Yeah. We welcome all of you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ to Dayspring Fellowship. We are glad to have you with us this morning, and we're especially glad to see visitors. I want to encourage you, if you're visiting us for the first time, grab one of these booklets, Ultimate Questions, by John Blanchard. We have them out on the hall table just as a free gift to you and a token of our appreciation for you joining us for worship this morning. We'd love to have a record of your visit, so if you could sign our guest register before you leave here today. And you are all cordially invited to stay afterwards for lunch. We're going to have a potluck lunch over here in the fellowship hall with barbecued brisket and pork belly and all kinds of good feasting foods. And so you are all invited and welcome to join us for lunch after worship today. I want to direct your attention to your bulletin. Inside your bulletin, you will see on the left side there at the top that we are continuing on in our adult Sunday school hour. It begins at 945 through 1 and 2 Samuel. We were in 1 Samuel 18 this morning, the Lord's favor for his anointed. And if you were providentially hindered from joining us in person, that was online and should have been recorded. And hopefully, you can grab that and be edified by it this week. If you look down the page, you'll see that our sermon passage for next week will be in the Gospel of John chapter 18, looking at verses 19 through 27. So I encourage you to be meditating on that passage in your private devotions, family worship time this week in preparation for next week. Across the page there, this will be the last Sunday that I recommend to you, the monthly free online resource of the Selected Sermons of George Whitefield. You'll want to note that link. It has a collection of some of Whitefield's most wonderful sermons that I encourage you to take a look at. Dayspring Ladies are compiling a cookbook for the church. We have done Dayspring cookbooks in the past, and this one should be a good one. I encourage you to send recipes that you have that ought to be included in it to Susie Phillips. We had a conference earlier this month on Church and Politics, Quit or Conquer, Following Jesus Through Political Turmoil was the full title of that conference. It was recorded and the audio for that conference is now available online. There is a short link for that in the bulletin. Today, we are celebrating the 46th anniversary of Dayspring Fellowship with our meal afterwards. This is why we're having our barbecue meal together after church today. There are times in God's purposes for his people, for us to fast, and there are times for us to feast. And today is a time to feast in celebration and thanksgiving of God's grace. and mercy to us as a local church. So we'll be doing that after church today. All are invited, so plan to join us afterwards. Men's prayer breakfast will be this Saturday. So this Saturday is October the 5th. The brothers are gonna enjoy a delicious food, warm fellowship, and prayer together in the fellowship hall beginning at eight o'clock in the morning. So I encourage you men to join us for that. Parenting seminars coming up in October on the 19th at Kennedy Avenue Baptist Church. And information is at the link there in the bulletin. And then don't forget that we are almost up to the retreat. We do this the last weekend of October every year. We have this yellow flyer out on the hall table. So if you're registered to go to the retreat, you want to grab one of these and just be aware of the upcoming deadline to pay for your room and also service opportunities. I sent an email out this week with information about our hike to Lost Maples on that Saturday morning. For anyone who wants to join us, we've got about seven or eight already lined up to hike that morning and you're welcome to do that. You just want to make a reservation for parking using the link and the email that I sent out. All right, I think that's it for announcements. So if you would, grab your red hymnal and turn with me in the red hymnal to hymn number 57. It's 5-7 in the red. And please stand together for our traditional anniversary call to worship. Our traditional anniversary call to worship for all these decades has been from 2 Corinthians chapter 4. Therefore, having this ministry by the mercy of God, we do not lose heart, but we have renounced disgraceful underhanded ways. We refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God's word. But by the open statement of the truth, we would commend ourselves to everyone's conscience in the sight of God. And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. In their case, the God of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake. For God, who said, let light shine out of darkness, has shown in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. Let us sing together. Alleluia, praise Jehovah, all my soul Jehovah praise. I will sing the glorious praises of my God through all my days. Put no confidence in princes, nor for help on man depend. He shall die, to dust returning, and his purposes shall end. Happy is the man that chooses Israel's God to be his aid. He is blessed, whose hope of blessing on the Lord his God is stayed. Heaven and earth the Lord created, seasoned all that they contain. He delivers from oppression. Righteousness is we maintain. Food He daily gives the hungry, Sets the mourning prisoner free, Praises those bowed down in anguish, Makes the sightless eye to see. Well, Jehovah loves the righteous, And the stranger He befriends, Helps the fatherless and widow, Judgment on the wicked sins. Alleluia, praise Jehovah, O my soul, Jehovah, praise! I will sing the glorious praises of my God through all my days. Over all, God reigns forever, through all ages He is King. Unto Him, your God, O Zion, joyful alleluia sing. Let us pray together. Almighty God and our Heavenly Father, what a privilege it is to join with all of your saints in heaven this morning and with your angels and archangels and praising you and singing your praise and delighting in you for your grace and your mercy. We thank you, Lord God, that we are a part of that great multitude that no man can number in heaven and in earth, that gives worship to the Lamb, that sings to you joyful hallelujahs. We thank you, Father, that you have redeemed us by sending your only Son to die for our sins, and we thank you that you have bought us with his precious blood so that we are not our own, but we belong wholly and completely to you. Help us this day, Lord, to forgive all of those who have sinned against us, just as you have forgiven our sins against you. We pray, Lord God, that you would work by the Holy Spirit in this service to remind us of your goodness and of how glorious and excellent you truly are. We pray, Lord, that you would meet with us as we sing and as we partake of the Lord's Supper together as one body, that you would hear our prayers, that you would speak directly to us through your word. We pray that in all things, Lord God, that you would see to it that you get all the glory and that you would go forth by your Holy Spirit into every heart, doing your sovereign operations on our souls to the praise and honor of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray. Amen. You may be seated. Good morning, everyone. Please turn to hymn 457, Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing. And then as we finish singing the song as is, we will be singing Amazing Grace to go with it. No? Oh, okay, just ignore that. We'll just sing. Come, thou fount of every blessing, tune my heart to sing thy grace. Streams of mercy never ceasing, call for songs of loudest praise. Teach me some melodious sonnet, sung by flaming tongues above. Praise the mount I'm fixed upon, and mount of God's unchanging love. Here I raise my Ebenezer, hither by thy help I'm come. and I hope by thy good pleasure safely to arrive at home. Jesus sought me when a stranger, wandering from the fold of God. He to rescue me to danger interposed his precious blood. O to grace how great a debtor daily I'm constrained to be. Let Thy grace now like a feather on my wandering heart to Thee. Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love. Here's my heart, O take and seal it, seal it for Thy courts above. Come, Thou Fount of every blessing, tune my heart to sing Thy grace. Streams of mercy never ceasing, call for songs of loudest praise. All glory, glory, hallelujah, glory to the God who reigns on high. All glory, glory, hallelujah, glory to the God who reigns on high. Teach me so that you'll suck my lotus on and suck my flaming tongues above. Praise the mount, I'm fixed upon it, mount of God's unchanging love. Oh, glory, glory, hallelujah, glory to the God who reigns on high. Oh, glory, glory, hallelujah, glory to the God who reigns on high. He, I raise my Ebenezer, hither by thy help I'm come, and I hope by thy good pleasure safely to arrive at home. O glory, glory, hallelujah, glory to the God who reigns on high! O glory, glory, hallelujah, glory to the God who reigns on high! Jesus sought me when a stranger, wandering from the fold of God, He to rescue me from danger interposed His precious blood. O glory, glory, hallelujah, glory to the God who reigns on high! O glory, glory, hallelujah, glory to the God who reigns on high! O to grace, thou great a debtor, daily I'm constrained to be. Let thy grace now like a fetter bind my wandering heart to thee. O glory, glory, hallelujah, glory to the God who reigns on high. O glory, glory, hallelujah, glory to the God who reigns on high. Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love. Here's my heart, O take and seal it, seal it for the courts above. O glory, glory, hallelujah, glory to the God who reigns on high. O glory, glory, hallelujah, glory to the God who reigns on high. O glory, glory, hallelujah, glory to the God who reigns on high. O glory, glory, hallelujah, glory to the God who reigns on high. Amen. And as we continue to sing for God's glory, turn to hymn number 55, To God Be the Glory. God be the glory, great things He has done, so loved He the world that He gave us His Son, who yielded His life and atonement for sin, and opened the life gate that we ♪ He may go in ♪ ♪ Praise the Lord, praise the Lord ♪ ♪ Let the earth hear His voice ♪ ♪ Praise the Lord, praise the Lord ♪ ♪ Let the people rejoice ♪ ♪ O come to the Father through Jesus the Son ♪ ♪ And give Him the glory, great things He has done ♪ ♪ O perfect redemption, the purchase of blood ♪ ♪ To every believer the promise of God ♪ The vilest offender who truly believes ♪ That moment from Jesus' forgiveness he seeks ♪ Praise the Lord, praise the Lord ♪ Let the earth hear his voice ♪ Praise the Lord, praise the Lord ♪ Let the people rejoice O come to the Father through Jesus the Son, and give Him the glory, great things He has done. Great things He has taught us, great things He has done, and great are rejoicing through Jesus the Son. The purer and higher and greater will be Our wonder, our transport when Jesus we see Praise the Lord, praise the Lord Let the earth hear His voice Praise the Lord, praise the Lord Let the people rejoice to the Father, through Jesus the Son, and give him the glory, great things he has done. Amen. Let me read that second line for us again. It says, O perfect redemption, the purchase of blood, to every believer the promise of God, the vilest offender who truly believes, That moment from Jesus, forgiveness receives. I think if we've truly trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ, we are that vilest offender. We are the one who Christ died for and we are the ones who put him up on that cross, who pierced his hands and pierced his side, stripped him naked and put the crown of thorns on his head. and we were the ones yelling, crucify him, crucify him. But as Paul says in 1 Timothy chapter one, that he was the foremost of sinners, but it was the mercy of God that he now stands before him righteous, and so are we. All right, now we have the reading of God's word. Good morning, church. Good morning. This morning's reading is from 1 Corinthians chapter 10, one through 12. For I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud and all passed through the sea and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea and all ate the same spiritual food and all drank the same spiritual drink. for they drank from the spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ. Nevertheless, with most of them, God was not pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness. Now these things took place as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as they did. Do not be idolaters as some of them were. As it is written, the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play. We must not indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did, and 23,000 fell in a single day. We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did, and were destroyed by serpents, nor grumble, as some of them did, and were destroyed by the destroyer. Now these things happened to them as an example. but they were written down for our instruction on whom the end of the ages has come. Therefore, let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall. Word of the Lord. Well, it's not just because today is this local church's anniversary that we are celebrating the Lord's Supper. The 46 years that we've existed as a church, we've celebrated the Lord's Supper every Lord's Day together. We see this as a 2,000-year-old pattern that began with the early church. And so there are two main elements to our main Sunday morning gathering, two centers of our worship together. One is this table, and the other is this word. And both proclaim the truth of the gospel, one visually and one using words. And we invite those who are visiting us to partake of the Lord's Supper with us. This is the Lord's table, not Dayspring's table. And so all who are relying upon the Lord for salvation are welcome to it. We ask three things of you. The first and most important one is that you are trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ alone for your salvation. So you're not looking to come alongside and help Jesus to save you. You're not relying upon any goodness in yourself, any works that you have done that would commend you to God. You know that there was nothing you could do to even clean yourself up a little bit to come to God, that God had to do everything to save you. And so you have put your trust wholly and completely in the Lord Jesus Christ to live the life you failed to live of rendering perfect obedience to the Father in your place and who died the death that you deserve to die in your place by taking God's wrath upon himself on the cross and paying the price for all of your sins, past, present, and future. So you are one who has been saved by God's grace alone, through faith alone, in the Lord Jesus Christ alone, to his glory alone, you have absolutely nothing to boast about except to boast in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. And then secondly, we ask that you be a baptized believer, but we do leave the details of your baptism up to your own individual conscience. And finally, we ask that you not be under church discipline from your local congregation, where your membership belongs so that we might respect the work of the Lord as he continues to build his church throughout the world. As we come now to prepare ourselves for the Lord's Supper, let's turn in the red hymnal to hymn number 499. 