We turn in God's Word tonight to Matthew 26. Matthew 26, we're going to read two sections of this chapter. First, we're going to begin reading at verse 26 and read through verse 35. Then after that, we're going to jump to verse 57 and read through the end of the chapter. So, Matthew 26, beginning at verse 26. Here we find Jesus and His disciples together in the upper room. And as they were eating, Jesus took bread and blessed it and break it and gave it to the disciples and said, Take, eat, this is my body. He took the cup and gave thanks and gave it to them saying, Drink ye all of it. For this is my blood of the New Testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins. But I say unto you, I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom.' And when they had sung in hymn, they went out into the Mount of Olives. Then saith Jesus unto them, All ye shall be offended because of me this night. For it is written, I will smite the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered abroad. But after I am risen again, I will go before you into Galilee. Peter answered and said unto him, Though all men shall be offended because of thee, yet will I never be offended. Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, that this night before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice. Peter said unto him, Though I should die with thee, yet will I not deny thee. Likewise also said all the disciples. Now we jump to verse 57. Jesus has been arrested now, and he is before Caiaphas. And they that had laid hold on Jesus led him away to Caiaphas the high priest, where the scribes and the elders were assembled. But Peter followed him afar off unto the high priest's palace, and went in and sat with the servants to see the end. Now the chief priests and elders and all the council sought false witness against Jesus to put him to death, but found none. Yea, though many false witnesses came, yet found they none. At the last came two false witnesses and said, This fellow said, I am able to destroy the temple of God and to build it in three days. And the high priest arose and said unto him, Answerest thou nothing? What is it which these witness against thee? But Jesus held his peace. And the high priest answered and said unto him, I adjure thee by the living God, that thou tell us whether thou be the Christ, the Son of God. Jesus saith unto him, Thou hast said, Nevertheless, I say unto you, Hereafter shall ye see the Son of Man sitting on the right hand of power and coming in the clouds of heaven. And the high priest rent his clothes, saying, He hath spoken blasphemy. What further need have we of witnesses? Behold, now ye have heard his blasphemy. What think ye? They answered and said, He is guilty of death. Then did they spit in his face and buffeted him. And others smote him with the palms of their hands, saying, Prophesy unto us, thou Christ, who is he that smote thee? Now begins the words of the text. Now Peter sat without in the palace. And a damsel came unto him, saying, Thou also wast with Jesus of Galilee. But he denied before them all, saying, I know not what thou sayest. And when he was gone out into the porch, another maid saw him and said unto them that were there, This fellow was also with Jesus of Nazareth. And again he denied with an oath, I do not know the man. And after a while came unto him they that stood by and said to Peter, Surely thou also art one of them, for thy speech bereath thee. Then began he to curse and to swear, saying, I know not the man. And immediately the cock crew. And Peter remembered the word of Jesus, which said unto him, Before the cock crow thou shalt deny me thrice. And he went out and wept bitterly." Thus far, we read God's word. Let's ask God's blessing on the preaching. Our Father which art in heaven, through this sin of Peter that we consider tonight. Our prayer is, Father, that we would see our own sins of denying the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray, O Lord, that Thou would humble us through this word, but also may we see in it the wondrous grace and love and mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ. May we see His look of mercy upon us, even as He looked upon Peter in His mercy. And so may we be encouraged and strengthened by this word of the Gospel that we consider tonight. Open our hearts to receive it and strengthen Thy servant to proclaim the truth. In Jesus' name do we pray, Amen. Our Savior is a suffering Savior. We know that about Him. That's what the Scriptures teach us from beginning to end about the Savior who has come to pay for our sin. Now, the question for us as we consider that tonight is, what do we confess concerning this suffering Savior? What do we say about Him? That's a question for us right here and right now. What do we say about Him here and now? That's important. But it's just as important to answer the question, what do we say about Him when we face opposition? When we're with the enemies, like Peter was with the enemies. And then he was tempted to deny Jesus, and he did deny Jesus. What do we confess about Him then? What do we confess about Him? What do we say about Him when we're in the world and we want to do the things that we want to do? These