Luke chapter number 22. Luke chapter number 22. We are going through these lessons on the Bible overview. And we've been going through the New Testament. And so we're getting very close to the end of the gospel section of the Bible overview. So we're down to, this is either the last or the next to last lesson. So we're really close to wrapping this up. We did skip ahead a little bit, if you remember there, by Easter and did some of the crucifixion and resurrection episodes. there. It's a little bit out of order here. So, we are at Peter Denies Christ. You can see that on your lesson. And again Mark went over the verse with us and out of context we don't exactly understand what's going on if you're familiar with your Bible. Luke 22, 62, and Peter went out and wept bitterly. That is in reference to this denial of Christ. This time that he denied Christ. We're just going to read through a couple of the verses that kind of explain what's going on here. when this happened with Peter's denial. So let's look at verse number 31, Luke 22, 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. And he said unto him, so this is Peter talking, or Simon, Simon Peter, and he said to him, Lord, I am ready to go with thee, both into prison and to death. And he said, I tell thee, Peter, the cock shall not crow this day before thou shalt thrice deny that thou knowest me. And in this passage, we see Peter's denial. Peter denies Christ. We'll get into this in just a second. Let's pray one more time. Father, I do thank you, Lord, for the opportunity you've given us to come together. Lord, I do pray that you'd be with David and Pastor. I pray, Father, that you'd be with both of them today. I pray, Father, now that you'd help us, Lord, to focus on you and on this thought. I pray, Father, that you'd help us, Lord, as we look at this idea of denying you. And I pray, Father, that you'd just bless. And I pray for this in Jesus' name. Amen. So Peter's denial. The denial that he did. Most of us are familiar with this. He's going to deny Christ. He's going to deny Him three times. And then he's going to hear the cock crow. He's going to hear that rooster. And then that's when he's going to go out here in Luke 22. In fact he does deny Christ three times. And we can see this break down if we fast forward in the passage down to verse 54. It says, and they took him and led him and brought him to the high priest house and Peter followed afar off. So here Peter's following Jesus. Jesus gets arrested. If you can kind of picture in your mind what's going on. And we kind of have to understand that their houses aren't quite like our houses are today. Their houses are more like, think more like a compound with like a wall around it. And so here they go to the high priest house, but there's a courtyard around this house. There's an area in front of this house that you could, that was public access that people could just go into. So Jesus gets taken inside the house. He's inside there. The high priest is there. There's several members of the Sanhedrin, the chief priests, the elders, some of those scribes. And they've got Jesus in there. And they are trying to figure out exactly what they need to do so they can get their ultimate goal, which is to see Jesus Christ killed. That's what they want to have happen. So they're in there. They've got Jesus in there. And they've got this going on. Meanwhile, this group of people are outside. And Peter follows afar off and kind of blends into this group. Look at verse number 55. So here's this group of people that are with these priests, with these guys. They start a fire. Everybody's kind of sitting around the fire. Everybody's warming up. It's early, early in the morning. Remember, Jesus has been up. They had the Last Supper. went in the garden. They prayed. They prayed. They prayed. The disciples kept falling asleep. They finally Jesus said, Jesus finally said, you know, it's the time is now. And then Judas comes in and kisses him and he's betrayed and he gets arrested. So it's early, early, early in the morning. It's the cold, dark hours of the morning. So they come in and they get a little fire going. Everybody's kind of huddled around this fire. Peter comes down and sits among them. certain maid beheld him as he sat by the fire, and earnestly looked upon him, and said, This man was also with him." Now if you think for the last three years everywhere Jesus has gone, Peter, James, John those Apostles have been with him. Jesus has also sent them out in sets of two by two to go out. In fact the Bible also tells us that early on Jesus had given these guys the ability to go out and if there was somebody that was injured or somebody that was sick they could pray for them and they could be healed. I mean like Jesus had done some things for these Apostles. And here's this maid she looks and she looks and she's like, I recognize that guy. And I don't know if you've ever been there before. You see somebody, and you're like, I know I