Amen. Let's all take our Bibles now and turn to Matthew 26. As we begin a two-part series I have entitled, A Tale of Two Disciples. We're going to look this morning at the end of Matthew 26, at the story of Peter and his triple denial, and then next week we'll look at the beginning of Matthew 27, And look at Judas and his suicide. We're all familiar with Peter. We all know him, I think, probably better than any of the disciples from all that the New Testament has to say about him and about his character, his nature, his behavior, his actions, both good and bad. He's certainly the one apostle of the twelve that most is written about He's the most preeminent of all of the 12 disciples. He is the spokesman for the group, and this in both a good as well as a not so good way. I think he's the one that we all can identify with to some extent. And some of you might say, well, I'm nothing like Peter. I would never sit in the front of the classroom. I would never raise my hand. I wouldn't ever speak out like that. I try to hide. Yeah, but that might be true. But when Peter does raise his hand, when Peter does speak out, when Peter does ask that question, even if he winds up putting his foot in his mouth when he does it, you're glad he asked it because it's the question you wanted to ask, right? You may not be one who, like me, always sat in the front and didn't care what anybody else thought and raised your hand. Well, does that mean? Does that mean? But you were glad when he asked it. because that was your question or he asked it and you're like, oh, I never even thought of that. That is a good question. Peter's name appears first in every list of the disciples. He is also part of the inner circle of Peter, James and John, when Jesus singled out just three of them to be with him on special occasions and to receive additional instruction or to see a particular miracle, etc. It was those three that he singled out, Peter, James, and John, and Peter's name is always listed first there as well. The apostle Peter is certainly the most famous of all the apostles in the book of Acts until Paul comes onto the scene. And it is he himself who becomes the spokesman for the church, not just on the day of Pentecost, when he preaches to the very same people that 40 days before said, we want Barabbas. He's the one in Acts chapter 1 who instigates on the basis of what the scripture says, the replacement of Judas, so they have back to 12 apostles. And it's the apostle Peter who denies the Lord three times in the high priest's courtyard on the night in which Jesus was betrayed, that stands not before the high priest's servants, but before the high priest in the Sanhedrin in Acts chapter 4, and says, if you want to know how this miracle happened, where this lame man can now walk, it's Jesus Christ whom you crucified. That's the power you see on display. And it's that same Peter in Acts chapter 4 who says to those same authorities who condemned Christ, as to whether or not it's right for us to obey you rather than God, you can decide. But as for us, we will obey God rather than you, and we're going to keep right on preaching Jesus Christ. This is Peter. This is Peter the Apostle. This is, in many respects, the first among the apostles. Now, he is not the first pope, but he is certainly the first among the apostles and the one that Jesus singled out to be the first spokesman for his church. And as we look today at Matthew chapter 26. I want you to see both the nature of this man and his fallibility as well as the power of God to shape a fallen instrument and turn him into the chief spokesman for the church. We have a record of failure. This is a magnificent failure on Peter's part. I mean, he blows it bigger and better than than any of the rest of the twelve who were actually saved. Obviously, Judas is an exception, and next week when we come back and we take a look at Judas, we'll spend our practical side of our discussion next week comparing Judas with Peter. And we'll see the difference between a believer who blows it and an apostate. But for today, we're going to see the rock, who is at the same time the apostle with the foot-shaped mouth. We're going to see the chief of the apostles who is every bit as fallible and every bit as subject to failure as we are. And I want to look at our text, Matthew, chapter 26, verses 69 to 75 this morning from two different perspectives. So if you're taking notes. We're going to look at this from two different perspectives. First of all, we're going to look at the reality of Peter's denials, and we're going to walk right through the text, and we're going to see the three denials, and we're going to see the context in each one, and we're going to look at the parallel accounts, because Mark, Luke, and John all write about this, as well as Matthew. This is one of the few events that is described and detailed in all four Gospels, which makes it a very significant event. And one of the things that people many times have problems with is when the accounts have variances, it becomes disconcerting to some that, well, it seems like they contradict each other. What I want to do for you again this morning is walk through all four of those accounts and put together the harmonization of all four of these and help you to see these accounts are all in harmony. They're all giving an accurate and truthful representation, a factual representation of what happened. And as you kind of build a more composite picture, you get to see the nature of the totality of Peter's failure. And I just as a footnote here, I really appreciate the honesty of scripture. I don't know about you, but when I read through the pages of scripture, I find it very reassuring to find that the heroes of the faith, with the exception of Jesus Christ, are as fallible as I am. I find it encouraging to see that God can make use of and even in great ways make use of people that are just as frail, just as subject to failure, and just as likely to blow it as I am. You look at Abraham. You look at Isaac and Jacob. And you can see the record of faith and also the record of failure. You can look at Moses. The instrument that God uses to deliver his people from bondage in Egypt and the one he uses to do great miracles in that context is also the one who started his career, so to speak, as a leader in Israel, as a murderer, and ended it with arrogance and being excluded from, through striking the rock, being excluded from being able to enter into the promised land until the transfiguration. And you look at David, the man after God's own heart, who blows it royally in the context of Uriah and Bathsheba. You look at Elijah, who had that great encounter with 800 prophets of Baal, a great victory, and calls down a miracle from heaven that consumed the offering that has been just drenched in water. And then has all those prophets, all those false prophets executed. And then one threat from from evil Jezebel. And he says, God, I want to come home. You see, when you look at the record of Scripture, it is a very honest record. It is a very truthful account. of both the greatness of God and His ability to use His people, even frail instruments like you and me, and do great things through them when they trust in Him and are faithful to Him, and who are like you and me, as susceptible to blowing it royally as anybody else. If you really want to know who the hero of the Bible is, it's God. And it's manifested in the person of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And I hope to show you as we work through the text, show you a little bit of the contrast, just a tiny inkling of the contrast between the way Jesus faces His trial and the way Peter faces his. The way Jesus stands true