are the questions that face us as we look at this passage. Peter in this situation, the same Peter who confessed that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God in the presence of Jesus and the other disciples, here Peter denies Him. Not once, not twice, but three times. What about us? Do we ever deny Him? Do we ever deny Him in such a situation as Peter was in? We have to humbly answer that question tonight and these questions tonight. What do we say about this Savior, Jesus Christ? For this Savior is a suffering Savior. He suffered in our place the outpouring of the fullness of God's wrath for all our sins. That's the heart and essence of the suffering of our Savior, Jesus Christ. But that's not all that He suffered. He also suffered the nastiness and the hatred of sinful men. We can understand that a bit. We understand that a bit because we know suffering of that kind. We don't know the suffering of God's wrath, but we do know the suffering of sinful men. We know the suffering of the nastiness of others. Others have been nasty to us, and we have been nasty to others. We understand this to a degree. Well, Jesus went through that suffering in His life too. His enemies, the Jewish leaders, conspired to kill Him. In addition to that, one of His own, one of the intimate twelve disciples betrayed Him. And that's what we looked at a couple of weeks ago. He betrayed Jesus with a kiss of all things. that showed not love for Jesus, but hatred for Jesus. Judas Iscariot joined sides with the Jewish leaders as it were the Jewish mafia trying to get rid of this great enemy that was now in Jerusalem. And when they caught him and they arrested him, they did every cruel and awful thing that they could think of to him. They spit on Him. They beat Him. And when they beat Him, they mocked Him and said, oh, why don't you tell us who it is that hit you if you're the Son of God? They did these cruel things. They brought false witnesses to drum up charges against Him. This was all part of that nastiness of wicked men that was against Him. That was part of the suffering of our Savior. But part of that suffering as well is the betrayal of Judas. And now tonight we see that there's another aspect to that suffering at the hands of men. When Peter denied Jesus during his own trial. There are certain things we must see in that tonight. We must see our own sinfulness. But we must also see in this the grace of God, the love of our Savior Jesus Christ for his people. But also in this we must see an aspect of the suffering that our Savior went through as he bore the punishment of our sins. But we also must understand a few things about the setting of all of this when Peter denied Jesus. Part of that setting is that earlier Jesus warned Peter about this. He warned Peter that he would deny Him three times before the rooster crowed twice. We know that from another Gospel account. And for that reason, Jesus even told Peter in the Garden of Gethsemane, along with the other disciples, that they should pray so that they enter not into temptation. We read specifically in Matthew 26, after they were in the upper room, that Jesus warned Peter specifically that he would do this. But Peter probably thought he would never do such a thing. He thought that in his own strength he would never deny the Lord Jesus Christ before men. But then reality struck. The reality that struck was that Jesus was not only arrested, but He allowed Himself to be arrested. Remember, Peter was the one who took his sword out And he was going to fight to defend Jesus. And in doing so, he cut off the ear of Melchizedek. And Jesus then rebuked Peter for doing that. It became clear to Peter and the other disciples that Jesus was simply going to allow himself to be arrested by this band of Roman and Jewish soldiers. So when the disciples saw that, they fled to escape being captured with Jesus. But there was no chase. The soldiers here did not chase after the disciples. They weren't interested in anyone but Jesus. Jesus was then led away alone to the high priest. After the disciples recovered from their panic, as they were in the garden which led them to escape the garden, it was Peter and probably John that gained entrance into the palace of the high priest. They went there to see the end, we read in verse 58 of Matthew 26. They wanted to see what was going to be the end of this trial of Jesus. They wanted to see the outcome. As they were in the palace there of the high priest, John and Peter did not stay together. It may be that John had more privileges there and he could get closer to the trial that was going on, or it may be that they thought that if they stayed together, it was more likely that they would be recognized, so maybe it would be better that they separated from one another. But whatever the case was, we read in the Gospel accounts that Peter went to the fire that was burning there in the courtyard to find warmth. It was cold in the middle of the night there, and so he sought warmth, but also he went to that fire so that in the discussion that was taking place, maybe he would find something out about the trial of Jesus. But it was here in that setting that Peter ran into trouble. He ran into trouble because