Please open your Bibles to Matthew chapter 26. Psalm 51 that we just sang is a wonderful description of David, not only David's repentance, but also his restoration. And he speaks there about the depths of his own sin. draw back, he confesses himself to be a great sinner, but also glories and sings and praises God for his great deliverance. Not a deliverance to return to that sin, but a deliverance from the guilt of that sin. So this morning we want to consider the genuine repentance of the Apostle Peter. And we are going to read together with that also the false repentance of Judas. We want to look at Judas's repentance next week as a warning to our souls. And this morning we will read both of them together. reading from Matthew 26, verse 69. Now Peter sat without in the palace. The 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 also was 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. When the morning was come, all the chief priests and elders of the people took counsel against Jesus to put him to death. When they had bound him, they led him away and delivered him to Pontius Pilate, the governor. Then Judas, which had betrayed him when he saw that he was condemned, repented himself and brought again the 30 pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, saying, I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood. And they said, what is that to us? See thou to that. And he cast down the pieces of silver in the temple and departed and went and hanged himself. The chief priests took the silver pieces and said, it is not lawful for to put them into the treasury because it is the price of blood. And they took counsel and bought with them the potter's field to bury strangers in. Wherefore that field was called the field of blood unto this day. Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremiah the prophet, saying, And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of him that was valued, whom they of the children of Israel did value, and gave them for the potter's field, as the Lord appointed me. Thus far in the reading of God's word. Let us pause to pray. Our Heavenly Father, we come unto Thee as we prepare to open the Scriptures, and we pray, Lord, Thy help in a subject which is difficult, but is also of the very essence of the Gospel of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Lord, will Thou open our hearts and minds to understand the doctrine of repentance. And we pray that by thy spirit, it may this day be applied unto each of our hearts with understanding, not only to express it with our lips or in our creed, but to show it forth in our lives also by practical example. Lord, give unto us hearts of repentance. To that end, Lord, will Thou bless the preaching of Thy Word and draw us into Thy presence. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Beloved congregation, repentance, as we have read and alluded to already, can be genuine or false. And there is a false repentance and we see it in the life of Judas, but there's also a genuine repentance that we want to consider this day. And we want to be attentive to the word of God today to see what he says about repentance. It's a very important doctrine. The gospels tell us that the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ began with the preaching of repentance. At the end of his life, as he was about to ascend into heaven, he told his disciples to preach repentance to all the nations. It's the essence of the gospel that you turn from your sin. And many people talk about saving faith in Christ, but evidence no repentance. Repentance is the life of every Christian. Not just turning to Christ, not just having faith in Christ, but that faith producing a hatred of sin. Our Shorter Catechism gives a good definition of repentance, a good one to be aware of. What is repentance unto life? Repentance unto life is a saving grace wrought in the heart of a sinner by the Spirit and Word of God, whereby out of the sight and sense not only of the danger, but also of the filthiness and odiousness of his sins, and upon the apprehension of God's mercy in Christ to such as are penitent, He so grieves for and hates his sins as that he turns from them all to God, purposing and endeavoring constantly to walk with him in all the ways of new obedience. That's actually the larger catechism. I have a shorter catechism there. It's the larger catechism. So there's an expanded definition of the things that are involved in repentance unto life, even the indication there. There's false repentance, there's repentance unto life. So we want to see these things in the life of, or this incident rather, of the Apostle Peter. We have in the passage before us from verses 69 to 75, we have repudiations, then we have reminders, and then we have repentance. Let's look at Peter's repudiations or denials. The first one, Matthew says, took place in the palace. We see Peter's courage failing him. He is at a very low place in his life, in his spiritual life. being disillusioned by Christ's ministry. He thought he had a good handle on it, but it was not what he thought it was. We can say that of Judas as well, but it's very true of Peter as a saved man. You ever find that in your Christian life, that the gospel isn't quite where the application of it isn't quite what you thought it was. It's much larger. It encompasses more, has more aspects to it than you thought. It hasn't changed. It just has become broader in your understanding. That happens as you grow in grace. And Peter, we can imagine, had some disillusionment. He had just vowed with his whole life that he would defend Jesus to the death. And he's ready to do that when they come to grab Jesus to arrest him. He pulls out his sword. He cuts off Malchus's ear. And then he must have been a little bit confused when Jesus picks up that ear from the ground