all the way to the cross and the way Peter collapses and blows it big time. And then I'd like to, as we close out, look at it from a second perspective. and very briefly show you the reason for Peter's denials. Once we look at the reality of it, which fulfills what Jesus said was going to happen, which is Matthew's main focus. Remember, Matthew is writing his gospel to a biblically literate audience, a predominantly Jewish audience, and every account that he has chosen and put together here is specifically geared to prove that Jesus is the fulfillment of the Old Testament Scriptures and is the Messiah, right? That's why, by the way, After Matthew 26, Peter, excuse me, Matthew never refers to Peter again. He never mentions him by name again. He never talks about John 21 and Jesus restoring Peter to his place as an apostle. He never talks about Peter by name. He doesn't name any of the other disciples. He's going to cover Peter here at the end of 26. He's going to cover Judas at the beginning of chapter 27. And after that, any reference to the disciples is left as just to the disciples. Why? Because Matthew's primary focus is not on the disciples. It's on Jesus and proving that he is the Messiah. The reason that he records Peter's denials is because it is a fulfillment of what Jesus said would happen. You can believe that Jesus is the Messiah Because not only did he say, the Old Testament says, the shepherd will be struck and the sheep will be scattered. Jesus added to that, Peter, tonight before the rooster crows, you're going to deny you even know me three times. And you know something? When the shepherd was struck, the sheep were scattered. And that very night, just like Jesus said, Peter denied him three times. That's Matthew's point. But if you step back from a practical perspective, and I think this is useful in our case, You step back from a practical perspective and think not only how this proves Jesus is the Messiah, but as believers, look at Peter's failure and consider some of the reasons why he blew it. I think you'll find there's some really useful, practical instruction for us. And we'll close out with a reminder of what Paul says to the Corinthians. Let he who thinks he stands take heed, lest he what? Fall. And I think this is the real lesson for those of us who are believers from this text. Peter didn't blow it because he wasn't a believer. Peter didn't blow it because he wasn't a strong believer, because he didn't have enough faith in Christ. He didn't have enough conviction because he wasn't strong enough in his faith. That's not why Peter blew it. When you see why Peter blew it, you'll see that you and I are very susceptible as well. And I hope this will be a good lesson and a warning for us. I hope we walk out of here. recognizing we can be very much like Peter, a magnificent instrument that God will use in great ways when we are faithful to him, and a magnificent failure in great ways when we try to do it ourselves in our own way. So if you'll take your Bibles, if you haven't done so already, and look with me at Matthew chapter 26, picking up in verse 69. We don't have a lot of verses to go through, and we're not going to belabor the point this morning. I just want to walk through the three denials to start with and look at the reality of Peter's denials and show you this is an absolute fulfillment of what Jesus said was going to happen. And this is the primary point that Matthew is making in his gospel. And if you want to put a little marker, you don't have to turn to all of them, but if you want to know the parallels, Mark 14, Luke 22 and John 18 are the three other places in the gospels where this event is referred to. And we're going to kind of build a composite here as we look at all three of the denials in Matthew and then compare in Mark 14, Luke 22, and John 18 and get a kind of a fuller, a more compound or composite picture of the whole of the event. We see the first denial begins in verse 69. Peter is sitting outside in the courtyard. That is the courtyard of the high priest. If you look back a few verses, to verse 55. Remember when the soldiers come to arrest Jesus and Judas betrays him? At the end, Jesus addresses all of those soldiers, the Roman cohort, whether 200 of them showed up, 400 showed up, 600 showed up, and another one to 200 officials or temple guards, the official police force, if you will, or security force of the Sanhedrin. Somewhere between three and eight hundred men come out to the garden of Gethsemane to arrest Jesus. And when they get there, Jesus says to them in verse fifty five, Have you come out with swords and clubs to arrest me as you would against a robber? Every day I used to sit in the temple teaching and you did not seize me. But all of this has taken place to fulfill the scriptures of the prophets. And then all the disciples left him and fled. He says to those arresting him, the whole reason you're doing this and the way it's playing out this way is that this is what the scripture said is going to happen and that's what's being fulfilled. And he announced it to them. And you think that they would take note, right? But you would also think that they would take note of the fact that when Peter cuts off the high priest servant's ear and he heals it, whoa, this guy just did a miracle. Are we sure we want to arrest this guy? Or for that matter, when the whole event started, remember what we saw in John 18? Several hundred soldiers come out and Jesus steps out. Who do you seek? And they said, Jesus of Nazareth. He says, I am. And what happens? They all fall down. You would think that that might cause you to say, wait, maybe we ought to not mess with this guy. But they don't. And why not? Because this is what God said was going to happen. And the reason for those miracles, even in that context, is to continue to demonstrate to us unequivocally the whole time Jesus was the one who was in control. Jesus gave up his life for us. He laid his life down for us of his own authority. Now, at the end of verse 56, and this sets the context for what we're looking at now, it says, then all the disciples left him and fled, just like the Old Testament said. The shepherd will be struck and the sheep will be scattered. So they all flee. Meanwhile, you look down in verses 57 and 58, where we were last week, those who had seized Jesus led him away to Caiaphas. Now remember, this is This is now walking along the road, along the edge of the wall, out of the Garden of Gethsemane, off of the Mount of Olives, down the Kidron Valley, around to the side, and back up into the city of Jerusalem. And they march them straight to the high priest's estate. This would be a place where both Caiaphas and Annas would be residing. Some of the works that I read said there might even have been other family members that had houses there, so it would have been a larger perhaps an even larger estate, and it would have buildings along the outside, and the whole estate would be walled in, and there was a big courtyard in the center, not unlike the courtyard in the back here behind the church. And so Caiaphas and the high priest and the scribes and the elders, they're all being gathered together. Jesus is taken first before Annas in one end of the compound and then led before Caiaphas and a portion of the Sanhedrin that is gathered for the trial that we saw when we looked at verses 57 to 68. And we're told in verse 58 that Peter was following at a distance as far as the courtyard of the high priest. He entered in and sat down with the officers to see the outcome. Now, this right here is where we pick up in verse 69. Matthew told us in verses 59 to 68 about what happened to Jesus. Now he's going to go back and pick