Peter's Denial and Brokenness

Introduction: Peter's Great Fall and Restoration

0:06 This sermon was preached on Sunday morning, October 1st, 1989, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. Now let us turn together in the Word of God to the 14th chapter of the Gospel according to Mark, as we continue our consecutive expositions of this spirit-inspired record of the ministry and life, and now very soon to consider the actual death and then the glorious resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.

0:46 And I would ask you to follow, please, as I read this morning Mark 14, verses 53 and 54, and then skipping over to verses 66 through to the end of the chapter. Mark 14 and verse 53. And they led Jesus away to the high priest, and there come together with him all the chief priests and the elders and the scribes. And Peter had followed him afar off, even within, into the court or courtyard of the high priest.

1:31 And he was sitting with the officers and warming himself in the light of the fire. Verse 66. And as Peter was beneath in the courtyard, there cometh one of the maids of the high priest. And seeing Peter warming himself, she looked upon him and saith, Thou also wast with the Nazarene, Jesus.

2:01 But he denied, saying, I neither know nor understand what thou sayest. And he went out into the porch. Or the. Or court.

2:13 The entrance way into the courtyard. And the rooster crowed.

2:22 And the maid saw him and began again to say to them that stood by, This is one of them. But he again denied it. And after a little while again, they that stood by said to Peter, Of a truth thou art one of them, for thou art a Galilean. And he began to curse and to swear, I know not this man of whom ye speak.

2:52 And straightway the second time, the rooster crowed. And Peter called to mind the word, how that Jesus said unto him, Before the rooster crows twice, thou shalt deny me thrice. And when he thought thereon. He wept.

3:18 Let us again seek the face of God in prayer that God by the Holy Spirit will attend the ministry of his own holy word.

3:32 Our Father, as we draw nearer and nearer to those sentences and paragraphs that describe in graphic detail the very bloodletting of our Lord Jesus Christ, we sense indeed. We sense indeed. We sense indeed. We sense indeed.

3:52 We sense indeed. We sense indeed. That we stand upon holy ground. And we are very conscious that left to ourselves we will stumble through even the most sacred and the most solemn events in the life of our Lord Jesus with hearts of stone, utterly unmoved, utterly unchanged, unless you by the Spirit come and take the things of Christ and reveal them to us.

4:23 And we therefore come reminding you of your promise that if we who are evil know how to give good gifts to our children, how much more will you, the heavenly Father, give the Holy Spirit to those who ask. We ask therefore that the Spirit will be sent upon the congregation that gathers before your word, upon the preacher who attends to the word of the Spirit. to open up and apply that word. Oh, send him in copious measures beyond the measure of our most fervent and earnest prayers, beyond the measure of the most believing expectant heart in this place this morning. Come, Lord, for we need your presence. We need to hear your voice. We need to have your word come with all of its gripping power.

5:25 Do that work then which we cannot do of ourselves as we hold up our needy hearts before you. Breathe upon them by the Spirit through the word. We plead through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

5:43 I'm quite certain that regardless of what our cultural or ethnic backgrounds may be, that almost all of us here of any age this morning have at one time or another heard or even memorized the well-known nursery rhyme concerning the little egg man called Humpty Dumpty. And that little nursery rhyme goes like this. Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall. Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.

6:24 But all the king's horses, and all the king's men couldn't put Humpty together again. Well, this morning, boys and girls, and fellow adults, we come in our studies of the Gospel of Mark to examine another who had a great fall. The fall of the apostle Peter from the high wall of great privilege and from the high wall of conflict, a confident boasting in his unshakable devotion to the Lord Jesus, a fall to the depths of the most shameful and cowardly denials of his own precious Lord. However, unlike Humpty Dumpty of the famous nursery rhyme, Peter is put back together again. He's not left in his shameful state of base denial, but the passage closes with the record of his deep and his thorough brokenness over his sin, which by God's grace prepared him for a formal restoration to communion with his Lord

The Setting of Peter's Denials

7:47 and to a recommission for service in the kingdom of his Savior. And as we come to this portion this morning, I urge you, if ever you attempted to, to exercise your God-given faculty of imagination in conjunction with the Scriptures, to attempt to bring before your mind's eye the graphic description given in this passage of the fall of the great and boasting apostle into these depths of shameful denial. And consider with me, first of all, the account of the three denials. The account of the three denials. Remember the setting as we described it last Lord's Day. This is why I read in your hearing verses 53 and 54. Our Lord has been apprehended in the garden by this mixed multitude of temple police, of part of a Roman cohort, representatives of the Sanhedrin, and perhaps just a number of a curious mob that gathered there in the middle of the night when they came to the gate of the garden of Gethsemane.