he was recognized. And he was accused of being one of the disciples of Jesus. And there it is that Peter denies that he knows Jesus. And that's what we want to focus on tonight. Peter's denial of Christ. And so that's our theme. Denying Christ. We look first tonight at the awful sin. Secondly, we will look at the saving look. the look of our Savior as He looked at Peter after Peter denied Jesus three times. And then finally, we'll look at the added suffering, that this is part of the suffering of our Savior for our sins. Peter denied Jesus three times. This same disciple who made such beautiful confessions about who Jesus is, that He is the Christ, the Son of the living God, who made the confession as well when Jesus said, no, you're going to deny me three times. And Peter said, no, I will never deny you. I will never do that. That was a confession that he made as well. The confessions of Peter at those moments, at those times were good. They were strong. They were confessions of conviction. But now here, in the palace of the high priest, Peter denies Jesus three times. He denies any association with Him. Denies that he is a disciple of Jesus Christ. He denies that he is in Christ. Let us look for a moment at these three instances of denial. Peter had only been in that courtyard of the palace of the high priest for a short time when a maid of the high priest that kept the door came to Peter and accused him, saying, you were with Jesus of Galilee. It seems that Peter was quite unprepared for such an accusation. So you can imagine that his mind was processing what he ought to say and how he ought to respond. But he's wondering how they're going to react to his response. What would happen if he acknowledged this? What would the officers do? Would they simply ignore him? Or would they make him the butt of their jokes? Or would they arrest him and imprison him or even put him to death for being a disciple of Jesus? So his quick response, without having much time to think about this, was a simple, ambiguous, nonchalant denial that he knew Jesus. I don't know what you're talking about. I don't know this man that you're talking about. Peter then, in his fear that he would be identified, retreated from that fire in the center of the courtyard to a porch. This was a passageway from the courtyard to the street. And the first thing that happened when he arrived there at that porch was the crowing of a rooster. We know that from another of the Gospel accounts. A rooster crows then. Peter doesn't notice it. He doesn't think at that time anything about it. But when he's there at that porch, another maid comes to him and says, this fellow also was with Jesus of Nazareth. And so the men who were there at that porch challenged Peter. Thou art also of them, they say. More strongly now, Peter denies Jesus. He does so with an oath. And he says, no, I do not know the man. He's calling upon the name of God Himself and saying before, God, I don't know Him. An outright lie, a blatant lie, a denial of the Lord Jesus Christ now a second time. Peter then returns to the courtyard, and he joins in the fireside talk, hoping maybe that he's going to throw people off then, throw people off his scent. But after a while, one of them said, as we read in verse 73, Surely thou also art one of them, for thy speech bereath thee. You see, he had a Galilean dialect. It was clear that he was from Galilee. And therefore, they associated him with Jesus because of that. And they say, ah, you're one of them. You're one of his disciples. Nervous, tense and afraid, Peter begins to curse and to swear, calling upon God to witness that he did not know Jesus. The third time, he denies Jesus. And then, the rooster crows a second time. Peter notices that and he's sorry for what he's done. But before we look at that, we want to see and understand this sin of Peter in denying Jesus. What is this sin? Peter's sin here is that he denied any association or relationship with Jesus. He said, really, I am not the friend of Jesus. I'm not the disciple of Jesus. I'm not an ally of Jesus. I'm not a follower of Jesus. I am not in Jesus Christ. Therefore, I do not pledge my allegiance to Him. There's a phrase in the New Testament that describes so well our relationship with Jesus and Peter's relationship with Jesus. That phrase is, Christ. Peter denies here essentially that he is in Christ. He denies his identity in Christ. He says, I have nothing to do with that man. I don't want him. It's not only then that Peter is denying Christ and any relationship of friendship and love with him, but in doing so, Peter is allying himself with the enemy. He's saying to those around him, I'm like you. I hate him like you do. I am no friend of his. He's not the Christ. For Peter even calls him man. And he does this most strongly under oath. He makes the strongest possible denial of Jesus Christ. Now, Peter does this. as one who really is a friend of Jesus and who is a disciple of Jesus Christ. There are many other times when Peter confessed that and he did so openly, but now it's in this moment when he denies Jesus. It's in this moment that he does so because for Peter, his relationship with Jesus right now is dependent upon the circumstances. When