up the account back with Peter, who's following along behind. And he gets to the gate, the entrance to the estate. And this would have most likely been a metal gate. It would have had a chain. It would have had a lock, etc. And they would have had a gatekeeper, somebody out there. And if I don't know you, I'm not letting you in. John 18 tells us that it was John that got Peter access into the high priest's courtyard. So he comes in, having gained access, And now he's milling around and he's there with the officers of the high priest that arrested Jesus. And he's there with the high priest's servants and the members of the household. This is right around 2, 3 o'clock in the morning. And so the only reason all these people are up is because the whole trial of Jesus. There's big stuff going on on this campus tonight, right? And so everybody is up and everybody is alert. And we're told they start a fire in the center of the courtyard. and some of the soldiers who had arrested Jesus. Now, the Romans would have gone back to the fortress of Antonia once they delivered Jesus to the high priest, but the temple guards would have stayed. And so that's what you have going on in your courtyard. Peter is sitting outside that is outside of the household where Jesus is being tried first by Annas and then the other room where he's being tried by Caiaphas. And he's outside in the courtyard and a servant girl came to him and said, you two were with Jesus, the Galilean. Now, it's interesting, again, remember, this is somewhere between 2 and 3 a.m. at this point. Remember, Jesus was up all night praying for several hours. They had the Passover meal. They walked over to Olivet. They're in the garden. and he prays for a few hours and he gets arrested and they haul him or march him all the way back to the high priest's house. First he's before Annas and all this. So we're looking at a time frame somewhere for this first one, somewhere between 2, more likely 3 to 4 a.m. So right around, this is probably somewhere between 2.30 and 3 o'clock in the morning. Peter has been up all night, remember? He was instructed to pray and fell asleep a couple of times. You can imagine. He's not exactly at his best. You know what I'm talking about? Ever been there? This is Peter. He's distressed. Jesus has been arrested. And here we go. Peter is about to face his first extreme trial. If you think about it, there is a sense in which Peter has already from a human perspective face the worst of it, right? Three to five hundred, maybe eight hundred soldiers come out to arrest Jesus, and Peter's the one, according to John 18, that draws his little short sword and tries to take them all on. When Peter said, even if all fall away, I will never fall away, Peter proved he meant it, didn't he? Peter proved that he was willing to die, didn't he? And we look at that, and we look up to that, and we appreciate that, and we We wish we had that kind of boldness and courage. And then we miss the fact that when Jesus rebukes him and he says, Peter, put your sword away, he who lives by the sword will what? Die by the sword. Peter, you're rebelling against a lawful authority. Even if they're acting unjustly, that's a lawful authority. And you're committing a capital offense which makes you guilty of Capital punishment. He gets confronted in his sin. Listen, if I wanted to stop this, I'd ask my father for 12 legions of angels and we shut the whole thing down, right? So from Peter's perspective, you're looking at his own strength. He has been everything he promised to be. But what he what he did was not. Honor God, what he did was take matters into his own hands. What he did was wrong. We look up to it because we don't see the way God sees. What he did was courageous and wrong, wrong. Then when he follows along, I remind you of what Jesus said in Luke 22, you don't have to turn there, just listen as I read Luke chapter 22. And they're at the Lord's Supper when they're having the Passover meal. A dispute arises amongst the disciples, among them, as to which of them was to be regarded as the greatest. Do you remember this argument? They had it repeatedly through three years. Which one of them is the greatest? Jesus said to them, the kings of the Gentiles lord it over them, and those who have authority over them are called benefactors. But it's not to be this way with you. The one who is the greatest among you must become like the youngest and the leader, like the servant. Who is greater, the one who reclines at the table or the one who serves? Is it not the one who reclines? But I am here among you as the one who serves." And if you compare in John's Gospel, John 13, what did Jesus start the evening with? Washing all their feet. This is what biblical leadership looks like, gentlemen. And you are the first generation of biblical leaders that I've trained up for my church. Verse 28, you are those who have stood by me in my trials, just as my Father has granted me a kingdom, so I grant to you that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom, and you will sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel. But you're going to do it following my example of leadership, not following the Gentile example of leadership. And then he says directly to Peter, Simon, Simon, and you know, just as a footnote, For those of you that are getting into your New Testament readings as you're reading through the Bible every year, pay attention to whether Jesus calls Peter Simon, Peter, or Simon Peter. And pay attention to the context. He is typically addressing him as Peter when he's telling him about who he needs to be. or who he's behaving like when he's doing it right. He typically calls him Simon when he's behaving like who he used to be and needs to not be like, and he's calling him Simon Peter when he's in between. Just for what it's worth, that's a footnote, doesn't count against my time, Chuck, but you look at the different ways that Jesus addresses Peter, and I just find it very fascinating. It might be worth your attention. In any case, here in verse 31 of Luke 22, in the context of the upper room discussion, he says, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has demanded permission to sift you like wheat. Simon, Simon says it twice to get his undivided attention. You ever you ever behave that way with your kids, Liam, Liam, right? I got everybody's attention with that, didn't I see it? You say it twice. You get that. Jesus is doing this to Peter here. Simon, Simon, Satan. has demanded permission to sift you like wheat. But I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And you, when once you have turned again, strengthen your brother." What did he just tell him? Peter, Satan has demanded permission to lay into you. And I've prayed that your faith won't fail, which means what? You're going to blow it. But when you've turned, when you come back, Take what you've learned and you strengthen your brothers. Be who I've called you to be. Don't be Simon anymore. Now be Peter the Rock. It's that same evening. Peter says, Lord, with you, I'm ready to go both to prison and to death. You know what? He did prove that. He proved he was willing, ready to die for him there. In rebellion against God and against lawful authorities. But that's not what God has called us to. God has called us to live a life that honors Him, that demonstrates obedience to His commands. I say to you, Peter, the rooster will not crow today until you have denied three times that you know me. Three times you're going to deny. No, you say you're willing to go to prison and to death with me. I'm telling you, you're going to blow it and you're going to blow it big three times. Satan's after you. By the way, I also