9:14 According to John, he has been bound like a criminal and hauled off to the palace of the high priest. The Scripture tells us that when he was taken away, all the disciples forsook him and fled. But in the process of our Lord being brought to the house of Annas and Caiaphas in the middle of the night, we are told that Peter recovering some of the courage which originally boasted, though all will deny you, I will never deny you, that found expression when he drew his sword and struck out at the servant of the high priest and cut off his ear, recovering some of that courage, we read in verse 54, that Peter had followed him, albeit afar off, yet Peter, you see, could not forsake his Lord for long, but he followed him afar off, even within, into the courtyard of the high priest. The details of how he gained an admission into that long covered archway, at the beginning of which was a guardhouse, at the end of which was a church, at the end of which was the courtyard itself, those details are given to us in John chapter 18, 15 through 18. But after being admitted,

10:42 we are told that he was sitting with the officers, that is, these underlings, these temple police, these guards, and warming himself in the light of the fire. And so we are to picture in our mind's eye, in that open courtyard, at the end of the long arched entrance, after coming through the gate, the raised room in which our Lord, with some of the arresting party, now stands before the entire Sanhedrin, and Peter there in the courtyard, in the company of some of these temple police, and apparently some of the other servants of the high priest. And in the coldness, and in the chill of that night, he stands warming his hands by a fire that is so brilliant that Mark calls it the light. And you'll notice in the old 1901, the words of the fire in italics, for the word for the fire is the standard word for light. And so we see Peter standing in that setting, warming his hands, while his Lord, at another level, or at least raised somewhat above the level of the courtyard,

12:09 undergoes the humiliation of the false witnesses who concoct their lies but cannot agree in them. And then the boldness and the courage of our Lord is seen in his open confession of his identity. And then, as we saw last week, he received the unconscionable treatment, and then he received the unconscionable treatment, and then he received the unconscionable treatment, and then he received the unconscionable treatment, from representatives of the Sanhedrin, and also of the arresting party as they spit upon him, strike him with their hands, blindfold him, mock and jeer him. And then when they have vented something of the fury of their anger against our blessed Lord, they hand him over to the temple guards, whom Mark says received them with blows. They followed him, followed the pattern of their religious leaders, and did not even give him the dignity of a proper retiral to some place where he might be held in ward until they reconvened, quote, more legally at the light of day. But they shamefully treat him, even as they receive him into their custody. Now it is in that setting that the denial of Peter, concurrent with the denial of Peter, the unconscionable treatment of our Lord, actually occurs.

Denial Number One: Ignorance of the Maid's Claim

13:37 Mark desires that we remember this, and therefore he introduces Peter's posture in the courtyard before describing our Lord's treatment at the hands of the Sanhedrin in the raised room in the house proper. Denial number one is described for us in verses 66 to 67. And as Peter was beneath in the courtyard, standing, of course, in the posture described in verse 54, warming his hands by the fire, there cometh one of the maids of the high priest, and seeing Peter warming himself, she looked upon him and saith, Thou wast with the Nazarene, Jesus. While Peter was warming himself by the fire that gave forth considerable light, one of the servant girls of the high priest passed by. As she was exchanging duty at the gate that was obviously guarded and kept at this time by these servant girls of the high priest. And by the use of two participles, these verbal constructions,

15:01 Mark graphically describes the picture. And the picture is this. That the servant girl, as she passes by the place in the courtyard where the temple guards are gathered and Peter with them warming their hands. Notice what the text says, that seeing Peter warming himself, she caught a glance of him as she passed and he stood out from among the temple guards.

15:30 She knew that this was someone other than another temple guard. PAUSE. the text says, she looked upon Him. There was something in her initial glance that caught her eye, that arrested her. And as she perhaps drew nearer so that she could discern more clearly the features of His face, she looked upon Him and she said, You, Jesus, identifies Him as one of those who had attached Himself to the very person who at that very moment was standing before the Sanhedrin in one of the large rooms at the house of Caiaphas.