he's with Jesus and the disciples, he could confess with conviction and boldly, thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And he would say to Jesus and the disciples as well, I will never deny you. But now here he is in the presence of the enemy. It's at this moment, although he is a disciple and friend of the Lord Jesus Christ, that he refuses to find his identity in Jesus. He's saying here, I'm going to stand on my own. And he did that because he was afraid of the consequences. Fear drove him to deny Jesus at this moment. You see, his confession at this moment was governed by the circumstances and not by the reality of his relationship with Jesus Christ. We see in this the weakness of Peter's sinful flesh and the weakness of our own sinful flesh. At this moment, instead of hating and strangling the old man of sin, Peter was living out of the old man of sin. He's not living at this moment as Peter the Rock, a spiritually strong man in Jesus Christ. but he acts as Simon, the carnal man, the old man of sin. At this moment, he would rather be identified with the world of unbelief than to be identified with Jesus Christ. That's the sin of Peter in denying Jesus. And we must take that sin of Peter and apply that to ourselves and let us see tonight, humbly, in the power of the Holy Spirit the sin in ourselves. We can and we must identify ourselves with Peter because we have this same sinful flesh. We have walked in this same sin when we have failed to live out of our identity in Jesus Christ. I want us to see and understand tonight what that means that we are in Christ. That's a phrase that you find often in the New Testament. In Christ. That's a way in the New Testament that we have described the relationship that we have with Jesus Christ. It's our relationship as the friends of Christ and the disciples or followers of Jesus Christ. What does it mean to be in Christ? This means that we have a bond. There's a bond that unites us to Jesus Christ. It means that we are so united to Christ that His life comes to us and His life lives within our spiritual hearts. We are so in Christ that He has given us His Spirit to dwell within us. And there are the many blessings that we have in that union with Christ. The blessings of that union are found in a couple of passages especially. I call your attention to Philippians 3. Philippians 3, verses 9 and 10, where the Apostle Paul speaks of being in Christ. We read in verse 9 of Philippians 3, "...and be found in Him." There you notice it. In Him. Not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith, that I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection, the fellowship of His sufferings being made conformable unto His death." What does it mean to be in Christ? It means very really that because we're in Christ, we have the righteousness of Christ. God sees us in that righteousness. It means as well that we know Him. And that we know the power of His resurrection. The resurrection. The life of Christ lives within us. And we live out of that. And because we're in Christ, there's fellowship that we have with His sufferings. There's going to be suffering for us. Peter didn't want suffering. That's why he denies Jesus. He didn't want the suffering that came along with being a disciple of Christ. He didn't want to take up His cross and follow Jesus. He didn't want to deny Himself and take up that cross and follow Jesus. He wanted to follow Jesus without any suffering. And we can identify with that. We don't like suffering either. We don't like that aspect of being followers of the Lord Jesus Christ. But to be in Christ means that we're the friends of Jesus Christ. We're the friends of Him who laid down His life for us. We are disciples then who must deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow Him. But we have to understand that there are moments in our lives when we don't want this. Just like there was this moment in Peter's life when he didn't want to be identified with Christ. We know Christ. We confess Christ. But there are times when we don't. We can relate to what Peter was going through here. We know that too for ourselves. If there's the threat of suffering, if there's the threat of mocking, how willing aren't we to say nothing about Jesus Christ or our Christianity before the world? But it's more than that. And we have to see that, beloved. There are more times than that when we deny the Lord Jesus Christ. We deny the Lord Jesus Christ in our lives on a daily basis when we do not live out of our identity in Him. When we don't live out of our relationship with Jesus Christ. It happens on a daily basis. Think of that. Think of that in our marriages. In marriage, if we as husbands are harsh and live in bitterness with our wives, as we're warned against in our marriage form and in the Scriptures. But if we live in that way, we're denying Christ. We're saying the Lord Jesus Christ has nothing to say to me in my marriage right now, no matter how I've been hurt. And the same thing for a wife. If she lives in bitterness and anger with her husband, What we're saying at that time is, the Lord Jesus Christ has nothing to say to me right now as I'm angry and as I'm bitter because of what's been done