499 in the red. And let me draw your attention to the fact that we come to the Lord in this hymn with nothing in our hands but clinging only to the cross. Let us sing Rock of Ages, cleft for me. Rock of Ages, clap for me. Let me hide myself in Thee. Let the water and the blood from Thy riven side which flowed be a sin, the double cure. Cleanse me from its guilt and power. Not the labors of my hands Can fulfill Thy law's demands. Could my zeal no respite know? Could my tears forever flow? All for sin could not atone. Thou must save, and Thou alone Nothing in my hand I bring Simply to Thy cross I cling Naked come to Thee, poor dress Helpless look to Thee for grace How I to the fountain fly Wash me, Savior, or I die While I draw this pleading breath, When mine eyelids close in death, When I soar to worlds unknown, See Thee on Thy judgment throne. Rock of Ages, clap for me, Let me hide myself in Thee, One of the most precious truths in all the world is that we are justified, that is declared righteous before God, by faith alone. That is to say that it's not our good works that justify us before God, but simply our reliance upon one who has done everything for us, living, dying, and being raised. It's also a truth that Satan seems to be always attacking relentlessly. My guess is that you have felt this attack personally. It's there when you go to spend time before the Lord in prayer, and the enemy whispers to you, do you really think that you're good enough for God to listen to you? It's there perhaps this morning, whispering, do you really think of all the people that you should be the one eating the Lord's supper? It's there when you've recognized sin and your instant thought is that you need to beat yourself up a pretty good bit before you can really be forgiven. in those moments when you're experiencing the enemy's attack against this precious truth that we are justified by faith alone in the finished work of Christ alone. But this attack of the enemy, it shouldn't be surprising. He is, after all, he is known in scripture as the accuser of the brethren. And so he hates the idea that you and I can stand before God as sinners, resting and relying in the fact that we are declared righteous and all of our sins are forgiven solely because of the work of Jesus for us. Nor should we think that when he attacks and accuses that he is using some new strategy. We actually see this continually in Scripture, and we see it continually directed at the Apostle Paul and his gospel ministry as we read the Bible. It seems that every time Paul went to an area and he preached the gospel, people believed and a church was planted, and then the enemy soon came in behind Paul with attacks. against this very truth that we are justified by faith alone. And in many of those cases, the attacks came in the form of false teachers called Judaizers. And what these false teachers would say is that, yes, it's good that you're believing in Jesus. It's good that you're relying on Jesus for your salvation. But you need to do a little more than that. You need to rely on yourself as well and be strong and do this and do that and do this other thing. Anticipating this attack, Paul writes this to the church in Philippi. Look out for the dogs. Look out for the evildoers. Look out for those who mutilate the flesh. For we are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus, and put no confidence in the flesh. Though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also, if anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more. Circumcised on the eighth day of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews, as to the law, a Pharisee, as to zeal, a persecutor of the church, as to righteousness under the law, blameless. But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord. For His sake, I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish in order that I might gain Christ and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith. And so I speak as to sensible people. Judge for yourselves what I say. The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread. Whoever therefore eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a person examine himself then and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself. That's why many of you are weak and ill and some have died. But if we judged ourselves truly, we would not be judged. But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world. Brothers and sisters, let's take a moment of silence before the Lord to examine ourselves. our merciful Lord Jesus, we come to this table relying upon you and not ourselves. We know that all of our own supposed strength and goodness and morality is nothing but rubbish, that the only solid rock that we can rely upon is you. And so we come counting everything as loss in order to have that righteousness that comes not from ourselves, but through faith alone, in you alone, relying upon you and your life and death and resurrection for us, your body given upon that tree, your blood shed upon the cross. And so we ask for you to bless this bread and bless this cup, sanctify them, Lord, for their holy use, and bless us in partaking of them. to do so by faith alone, in you alone, to your glory alone, and so in a worthy manner. In your precious name, the name of Jesus we pray, amen. For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you. that the Lord Jesus, on the night when he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, this is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me. In the same way, also he took the cup after supper, saying, this cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me. For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. This is the body of our Lord crushed for our iniquities. There's the body of our Lord. This cup is the new covenant in Christ's blood, shed on behalf of many for the forgiveness of sins. The blood of the Lord shed for our sins. This is the new covenant in Christ's blood. Please take the insert in your bulletin now, and we will be singing Dwelling Place, a hymn written by our founding pastor, Jackson Boyette. Let us sing. Lord, You have been our dwelling place throughout all generations. Lord, You have been our dwelling place throughout all generations. Before the mountains high were born, For you brought forth the earth and the world From everlasting you are God Throughout all generations You turn us back to dust and you say Return to me, you children of men A thousand years to you is a day throughout all generations. Lord, you have been our dwelling place throughout all generations. Lord, you have been our dwelling place throughout all generations. You set our sins in the light of Your face. All our days are under Your wrath. Our length of years is threescore and ten throughout all generations. Who can know the power of your wrath? Only one, the Son of your love He will pardon those who believe Throughout all generations Lord, you have been So teach us now to number our days That we may wisdom gain in our heart Take our work, establish it now throughout