and attaches it to Malchus's head again. So I came to defend you and you just seem to be undoing all the good that I'm intending to do for you. And that can be like the Christian life. We intend to do good for the Lord. We think we're doing the right thing according to the information that we have, even as we've been faithfully walking with the Lord. And we think you may think you're doing the right thing, and then somehow events fall out in such a way as to make you think God is bigger than my perception of his kingdom. And those are times that you can be very disillusioned in. You can think, I thought I was doing the right thing with zeal and with intent, with prayer, dependence upon the Lord, and Why did this happen then? Why is this happening to me? And why is this happening now? And why does my whole life seem to be falling apart? Peter's was, wasn't it? I followed Jesus faithfully. Multitudes left him, I stood with him. I told him that I've forsaken all for his sake. And he promised me that that would all be multiplied in spiritual rewards. But none of that is remembered now. Everything is falling apart for Peter. And how low has Peter sunk? There's a damsel, a young girl, we don't know how young, probably still in her teens anyway. This simple slave girl, she's a servant girl, says to Peter, thou also wast with Jesus of Galilee. and immediately he's frightened. At this point, Peter does not want to be connected with the Lord Jesus. His trial hasn't even taken place. They bound him, they led him away. He's been to Annas and Caiaphas. He's going to be convicted. But he says, I know not what thou sayest. Suddenly, all of his promises are in vain. And he steps back from everything. I don't know what you're talking about, he says to this young girl. But he's intimidated. And beloved, that can happen to a Christian, can get so discouraged, and you can get so discouraged. by even the circumstances of life that you feel as though you want to just disconnect yourself from the Lord and even from his work at times. So we see Peter beginning the starting point here of losing his courage or evidencing that he's lost his courage. So that's his first denial in verses 69 and 70. But a little while later, there's a second denial. And that takes place on the porch. When he was gone out into the porch, another maid saw him. You see the word maid is in italics, but the word another means another female of a similar type. So another maid saw him and said unto them that were there. Now it's broadening a little bit. This fellow also was with Jesus of Nazareth. So here's a second testimony and again drawing attention to Peter's connection with the Lord Jesus Christ. This time he denies it with an oath in verse 72. He again, he denied with an oath, I do not know the man. When he denies with an oath, he's saying, as God is my witness, I do not know him. He's swearing in a legal way that you would in a courtroom. He's saying, under oath, I have nothing to do with him. I do not know him. He's very frightened at this point. He's terrified. He's terrified by people who are much less people in society by him, but he's intimidated by this connection that he's had with the Lord Jesus all these years. The third denial, verse 73. And after a while, and I think one of the authors says, Luke says about an hour later, 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. So you speak like a Galilean, you must be from those parts, and there's something in his speech that is giving him away, not just his accent, I don't think, but maybe he's been heard other things about speaking other things about the Lord Jesus Christ. And what does he respond then? Then began he to curse and to swear, saying, I know not the man. So here, as he curses and swears, the one word is connected to the word anathema. So it would be a swearing. Anathema has to do with damnation. He may have used what today we would use the word damn. And he starts taking on the language of the world. He's desperate. He starts speaking like the world because his speech was berating me. No, no, I'm one of you. I speak just like you. I use the words that you do. And he says, I know not the man. So now he's not separated unto Christ anymore. Now he's fearful of the world for what they say and how they're going to judge him or what. Is he gonna end up with Jesus? Are his hands gonna be bound? Is he gonna be led away? Is he gonna have to defend himself? He doesn't want any of that. And so Jesus, or Peter called a curse upon himself if these things were true. So there are Peter's three repudiations. He wants nothing to do with the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's why the Lord Jesus says that we ought to confess him before men. It's a sign of our love and devotion to him. It's a sign of the Holy Spirit working in you. But at this point, Peter says, I don't want to be connected with the Lord Jesus. we can come to that place in the Christian life where we don't want to be connected with Christ or his people, where this is not going anywhere, it's not the way it should be, in my estimation, and I'm not sure that I want to be connected openly with it anymore. And the distinction there would be openly. So there are those denials and they can be fall Christians as well. The Lord gives two reminders. Mark tells us that the rooster crowed after the first denial. So he denied him the first time and then the rooster crowed. The second reminder we have in verse 74, immediately the cock crew. So those are the two reminders of what Christ had predicted and prophesied earlier. The third reminder, I would say, is the Holy Spirit. Notice that Peter's response was not one of a hardened heart. he was convicted that what he had done was wrong. And that conviction comes from the Holy Spirit. Verse, it says, and Peter remembered the words of Jesus, which