16:22 And she makes this assertion, You are one of them, to which Peter responds, all naughtless reflex response of self-discovery. Much like the blinking of the eye when someone inadvertently passes something before our face, and out of his mouth came a denial that focused upon the claim that he was utterly ignorant of her affirmation. But he denied saying, I know, and it's almost an incomplete statement, I neither know, implied, nor know. The man, or stand what you are saying, by claiming ignorance of whatever in her head would associate him with Jesus the Nazarene. And according to Luke 22 and verse 57, this was joined with an explicit denial of any knowledge of Jesus Himself. So he not only says, I don't know what you're talking about.

17:48 He says that he has no personal knowledge of Jesus. Realizing in this that he was now detected and most likely agitated by the reality of what he had just done. When the awareness of what had leaped out of his mouth, as it were, filtered back through his own ears upon his own spirit, there was something in Peter. Perhaps mingled shame and self-defense, that he makes his way out of the main courtyard, and the scripture says he went out into what is rendered in the margin of 1901 as the forecourt. That would be the long, arched passageway from the gate that would adjoin the street that led into the open courtyard. And once the main passageway had been opened, Peter had now seen that there was something in the open courtyard, and that he had received a message from it, that Peter was out of the law. He received an open, open entrance, that was the way that he was needed. And Peter did not

18:49 came and said, you are one of them. And Peter says, I don't know what you're talking about. I don't know this Jesus the Nazarene. He then makes a retreat into that entrance into the courtyard, and precisely at that time, the scripture tells us, the rooster crowed. This was one of the early crowings of the rooster, but very significant because our Lord had said, before the rooster crows twice, you will deny me three times. Now then, in verses 69 and 70a, we have denial number two, verse 69. And the maid saw him and began again to say to them that stood by, this is the rooster crowing. And Peter said, I don't know what you're talking about. And Peter

Denial Number Two: Denial with an Oath

19:48 said, I don't know what you're talking about. And Peter said, I don't know what you're talking about. And this is one of them. But he again denied it. Mark records that the maid saw him, perhaps now at a distance, or feeling the effect of withdrawal from the warmth of the fire. Peter is very furtively and tentatively making his way back into the circle of those who stand closer to the fire. And the maid sees him again. And even though he has said, I don't know what you're talking about, I don't know this Nazarene, she's not been convinced. And according to Matthew 26, 71, and Luke 22, 58, this began to be a buzzword among others, because both Matthew and Luke record that there was another maid who makes a similar observation and begins to spread the word. And you will notice that in this second denial, Mark does not focus upon a direct allegation made to Peter, but it is something that begins to be said among those that stood in that milling group around

21:12 the fire in the courtyard. Though Peter has slinked off, as it were, into the peripheral parts of the city, he is still convinced that there was another maid who made a similar observation and begins to spread the word. You've seen people who are on strike in the wintertime, and as they stand about a fire to warm their hands, time lies heavy upon them, and they pick up anything for a matter of discussion. Well, when this maid comes and says, look, I'm still convinced he's one of them, and her conviction is corroborated by another maid and by several males involved in this, this begins to be a growing conviction.

21:52 That indeed, Peter is one of the followers of the Nazarene. But when he becomes aware of it, verse 70a says, he again denied it. And the tense of the verb points to a repeated denial. He again was denying it. And we find in Matthew 26, 72, this very significant, additional bit of information. In this second denial, Matthew says that he denied with an oath. You see, this time he no longer rests the case simply upon the credibility and convincingness of his statement. I don't know what you're talking about. I don't know this Nazarene.

22:46 Now he says something like this, when the buzzword where the action is, is yes, he really must be one of them. And Peter is confronted with it. He says, I solemnly swear by heaven itself, for no Jew would use the name of God. I swear by heaven itself, or I swear heaven. I do not know this man. So from a forceful denial that he understood what the maid was speaking about, he now proceeds to, affirm his denial with a solemn oath, invoking the name of Almighty God in a manner consistent with a Jew. And then in verses 70b through 71, we have denial number three. And after a little while, again, and that little while is described more precisely by Luke in Luke 22, 59, about the soul of God. And he says, I solemnly swear by heaven itself, for no Jew would use the name of God.