all generations. Lord, you have been our dwelling place throughout all generations. Lord, you have been our dwelling place throughout all generations. Amen. Our eternal God who created the mountains high and brought forth the earth and the world, the pinnacle of his creation was us, made in his image. And he gave us his presence, his dwelling place there in the Garden of Eden. And of course, the whole storyline of the Bible is about how we were exiled from that dwelling place and how we have been provided a way back to dwell with the Lord. That hymn that Jackson Boyette, our founding pastor, wrote picks up on this sweeping theme. Of course, it's based on Psalm 90. We're about to read that together, which also picks up on such a key and rich biblical theme. It's picked back up in the very last chapter of the Bible in Revelation 21. So I do want to read this passage to you. John writes, and I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them. And they will be his people. And God himself will be with them. as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more. Neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away." Glory to God. That's the day that the dwelling place of God is back with man, this time forever and ever in righteousness and in peace. Well, if you would, please turn in the red hymnal to page 816, 816 in the red, and we are gonna read now responsibly this great 90th Psalm. Please stand together. Lord, you have been our dwelling place throughout all generations. You turn men back to dust, saying, return to dust, O sons of men. For a thousand years of your sight are like a day that has just gone by, or like a watch in the night. You sweep men away in the sleep of death. They are like the new grass of the morning. We are consumed by your anger and terrified by your indignation. You have set our inequities before you, our secret sins in the light of your presence. All our days pass away under your wrath. We finish our years with a moan. The length of our days is 70 years, or 80 if we have the strength. Who knows the power of your anger? For your wrath is as great as the fear that is due you. Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom. Relent, O Lord, how long will it be? Have compassion on your servants. Satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love, that we may sing for joy and be glad Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us, for as many years as we have seen trouble. May the favor of the Lord our God rest upon us. Establish the work of our hands for us. Yes, establish the work of our hands. Let us pray together. Our great Father and our God, we pray, Lord, that we would always set you before us and that you would always set your favor upon us and establish the work of our hands. We thank you, Lord Jesus, that you have conquered death and that you have taken all of our sins upon yourself. We thank you that you have been raised from the dead for our justification. We thank you, Heavenly Father, for this great mercy that you have shown us, which was rooted and founded in your sovereign election before time and creation itself. We thank you that we were chosen in Christ Jesus before the foundation of the world. And we thank you that you have raised Jesus into heaven and have given him glory, honor, and all power in heaven and on earth, and have seated us with him in the heavenly places. We thank you, Lord God, for being our dwelling place throughout all generations. We thank you, Father, for your mercy to those in our congregation who are ill, and we lift them up before you, Lord. We pray that you would be with all who are traveling, be with my Sandra as she mourns the loss of her mother and with her father in Canada, and grant her safe travel home. Lord, be with the Milligan family as they mourn the loss of their mother Ruth. And we pray, Heavenly Father, for our world, for all affected by the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the threat to Europe that that poses, and for all affected by the warfare in the Middle East, and for all affected by the recent hurricane and floods in Florida and Georgia and the Carolinas. We pray, Lord, that you would be with President Biden and all of our earthly leaders, that you would guide them in wisdom, and that you would fill our hearts with true honor towards our leaders as you have commanded. We pray, Lord God, for this local church, that you would protect us, that you would continue to bless us as you have in the past. We thank you, Lord God, for providing our every spiritual need, and we pray that you would continue the work that you began at Dayspring 46 years ago and continue to shape us by your holy word and conform us to the image of your dear son. We pray, Lord, that you would fill Pastor Josh Hayward with your holy spirit this morning as he proclaims your word at Kenny Avenue Baptist Church in South Austin, that you would build up our brothers and sisters there and their faith this morning. We thank you, Lord God, for the work of all of our missionaries We pray especially for wisdom and protection for the Carstens in South Africa during this violent season. We pray for the spread of your gospel throughout the world by which you're adding to your church daily as many as are being saved. And so we pray, we pray for the fullness of your elect to come in so that all Israel will then be saved. We pray that Jesus our King will return quickly to set all things right, to usher in a new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells, in which the knowledge of the glory of the Lord covers the earth as the waters cover the sea. In Jesus' name and for his sake we pray, amen. Well, you may be seated and children may go out to Children's Church at this time. Please turn with me in your copy of God's Inspired and Inerrant Word to the Gospel of John, and back to chapter 18. So last week, we looked together at the first 11 verses of chapter 18. Today, we're going to pick it up in verse 12, where Jesus' wrists are finally bound and the first steps are taken toward him being condemned and to be crucified. So look with me at chapter 18, starting in verse 12. So the band of soldiers and their captain and the officers of the Jews arrested Jesus and bound him. First they led him to Annas, for he was the father-in-law of Caiaphas, who was high priest that year. It was Caiaphas who had advised the Jews that it would be expedient that one man should die for the people. Simon Peter followed Jesus, and so did another disciple. Since that disciple was known to the high priest, he entered with Jesus into the courtyard of the high priest, but Peter stood outside at the door. So the other disciple, who was known to the high priest, went out and spoke to the servant girl who kept watch at the door and brought Peter in. The servant girl at the door said to Peter, you also are not one of this man's disciples, are you? He said, I am not. Now the servants and officers had made a charcoal fire because it was cold and they were standing and warming themselves. Peter also was with them standing and warming himself. So basically, here and through the next couple of sections, John takes two very different stories that are happening at exactly the same time, and he sort of weaves them together so that this narrative just flips back and forth between the events that are going on inside of Caiaphas's house and Jesus' trial, and the events that are going on outside, in the courtyard, out in the cold. And you can see what he's doing there by flipping back and forth