said unto him before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice. We look back just a few pages, it's just been a few minutes ago, a few hours ago, that the Lord Jesus Christ said in verse 34 of the same chapter, verily I say unto thee that this night before the cock crow thou shall deny me thrice. At that point, he rises in vehement objection. At that point, Peter remembers what the Lord Jesus Christ told him. He becomes aware of his weakness. and the fact that his strong assertions did not stand up when really tested. So beloved, remember that the Holy Spirit is a gift from God to give you that conviction. When you are in that place where you have sinned grievously against the Lord and this verse pops into your head, or perhaps something from a sermon that you've heard comes and bears directly on what you're experiencing, that is the Holy Spirit reminding you that God's word still stands and your actions did not live up to what God required of you. And that is a good thing. Conviction of sin, beloved, is always a good thing. And many people find it far too easy to know and understand that what they are doing or saying is wrong, but they don't want to deal with that. They don't want to think about why it's wrong, or especially then if they know God has said that it's wrong, to just brush that aside and say I'm not going to listen to that because there are so many other people that tell me that it's actually right. So I'm going to listen to the multitude that says that it's right instead of God who says that it's wrong. And that's a very, the Holy Spirit is your best friend, your conscience. is your best friend, your conscience that says, this is what God's word says, this is what I have said, or this is what I have done, and it is wrong. It is sin. And it grieves me, but it grieves God. That's the big concern. What I've done grieves God. The thing that David had done displeased the Lord. didn't mention that as we were reading, but how long is, you know, the better part of nine months, six, seven, eight months, that David goes on thinking that I took care of that situation. It was all fine. Everything is going smoothly here. But the Lord loved him enough to send him Nathan to explicitly, and he didn't come out explicitly even, did he? He didn't say, thou art the man. He said, David, I need to tell you a story. So he did come around to convicting David of his sin. He was wise, he had wisdom from above, and as David, in tremendous self-righteous judgment, declared that that man should die, Nathan says those stinging words that are just so hard to read, thou art the man. You, I was telling the story and you didn't even see it. Now I have to tell you, you're the one. Was it Nathan or was it the Holy Spirit that led David to respond the way that he did? It was the Holy Spirit. Nathan was a vessel. Nathan told the right story, told a good story, applied it very well, but the Holy Spirit gave David the response that he was to have. And how do you respond, beloved, when you hear the Holy Spirit tell you you're a sinner? Say, well, there are others worse than me. There are others who don't do so badly. I've committed worse things and I've still believed in the Lord. We can have all kinds of responses. But the genuine response, the right response, says you are right. Think about the judgment that David received. You're not going to die. You should die. David passed the sentence of death upon himself. You're not going to die. You're going to not only stay alive, you're going to continue as the king of Israel. But the sword shall not depart out of your house. And so David, when Absalom rose up in a coup against him to take over the throne, what do you think David was thinking? I deserve this. This is part of my own sin, I brought this upon myself. And God warned me that this is just what would happen. When there's an incident with his daughter Tamar, He's not so quick to rebuke his sons for the sins that they were complicit in because who am I to judge is really what he ended up saying. I'm not gonna come down hard because I've been guilty of this sin too. Not quite that way, but a grievous sin. So his spiritual energy is drained. His family life dissipates and falls apart. And he can trace it all by the Holy Spirit to what Nathan, by the Holy Spirit, specifically told him was going to happen. And yet, he was forgiven. Wasn't David forgiven? Read Psalm 51. If you don't remember it from just having sung it, read Psalm 51. Then shall the bones which thou hast broken rejoice. You broke them. You're sovereign over all these things, but you're gonna make them to sing again. At the end of his life, he says that he's trusting in the covenant of the Lord. Though it be not so with my house, my house, my family is fallen, though it be not so with my house, yet hath the Lord made a covenant steadfast and sure. He doesn't point to himself. God has made a covenant with me, he says, as the king of Israel, as the one from whom the Messiah will descend. but also as a Christian, the Lord has made a covenant with me, steadfast and sure, it's unmovable. It's not going to go away, it's not going to change. God's sovereignty prevails. David's faith prevails, even through great and wicked and heinous sin. He retains this, he retains faith in Christ. He understands and receives the mercy of God. He doesn't cast it aside. He's humbled by his sin. And the reminders that come then are the reminders of the Holy Spirit. Watch for them in your life, beloved. Watch for the Holy Spirit. Listen for the Holy Spirit speaking to you through his word. He speaks through his word, convicting you of your sin. And be alert, and respond by faith, and don't say, oh, it's nothing. Every sin deserves God's judgment. Then we have just a little bit of a reference to Peter's repentance. And that's found at the end of