remind you that when they got to the garden and he separated Peter, James, and John and brought him over with him and said, pray for me. Peter did really well there, didn't he? He fell asleep. Jesus comes back after an hour of praying for himself and he says, wait, you couldn't even pray for me for an hour? Okay, now pray for yourselves that you don't fall into temptation. And he goes away and prays some more and he comes back and what does he find him? Sleeping again. He's told Peter directly, you're going to blow it. You're going to fail. Satan himself is personally after you. Wake up, Peter. Pray. Be on the alert. There's a spiritual challenge coming here. So when all the soldiers come out, he's thinking that's the occasion, right? And he's going to go take matters into his own hands. Yeah, that's not the occasion. That's Peter sinning. You know what the real occasion is? Matthew chapter 26. You know what form it comes in? A massively scary demon with all the wings and the horns and the pitchfork and the fire. Oh, maybe not. Maybe it's just a little servant girl. You know what the word servant girl literally means in the Greek? It means a servant girl. Somebody in the ages range, as far as I can tell, somewhere between about 15 and 20, maybe 25. Just a maid. a young lady that is old enough to be responsible and assume some duties, and yet the term itself refers to a household servant or a slave. Listen, these are the lowest ranking servants within the household. It's a maid. It's a doorkeeper. It's the one who cleans off the dishes and brings them over and cleans them and puts them away. I mean, that's what we're talking about. That's the ooh-so-scary spiritual challenge. That's the instrument that Satan uses right here. Now, I'm not saying Satan filled her, but Satan's behind this, right? And you know where Peter collapses? Oh, he's willing to die at the hands of hundreds of veteran soldiers. But a little serving girl? Look at it. She says to him something very threatening. You two were with Jesus the Galilean. You two were with him. When you look at Mark 14 in verse 67, you can see a little bit further. It says that Peter was below in the courtyard and one of the servant girls of the high priest came and seeing Peter warming himself, she looked at him and said, You also were with Jesus the Nazarene. Then you look again in Matthew 26. You too were with Jesus the Galilean. You look then in Luke 22, verse 57. And we're also told that He denied it, saying, Woman, I do not know Him. Verse 70 of Matthew 26 in front of you, it says, He denied it before them all, saying, I do not know what you are talking about. You say, well, where does this all of them come from? Well, if you look at John 18, in verse 25, you see that Peter is standing warming himself, and they said to him, you are not also one of his disciples, are you? And he denied it and said, I am not. Well, what happened? This girl sees him standing there warming himself by the fire and she questions him about it. And he denies it. And some of the others start to question as well. And he says, I don't know what you're talking about. And she says it again. No, you're you're one of them, too, aren't you? And he denies it. Say, well, that would be three denials right there. Yes. But when Jesus says you're going to deny knowing me three times, Three events of denying you even know me. You put the composite of these accounts together and it makes perfect sense. This little serving girl starts questioning, hey, aren't you one of his... you were with him, weren't you? The next thing you know, everybody says, yeah, yeah, didn't I see you with him? And he denies it emphatically. And there's your first failure. It's remarkable if you think about it. About an hour ago, he was ready to take on a Roman cohort. a little servant girl, has undone Him, and He has denied even knowing His Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ." There's a great contrast right here, and we're not going to go through all the pieces and do all the comparisons, but you remember from last week, we talked about Jesus. Jesus stands before Annas, and one of Annas' lackeys smacks Jesus, and Jesus says, Hey, if I've said something wrong, What did I say wrong? Otherwise, why did you just sin? Right? He stands up to physical unjust abuse and continues with a good confession. When he stands before Caiaphas and the subcommittee of the Sanhedrin, they're leveling all these false charges. And he stands there and some of the commentators call it sovereign silence. And finally, the high priest says, Don't you have anything to say about these charges? And Jesus doesn't utter a word like a sheep before its shears is silent. Isaiah 53. So too is Jesus before his accusers. And then finally, the high priest says, I adjure you by the living God. Are you the Christ, the son of God? I am. It is, as you say, the good confession, even knowing full well when he says that what's going to happen to him straight to the cross. Here's Peter outside in the courtyard. A serving girl challenges him. Hey, you're a Galilean. Aren't you with him? I don't know what you're talking about. I don't know him. I have no idea. No, no, no. Emphatically denying it. See the difference? You want to know who the real hero of the Bible is? It's Jesus. None of us. None of us are superheroes. You know what's amazing? that God can use us to accomplish His great purposes. That God can use somebody like Peter and turn him into His mouthpiece and the chief spokesman for the early church. We come back to Matthew chapter 26 and we now look at the second denial, verse 71. When he had gone out to the gateway. So this is basically, he gets out of the center of the courtyard there where they had the fire. I just, I probably wasn't an old oil drum, but that's kind of the way I've always pictured it. They got this big oil drum and they started a fire in it, kind of like what you see on the streets in New York or something like that. And it wasn't that, but you just, the crowd around the fire warming themselves in the middle of the night. And so Peter steps away from the fire and away from all those people and those prying eyes and those questions, and he slips over by the gate. And it, From our time in Israel this past summer, let me see if I can verbally draw you the picture. Like our courtyard back here, you know how we have the side buildings and the back wall and then this wall and how they all butt up together and there's a wall that goes all the way around, right? Okay, think about the overpass that goes to the outside bathrooms here, and there's the gate at the far end. So it's kind of like that, only some of the buildings would have been two stories. So instead of just the walkway looking into the courtyard that's a few feet raised, there would be even a higher courtyard for the second floor and the roof on the other outbuildings. And so it would be somewhat underneath the cover along the edge. So he's still in the outer courtyard, but he's now into the shadowy part of it, over by the gateway that goes out to the street. Well, why does he go there? To get away from this whole confrontation. And when he had gone out to the gateway, notice it says, another saw him and said to those who were there. This man was with Jesus of Nazareth. You notice that the word servant girl in this case is in italics. And that's because it's implied because the another in the Greek is another of the same kind. And it's also feminine. So it's another servant girl, not the same one, but another one just like the first. This is just another servant girl that asks him. And notice, she doesn't ask, she sees him standing there near the gate and she goes, no, this man was with Jesus