against me. That's a denial of Jesus Christ, the relationship that we have with Him. The same thing is true in the relationships that we have in our homes, between parents and children or between brothers and sisters. Brothers and sisters sometimes fight. We fight over a toy. We fight over who gets in the bathroom first. We fight over all kinds of different things. The last cookie. Whatever it may be. At those times when we fight about those things, we're saying that right now, I don't care about being the friend of the Lord Jesus Christ. All I care about is what I want at that time. We also deny the Lord Jesus Christ when we live like the world. That's a denial of Jesus. Peter was saying here, we'd rather be in the world, be with the enemies of Christ, than to be associated with Christ Himself. Well, we do the same thing when we say that we want the things of this world rather than the Lord Jesus Christ. We don't want to deny ourselves those things. So when we listen to the music of this world, when we watch the sexual immorality of this world, when we drink too much, when we turn to drugs or any of the other things of this world, we're saying then, I don't want Christ, but these things are better than Christ to me. That's a denial of Christ. It's failing to see the relationship we have with Christ. It's failing to live out of that relationship in our lives. It's saying, I want autonomy in my life. I want rule in my life. I want control in my life. I don't like the control and the rule of the Lord Jesus Christ. Tonight, we have to face the fact that Peter's sin is our sin. And we commit it often. It's so easy for us to look at Peter and say, how could Peter do something like that? Especially after what he had said and the warning that Jesus gave. Well, how many warnings hasn't the Lord Jesus Christ given us in His Word about worldliness, about living for ourselves? And we do it time and time again. We need to ask ourselves then that same question. How could we do this after all that the Lord Jesus Christ has done for us and spoken to us? How could we deny Him? Well, there's an answer to that. The answer in Peter's life is pride. It was pride. He thought he could do it in his own strength. That's what he said earlier, essentially, when Jesus warned him. He said, oh, I would never do that. Maybe we have times of looking at Peter and others in the Bible and saying, I would never do something like that. We have to look at ourselves and take heed of ourselves lest we fall. Because the great danger is that in our pride we would elevate ourselves above others and think that we can do it in our own strength, and we cannot. Peter is a living testimony of that. This Peter who confessed that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, he fell into this great sin of denying Jesus three times publicly. We have to know that we easily can fall into that same sin. And the root of it is pride. May we not be lifted up in pride. May the word of God humble us tonight and show us that we do commit this sin and we're capable of committing this sin and we cannot fight it in our own strength. But there's a wonderful word of the gospel here. There's a wonderful word of good news, and that good news is found in a look. We don't read that specifically here in Matthew 26. We do read of that in Luke 22. But there are two parts to this. First, there was the crowing of the rooster. And along with that, Peter saw Jesus. And these two events go together and they're of great significance here in the text. We read here in the text that when the cock crowed, Peter remembered the word. of Jesus. That word of Jesus that he would deny Him thrice, three times before the cock crowed. He remembered his proud boast that he would never deny Jesus. And now he was ashamed of what he had done. But at that same time, Peter saw Jesus. Peter looked in the direction of the room where Jesus was being tried and their eyes met at that moment. We don't know exactly how that all happened. The Scriptures don't tell us. Some think that Jesus was being transferred from one room to another at that time, exactly that time when the cock crowed and Peter saw and understood his sin. Maybe that was the case. Or maybe there was a way to see into the room where Jesus was being tried. Maybe there's some kind of window there. And then their eyes met exactly at that moment. Whatever the case is, we don't know, but their eyes met. And as we said, we read that in Luke 22, verse 61. We read there, "...and the Lord turned and looked upon Peter, and Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how he had said unto him before the cock crow, Thou shalt deny me thrice." What we want to see and understand tonight is the significance of that look. What's the significance of it? It's been described as a look of wounded love. First of all, in that look of Jesus, when their eyes met, Jesus' look indicated that he knew what Peter had done. He knew Peter's sin. He knew that Peter had denied him three times, just like he told him he would do. And Jesus was grieved by that sin of Peter. It was a sin against him. He was hurt by that sin. But that wasn't the only aspect of that look. It's not a look of anger. It's not a look of