between the two, right? He's drawing a contrast, a very deliberate contrast between Jesus inside of the house standing as firm as a rock under the questioning of the Pharisees, and then Peter outside collapsing like a house of cards at the first sign of opposition. One of those two men is in total control of the situation. and the other one is just being completely swept away by events that seem completely outside of his control. Well, today we're gonna think a little bit about the trial that was just getting set in motion, but we're not gonna say a whole lot about the trial just yet. We're gonna get there in the next couple of weeks. Today we're gonna spend most of our time really thinking about Peter and this catastrophic series of events that led him to denying that he even knew Jesus. And so the main idea here is this. It's the main idea. Self-confidence will always collapse like a house of cards. Self-confidence will always collapse like a house of cards. But in the end, praise God, Jesus is there to save. That's the main idea. Self-confidence will always collapse like a house of cards, but in the end, praise God, Jesus is there to save. I want to look at our passage this morning under two main points. Number one, the catastrophic collapse of self-confidence, the catastrophic collapse of self-confidence. And then number two, the stunning redemptive power of grace, the stunning redemptive power of grace. So let's look at it. The catastrophic collapse of self-confidence, that's point number one. And if you look at verse 12, it's a little bit artificial to even break the paragraph here, because verse 12, clearly it just follows right on from verse 11. If you look back up at verse 11 here, Jesus tells Peter, you know, put your sword away. He tells him, I've got to drink this cup, this cup of suffering and death and of judgment for my people, this cup. that the father has given me, I've got to drink it. And then immediately in verse 12, there's no real break in the story at all. The soldiers bind his hands, arrest him, and set off back toward the city. Now, verse 13 is where Jesus's trial actually begins. And to understand what's going on, you've got to understand a little bit about the tricky political situation that the Jewish leaders find themselves in here. So by the middle of this week, The Pharisees and the scribes and the teachers of the law, the Jewish leaders, they were completely convinced that they needed to get rid of Jesus, that there was no question about it. They had thought about it in the past for several weeks, especially after the raising of Lazarus from the dead. But now they know we have got to get rid of Jesus once and for all, and it's got to happen quickly. Now, why is that? Why does it have to happen so quickly? I mean, why not just celebrate the Passover and get that behind you and then get on with arresting Jesus after that? Well, the reason is because the huge crowds that were just thronging Jerusalem for the Passover feast, they were dangerous when there was a guy in town claiming to be the promised king, the Messiah. And to make matters even worse, Jesus, he had been teaching the people that the Pharisees were no good. He was saying, these are false shepherds. These are people who are leading you to hell. These are people who are whitewashed tombs. His teaching was very anti-Pharisee. He was saying that they're spiritually blind. They're corrupt, they're bad, wicked shepherds who devour the sheep. So he's anti-Pharisee. And the Pharisees, they have already seen the crowds, these Passover crowds, proclaiming Jesus to be the Messiah, to be the king, the son of David. And they've said, we've got to get rid of him before he makes real trouble for us. And so we've got to get rid of him now. But there was a problem. They couldn't get rid of him all by themselves. And why not? Why couldn't the Jewish leaders just say, all right, he is guilty as charged, put him on a cross, condemned to death. Why couldn't they just do that? Well, it's because the Jewish nation, at this point in their history, really for much of their history, It was not an independent, autonomous nation. When was the last time they were an independent, autonomous nation? They had a little bit of autonomy during the Maccabean Revolution. That was very short-lived. The last time they were really autonomous was before they were sent into Babylon for exile. When they came out of exile, remember, they were under the thumb of Persia. They've been under the thumb of one empire after another. And here, they're under the thumb of Rome. They didn't have the authority to do the kind of things that autonomous nations can do. So being under the thumb of the Romans, even though it was a Roman policy to basically let their subjugated people run their own local governments, they took away certain important powers and rights. And for example, the power to condemn somebody to death, that was something they reserved for themselves. And so they had done that to the Jews. They had said, you know, you can handle the petty crimes. You can dole out fines and floggings and all the rest on your own. But if you sentence someone to death, that is illegal. Can't do that. If anybody's going to be sentenced to death. We, the Romans, we have to do that in our empire. Only the Roman court could hand down the death penalty. But here's another problem that they had. Not only could they not sentence Jesus to death, they needed Romans to do that, they were also running out of time very quickly. I mean, think about when this is, that Jesus gets arrested. It is just after midnight on Friday morning. Now, so in about 16 hours from this point, the sun was gonna rise and go back down again, and Passover was gonna start at sundown. And then the Jews, they wouldn't be able to execute anybody for more than a week. And the problem was, it was a dangerous situation, right, to let Jesus live that long with the possibility that the people who were thronging the city were gonna hear that their king, they had just hailed him as the king, that their Messiah had been arrested, that they're already proclaiming him to be the son of David, so there's a huge danger that the people would riot or even revolt. So they need to get him executed, and they need to get him executed quickly, and they need to get the Romans' permission to execute him quickly. And to compound their problem even more, the Roman governor, whose name was Pontius Pilate, he didn't exactly do a full day's work. Pilate would sit in judgment basically from sunrise until right about breakfast time, like mid-morning, and then that was it for his day. So if the Pharisees wanted Jesus dead by sunset Friday, they had to get the Roman permission and they had to do all of that really, really fast. So by the time Jesus is arrested at one or two in the morning, the gears were already turning. They've got the Pharisees invited over to come to Caiaphas' house, and they're going to run all these trials, and eventually put on a circus trial and condemn him, and then very quickly rush him over to Pilate to try to get him condemned and killed before sundown. In other words, They're just desperately trying to check all the legal boxes as they go down, and the first of those boxes that's got to be checked is a kind of preliminary trial before this guy named Annas. So look at verse 13 again. So first they led him to Annas, for he was the father-in-law of Caiaphas, who was high priest that year. Annas had been the high priest until AD 15, when the Romans got mad at him and they