of Nazareth. If you look at the comparison, in Mark chapter 14, in verse 69, we're told that in 68, he denied it, I neither know nor understand what you're talking about, and he went out onto the porch, that is into the gateway, and then the servant girl saw him, and began once more to say to the bystanders, this is one of them." Well, what do you have there? You have another servant girl that comes up, and this is mentioned in Matthew 26, this man was with Jesus of Nazareth. And the first girl that started the whole thing starts saying to the other people standing around, this is one of them. And you look at Luke chapter 22 and verse 58, and you'll notice at this point, The rest of the bystanders get involved. It says a little later, another saw him. You are one of them too. But Peter said, Man, I am not. So one of the guys says, You know what? I do think you were with him. And notice how Peter and Matthew makes this clear. Peter says, I do not know the man. And for those of you that are familiar with Greek, you might expect the word know here to be Gnosko. Speaking of a personal relationship or speaking of intimate relationship. He doesn't use Gnosko, he uses Oida. He uses the one that speaks of certain knowledge. Knowledge with certainty, with assurance, with conviction, with confidence. This is as strong a denial as you can. The reason he uses it is because it's a stronger way to deny it. I do not know him. He denied it and notice it says he denied it with an oath. Now he brings God into it. He swears. It's like the old saying, you ever heard somebody say, I swear on my mother's grave, you say, well, your mom isn't dead. Well, right. This is this is this is trying to add by the by the gold of the temple. By the by the Ark of the Covenant. By Almighty God, I swear, I don't know the man and notice notice the nature of lying. You see this. In some cases, when I'm reading through text like this, I feel like as I'm as I'm trying to understand it and put it into practical perspective, I feel like I'm teaching Larry boy episodes. You know what I mean? This is the nature of lying. When you tell a lie. And you start to get caught in it, what typically happens? You got two choices. You either come clean or you have to what? You have to become more emphatic about your lying. You have to become more committed to it. You have to convince yourself it's true. You have to start more strongly saying and affirming what you're saying is true, because not only do you know it's not true, you're getting caught in it. You only have those two choices. Come clean, admit you lied to begin with and repent or double down on continuing to lie. And then what does it do? It just gets worse and worse and worse. Well, that's where Peter is. First time he emphatically denies it. Now he emphatically denies it again. Only now it's with an oath. And there aren't soldiers here assaulting him. This whole thing is led by a couple of servant girls that are just sure they've seen him with him. That brings us to the third denial, verse 73. A little later the bystanders came up and said to Peter, notice it's, now it's a number of the people that are there in the courtyard. There's a lot of them. They're going, wait a minute, wait a minute, this just isn't right. The bystanders came up and they say to Peter, surely you two are one of them, for even the way you talk gives you away. Brother, your accent gives you away. I can tell where you're from. Follow me? That's what's happening here. The bystanders are now ganging up on him and saying to him, surely you are one of them. Notice it says a little later the bystanders came up. If you were to look at Luke chapter 22 and verse 59, it tells you it's about an hour later. So Peter spends about an hour and a half there in the courtyard. Hiding in the shadows. Mark 14, in verse 70. It says, Surely you are one of them too, because you are a Galilean. And Matthew says, And we can tell you're a Galilean because your accent gives you away. And here's the kicker. I want you to take your Bibles and see this with me. Turn to John 18. Turn to John chapter 18. This is the one that brings it home for me. John 18, verse 26. One of the slaves of the high priest, being a relative of the one whose ear Peter cut off, said, Did I not see you in the garden with him? Got you. Remember what happened in the garden? Remember a couple of weeks ago when we were in the garden with Jesus and Peter and the soldiers came to arrest? Peter pulls out a sword, tries to cut off the head of one of the high priest's servants. Well, it just so happens that that guy's brother or brother-in-law or cousin or whatever it is happens to still be here in the courtyard And lo and behold, now he remembers where he's seen Peter's face. You know where it was? In the courtyard. And you know why I remember it? Because I watched you cut off my brother's ear. Or my cousin's ear. That left a mark, not only on my relative, but on my memory. Didn't I see you? Oh, gotcha. Notice, Peter's got a choice right here, doesn't he? You know what he can say? You know what, you're right. I'm a servant of the Most High God. I'm a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. And He told me that I would betray Him, and I've denied Him already tonight. And I pray that He will forgive me, but yes, I'm one of His. Is that what He does? And He asks them for forgiveness for lying all the time up to now. Is that what He does? No, because you know what, once you start down the path of lying, once your yes is no longer a yes, remember what Jesus said? He says, your yes needs to be a yes and your no a no. Anything else is from the wicked one. If you've got to take an oath to be credible, that your account is truthful, then even the oath is of no value. If you've got to swear on a stack of Bibles, I always got a tickle out of that expression. How many Bibles do you need for for your testimony to be credible, right? A stack of Bibles. Well, do they have to be King James? Do they need to be those big, thick, pew Bible, you know, the pulpit Bibles in some of those old congregations? Does the size of the Bible affect the credibility of your witness? Notice what it says. Peter began to curse and swear. Now, for the record, Curse and swear here does not have to do with vulgarities or four-letter words. Peter didn't start a foul mouth here. Peter started to curse, that is, to call down judgment upon himself and to swear. And the word for swearing here essentially means to invoke divine punishment upon himself if he's not telling the truth. So this is like May God strike me dead and condemn me to eternal hell if I am not telling you the truth. That's what he's doing. That's pretty extreme. I mean, if God took him up on that, what happens? Lightning strikes. And he's done. That's what he's asking God to do. Isn't that amazing? See how far he fell? Now before you look at him and go, how could God ever use him? You know something? You've fallen like that before as well. We all have. You may not have fallen on as big a stage as what Peter did, but that's probably because you've never been given the opportunity to be on that big of a stage. Peter blows it and he blows it massively. I do not know the man. and immediately, and all four Gospels say immediately. You know why? Because right there, when he called down the curse upon himself and swore by Almighty God, may He strike me dead if I'm not telling the truth, I do not know the man, Luke tells us, while he's still speaking, the rooster crows. All four Gospels say immediately. Well, he's in the middle of that third denial. Just like Jesus said, what happened? A rooster crows. It's probably about five o'clock in the morning by now. What a night. What a