should know this person. How do I know this person? I recognize this guy. I know I know you from somewhere. I know I know you, but I just don't know where I know you from. And I try to put it together. The other day, I was in Kansas City, and we were at a fast food restaurant. I looked over, and there was a guy. I'm like, I know I know him. And it was really bothering me because I knew I knew him, but I didn't know where from. And in my mind, I knew it had something transactional, like he was behind a desk and I was on the other side. So I know I could remember signing something for him. Like, where do I know this guy from? Where do I know this guy from? Where do I know him from? I know him from somewhere. Oh, man. And I was just like racking my brain, racking my brain, racking my brain. And then finally, as he was walking out, he walked by and said something to me. And when he talked, it came back to me. Because when I heard his voice, oh. And he works at the rental place here in town. And he's one of their guys that work behind the counter at the rental place. And so I see him a lot. But normally, he's wearing his rental guy uniform. And normally, he's like, and he was just in a t-shirt. I did not recognize him. But I knew I knew him. That girl's got the same problem. She's sitting there by the fire. She's like, I know I know that guy. Where do I know him from? I know I know him. Oh wait, I know. She's always with that Jesus guy. You know him. I know I know you. I know you know him. And so she begins to say this. And so I understand Peter is here, he's sitting by the fire, he looks around, there's like a bunch of other people. Jesus has got arrested. And maybe this was an altruistic thing. Maybe he's like, well, I wanna be close to Jesus. And if they find out that I know him, they're gonna kick me out of here. If they find out that I'm not supposed to be here with them, maybe I'm like in like an employee's only area and they're gonna send me out. It's like, oh, what? And so what does Peter do? Look at verse number 57. And he denied him saying, woman, I know him not." That's number one. And after a little while, another saw him and said, thou art also of them. So here he is, and they're sitting there, and a guy walked by, and they were probably talking. I'm imagining they're by the fire. Hey, there were a whole bunch of guys that were with him. Yeah, there was that one. Oh, remember that other guy? Oh, yeah, there was that other guy. Who else was with him? And while they're there, someone says, hey, you're one of those. You're one of them. And so Jesus looks at this guy and says, man, I am not. That's two. In about the space of one hour. after another confidently affirmed, saying, of a truth, this fellow also was with him, for he is a Galilean. So here they are, they're talking, and this has been going on for an hour. They've been talking, like the one girl's like, I'm pretty sure I know you. And then this other guy's like, no, I know you're one of them. And they say, no, we know it, we're confident of this fact. You are definitely, you're definitely one of his apostles. We definitely know it. Like, look, you're a Galilean. In one of the other passages, it says that his speech bereath him, his accent. You know, you get somewhere and here's somebody talk. It's like, you're not from around here, are you? It's like, you can tell. Like, oh, you're from Georgia. I can tell. Or you're from Boston. I can tell by the way you're talking. Your speech betrayeth you, you know? It's like, ah, I understand what you're saying there. And what does Peter do? Verse 60, and Peter said, man, I know not what thou sayest. And immediately, while he had spake, the cock crowed. And the Lord turned and looked at Peter. And Peter remembered the Lord, how he had said it, and before the cock crowed, thou shalt deny me thrice. And our memory verse, and Peter went out and wept bitterly. Three times, Peter denies even knowing Christ. Three times, Peter says, I don't know who he is. I don't know anything about it. So when we start talking about denial, denial, denial means different things to different people. Denial, for me personally, when I think of denial, one of the first things that comes to my mind is like an insurance claim. You try to make a claim on your insurance, and it gets denied. I was talking to somebody the other day, and they had a tree fall down. Their tree fell down, but it landed on the neighbor's house. And I remember when we had a tree fall down, and it smushed my neighbor's fence. And so we called the insurance company and said, hey, insurance company, my tree fell over from my yard and landed on the neighbor's shed, and I need to replace that shed. We need to pay for this. And the insurance company said, oh, no. There was a storm, and that tree falling is an act of God. So it's not covered. We deny that, we're not gonna pay for that. I said, okay, well, if you don't cover acts of God, like if a tree falls in a storm, that was