verse 75. And he went out and wept bitterly. Is that a good thing? He would have felt, don't you think he would have felt those words from David in Psalm 51, cast me not away from thy presence and take not thy Holy Spirit from me? I think he was feeling that. How can I ever be restored to the Lord Jesus? I'm weak but he is strong. He went out and he wept bitterly. How weak I am. How foolish I am. Beloved, this is one of the marks of genuine repentance. Whether you cry real wet tears or not, everybody's personality is a little different. There has to be a deep repentance and sorrow for sin. A grieving of the heart. We'll see next week not just a grieving of the heart that I've messed up my life. That's not primarily what's in view here. What Peter is thinking of, what David was thinking of, was I've offended God. And I've offended the God who has loved me. I've offended the God who has given me everything and done everything for me. There's no shortage. I've not lacked any good thing as I've walked with the Lord. He's never denied me anything that I need. And I've transgressed his law. I turned my back on him, and I went my own way. Instead of seeking him for strength, I was pretty sure I had my own strength. And when I realized I didn't have my own strength, I still didn't turn to him. I still tried to do things my own way. That's what Peter did. And that's what you and I do, beloved, when we continue to ignore the promptings of the Holy Spirit and the work of the Holy Spirit to convict you of your sin. Sin is very real, and it separates you from God. So he forgot to be humble before the Lord. Just a little while ago in verse 22 he said, is it I? One of you shall betray me, is it I? That was genuine. He really felt that he had the propensity, the ability to deny the Lord Jesus Christ. He was not trusting in himself. So don't trust on past experiences, beloved. It's so easy to do. Oh, the Lord has seen me through many difficulties. It's going to be fine. That humility in the Christian life has to be there day by day. He was very self-confident at that time. And Paul warns us in 1 Corinthians 10 verse 12, wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall. So be careful that you think everything is established, everything is just great. My spiritual life is just the way it should be. Everything is just the way it should be. That's the point at which you're gonna fall. Let him that thinks he stands take heed lest he fall. Your standing, beloved, is in the Lord Jesus Christ alone. The Lord Jesus had warned him. "'to watch and pray that ye enter not into temptation.'" Verse 41. So beloved, as you consider yourself in the place of Thomas, do you object when God's word teaches a particular thing? It's explained to you in a way that confirms that it's the teaching of God's word, but you say, I'm going to reject that and do my own thing and believe my own thing. God's word is what we need to return to. That's what the church needs to return to continually, God's word. Everything has to be drawn out of God's word. And it is a hardship, beloved, to believe God's word. You ought to know something about that hardship, because it's a struggle against the flesh. Your flesh says, no, that could never be. God would never be like that. God could never be, because you've already developed a false image of who God should be, who you think God should be, when the scriptures clearly reveal him to be something more than what you thought, you have to bow to that and say, yeah, my flesh doesn't like this, but God's word teaches it, and I need to accept it. And you need to pray that you will receive and understand it aright. One of my brothers in the Lord pointed out a sweetness in Peter's crying bitterly. You know what he means by that when I say that? Is there a sweetness? Peter went out and wept bitterly. Is there something that resonates in your soul with that? You've experienced betraying the Lord, denying the Lord, sinning against his goodness and his mercy and his grace, and you've just wept bitterly. It just has grieved your soul, and you just can hardly move. You can hardly think anything else. It just, sometimes even there's that physical response. It grips your stomach. Tears flow forth. In different ways, there's a physical response connected with that. It's not just a physical response. That can be mimicked, can be copied, but it's something that arises out of the soul. There's a sweetness in Peter's crying because that indicates that his faith has not failed, right? When you grieve over your sin like that, and you're turning to the Lord, and you know that you've offended Him, isn't that a good indication that you still have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ? You wouldn't feel that way if you're not one of His people. But that very response, that's what makes it so sweet. Peter's faith is still alive. Beloved, as you respond to that conviction of sin, there's an indication that your faith is still alive. We see also by way of encouragement, beloved, and remember that there's no sin so great that you can't take it to the Lord Jesus Christ. Think of David's wickedness. He was wicked. He was renewed in the inner man, he performed wicked things, but it grieved him, grieved him to the heart. But the one who has true faith, beloved, is always restored. What precious words we read in Mark 16, verse 7. After Jesus is raised from the dead, he says to the women, but go your way, tell his disciples And Peter, that he goeth before you into Galilee, there shall ye see him as he said unto you. Tell his disciples and Peter." I know Peter's having a tough time with this. I know Peter's not sure whether he's welcome where I am. I know that Peter's struggling. Tell the disciples and Peter. His betrayal, his denial was public. but I want him to know that I want to meet with him. Then