failure. What a heartbreak. And that's what verse 75 tells us, Peter then remembered the word which Jesus had said before a rooster crows, you will deny me three times. And he went out and wept bitterly. The word bitterly is a strengthening term in a context like this. It strengthens the idea of weeping. It means he wept with great anguish, sorrow, sadness and inconsolable grief. Heartbroken over his massive failure. And the verse that really really hits me harder than any of the others in this case, is in Luke chapter 22, in verse 60. After an hour had passed, another man came and began to insist, saying, certainly this man also was with him because he's a Galilean too. And Peter said, man, I do not know what you're talking about. And immediately while he was still speaking, a rooster crowed. And then, verse 61, here it is, listen, the Lord turned and looked at Peter. It's right at this point. It's right at this point. In the middle of saying, may God strike me dead if I'm not telling the truth, I do not know him as he's over by the gate. being challenged by some of the people that are there in the courtyard, including one of the soldiers that was there part of the arrest. He's able somehow to see across the courtyard and see Jesus looking right at him. Can you imagine? Ever been, even as a little kid, ever been in the middle of something and get caught? And no, you can't escape. And no, you just got caught. I know I've used this illustration before, but. I mean, sometimes it's kind of cute when it's little kids. Madeline, I remember when she was about six months old, we told her there was a stuffed animal she wasn't allowed to touch. Turns out I had no idea she had the gift of stuffed animals. So she has about, what, 800 of them or whatever that she's gone through through the years, because she has a grandma that doesn't know any better. She had this stuffed animal in her hand she was looking at, and I walked in, and she saw me, and you could see the panic struck her face. She just got caught, and she did this. She just put her arm straight over to the, I'm like, you gotta put it behind your back, mad. You gotta put it behind your back. It just cracked me up. Okay, but it wasn't comical, it wasn't humorous, and it wasn't cute in the courtyard of the high priest. Peter just did exactly what Jesus said he was going to do because Peter was exactly where he shouldn't have been. And he denied his Lord the third time. And when he did, and can you imagine this is this is about 5 a.m. This is at the end of Jesus. This is as probably as the soldiers are leading him over to start to really pound on him and mock him. So he's already beat up. He's already bruised. He's already got spit on him. He's already been condemned. And Jesus looked right at him. Eye to eye. And Peter sees that and his heart broken and he goes off into the night. Now, from the perspective of Matthew's gospel, what do we learn here? That Jesus's prediction was fulfilled to the letter. And this is the case even though Peter made every effort to prevent it. Jesus has to be the Messiah because not only is scripture fulfilled in all the events of that night. But Jesus's own prophetic declarations are fulfilled just like scripture that very same night. Now, from a practical perspective, the second the second angle that I want to look at this from is not just the reality of Peter's denials, but the reasons for it, the reasons for Peter's denials. From a divine perspective, you can certainly say it was because God ordained it. But from a human standpoint, I'm convinced we can learn several practical lessons from Peter's failure, just like we can learn practical lessons from, for example, Elijah's failure, or Moses's failure, or David's failure. We went through this in 2 Samuel 11 some years ago. I think it's probably still Chuck's favorite sermon title of all time, How to Ruin Your Life. Do we have it on the internet? Yeah, so you can still learn. If you want to know how to ruin your life, listen to the message or series I did on 2nd Samuel 11. You look at what Peter, or what David did in that context, and he really set himself up for failure well, and he went right down the path, and it's very similar to what you see in Peter. But if you look just at Peter's life this morning, I think you can see he set himself up for failure in three ways. One. One. Peter failed to heed God's warnings. He failed to heed God's warnings. Remember in Matthew chapter 16, Jesus says, who do you say that I am? You've told me what people say. Who do you say? And Peter said, what? You are the Christ, the son of the living God. And what did Jesus say to him? Good job, Peter. You're so far ahead of the class. Come on up and take the front row. Is that what he said? He said, hey, you're right, but you didn't get this on your own. My father who is in heaven revealed this to you. And then he begins to tell Peter and the rest of the disciples how he's going to go to Jerusalem, be betrayed, handed over to the religious leaders, and he's going to die and rise again the third day. Jesus made it clear to Peter that his great confession on that day was not due to his own ability or to his own success. His great confession that way was because God revealed that to him. And then when he began to pull Jesus aside and rebuke him, you remember what Jesus says to him? Get behind me, Satan. Peter, you better pay attention. Because if you're going to do anything for me, if you're going to be used by God, you need to say what God says and you need to live in accordance to the way God says and do it for God and for His glory, or you're going to be doing what Satan wants you to do. In Matthew 26, verses 31 to 35, remember Jesus said, Scripture says you'll all fall away. And Peter says, no, it's not going to happen that way. All the warnings that were given, here's what God's plan is, here's the way you've got to go, here's the path you need to travel, and the way you need to do it. And when you don't do it God's way, you wind up doing it whose way? The devil's way. And yet those recurrent instructions, those recurrent warnings failed to sink in. Not only that, he failed to hear Christ's words. Not just failed to heed God's warnings, he failed to hear Christ's words. In Luke 22, we mentioned it earlier, Jesus said, Simon, Simon, Satan has demanded permission to sift you like wheat. But I prayed for you that your faith won't won't fail. So when you've returned implication, you're going to blow it. Come back and restore your brothers. That's your job. And instead of hearing what Jesus is saying, instead of taking it to heart, instead of Instead of saying, oh, Lord, please, no, I don't want to blow it. Instead of that humility, instead of that dependence, instead of acknowledging that, Peter, you very much can blow it if you do it in your own strength, then you already have blown it doing it in your own strength. Even on the heels of your great confession, you wind up being the mouthpiece for Satan. Instead of that, He insists, no, no, no, I'll never blow it. Matthew 26, verses 36 to 46, when it comes time to pray and when Jesus comes back and wakes him up and says, pray that you don't fall into temptation. What does Peter do? Falls back asleep again. He doesn't listen to what Jesus says. He's depending on his own strength and his own abilities. He's got confidence in his own commitments and his own convictions. He does not see himself as one who will blow it. He sees himself as better than the rest of the apostles. You know when you can be sure you're going to blow it? When you get to that place where you no longer think you can or will. When you start comparing yourself with other people and you start thinking that you've got more faith or more maturity or more ability or more commitment or more conviction than anybody else, all of a sudden, guess what? That pride sets you up for a fall. And then when the soldiers come, you see Peter trying to take matters into his own hands. Listen, that's not just stupid, putting your life at risk, attacking hundreds of soldiers. I mean, come on. Right? That's not just stupid. It's arrogant and it's sinful. OK, you made the point. Yeah, you're willing to die like an idiot, sinfully. Ultimately, thirdly, Peter not only failed because he failed to heed God's warnings and failed to hear Christ's words, he failed to learn from his past mistakes. All of these failures, all of these times, all of these times when he had great testimony and an incredible illustration of what faithful, obedient, courageous faith looks like. And then tremendous failures. He just doesn't learn from those two things. He sees the triumphs and forgets about the tragedies. I want you to turn with me to First Corinthians 10 as we wrap up our message this morning. 