despising Peter for what he had done. In addition, it was a look of love. It was a look of mercy and favor. Jesus was not filled with anger at this moment, but instead He was filled with love. He was filled with the radiance of His grace, and that radiance of His grace was shown to Peter in that look as well. We know that because Jesus, in everything that He did, in all of His suffering, was governed by the love that He had for His sheep. He was there because in a few hours He was going to lay down His life for His sheep by hanging there on the cross and bearing the fullness of God's wrath and that governed this look of Jesus towards Peter. He looks to Him in His love. Beloved, let us see tonight that this is the way that our Lord Jesus Christ looks at us in all of our denials of Him. It's as if tonight we look into the very eyes of our Savior, and He knows every one of our sins. He knows every one of our denials of Him. We can maybe hide it from others, but He knows how we've denied Him. It's a piercing look, but it's also a loving look. He looks at us in His love. For our sins do not break the bond of love that we have with Jesus Christ. Our sins don't change the reality of being in Christ, of being united to Him. Our sins don't break that union. Our sins don't break that bond, that glue, as it were, that holds us to the Lord Jesus Christ. Our sins don't break it. They cannot break it. They do not break the bond of God's covenant friendship with us. We see tonight that our Lord Jesus Christ looks upon us in His love. And He forgives us for our sins. And He does that because He paid for those sins by His death on the cross of Calvary. You see, we have to see this look and we have to see this history under the shadow of the cross and what Jesus would do in the very next hours. And so tonight we see one amazing and wondrous look. Almost overwhelming, isn't it? That the Savior that we so often deny, by not living as we should out of Him, that that Savior, still looks upon us in love. That Savior who bore the wrath of God for all those denials, who knows the awfulness of God's wrath for our sins, and who took that upon Himself, He still looks upon us. in love. How amazing that is. How wonderful that is. His love for us never changes. Be assured of that tonight. Be assured that He forgives us for our sins because He has paid for them on the cross of Calvary. There's something else to notice in this look of Jesus. This look of Jesus was powerful to bring Peter to repentance for his sin. For Peter, this was a powerful look and a shaming look. The result of this look was that Peter went out and wept. And we know that Peter, as a disciple of Christ, a friend of the living God and a friend of Jesus Christ, he was broken for his sin with a godly sorrow." He saw his sin at this moment like he had never seen it before. He not only saw that he denied Jesus, but he saw more and more the sin that plagued him in his life. The sin that plagued him was his pride. Now he sees his pride and he's humbled. And this is part of the reason that he goes through this, so that he would be humbled by the Lord Jesus Christ, because that humility was so necessary for him to be a faithful servant of Christ going forward as an apostle. It wasn't that long ago in John 21 that we looked at that passage at the time of installation of office bears, that we looked at the chief qualification for an office bear. and looked at that passage where Jesus reinstituted Peter as an apostle. When Jesus called him to feed his sheep and to feed his lambs as an apostle and servant of Jesus Christ. This is an awful sin, but it didn't disqualify Peter from being that servant of Christ and being a minister of the gospel. Instead, God used this to humble Peter so that he could be a better apostle of Jesus Christ. God used this to humble Peter, and he was humbled. All he could do was weep and throw himself on the mercy of God and on Jesus, his Savior. You see, Peter learned here more clearly how he needed Jesus before he thought, I can do it in my own strength. I will never deny you, Jesus." That was his pride speaking at that time. But now he's humbled and he understands not only that he needs God's mercy, that he needs the cross of Jesus Christ, but he understands as well that he needs the power and the strength of Jesus Christ to live as he should. We see that as well tonight. We're humbled. We're humbled by our many denials of the Lord Jesus Christ. May the look of Jesus tonight bring us to true repentance. I've not lived out of what I am in Jesus Christ. And the source of that is my pride. My awful pride in which I think I'm much better than I actually am. And I am not better than I am. I'm much worse than I actually see myself. That's reality. The Word of God always does that, doesn't it? It grounds us in reality. Not our own reality. What I think is reality. No, this is reality. Pride is reality. I think I'm usually much better than I actually am. Now we're grounded tonight in the reality of what we are really like. Just as Peter was grounded in the reality of what he is really like. The look of Jesus does that. It's strong. It's piercing. May we look or see that look of Jesus in the same way tonight. Jesus shows us