Denial Number Three: Cursing and Swearing

23:58 Now, you see, we can read the passage in a matter of seconds, but the trial that was going on up above and the events down beneath in the courtyard were not going on just like this. There was the passing of time for all the things to be done that are recorded in the previous paragraph that we studied last week. These things were stretched out over a period of time. Many false witnesses were brought in before the time of the trial. And the trial that was going on in the courtyard before the Sanhedrin. And so we are given a condensed version, but Luke, with greater accuracy, tells us after about the space of an hour, what happens. Well, we are told that after a little while, again, they that stood by said to Peter, now notice how much more their conviction is expressed, of a truth. You are one of them, for you are a true man. And so we are told that

25:00 they that stood by said to Peter, now notice how much more their conviction is expressed, of a true man. And so we are told that they that stood by said to Peter, now notice how much more their conviction is expressed, of a true man. And so we are told that they that stood by said to Peter, not impressed with his initial denial of even understanding the allegation, not impressed with his second denial, even with an oath, they said of you are one of them, for you're a Galilean. Know that all of his followers, except Judas, were Galileans. Now, how did they know he was a Galilean? Well, you're told in Matthew 26, 72, I'm sorry, in Matthew chapter 26, in verse 73, that it was his Galilean accent that betrayed him. As surely as someone coming up into this area of the country from a very deep, culturally insulated part of Mississippi or Alabama will immediately be recognized by his accent. As surely as you take a local born Brooklynese man who's never moved out of Brooklyn and sticking down in some rural area of the country,

26:05 and asking to open his mouth, they know immediately he ain't one of us. He doesn't belong in these parts. I don't know where he come from, but he sure enough doesn't come from these parts.

26:18 You see, we find that all the time in our common interaction. Well, it was true then. The Galileans, we are told, had problems pronouncing some of the distinctively pure Hebrew guttural sounds. Some suggest they had a problem with the S sound. But be that as it may, Matthew tells us that his speech is under money of his own. The less credible his talk becomes, his speech betrayed him. He was marked as a Galilean, and his identity was undeniable from his accent. And then according to John 18, 25 and 26, there was another reason why they were so sure that he was one of his followers. Here was someone who was prepared to identify him,

27:14 as the one who was in the garden, and struck off the ear of the servant of the high priest. For in John chapter 18, we read in verse 18, now the servants and the officers,

27:31 I'm sorry, at verse 25, now Simon Peter was standing and warming himself. They said unto him, are you one of his disciples? He denied and said, I am not. One of the servants of the high priest, being a kinsman, a relative of him whose ear Peter cut off, said, did not I see you in the garden with him?

27:55 Now things are really getting hot in some place other than the fire. His first two denials have not convinced them. Now they've come back saying of a truth, you are one of his intimate followers, for your speech betrays you as a Galilean. And we have someone here, prepared to testify that he saw you in the garden with your master who is now on trial before the Sanhedrin. I say the pressure is mounting. The very ones who cooperated in arresting Jesus are now identifying Peter. And in this situation, Peter is desperate. And the text tells us that this denial recurs. reaches the depths of shameful and horrible declension and departure from the Lord, but he began to curse and to swear, I know not this man.

29:08 He's going to detach himself so from his Savior and Lord that he now simply calls him man, ye speak. Now when the text says he began to curse and swear, that does not mean he broke out into reckless profanity. In times past, I have used such terminology in saying when Peter in his weakness denied his Lord, he reached back and drew out some of his sailor's vocabulary. Well, in my preparation, I've come to see that that was a statement of ignorance.

29:46 For the words for cursing and swearing are not words for mindless, meaningless, profanity. He began, first of all, to curse, literally to anathematize. That's the word used when Paul speaks. If any man brings any other gospel other than that which we have preached unto you, let him be anathema.

30:11 Let him be accursed of God. This is what Peter is doing, and you'll see how it's done to this day. He begins to call God's self if he's not telling the truth. I can remember as a kid in my neighborhood, when there was a discussion over something that blew up into an argument and we didn't know who was telling the truth.

30:32 I remember hearing some of my friends saying, though I never dared say it because of my upbringing, I cross my heart and hope to die. I'm telling the truth. That's what Peter began to do. He began to curse from God himself if he were not telling the truth in denying that he had any knowledge of or association with God.

30:57 He began to curse from God himself if he were not telling the truth in denying that he had any knowledge of or association with God. He began to curse from God himself if he were not telling the truth in denying that he had any knowledge of or association with Jesus the Nazarene. So to curse meant to call God's wrath upon himself if he were not telling the truth. And to swear meant that he placed himself under solemn oaths that he was indeed affirming truth.

31:18 And the word swear here is the standard word in the New Testament associated with the taking of an oath. When Jesus said, Swear not by the...

31:27 Temple. Swear not by heaven. God swore with an oath. All of that is the same word.