deposed him. And yet to the Jews, this was completely illegitimate. The Romans can't just depose the rightful high priest and stick in one of their liking, which they did, because the Old Testament, remember, the high priesthood is for life. So even after he was deposed from the actual office, he was still known by the people as the high priest He even kind of operated as a sort of power behind the throne of the high priest who had this sort of Roman certification, the seal of approval from Rome. So basically, you've got two high priests at this time. There's Annas, who still functions as high priest for the people. And then there's Caiaphas, the high priest officially recognized by Rome. Look at verse 14 there at how John identifies Caiaphas. He says, it was Caiaphas. who had advised the Jews that it would be expedient that one man should die for the people." So referring back, remember, to what Caiaphas had said in the middle of this argument that was going on among the Pharisees in the wake of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead. And they were trying to figure out what to do about Jesus. The whole world is going after this guy, they were saying. We're gonna lose our place and we're gonna lose our position because they can see that he can do things like raise people from the dead. And some of them wanted to arrest him. Some of them wanted to kill him. Some of them were even saying, you know, we ought to just go along with the people and follow this guy. And then breaking into the middle of all this raucous argument that's going on, Caiaphas jumps in and says, You guys know nothing at all, nor do you understand that it is better for you, he says, that one man should die for the people than that the whole nation should perish. In other words, in his mind, if we follow this guy as king, the Romans are going to crush us. So it's better if the Romans crush this one man, and then the whole nation will not be crushed by the Romans. And then John, in that chapter, it's the end of chapter 11, he adds this little comment. He says, he, that's Caiaphas, he didn't say this of his own accord, but being high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation, and not for the nation only, but also to gather into one the children of God who are scattered abroad. So that's where it comes from. Why does John, why do you think the Apostle John brings that up here in chapter 18? I mean, is this just a matter of him saying, you remember Caiaphas? He's the guy that said that thing, and you're supposed to go, oh yeah, yeah, that's right, that's Caiaphas. We've already met him in the story. Is that what he's doing? He's kind of doing that, right? But I don't think that that's the only or even the main reason that John puts this detail in here. He does this. Because by this point in the story, as Jesus has now his hands tied behind his back, he's being carried off to the house of the high priest to be condemned, you, the reader, may be thinking that things have gotten out of control. And John wants to remind you that it is not out of control at all. that's happening here was planned by God. It's not an accident. It's not some tragedy in which Jesus is being swept away by events. It is all in God's purpose, and it's under his meticulous sovereignty. I doubt, though, that it felt that way to Peter as he trailed along behind the soldiers while they were leading Jesus to the high priest's house. I doubt at all that the whole thing felt in God's perfect control to Peter. I doubt that it felt like it was all under God's meticulous sovereignty. For Peter walking behind that crowd of Roman soldiers who had custody of his king, of his master, with his hands tied behind his back, it must have been For Peter, just this swirling fear in his heart that everything that he had worked for for the last three years is now completely unraveling, completely falling apart. Everything he'd given his life to, it looked like it was coming unraveled. And by the end of the story, for him at least, it did, in fact, come unraveled. He finds himself by the end weeping bitterly and staring his own weakness in the face. So by the end, not only had Peter not done what he said he was gonna do, I'm gonna heroically defend you at all costs. I'm gonna go with you, I'm gonna follow you even unto death, Jesus, he had said. Not only had he not done that for his king, he denied that he even knew him. And the guy who intended to be the king's right hand man, when he took his throne, he had absolutely abandoned his king. Now I want to take a few minutes and just stare into that fact, because in this very short telling of Peter's denial of Jesus, the Apostle John actually manages to fill this passage up with all kinds of subtle little details that show us just how far Peter fell that night. So let's look at some of those. First look at verse 15 there, the very beginning of the story. You see that phrase there at the very beginning? Simon Peter followed Jesus. At face value, it's just saying that Peter was one of the brave ones. The other Gospels tell us that all the other disciples abandoned Jesus. They scattered into the night when the soldiers showed up to arrest him. Only two, apparently, stayed with him, even at a distance. and this other disciple, who's noted here but is not named, who is undoubtedly John himself. But there's an ironic twist underneath that word, followed. Peter followed Jesus. John wants you to remember what Peter had said with so much confidence back in chapter 13. Chapter 13, verses 36 to 38, Simon Peter says to Jesus, Lord, where are you going? Jesus answered him, where I am going, you cannot follow me, but you will follow afterward. Peter said to him, Lord, why can't I follow you now? I will lay down my life for you. Jesus answered, will you lay down your life for me? Truly, I say to you, the rooster will not crow till you have denied me three times. And so John comes back in chapter 18 and says, oh yeah, Peter followed Jesus, but his self-confidence was going to collapse and lead him to disaster. Also another clue in here, look at how this first denial comes about. First, Peter gets stuck outside, and John has an in with the high priest's household. He knows the servant girl who opens and shuts the door. He has to turn around and get Peter in. The reason he tells us that is because John is saying, I was an eyewitness to all this stuff, I was here. And I saw all of this, but the details that he tells us about how the first denial came about, it shows us something really important. And that is that it's not as if the Apostle Peter is in some particular danger when this happens. He's not in any particular danger. It doesn't take, in other words, a whole lot of pressure for Peter to crack. It's not as if some Roman soldier comes in with a sword, sticks it to his throat, and says, you were one of his disciples, weren't you? And Peter denies it under threat of death. It's not that at all. There was no particular danger at all. Look at verses 15 to 17. So the apostle John, he has to vouch for Peter to the girl to get him into the courtyard. And as John's vouching for him and getting him through the gate into the courtyard, The servant girl, serving at the door, just kind of offhandedly asks Peter, you're not also one of his disciples, are you? Now here's what I think John wants you to see from that. There's nothing super threatening in that question. It's not being asked by a soldier. It's not being asked by a Jewish or a Roman official or anybody at all important. It's just a