beyond you. If a tornado comes through, well, that was an act of God too, right? Like really, I mean, a fire would be an act of God, because he let it happen. So if my house burns down, you could say, well, God let that happen, therefore we're not covering it. It's like, well, what do I need you for? Why am I paying you thousands of dollars a year to deny this thing? With Cynthia and her medical stuff, there's several times we'll go in and try and get a treatment or a medication, and the doctor will prescribe it, and then she'll go to the pharmacy, and the pharmacist will say, well, it's going to be thousands of dollars. We'll say, whoa, thousands of dollars? Why is it thousands of dollars? Well, your insurance denied the claim. And then we've got to call the insurance company. And then the doctor has to call the insurance company. And then we've got to call the doctor. And then everybody calls the pharmacist. And finally, when it's all said and done, they say, OK, yeah, we'll cover this one. It's like, oh, thank goodness. They're going to cover this one. Then we go and get it. And then the next month, it comes up. And she goes in. They say, oh, it's been denied again. It's like, all right, here we go again. But denials happen, right? Sometimes we get denials like that. And sometimes when I think about denial, I think in sports, right? It's a term we use in basketball. When someone goes up for a shot and you block their shot, you know, I denied that shot. I wouldn't let that shot be taken. It's a blocked shot. They didn't even have a chance to score any points. Denied, right? Sometimes we talk about denial, there's that mental aspect too, like a mental health aspect of someone's living in denial. There's something that's obvious to everyone else. But to that person, it's not obvious. They're in denial. You say, okay, well, they're in denial. But kind of the through line between all of these is that in all forms of denial, basically, denial is just the opposite of acceptance. It's the opposite of giving someone a chance. It's the opposite of letting something be true that is known to be true, right? Denial is the idea like, hey, we know this is true. We know this is factual. We know that, obviously, My tree fell on the neighbor's thing. I'm the one at fault. It was my tree that smushed his thing. I should be responsible for this. The insurance company says, no, we don't accept that. We deny that. And that's what happened with Peter here. Peter had a chance to show acceptance of being one of Christ's followers. And it was obvious to the people that were around there that he was one of Christ's followers. But he denied it. But he got into denial. Now, a couple of just quick observations and then we'll kind of get into the meat of this lesson. This story is in all four Gospels. All four Gospels record Peter's denial of Christ. And get this, all four Gospels recall all three denials. So if we go to Matthew, we won't take time this morning, but we can go to Matthew, and in Matthew Jesus says, Peter you're going to deny me three times, and Peter denies Jesus three times in the book of Matthew. In the book of Mark, Jesus tells Peter, Peter you're going to die to me three times, and Peter denies Jesus three times in Mark. We just read Luke where Jesus said, you're going to die to me three times, and here in Luke we see three times Jesus dies to him. If we go to the book of John, Jesus tells Peter, you're going to die to me three times, and Peter goes and denies Christ three times in the book of John. Now some of the semantics, some of the things that go on in those stories are a little bit different in those different passages. To me the one in Luke here is the clearest as far as the breakdown and it tells us that it was an hour, so that timeline is in there too. But there are a lot of things that Peter did when he was with Jesus. Peter walked on the water with Jesus. That's not included in all four Gospels. Remember when they needed some money to pay their taxes and Jesus told Peter to go fish and Peter went out and cast in his line and pulled up a fish that had the gold in its mouth? That's in one Gospel. Peter went and went up with John and James and they went up onto the mountain and they saw Jesus when he was transfigured and Elijah was there and they built that altar and they said, oh, or they wanted to build altars, like, oh, let's build three altars here and like all that. But that's not really what we remember Peter for, is it? When we think about Peter, like, I'd say if we talked about Peter and said, hey, tell me three things about the Apostle Peter. One of those three things that we're gonna think about, he denied Christ. He's the one that denied Christ. He was the leader of the apostles. He walked on water. He denied Christ. In the space of one hour, on what would arguably be probably one of the worst days of his life, Jesus Christ just got arrested. This is what they've been dreading for three years. Jesus Christ is with