31:36 So this is what Peter did. As though making himself exposed and liable to some unusual intervention of God in judgment upon him if he were not telling the truth, he then positively affirms in the name of heaven, in the name of all that is sacred, and who knows? But what he may have even strung out all the things by which the Pharisees and the scribes taught people to swear by example. It may have been a very impressive string of solemn oaths all of which terminated upon this one thing.

32:16 I know not this man of whom you speak. Here then are the bare, shocking, unadorned facts of Peter's threefold denial. And since the evidence that Mark composed his gospel record under the strong influence of Peter to speak metaphorically with Peter looking over his shoulder and whispering in his ear, one can only imagine the grief and pain that Peter must have felt every time he recounted the story of his own denial.

33:03 But you see, one of the marks of his penitence was that he did not in any way seek to gloss over the magnitude of his sin. It is the mark of every true penitent that he is honest about his sin. And here the contrast is so vivid and one can only attempt to enter into the spirit and into the psyche and into the perspectives of Peter who realizes that Peter is not a man. That from warming his hands, drawing before him the very constant in which his devotion drew him near his Savior, so wickedly and so basely and profanely deny his Savior. Not only at this moment was the Lord Jesus being inundated with the shameful lies of false witnesses, not only was he bearing the indignity of the spit and the fist blows and the mockery of his accusers,

34:24 but he is bearing the horrible shame of one of those whom he loved from eternity, called by his grace, saying, I open myself to the judgment of heaven, I swear by the throne of no man. From a mild afferent, to the affirmation of not knowing what the maid was saying, to a forceful denial, to a vehement denial,

35:05 there's the account of Peter's threefold denial. But thank God in the second place the text holds before us the account of Peter's brokenness and penitence.

Peter's Brokenness and Penitence: The Rooster and the Look

35:24 And here we turn to verse 72. Mark, using one of his pages, his favorite vocabulary words, and straightway, the second time, the rooster crowed. And Peter called to mind the word how that Jesus said unto him, before the rooster crows twice, thou shalt deny me thrice. And when he thought thereon, he wept.

35:55 Mark, with his favorite words, straightway, immediately, no lapse of time,

36:03 the anathemas, upon himself, thee in the name of heaven, are no sooner out of his mouth but the rooster crows, announcing the approach of dawn. Luke says, while he was yet speaking, Luke 22, 60,

36:29 two things brought him to a state of brokenness. The first was the crowing of the rooster.

36:40 Straightway, the second, the second time the rooster crowed and Peter called.

36:49 Jesus had said unto him, and there is a quotation of what our Lord had said, as recorded in verse 30 of this very chapter. Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, that thou today, even this night, before the rooster crows twice, shalt deny me thrice. There was the crowing of the rooster that acted as a sign of the Lord. Peter called to mind the word, Peter's remembrance of the words of his Savior.

37:21 And activating his mind with reference to the words of his Savior would flood back into his memory, his own view of the validity of those words. For verse 31 says, But he spoke exceedingly,

37:38 if I must not deny thee. Luke adds, if I must not deny thee. He stands with his own oaths and curses that he doesn't know. That man ringing in his own ears and reverberating in the chambers of his own heart.

37:58 And he remembers the words of Jesus and his subsequent denial of the validity of those words. They can never come to pass.

38:15 I am unified with you, my Messiah.

38:20 But then Luke says there was a second thing that was instrumental to bring him to brokenness. And I want you to turn to Luke chapter 22. Just this little stroke, of additional historical fact. But oh, how significant.

38:39 Verse 60, But Peter said, Man, I don't know what you're saying. And immediately while he yet spoke, the rooster crowed. And the Lord turned and looked upon Peter. And Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how that he said unto him, Before the rooster crowed, this day, you shall deny me thrice.

39:08 And he went out and wept bitterly, bringing the witness of Luke and Mark together. What do we discover? We discover that the crowing of the rooster and the look of the Savior were concurrent realities, and both of them impinged upon the mind and the spirit of Peter and became instrumental in bringing him to brokenness. and to penitence.

39:38 Now we ask the question, if our imaginations have been active, could Peter have actually seen the face of Christ and the eyes of Christ from the distance that existed between the fire in the courtyard and the room, however high it was raised, in which Jesus was being tried? Well, some of the commentators suggest, and I believe their suggestion has been, has validity, that as we study the four Gospels and bring the various factors together, it is clear that once Jesus was handed over by the Sanhedrin to the temple police to be kept in ward until the morning trial, the legal trial, it is most likely that at that very point when Peter had taken these oaths and brought curses upon himself, saying, and I have known that at that very moment Jesus was being led by the temple police out to the temporary holding cell, whatever it was, and was within close enough proximity of Peter for the light of that fire not only to illumine Peter's face, but the face of his Savior.