slave girl. And notice that word, also, in her question. Do you see that? This is verse 17. The servant girl at the door said to Peter, you also are not one of this man's disciples, are you? Well, who else is? Who else is that's standing right there? John. John is a disciple, and he knows her, and she knows that he is one of Jesus's disciples. And she's not threatened by that at all. And yet Peter immediately cracks. I am not. Now here's the question. Why does Peter do that? If he's not being threatened at the tip of a sword, why does he do that? Why does he deny that he knows Jesus? You know, some people have said it's just the panic of the night, right? The fear of what's going on, fear of being carried away by the soldiers, arrested himself, and probably there was some of that. But if you think back on the story, literally nobody had shown any desire to arrest Jesus' followers. They could have. I mean, Peter had cut a guy's ear off for crying out loud, and yet the 600 Roman soldiers who were there, they didn't make any move to arrest Peter, even when he attempted murder. I think what's going on here is more that Peter wanted. Throughout the whole story of John, he craved and he wanted Jesus to be a certain kind of king. He was determined to help Jesus get there. He wanted Jesus to be not the kind of king who would die, but the kind of king who would have an army and who would fight for his reign. I mean, not only that, but obviously through this whole thing, Peter's still thinking in very military terms. He wants Jesus to establish the kingdom now, and all his talk of death and burial and all the rest of it is just not what Peter had in mind. It wasn't Peter's vision. It was the same when he drew his sword and tried to start a war so that Jesus could be installed on the throne of Israel. Peter wanted to fight because he wanted Jesus to be a certain kind of king. But of course, it all comes to this dreadful end here in the courtyard of the high priest. And you can see exactly what happens when Peter's idea of what Jesus's kingship should mean crumbles down around him. So does his courage. It just crumbles when Jesus turns out not to be the kind of king that he wants. His courage, it fades and crumbles. And here he winds up denying that he even knows Jesus. Trouble is, you and I can be exactly the same way with Jesus. We can be exactly the same way. We can be subtly unhappy with the kind of King that Jesus really is. It can happen in our own hearts as we deal with the circumstances of this life. Because in so many ways, we subtly look at our circumstances, circumstances of our lives, and we say, you know what? If I was king, if I were in charge of this thing, I would do it differently. I would take that problem away from me. I would give myself more resources. I would give myself more influence. I would change this. I would do that. I would fix this relationship. If I were king, I would do it all differently. But you know what that is, ultimately? That is being discontent with the king who Jesus is. It's being discontent with his royal providence. It's a desire to take over the reigns of providence from King Jesus. So be careful. Be careful that you don't subtly reject the King who Jesus is for the King that you wish he were. A few other details to see here too. Look at verse 18. The servants and officers, they had made a charcoal fire because it was cold and they were standing and warming themselves. Peter also was with them, standing and warming himself. This at first looks like just sort of a boring, bare statement of fact, but like he does, John wants you to see a deeper meaning in his choice of words here. You know the last time that those phrases were used, that someone is with them, standing with them, chapter 18, just last week, 18 verse five, Judas was standing with them, and John, I think means you to see here that Peter had not just denied Jesus, he had put himself on the side of Jesus's opponents, on the side of Jesus's enemies. He had made himself like one of them. He had made himself, in fact, like Judas. If you look down at verse 26 with this question from Malchus's relative that we'll get to in the coming weeks, One of the servants of the high priest, a relative of the man whose ear Peter had cut off, asked, did I not see you in the garden with him? You see the point? Peter has fallen. He's fallen. Peter used to be with Jesus. Now he's with them. And look at 25 and 27, too. that word that John uses to describe what Peter's done. He denied. He denied. It's used both in verse 25 and 27. And John's doing it on purpose, right? Jesus has said, whoever denies me before men, I will also deny before my Father who is in heaven. And to top it all off, look at how John puts Peter's response in verse 17 and 25. The other Gospels tell us more of what Peter said, but John, he just summarizes Peter's response in verse 17 and 25 with this very simple phrase, I am not. I am not. Now what's that echoing? Remember from last week? It's echoing the exact opposite of Jesus' very powerful I am that knocks the soldiers on their backs. So you see what's going on there? While Jesus is now coming into his glory as the Son of God who's going to save his people from their sins, he is the great I Am. All of Peter's bravado's collapsing into nothingness and he is swirling down the abyss saying, I am not, I am not, I am not. Jesus is everything and Peter is nothing. There's just an incredible message that John wants us to get here. And the message that he wants us to get is that self-confidence, self-confidence is a weak, weak thing to build your life on. And the problem is, is that if there is anybody that we could expect to stand firm for King Jesus, who is it? It's Peter. If anybody's gonna stand firm with Jesus, it is definitely Peter. So we can't read this story and think, oh, Peter, Peter, Peter, Peter. He just is always getting himself into trouble, thinks he's strong, but he's just so weak. I would never have done that. If that's you this morning, watch yourself, but lest you fall, right? That's self-confidence. exact same trap that Peter falls into here. And the whole point here is that Peter, it's not that Peter is particularly weak or cowardly, but exactly the opposite, that he is particularly stronger than the rest of the disciples. He is particularly more courageous than the rest of the disciples. I mean, he is the one who has stood up and said, I will follow you to death, Jesus, even if everyone else abandons you. And then for a minute, that's true. They all run, his followers. He was ready to fight. He was ready to die. He's the strongest of all of them, the bravest of all of them. And still, he fell. So what's the lesson? What's the lesson? You are not as strong as Peter. You're not. And you need to root out self-confidence in your own heart. You need to root it out. You need to expose it and then deny it. You need to ask yourself, where is my confidence? Where is your confidence? Where is it? Is it in your smarts? Is it in your possessions? Is it in money? Is it in yourself, what you've accomplished, what you've done? your giftings, where ultimately is your confidence. And the whole story of the Bible is calculated to take your self-confidence and the confidence that you have in anything in this world and to break it and to show you how hollow it is and to say, no, your confidence, it needs to be in Jesus Christ alone. You need to see that confidence in anything else in the world as empty and hollow and worthless, and it will get you nowhere, but Jesus will