the high priest. This is what they've been trying to avoid. Like, Jesus, we can't go into Jerusalem. They're gonna arrest you there. This is a bad day. Worst day of his life. In the space of one hour, he denies Christ three times. And that one hour, we're talking about over 2,000 years later. I'm saying all that to say, sometimes we look at Peter and we get a little bit harsh. Like, how dare he? What was he thinking? But if we took your whole life and we went to one of the worst days and chose one hour of your worst, the worst of the worst, one hour of the worst of the worst, think about your worst hour. And that's what we wrote about. And that's what we talked about. And there's a reason that God included it in scripture for us. He said, hey, this was the lowest of the low for Peter. But we read in the beginning, Jesus said it this way, Simon, Simon, Satan hath desired to have you that he may sift you as wheat, but I have prayed for thee. I pray for thee. Really, the idea is that, and when thou art converted, strengthen the brethren. Peter, this is the lowest of the low for you, but this doesn't have to define you. This doesn't have to be the thing that you're known for. In our lives, sometimes we, sometimes, I mean, I'll be honest. I'll raise my hand and confess. I've done some things. I've been involved in things. I say, oh, wish I hadn't done that. I wish I didn't have that mark on me, but I do. And we can choose, do I want that to define me, or do I want all of the other hours? I mean, there's 23 other hours in this day that Peter's there. There's another 168 hours, or 167 hours in that week that Peter was there with things going on. He was just in the garden. He was just with Jesus. He just cut a guy's ear off. I mean, like Peter's been, like, there's some pretty high highs in this week, and there's some pretty low lows in this week. And if you look back over this year and over the last three years for Peter, I mean, there were some pretty big moves in there. Thou art Christ. And Jesus said, blessed art thou, Simon, Flesh and blood hath not revealed this unto thee, but my Father in heaven. Like, whoa. That's some pretty high highs for Peter. Then he could have let this low define him. This denial of Christ. lesson on the back of the lesson there is a quick application. We're just going to walk through these four points and then I've got just a little thing I want to hit this morning. But when he went in there what caused Peter to deny Christ is the question. So, what got him to the place where he did this? Because the same thing Peter did is the same thing that causes us. And when we deny Christ sometimes we don't audibly say, oh, I know not the man like Peter did, right? Sometimes my denial of Christ is when I willfully sin. Because I know that Jesus Christ is the and I know the Lord doesn't want me to do something, but I willfully do it anyway, I'm denied, right? I'm denying Him. Sometimes I deny Christ when I'm embarrassed to be associated with Him. That's what Peter's problem was, right? He was embarrassed to be associated with Jesus. He's like, oh, I don't know who He is. And sometimes I'm guilty of that as well. someone's talking, I'm not willing to stand for Christ, or I don't want to be associated with Christ. Don't think of me as a Christian. I'll be a Christian, but I want to be a Christian on the down low. We still deny Christ's faith. So what caused that? Well, the first thing is, letter A there, he was overconfident. That's when he said, Jesus, I'll go with you to jail and even unto death. Here he's willing to go to death. And just a little bit later, he's like, oh, I don't know who he is. Like, what's he afraid of? Well, they might hurt him. They might arrest him. They might kill him. I thought you were ready for this, Peter. No, he was overconfident. And sometimes that's what happens. Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall. And sometimes that's what happens to us. We become overconfident. Oh, that will never happen to me. I'm too big for this. I can handle this sin. And we can't. And we can't. I'm strong enough. I'm smart enough. I'm fast enough. and we're not, and we become overconfident. And I could tell you hundreds of illustrations of times where I thought I could handle something, I thought I could do something, and I couldn't. And you can think of hundreds of illustrations in your life where you were overconfident to your detriment. And second thing, he followed afar off. When Jesus got taken off, Peter wasn't really close to Jesus, right? The Bible says he followed afar off. Here Jesus gets arrested, he gets carried off. Everybody runs and hides. John's close to Jesus. Peter's kind of sneaking far off. He was close enough to see him, but not close enough to be associated with him, right? And that's the second cause of our denial. Sometimes we deny Christ because I'm too far away. Like, yeah, I'm... I want to be able to see God, but I don't want to be associated with him. I'll