41:04 A face, remember now, that a whole group had been spitting upon,

41:11 striking with their fists, and remember, a couple of hours had passed. You've seen in a prize fight how in a matter of 20 minutes a man's face can be puffed and evidently smothered with the contusions of the blows with some felt padding. These were bare fists that had struck the flesh of our blessed Savior.

41:39 And this one,

41:42 face dripping with spittle, grotesquely out of shape, with contusions from the blows of men's hands. Yet, as he passes by Peter, he looks upon him. And as one commentator has so beautifully pointed out, had Peter not been looking upon his Savior, he would have never known that his Savior looked upon him. So in the midst of all of the accusations of his own conscience, amidst the sense of the shame that he had defied with denial, he yet had spiritual audacity to look upon Christ. You see, it says, he followed afar all the gospel writers tells us. And so we see of devotion and fear, this attachment, and yet this denial. And just as Peter receives enough courage to look at the form of his Savior passing by, the Savior looks upon him.

43:06 Amen. And that look, whatever it was,

43:11 and here is broad field for holy contemplation, but no place for unsanctified speculation. But it was that look coupled with the crowing of a dumb rooster that became the twin means in the hands of the Spirit of God to break the heart of Peter. And it says, when he thought thereon, he wept. The other gospel records tell us he went out and he wept bitterly.

43:45 That's one of the indications that they were leading the Lord Jesus out to a holding place. And as the group followed behind them, Peter was able to make an exit which before he could not make because the servant girl of the high priest was keeping the gatehouse. But now he goes out and according to both Matthew and Luke, he weeps.

44:15 That is with the great self-loathing and shame and grief and the tense that Mark used is the tense to underscore that this was no moment of a few tears, but it was the until his heart, as it were, wept itself into emotional exhaustion.

44:46 You see, God describes his brokenness and his penitence in terms of the external symbols of that brokenness and that penitence. God doesn't say he was inwardly grieved and acknowledge the horror of sin. God does something far more He says that call was the Lord. He was crushed by the grace and he wept.

45:28 Peter, I do not disown you. I am on my way to lay down my life. I lay down my life for you, Peter. And all of your denials will not sever the bond of my love.

45:57 And he went out and he wept bitterly.

Application 1: The Grace and Pity of Jesus to True Disciples

46:05 We've considered the account of Peter's denial, the account of Peter's brokenness and penitence. Now then, what are we intended to learn from this passage? And here I confess I have wrestled, saying, oh God, help me not to read something in. That you've not intended in giving this.

46:27 And I want to assert, first of all, by way of application, that first and foremost giving us Peter's denial in great detail and in lesser detail, but in no less clarity the account of Peter's brokenness and penitence.

46:50 This passage is intended to show us the grace and pity of Jesus to his true disciples and to his true disciples. Even when they fall into shameful sin, it is intended to show the grace and pity of Jesus when they fall into shameful sin. Why would such an account be asserted just at this point when the sufferings of Christ are beginning to be described in graphic and moving detail? That's the question that haunted me.

47:33 Why is at this point Mark is the son of Jesus Christ, the son of God, and what is more pure than what we have and in the details Peter's denial of subsequent brokenness and penitence?

48:00 God would not desire to stray from the gospel as the very nerves of the gospel are being laid bare. What does he do? He illustrates in a marvelous one of the most glorious truths of the gospel, and that is that those whom Jesus and Jesus once loved never, never, never are placed outside the orbit of that love. No matter how tragically and shamefully they may fall into pacific sin, it is at the point of this temporary lapse into crippling cowardice and detest that Jesus looks upon Peter with a look that says, though you deny relationship to me, I will not deny mine to you.

49:03 And the spirit bringing to remembrance what was Peter's true state of heart expressed in those words in devotion and faith and love.

49:33 Therefore, though that true attachment seems to be utterly buried beneath the present weight and avalanche of cowardice and self-hatred and shame and deceit, the Lord is letting Peter know that this is not the denial that will meet him in the day of judgment. For he had heard his Lord say, Whosoever denies me before men, him will I deny before my Father. There is a difference between the settled denial of impenitence and the settled denial of apostates and the temporary denial of a weak and faltering truth. True disciple.