tonight how we have denied Him. He shows us our pride and our selfishness. He shows us where we have denied Him. Where have you denied Him? Do you see it? Where have I denied Him? Do I see it tonight? How have we done it in this past week? Have others seen it? Have others seen it? That's a question that usually comes up, isn't it, for us, we're concerned about others. What do they see? What do they know? That's not the most important thing. You see, that was the part of the problem for Peter, he was concerned about what others were thinking of him, he was overcome by the fear of man. At that moment, when he denied Jesus. That's the way we can so often be. We're concerned what others think, what others say. Tonight, all of that dissolves into the background. And now each one of us comes and we stand before the Lord Jesus Christ. His eyes are upon us. We're looking at Him. What does He say? And He says, I see it all. None of it's hid. But in saying that, with his look, he's bringing us to a true repentance for our sins. What does that look of Jesus produce in us? May it produce true repentance. What is true repentance? Godly sorrow for sin. Not just tears, but tears of one who's broken by that sin. By the awfulness of that sin, I've denied the Savior who gave His life for me. I've denied the Savior in so many ways who has united me to Him. I've denied this One who is my friend and is such a great friend that He laid down His life for me. I've denied this One who is my Master. And I'm His disciple and His follower who is called to deny myself and take up my cross and follow Him. And I have not done that. I've sinned against Him. And now, that true repentance turns towards Him and says, I need Him. I need His cross. I need His mercy. And I desire now to turn from my sinful ways and to obey Him and to do what is right. May that look of Jesus upon us tonight cause us to confess, beautiful Savior, Jesus is mine. He is, he's mine, and I am his. May God give us the grace then to respond in this way, to believe in him, and that we would not continue in our denials of him. In addition to that, we learn from this passage part of the suffering of our Savior, Jesus Christ. We see in the passage that there is no one who could suffer what our Lord Jesus Christ suffered. No one could share the suffering of Jesus Christ or help Him in His suffering. Jesus' foremost disciple was offended at what he saw. He was offended at his deliberate, voluntary suffering. He was offended at the Son of God who is seeking the cross and death and hell for the payment of our sins in His love and service of God. Peter couldn't figure that out. It was too lovely and too godly and too dreadful for him. It was too contrary to human reasoning. He was offended at all of that. But there is a reason for that to take place too. The reason is to show us that our Savior had to suffer all of this alone. He was forsaken of men. He was forsaken of His very disciples who fled. And now He's forsaken of Peter here in the palace of the high priest. All to show us that Jesus had to suffer alone. There was no one who could help Him. There was no one who could help him. He was forsaken by men. It wasn't about what man and what he does. It's about the Son of God and what He does to pay for our sins. And that shows us very beautifully tonight that only Jesus could suffer for our sins. He suffered alone. The path to the cross and the hell that He suffered, He had to travel that alone. He bore the wrath of God alone. to satisfy God's justice. He alone could bring the perfect sacrifice of Himself. And that's true because of our own unrighteousness. We have nothing to add. We have nothing to bring. It's all the work of Jesus Christ. And so we see tonight, Jesus paid it all. And all to Him, then, I owe. He went to make payment for our sins, and He did that perfectly. As we end tonight, we want to see that all your denials of Jesus, all my denials of Jesus, they've been paid in full by the wondrous cross that our Savior walked alone. He bore it all. He bore it in full. There is no more punishment. for our sins. And because that's true, we see that everything we need is found in Jesus Christ. That's the good news tonight. A good news in the midst of an awful sin. Awful sins. Denying Jesus. Is there anything more awful? Not only Peter's sin, but our sin. But the good news is that Jesus paid for those sins. May the reality of that fill our souls in this week as we remember the death of our Savior, Jesus Christ, and may we be filled with love for him and joy and gladness for what he has done for us. Amen. Let us pray. Father in heaven, we give thanks tonight for the cross of Jesus Christ, for the saving look that he gave Peter and that we see tonight as well. And may we learn, Father, to live out of who we are in Jesus Christ. May we learn to live out of our identity in Him. Father, forgive us for our denials of Thee and denials of Jesus Christ in our lives. And we pray that that will turn us from those sins as we've seen them tonight, and give us strength that day by day, that in thankfulness for what Jesus Christ has done, we would live as his friends out of what we are in him. It's in Jesus' name that we pray all these things. Amen.