1 Corinthians chapter 10. The Apostle Paul, at the end of 1 Corinthians 9, is telling everybody that the Christian life is like a race. And you need to recognize it's a race. You need to do what's necessary to live this Christian life like a race and make the commitments and the sacrifices necessary to run that race and to run it well and to run it to win. And then he in the beginning of chapter 10 lists a series of of huge failures that are written in the Old Testament in the law of Moses for us that record everything from the idolatry of Exodus 32 that that the nation of Israel committed after God delivered him from bondage and before he took him to the promised land. And he talks about their immorality in Numbers 25. And he talks about their failure with the serpents. And he talks about their grumbling and complaining. And in verse 11 of 1 Corinthians 10, he says, Now all of these things happened to them, that is to the Israelites in the wilderness. It happened to them as an example. And they were written down for our instruction upon whom the ends of the ages have come. You look at all the examples you have in scripture and the reason they're written down is for us to learn from those examples. Look at the Israelites and how many times they blow it and what they did when they blew it and the consequences. Look at look at David. Look at Elijah. Look at Moses. Look at Peter. Verse 12 of First Corinthians 10, Paul says, therefore, let him who thinks he stands take heed that he does not fall. If you think you can live this Christian life in your own strength, if you think you are above temptation, you are above failure, you are above blowing it, then you need to wake up because you're on blowing its doorstep, knocking loudly. And it's got one of those little electric eye door things, so it'll open for you. You don't need a key card. No, a temptation has overtaken you, but such as is common to man. You know, sometimes when Peter blows it, he blows it because that's the way people blow it. When David blows it, he blows it because that's the way people blow it. That's the way you can blow it. That's the way I can blow it. That's the way we can all blow it. You really want to live a life that honors God. You really want to be God's kind of person. Then then then learn the lesson from Peter that the way to fail is to think You can do it on your own and to seek to do it your way instead of recognizing that you need God to be able to do it for him and submit to his authority. God is faithful who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also so that you will be able to endure it. I think that's the lesson we learned from Peter here. I think we see two things in this text. One, Jesus is the Messiah. How do you know? Because just like he said from the scriptures, the shepherd will be struck and the sheep will be scattered, and they did. So too, when he says to Peter, tonight you're going to deny you even know me three times, and he did. You know who you have to be to be able to know that, to see that, and to say that, and to have it all come true? You've got to be God in flesh. That's who Jesus is. He's the Messiah. But as a disciple, you know what the lesson you learn is? If Peter can blow it, I can blow it. If Peter can blow it because of overconfidence. Listen, his convictions are real. His faith is true. His dedication is stellar. What did he do wrong? He did it in his own strength, his own way, because he was going to be faithful no matter what everybody else did, as opposed to he was going to be faithful, depending on God, and obedient to God no matter what happened to him. See the difference? Father, thank you so much that the narrative on Peter's life does not end there. Thank you for the book of Acts. Thank you for John 21, which records you, Lord Jesus, and your triple reaffirmation of Peter as one of your disciples and as an apostle. And thank you for the way that you have demonstrated to us very clearly that your work is not dependent upon us, but we are utterly dependent upon you. Please help us as your people to seek to learn from Peter's example. Number one, the reality of our own shortcomings and failures and our own need for you to empower us and enable us and to carry us through the various trials of life and the opportunities you give us to glorify you. And may we dedicate ourselves. Not to honoring you in accordance with what we want to do and the way we want to do it, but to dedicate ourselves to honoring you by walking in obedience to your commands and depending upon your spirit's enablement to bring glory to you until you return for us or call us home. In Jesus name, amen. Gentlemen, if you'll come forward. So we're going to implement the changes that we talked about in our celebration of the Lord's Table this morning. And I'll do my best not to mess it up too bad. But we do really want to glorify God in the context of the celebration of the Lord's Table. And the practice of celebrating the Lord's Supper was actually established by Jesus on the very night in which he was betrayed. And you remember we talked about that a few weeks ago. We're told in the gospel that Jesus met with his disciples in the upper room that night in Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover. And remember, the Passover was a memorial, an annual reminder of God delivering his people from bondage in Egypt. And the shed blood of the lamb was on the doorpost as a reminder that that act of obedience and dependence upon God to provide the lamb is the means by which the angel of death passed over. The Passover meal itself was a memorial celebration established by God on the evening of the Exodus so that Israel would every year remember God's deliverance of them from bondage in Egypt. In the same way, on the night in which Jesus was betrayed, he established this celebration as a memorial for us. He intended us to remember his own sacrifice of himself to save us from our sins. And it was in the context of that celebration of the Passover meal that Jesus used bread that was there at the table and part of the Passover celebration as a symbol of His sacrifice for Himself. In fact, the Bible tells us that He took bread and He broke it and He gave it to His disciples. And that's what we want to do together today. So as the men distribute the elements, I want to ask you to just take a portion If you want to pull a piece off the hunk, that's fine. If you want to take one of the pre-cut pieces, that's fine. But please hold your portion until I give instructions to all of us to celebrate it together. Also, there is a blue sheet in your hymnal that contains the lyrics to the hymns that