50:20 And Peter would not only recall to mind the word before the rooster crows twice, you will deny me thrice. But no doubt his mind recalled the words, Peter, Satan has desired all of you to sift you as wheat. But I have prayed especially for you, Peter, that your faith fail not and when you are turned again, strengthen your brethren. Peter is coming.

50:50 You. And out of my intercession that will secure your restoration to faith and confession of myself.

51:06 Could it be that there are some Peters here this morning and you have fallen tragically and shamefully into some area of grievous sin.

51:19 Even as I say the words grievous sin, those words are like the crowing of the rooster. The word of the Lord immediately bring to your mind that hour you spent three weeks ago on a business trip in a porno shop, man.

51:43 Nobody knows but you and God.

51:47 Grievous sin. Standing into a life as well as monogamous hands and other members of the body. You were denying your magazine rack.

52:18 You were denying your Lord when your wife went to bed and you watched that thing on television that titillated and felled something base and unclean. And you, the rooster, activated your conscience. Oh, my dear brother or sister who has biblical grounds to believe that you are a true child of God. The great work of the enemy is now to keep you with your head down.

52:56 Even when Jesus himulated, bruised, and dripping with the spittle passes by and looks upon you and says, I do not disown you. I don't approve of your sin. I do not look lightly upon your sin. But the blood I have to shed.

53:18 And you see, it's the master stroke of the devil to whisper in your left ear before you sin. Go ahead. Enter that shop. Stand by that magazine rack.

53:33 Anything you look can do. You can have forgiveness.

53:39 The blood of Christ cleanses from all sin. And then when you've used grace as a license to sin, the devil comes and whispers in your right ear, you can't go to Christ. You've abused grace. You're a hypocrite.

53:54 You see, he draws you away.

54:04 When you've taken the bait, he keeps you from getting back into the path of Christ by underscoring the horrible nature of your sin as though it were too great for his grace. Oh, any Peters here this morning learn from this passage, the great truth of the gospel. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And Jesus looks out upon you, child of God, in the gospel and says, I see beneath that lapse the true state of your heart.

55:02 But the avalanche will never be cleared away in the wrong way. And I'm in trouble and fearing to draw near pleading the promise of God's mercy to those who confess and forsake their sins. I say first and foremost, this incident is intended to show us the grace and pity of Jesus to true disciples who fall even into shameful sin. But secondly, the passage is intended to teach us some crucial lessons about Christ.

Application 2: The Frightening Potential for Sin in Every Believer

55:39 About the frightening potential for sin resident in the heart of every child of God. This passage is intended to teach us some crucial lessons about the frightening potential for sin resident in the heart of every child of God. In my preparation, went through some of the well-known words that came from the lips of this very man, Peter. Who do men say that I am?

56:12 Thou, the son of the Lord, living God, blessed are you, Simon, son of John. Flesh and blood is not revealed unto you, but my Father who is in heaven, you are Peter and upon the rock of passion I will build my church and you, Peter, will have a significant place in it. The very lips that said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God, say, I don't know what you're talking about. I don't know anything about this man.

56:45 I, if I'm not telling you, I have no knowledge, of or identity with this man.

57:01 That's the potential that's in the human heart. This is the man that when Jesus said, Will you also go away? He answered for the twelve in John 6 and said, To whom else can we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life.

57:17 This is the one who said, The wall, the lip, deny and listen. The moment God withholds His grace from present active office, there's not a one of us that would not repeat sins of equal heinousness in the next hour. Where thinketh this most vile in the most sanctified heart in this building this morning? The seeds of the most vile resident in the most sanctified heart. Spirit of jealousy that's in your heart, because you don't have decent form. You're of one

58:33 of your sisters. That would be a blessing. If God didn't restrain it, don't you presume on His grace that He will skim to more, which has in it the very seeds of murder. That unmortified lost man that lets you linger a few moments in the television ads and flipping through the magazine in the barber shop.

59:07 Those seeds, if the grace of God does not hedge them up with restraining power, you could end up raping your own mother. Hold on! To make you a monument of your foul and wretched, carnal self-confidence? Then go ahead and put him to the test.