we read of his restitution in John chapter 20. The Lord says, as all the disciples are there, do you love me, Peter? Do you love me more than all these, Peter? Three times, do you love me? One for each denial. Do you love me? I love you. Do you love me? I love you. Do you love me? Lord, thou knowest all things. Thou knowest I love thee. I don't know my own heart, but you know, because you place that love there. I do love you. And then we have reformation also in the life of Peter. What a powerful sermon Peter preached on the day of Pentecost. Isn't that astounding? What remarkable work the Holy Spirit did in the life of Peter once he was restored, winning thousands more to saving faith in Christ than Jesus ever did in his ministry. Jesus' ministry was large, but it diminished. Peter's ministry is blessed of the Holy Spirit, the saving of thousands of souls in one day, in one place in Jerusalem, to the testimony of God's saving grace and his forgiveness. People would have heard about Peter's story. What are you doing getting up there preaching to us when you just, we just, a few weeks ago, or a couple months ago, you were denying the Lord Jesus? What do you have to say to us? I have to say to you that you need to repent. I'm saying to you, you need to turn from your sins to the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm saying to you, you have to be born again. So Peter learned a great deal. And beloved, when you genuinely repent of your sins, you're not going to use that as an excuse to go back to them again and say, well, God forgave me. I guess it wasn't a big deal. Now if your mind doesn't go to the cross, there's trouble. It is a big deal because Jesus died even for that one sin, didn't he? Can you say that Jesus died for that sin? I wanna close with just a few lessons that Peter learned with some exhortations. 1 Peter 1 verse 5, he speaks to the people who, those Christians who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. Voice of experience, right? God kept me. And you also, you're kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation. He warns his listeners in 1 Peter 1 verse 13, wherefore, gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Look ahead. Hope. Peter had hope. Those tears that he wept bitterly were tears of hope. You can only hope in the mercy and the grace of the Lord Jesus. He reminded his readers that all flesh, all the glory of man, is a flower of grass. I had the strength of a piece of grass, but the Lord received me again. He speaks to those who are redeemed with the precious blood of Christ. He warns them, be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary, the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about seeking whom he may devour. and he almost had me. He may have remembered also the words of the Lord Jesus, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you that he may sift you as wheat, but I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail not. And he told that to Peter and Luke 22 just after he said how strong he would, and firmly he would defend the Lord Jesus. Satan hath desired to have you that he may sift you as wheat, but I have prayed for thee. So your response to the conviction of sin arises from the work of the Holy Spirit and the prayers of the Lord Jesus Christ for you, for his saints. He says that the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous and his ears are open unto their prayers, but the face of the Lord is against them that do evil. And he certainly felt as though the face of the Lord was against him. Because the point at which he betrayed the Lord, we're told, I think in Mark, just before he hangs his head in shame, the Lord looked at him. From across the courtyard, the Lord Jesus looked over after his third denial, looked at him. And we put that together with what Matthew said. He went out and he wept bitterly. That look, that look was a look of disappointment, a look of passion and compassion. I love you, Peter. How could you sin against my love? I want to close with a reading of a hymn that we've sung before, a hymn by John Newton, not in our hymnal. And speaking of other things, but it came to my mind as I was working through this passage. It's called The Look. There's a more modern rendition of it as well. John Newton says, I saw one hanging on a tree in agony and blood. He fixed his loving eyes on me as near his cross I stood. Sure, never to my latest breath can I forget that look. Seemed to charge me with his death. Oh, not a word he spoke. My conscience felt and owned the guilt and plunged me in despair. I saw my sins, his blood had spilled, and helped to nail him there. A second look he gave, which said, I freely all forgive. This blood is for your ransom paid. I die that you may live. And then the refrain, oh, can it be upon a tree? The Savior died for me. My soul is thrilled. My heart is filled to think he died for me. What a look the Lord Jesus gives to his saints. Let us pray. O Lord, our God, we come into Thy presence and we thank Thee for a genuine, true repentance. We pray that we may know that repentance, that we may know Thy grace to attend us. Lord, give us such a despising of our sin and iniquity that crucified our Lord Jesus. Grant that we may not return to our sin as a dog to his vomit. We ask, Lord, that Thou wouldst give us such a desire for holiness that every evil way is despicable in our sights. Lord, grant that we may be a holy people. Keep us from sin, Lord, and grant unto us repentance for our sins, that we may walk by faith and ever look to the Lord Jesus. We thank Thee for His receiving love, His forgiving love, is embracing love. All these things are beyond our comprehension. Enable us, Lord, to practice these things in our lives as we lay them up in our hearts. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.