evil company, evil communications,
as the Apostle said in 1 Corinthians 15, corrupt good manners. And
we see here the apostle Peter in verse 66, if you look down
in our text, Mark chapter 14 in verse 66. And as Peter was
beneath in the palace, there cometh one of the maids of the
high priest. And when she saw Peter 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 I what thou sayest. And he went out
to 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 a Galilean, and thy speech agreeth thereto. But he began to curse and to
swear, saying, I know not this man of whom you speak. Now he was warming himself at
the fire, but whose fire was this? It was the fire of those
Roman soldiers. Failure to recognize the influence,
the bad influence of evil company. God's children are in this world,
but we are not to be of the world. The spirit of this world. The
spirit of this world. We're not to be of the world. Now, we do not have full control
over who we work with, who we do business with. But we do have
control over who our best, our bosom friends are to be. We do have control over those
with whom we will spend the most time. Proverbs chapter 13 in verse
20 says, He that walketh with wise men shall be wise, but a
companion of fools shall be destroyed. Evil communications corrupt good
manners. So those are four things that
stand out to me in the fall of Peter, him denying the Lord,
denying with curses that he even knew the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, second, let's consider for
a few minutes the graciousness of the Lord, the graciousness
of the Lord. Oh, to grace how great a debtor
daily I'm constrained to be. Isn't that true? It's grace that
saves us. It's grace that keeps us. It's
grace that carries us all the way. And we serve a God, we serve
a Lord who is gracious even when we fall. The scriptures speak
of a man falling seven times. And yet, he is raised up. Now, four things I want to point
out about Peter's restoration. First of all, the Lord looked
on Peter with the look of grace. Mark says, you notice that last
verse, I didn't read it, but in verse 72, it says, and Peter
called to mind the word that Jesus said unto him. But Luke
tells us before he called to mind that the Lord looked upon
Peter. You picture in your mind for
just a moment, can you picture the Lord Jesus Christ as he was
there in that judgment hall. How he was arrayed before those
Roman soldiers and the priest and how they mocked him. and
spit upon him, plucked out his beard, and there's Peter outside
warming himself by the fire of those who were sworn enemies
of Christ, and him saying, I deny that I even know him, with curses,
and the Lord Jesus Christ looked upon him. That was a look of
grace, wasn't it? You say, how do you know it was
the look of grace? I know it was because what was
the result? Peter remembered the Word and
the Scripture says he went out and he wept bitterly. He wept
bitterly, you know. Second Corinthians, the apostle
tells us that godly sorrow worketh repentance. And that's what he
was given. He was given repentance. Now
the denial had already taken place. And he could not undo
what he had done. But thank God there's forgiveness
with the Lord. The scripture says there's forgiveness
or there's mercy with the Lord that he might be feared, reverenced. So the first thing that I see
about his restoration, him being restored, is the Lord in grace
looked upon Peter. Secondly, the Lord in grace singled
Peter out to meet him after his resurrection. You see this in
Mark chapter 16 and verse 7, when the angel told the women
there to tell his disciples and Peter. Don't forget Peter. He was singled out of the other
10 disciples. Tell them that I will meet them
in Galilee. Tell them, my disciples, and
Peter. I see grace there, don't you? Peter may have thought that he
had sent away any relationship that he had with
the Lord. He may have thought that he had
sent away any opportunity that he would be used of God. But the Lord sends him a message
through the angel. You tell my disciples and Peter
that I'll meet them in Galilee. And third, I want you to turn
with me to John chapter 21. Now surely this is part of the
restoration. How many times did Peter deny
the Lord? Three times. Three times he denied
the Lord. And after our Lord's resurrection
here in John chapter 21, the Lord appeared to his disciples
again. And the scripture says he had
prepared the meal. We used to sing that hymn, Come
and Dine. The master called it, Come and
Dine. And he did call his disciples,
didn't he? Peter was out there in that boat,
and I don't know how they dressed as they worked. That was a job.