59:45 He just may do it. And you may go down to your grave bringing shame upon yourself and your family, because you wouldn't take the lesson that if the Trinity of Christ shall go, if he can curse, if he can take false oaths, if he can lie and deny, there is nothing any one of us in this building could not do. And the reason some of you play with the sins you play with is you really don't believe that that sin in its most aggravated form is possible. As you would from the full proposal of its final flowering form. Then I say thirdly, the passage is intended to show us some of the crucial lessons about the manner of sins working in the human heart. You see, not only is it intended to show us the frightening potential for sin

Application 3: The Manner of Sin's Working in the Human Heart

61:14 that is in the heart, but it's intended to show us some of the crucial lessons about the manner of sins working in the human heart. I point you to just two very quickly. Great sin was precipitated by a small temptation. Bishop Ryle said, how small a temptation may cause a saint to have a great fall.

61:43 The beginning of Peter's trial was nothing more than the simple remark of a maid of the high priest. You were also with Jesus of Nazareth. There's nothing to show conclusively that these words were spoken with any hostile purpose. For anything we can discern, they might fairly mean this maid remembered that Peter used to be a companion of our Lord.

62:03 But this simple remark was enough to overthrow the faith of an eminent apostle and make him to begin to deny his master. The chiefest and foremost of our Lord's chosen disciples is cast down not by the threats of armed men. He was ready to take them all armed with one sword in his hand. But the insinuations and the allegations of a little maid put him on the path to the total denial of his Lord.

62:32 Great sin was precipitated by a small temptation. Do you see why Jesus tells us as we're told in verse 38 watch and pray that you enter not into temptation. How glasses from one carelessly dropped match. There is not a one of us here who takes sin as seriously as we ought.

63:02 Great sin was precipitated by a small temptation. And we also learn concerning the manner of sins working we have a native tendency to cover one sin with additional and greater sins. All of us does. You children know this.

63:22 You tell a lie when you get caught. You tell another lie to cover that lie. And when you're caught in the lie that's covering the lie then you're all...

63:34 And what happens? One lie spawns another and another quicker than rabbits reproduce. That's what happened with Peter. From a relatively mile by the throne of God.

64:04 That's how sin works in all of us. Remember David's history. He tried to cover his sin and when that didn't work he tried another. And if it happens to David and Peter who are you and who am I to stand?

Application 4: The Absolute Certainty of Christ's Prophetic Word

64:23 Apart from great watchfulness and dependence upon Christ. There are so many other things but I must close with this one final word. This passage validates the absolute certainty of every prophetic word of Christ. This passage validates the absolute certainty of every prophetic word of Christ.

64:51 Christ had said, Amen I say to Peter before the... In other words your word will fail.

65:07 But Jesus had already said in the previous chapter though heaven and earth pass away my word shall never pass away. And Peter learned the hard way that what Jesus said about the future was true. My friend this same Jesus said he's coming back again. And if when he returns he finds you not bound to him he will summon you before his throne and cast you into everlasting darkness and everlasting fire where they'll be weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth and you may shake your head and say never, never, never, never God what is...

65:49 My friend Christ's word will be fulfilled. Don't you toy with the command of almighty God to stack arms and bow before Christ and kiss the sun lest he be angry. Oh my unconverted friend don't trifle with the words of Jesus. He said unless a man is born again he'll never perceive nor the kingdom except he repent you'll perish.

66:20 He's not playing games. Take his word seriously. Run to him. Find in him the savior that Peter knew him to be.

66:32 And later on the Lord beautifully and wonderfully after letting Peter have his wound bleed out that even that tragic denial has not disqualified him for usefulness and service and he graciously and lovingly restores him. The beautiful account is in John chapter 21 recommissions him, sends him forth and this is the Peter who could write saying whom having not seen you believers love in whom believing you rejoice with joy and full of glory. He became the very instrument to give us two of our books of the New Testament. Grace not only forgave but restored and recommissioned and made a useful vessel of a shameful denier of Christ. That's God's grace. Don't despise it. Let us pray.

67:38 Our Father how we thank you for the richness of your word for the expansiveness of your grace. We stand with Peter this morning and you know that the heart of every true Christian would long to weep bitterly even over the sins of the past week and Lord we mourn and grieve that we do not mourn and grieve more over our shameful sins but we thank you that you love us still and the blood of your Son cleanses us from sin. Oh Lord may there be a Peter here this morning who has grievously fallen but has not yet been restored. Lord Jesus may your eyes look out through the preaching of the word and find their eyes and oh Lord do what only you can do in restoring that one who has grievously denied you for those who sit here in their love of sin sit here defiant of your government Lord strike terror to their hearts that every word your Son has spoken about his own judgment upon the impenitent will be fulfilled in them unless they do indeed repent and believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh Father seal your word

69:07 to our hearts we beg of you for our good and for your glory. Amen.