still come to church sometimes. I'll still know where my Bible is, but I don't want to be associated with him. I don't want to be that different. I'll have a heart for God, but I don't want to be that different. It cracks me up in sports. I'm a huge sports guy. And it cracks me up in sports. You'll see these different ball players and stuff. And after a game, they come and they talk to him and say, hey, you did really good in this game. All right, well, first of all, I want to thank my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. for giving me the strength to go out here and score these touchdowns today. But I also keep up enough with sports, and I know that this guy's been arrested for multiple crimes, and he's not really what we would consider a good guy. And in this interview, while he's going through all this stuff, he starts cursing and stuff right in this interview. And those guys tried to stop me, but blinkity-blink, I got through. Wait, I thought you were thanking your Lord and Savior Jesus Christ here. I thought you were supposed to be a Christian guy. But your life is not backing up what you're saying. Your actions are not backing up what you're saying. You're following Christ, maybe, but you're really far off. And that's what happened with Peter. And if we're not careful, that's what happens with us. He was also with the wrong crowd. He should have been with the apostles. Instead of sitting with the apostles, no, he's sitting with these other guys. And if we're not careful, if we're around the wrong crowd, that causes us to deny Christ. Peer pressure's still a real thing, even for adults, right? It happens to us. It happens at work for you. It happens sometimes when we're in different places, and sometimes when we're around family, sometimes we're around lost family or worldly family. Those things happen, and when we're with the wrong crowd, it's easy for us to sometimes deny Christ, to want to deny what he says. Last but not least, he was fearful. He was afraid. He was afraid for what was going to happen. What was going to happen to him, what was going to happen to Christ, what was going to happen with the future. He got fearful. He forgot the fact that Jesus Christ is the Lord and that he was the all in all and nothing happens without his permission. He was afraid. What are these guys going to do? And if we're not careful, sometimes we fear, what can man do unto us? Oh, what can people do to me? Oh, well, hey, people can do it. Sometimes I'm afraid of gospel tracts. I want to hint one out. Oh, boy, am I allowed to do this? Is this OK here? I want to make sure that this is going to be an OK thing to do. And we're fearful of what people are going to say or what people are going to do. flip it around. What's the opposite of denial? What's the opposite of denial? Well, it's acceptance. Right? So, if I'm going to not deny Christ the opposite is going to be acceptance. In 2 Timothy chapter 3 Paul warns, in fact he uses the word deny. And I'm just going to, we'll go quick here. But let me go to 2 Timothy chapter number 3. This is the opposite of denial. So, if I'm going to, if I'm not going to deny Christ first of all I need to accept Him. Salvation, right? Accepting Christ. That's the ultimate denial of Christ is to not accept Him as our Savior. That's the ultimate denial. Like we can talk about Peter all we want, but if I know that Jesus Christ is the Lord and yet I don't accept Him as my Savior that's the ultimate denial. In fact, Jesus talks about it being the unpardonable sin. The sin that if I don't accept Him then I can't go to Heaven, which logically makes sense, right? So in 2 Timothy chapter number 3 He's talking about the last days. In St. Timothy 3, 1, this know also in the last days perilous times shall come for men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient spirits, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, truce breakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God. Having a form of godliness, but notice the phrase, denying the power thereof from such turn away. And so if we look at the beginning of that passage if we jump down He's still talking about these guys, verse 13, these are these teachers. But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. continue thou in the things which thou hast learned, and hast been assured of knowing of whom thou hast learned them, and that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which were able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus." Paul tells Timothy, Timothy listen there is going to be a group of people that are going to come in and they are going to teach all this crazy nonsense. They are going to deny the power thereof. They are going to deny the power of the truth. Paul tells us in Romans that it is the Gospel that is the power of God unto salvation. Here he tells Timothy listen, that you've learned from the time you were a little child, the gospel, which is the power to salvation. It's