Fishing was a job for them. He had on his work clothes, whatever
it was. But when John told him, it's
the Lord. It's the Lord. That's the man
there on the shore. It's the Lord. What did Peter
do? He jumped overboard. And he came to the feet of Christ
as fast as he could come. God had given him. God had granted
unto him repentance. And after the scripture here
says, beginning in verse 15, And when they had dined, Jesus
saith to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me
more than these? I'm not sure what our Lord meant
there. I know what he had said. He said,
though all of these deny you, Lord, I'm not going to. Simon,
do you love me more than these? You said you did. Or is he talking about the fish?
He'd gone back to fishing. Do you love me more than these? Lovest thou me more than these?
He saith unto him, Yes, Lord. Thou knowest that I love thee.
Now watch this. This shows you how he was restored. The Lord said to him, feed my
lambs. And I'll tell you something,
he loves his lambs. He loves his sheep. The good
shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. Now, for him to commend
Peter to the work of feeding them, he's restored. Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou
me more than these? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord,
thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my lambs. He saith unto him again the second
time. Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou
me? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord,
thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my sheep. He saith unto him the third time. He had denied three times. Now
three times he's going to confess his love. 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. Our Lord, our Savior, He knows
all things, doesn't He? He knows what's in your heart
today. He knows what's in my heart. He knows all things. Thou knowest that I love thee. Jesus saith unto him, feed my
sheep. And the fourth thing I'd mention
about his restoration is, first of all, the Lord in grace looked
upon Peter. Second, the Lord in grace singled
Peter out to meet him after his resurrection. Third, the Lord
in grace commissioned Peter to feed his sheep. And fourth, the
Lord in grace used Peter. He used Peter greatly on the
day of Pentecost. You remember, he's the one. Now all the disciples, the scriptures
point this out. All the disciples stood up with
Peter. But in Acts, we're told it was
Peter who spoke. It was Peter who cast the gospel
net that day. And 3,000 souls were taken that
day and added unto the church. And then it was Peter that the
Lord chose out of all his disciples to open the door of faith to
the Gentiles. He sent him down to the house
of Cornelius. Remember that in Acts chapter
10. And in Acts chapter 15, Peter
mentions that the Lord made choice among us, and he chose me to
take the gospel to the Gentiles. Now, I want you to take your
Bible and turn with me to 1 Peter. And I'm just about finished.
The message is just about finished, but I wanted to point this out.
As I thought about this, do you remember the first thing
I said about Peter's fall had to do with the scriptures? Failure
to recognize the authority of the scriptures. Now remember,
when he writes this letter, years have passed. He's an old man
now. years have passed. But notice what he says about
the scripture in chapter 1, verse 22. 1 Peter 1, 22. Seeing you have purified your
souls and obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love
of the brethren, see that you love one another with a pure
heart fervently, being born again, now notice, not of corruptible
seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God which liveth
and abideth forever. For all flesh is as grass, and
all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth,
and the flower thereof falleth away, but The word of the Lord
endureth forever, and this is the word which by the gospel
is preached unto you. The second thing I said was failure
to recognize the power of Satan as we should. Look over into
chapter 5, 1 Peter chapter 5, verses 8 and
9. Be sober. Be vigilant, because your adversary
the devil as a roaring lion walketh about seeking whom he may devour. whom resist steadfast in the
faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished
in your brethren that are in the world. Number three, failure
to recognize that pride goeth before fall as we should. Look
at verse six there, 1 Peter 5 and verse six, humble, humble yourselves,
brethren, unto the mighty hand of God. And number four, failure to recognize
the bad influence of evil company as we should. Look in 1 Peter
4, verses 3 and 4, he said, for the time past of our life may
suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles when we
walked in lasciviousness, lust, excessive wine, revelings, banqueteens,
and abominable idolatries. wherein, now notice this, they,
those people who still practice those things, they think it strange
that you run not with them to the same excessive right, speaking
evil of you. I believe that he, in this epistle,
points all four of these things out to us, and I pray that we
see that and we heed the example that we're given about his fall
and thank God about his being restored. Let's sing a hymn, All the Way
My Savior Leads Me. What have I to ask beside? Can
I doubt his loving favor? Who through life has been my
guide?