we'll be singing as the men distribute the elements. We'll be doing Beneath the Cross as the first one. And so if you'll sing together as the men distribute. Also, with regard to participation, We practice here what is called open communion. And that means you don't have to be a member of this church. You just need to be a baptized born again believer in the Lord Jesus Christ in order to celebrate together with us. And that same rule applies to kids even within believing households. It is not a matter of whether mom and dad are saved or big brother or big sister is saved. It's about whether or not you have come to saving faith. and have been baptized in identification with Jesus as your Lord and Savior and committed yourself publicly to following him. If you are under discipline in any context, we would instruct you to abstain from participation in the celebration today and then come see me or one of the elders and we'll see about helping to guide you to reconciliation with God and with either this church or another church before you celebrate the Lord's table. I think I have covered everything. So with that, let me ask one of the men, Gray, if you will pray for the bread before we distribute it. We remember that Christ's body was given to us, that He gave His life, that He laid down His life for the church, for us, to die for our sins, to keep our rights. So Heavenly Father, we thank You so much for that fact, for that truth, for that gift of all gifts, for all eternity, that has opened the door for us to be able to invite Him in. So Father, thank you so much for the advice that you have given us. And at this time, I worship you. Amen. Beneath the cross of Jesus I gladly take my stand. mighty rock within a weary land. O blessed shelter from the storm, the sinner's sure retreat. O glorious place where heaven's love and heaven's justice meet. Upon the cross of Jesus, Jesus, my eye, faith, can see the very dying form of one who suffered there for me. And from my stricken heart, tears to wonders I confess, And I am worthiness. The scripture tells us in Luke chapter 22 that when Jesus had taken some bread and given thanks, he broke it and gave it to his disciples saying, this is my body which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me. Let's remember him together. Now, before you distribute the cup, I want to ask another of our elders, Chuck, if he'll pray for the cup. Father, we do thank You for His timing. Think about the perfect sacrifice, the once and for all sacrifice for sins, as He sent our Savior and Your only Son, Jesus Christ, into the world. You're the perfect light, the sinless light within all righteousness. He sacrificed himself, willingly, on the cross. He spilled his blood, so that we might experience the forgiveness of sin, and be paid for it. Lord, we are so thankful for that. And the reality of that sacrifice permeated every aspect of our life, and helped us to live, motivated by thanking God for what Christ has done for us. We pray this in the name of Christ. Amen. O to see the dawn of the darkest day, Christ on the road to Calvary, Tried by sinful men, Torn and beaten then, nailed to a cross of wood. This the power of the cross. Christ became sin for us. took the blame. Bore the wrath, we stand forgiven at the cross. Oh, to see the pain written on your face. some weight of sin. And entereth on every evil deed This the power of the cross. Christ became sin for us. Took the blame bore the wrath, we stand forgiven at the cross. The scripture goes on to say that in the same way Jesus took the cup after they had eaten, saying, this cup which is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood, the new promise. Jesus was the Lamb of God who once and for all died to satisfy the wrath of God and take away our sin. If you have placed your faith and trust in Him, you can be assured, not on the basis of your obedience, not on the basis of your good works, not on the basis of your many efforts, but on the basis of His once and for all sacrifice for our sins, that you stand reconciled to Him. It's the Apostle Paul who says that we are in a no-condemnation state because of what Jesus did for us when we place our faith in Him. and nothing can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ. That's the new covenant. That's the new promise. Jesus died once and for all to take away our sin. Let's remember him together. It's Paul who says, as often as we eat the bread and drink this cup, we declare the Lord's death until he comes. Amen? I have just a couple of quick announcements, so I guess Four quick announcements, we set a record today. I direct your attention to the bulletin for all of them, but these are all worth your attention. First of all, you'll notice the revised prayer sheet. I direct your attention to it, especially because it lists families by day in our church that you can pray for. I think that's a really cool novel and encouragement. Thank you, Denver, I think it's a great idea. So if you just, you might, for what it's worth, You might pay attention to that and pray for those households. That's well done. Secondly, on the 17th, not this Wednesday, but next Wednesday here on this campus over in the fireside is where we're going to do it. So in the fireside hall, if you would like to see a bronze star awarded, Sharon's husband Steve who's here is going to be receiving a bronze star and a purple heart. Is that correct? So the government will be out here and if you would like to be a part of that there'll be more details in the Bulletin next week and some of you are military if you want to come out for that that'll be over in the Fireside Hall. Albert is overseeing that etc but just so you know that's a week from Wednesday. Secondly as it turns out by God's grace Kath and I have the ideal garage sale corner. I don't know how that happened. It must just be because of my wife. But in any case, Kath is going to have a garage sale on the 19th and 20th of October. If you want to move any of your junk, not into my house, but if you want to sell off any stuff, we have nonstop people Talk to Kath. You can bring your stuff over as long as you either sell it reasonably so it disappears or take it back home with you in a couple of days. But we just have a very high traffic corner just down from In-N-Out, so if you want to participate in that, talk to Kath. And then finally, Albert isn't here this morning, but Annette will be moving next Saturday, or this coming Saturday, actually. So for those of you that have strong backs, or at least one strong back, If you would call Albert and volunteer to help move Annette, that's just, all of her stuff's packed up. Some of it goes into storage, and the rest goes where she's gonna move to. So if you're willing to be a part of that, please call Albert. It's, please call Albert. It's possibly changed to Thursday. We do, is that it? Okay, so we do, so if you need any more information, talk to Tim, who's here. All right, so, see, I told you I should've only done two. Uh, so, uh, there are plates in the back and over on the side as well. If you would like to participate in putting money into the plate for benevolence, we still, and seemingly always do have people that can use a little bit of financial assistance that are members of this church. If you would like to participate by putting money in those plates, please do so on the way out. If you're a member of this church and you have a practical need, I remind you again, all you have to do is talk to one of the deacons or to one of the elders, and we'll see how we can meet that need for you. I think I did everything. So if you'll stand together with me and sing the last verse of the power of the cross will be dismissed.