the thing that got you salvation. But these guys deny the gospel. They deny it. So the ultimate denial is to accept the gospel, right? The ultimate denial is to not accept the gospel. First thing we can do to not be in denial is acceptance. The second thing that I see as far as acceptance versus denial is going to be in Jude verse number three. By the way, all three of these passages are talking about false teachers with denial. Denial and false teachings kind of are linked hand in hand in the New Testament. But in Jude, just one chapter, so chapter 1 verse number 3, "'Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you and to exhort you that you should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. For there are certain men, corrupt and unawares, who were before or of old ordained to this kind of nation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and, notice the phrase, denying the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ. So here's the second time we see denial. The first group of people, they deny even getting saved. Second guys, these are guys who have gotten saved, but now they're denying faith. They're denying, really it's a denial of trust, right? So faith and trust, they're not trusting the Lord anymore. These guys have gotten saved, but they don't trust the Lord. And there's a certain amount of trust that we have, right? So if I trust, trust in this pew, can this pew hold my weight? Am I confident that this pew's not gonna go too far if I get up on it? Do I trust that this is gonna be okay? Do I trust that I can get even higher? What's our line of trust? Where does my trust stop? Oh, Grandma Compton. Do you trust me? Not so much. I don't blame you. I trust this pew. I trust I can stand on the back of it. Grandma Compton does not trust that so much. And if 300 pounds fell on Grandma Compton, this would not be good. But here's trust. Here's the thing. I trust the Lord. for my salvation, but sometimes I don't trust the Lord for today's needs. I trust the Lord for my salvation, but then I don't trust the Lord when I don't feel well, and I can't trust Him to heal me. I trust the Lord for my salvation, but I can't trust Him to help me with my bills. I trust the Lord for my salvation, but I can't trust Him for a relationship issue, right? So it's easy for us to trust the Lord for the big things, but sometimes that trust, it extends beyond all that into little things too, right? And when we don't trust Him, I'm denying Him. I'm denying him. Last thing. Just a couple pages over in 2 Peter. And by the way, 2 Peter is written by Peter. So what does Peter say about denial? Because he actually talks about it. In 2 Peter chapter 2, down in verse number 11, Peter talks about denial himself. Sorry. I may have written this one down. 2 Peter 2, 11. Well, this is the right passage, but I am looking for my verse. Maybe it was early on, sorry. Verse 1, there it is, it's verse 1, I've put down too many ones. But there were false prophets also among the people, even as you shall be false teachers among you, which privilege shall bring into damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction. And if we go through this passage, I won't take time right now to break it down, but he's talking about people that are false teachers now, they deny the Lord that bought them, they know that Jesus Christ saved them, and they know that God has a purpose for them, but they don't want to do God's purpose. They're bought. I don't want to accept the fact that I'm bought with a price. Therefore, you're not your own, he says. You're bought with a price. But I don't want to surrender. I don't want to surrender to God's will. I don't want to do what God wants me to do. I'm going to deny God that opportunity. Sometimes I deny God when I don't get saved. denial of acceptance of the Gospel. Sometimes I deny God when I don't have faith, when I don't trust Him. I know this is what God says, but I don't trust that God can work it through. And sometimes I deny God when He says, that's what you need to do, but I'm not willing to do it. I'm not willing to surrender. That's the third denial we do. I don't know where you're at today, what kind of denial we've got going on. Sometimes those denials, the way we deny Christ today, those little areas, And it doesn't take much. Peter, it was one hour, one hour on the worst day, recorded in all three Gospels, all three denials. And I look at my life, and there are times where I deny Christ, I don't trust him like I should. Times I deny Christ, I'm not surrendered like I should. Thank the Lord I've accepted him as my Savior, so I've not denied him there. Or maybe someone in this room today, you've not accepted him as your Savior, you've denied him there as well. The good news is we can come back from that, Peter did. And God used Peter mightily after his denial. But how much better would it have been had he not denied? How much more could he have been used? What would his testimony be?