get you everything. You put your faith, your trust, you put your confidence in him, he will give you eternity, everlasting life and salvation. He will pay the penalty for all of your sins. You know what Peter's problem was? Ultimately, Peter's problem was that he was always, always ready. At a moment's notice, he was ready to serve Jesus, to protect him, to defend him, but not to trust him. Not really. He would trust in himself in order to serve his king. But he wouldn't trust his king. And you know where that self-confidence shows up the most with Peter? It's in Peter's repeated, it's a theme in all the Gospels, his repeated prayerlessness. His repeated prayerlessness, that's where it shows up the most. In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus, the eternal, holy Son of God, goes into that garden, and what does he do? He prays. He prays for the help of his Father, to face what's coming. And Peter, what did he do? He slept. He slept, he didn't pray. And you remember what Jesus said to him after the last supper was instituted on the way out of the garden as they were walking out of the city? It's in Luke 22. He says, he turns to him as they're walking, and he says, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has demanded to have you. that he might sift you like wheat. But I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail." And in the midst of that, in the wake of that just incredible statement, Peter replies to Jesus, Lord, I am ready. No, you're not. Jesus prayed for him. He wouldn't pray for himself. Don't fool yourselves. Don't fool yourselves into thinking that you're ready to stand against the world, to fight against your sin, to do the work of the ministry that the Lord has called you to. You are not, not any more than Peter was. Pray, pray that the Lord would lead you not into temptation, but deliver you from the evil one. Rely on him alone, never on yourself. Here's the second thing, second point, much shorter. The stunning redemptive power of grace. The stunning redemptive power of grace. I mean, you can see here the Apostle John, he doesn't really pull any punches in talking about Peter's denial of Jesus. I mean, John is straight up. He saw it. He was there. He was probably stunned by it at a certain level. I mean, it's a grievous sin. And John, he doesn't turn a single eye away from it at all. He puts all these details in to show you just how heinous the sin is that Peter has committed here. In the midst of the whole catastrophe, John also throws in something that's a little signal that this is not the end of Peter's story. So look back at verse 18. Notice that tiny little detail there in verse 18, that Peter was warming himself around a charcoal fire. Why does John mention that little detail? It does a couple of things for us in the story. It tells us that John was there, that he's an eyewitness, and he knows, as an eyewitness, that it was a charcoal fire as opposed to a wood fire or some other kind of fire. It's an eyewitness detail. But why does he include it? Why does he describe it in that kind of detail? It's a charcoal fire as opposed to a wood one. Well, it's because it is mentioned in the Bible only one other time. Only one other time in the entire New Testament. Just turn the page and look with me at chapter 21. Chapter 21, verse 1. After this, Jesus revealed himself again to the disciples by the Sea of Tiberias, and he revealed himself in this way. Simon Peter, Thomas called the twin, Nathanael of Cana and Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two others of his disciples were together. Simon Peter said to them, I'm going fishing. They said to him, we'll go with you. They went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing. Just as day was breaking, Jesus stood on the shore. Yet the disciples didn't know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to them, children, do you have any fish? They answered him, no. He said to them, cast the net on the right side of the boat and you'll find some. So they cast it and now they were not able to haul it in because of the quantity of fish. That disciple whom Jesus loved therefore said to Peter, it's the Lord. When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on his outer garment, for he was stripped for work, and threw himself into the sea. The other disciples came in the boat, dragging the net full of fish, for they were not far from the land, but about a hundred yards off. When they got out on the land, they saw a charcoal fire in place, with fish laid out on it and bread. Jesus said to them, bring some of the fish that you've just caught. So Simon Peter went aboard and hauled the net ashore full of large fish, 153 of them. And although there were so many, the net was not torn. Jesus said to them, come and have breakfast. Now, none of the disciples dared ask him, who are you? They knew it was the Lord. Jesus came and took the bread and gave it to them. So with the fish, this was now the third time that Jesus was revealed to the disciples after he was raised from the dead. When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these? He said to him, yes, Lord, you know that I love you. He said to him, feed my lambs. He said to him a second time, Simon, son of John, do you love me? He said to him, yes, Lord, you know that I love you. He said to him, tend my sheep. He said to him the third time, Simon, son of John, do you love me? Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, do you love me? And he said to him, Lord, you know everything. You know that I love you. Jesus said to him, feed my sheep. Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were young, you used to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted, but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go. This he said to show by what kind of death he was going to glorify God. And after saying this, he said to him, follow me. So do you see that mention in chapter 18 of the charcoal fire? It's just a little spark of grace. It's a reminder of what's coming when Jesus would raise Peter's head, put him back on his feet to serve the king for the rest of his life. I hope you find deep, deep comfort in that. I love the way that John presents Peter, even in that story. Peter is just this messed up mix of love for Jesus and yet deep embarrassment when he hears that it's the Lord on the shore and he's out in the boat. He's not dressed because he's working. So he throws on his robe and hurls himself into the sea. You're gonna see him swimming up to the shore all just wet and For the rest of the story, he doesn't really say anything. He sits by the charcoal fire, probably in his cloak because he's embarrassed to be around Jesus. And then Jesus turns to him and says three times, just like the three denials, do you love me? Yes. Do you love me? Yes. Do you love me? Yes. Then follow me. And Peter was healed, that deep, deep, wound that opened up in his heart when he denied Jesus. It was healed when he looked into the face of his King. There is deep, deep comfort in that. I don't know all of the wounds that you have. I don't know what kind of guilt you're looking at, but it can be healed when you look into the face of your King. Let us pray. Our Lord Jesus, we thank you and we praise you for your grace. We thank you that even though Peter sinned against you, that you met him on the shore of the ocean that day, and you lifted up his head, and you restored him, you forgave him, you healed him. Oh God, we pray that for anyone here today who doesn't know you as Savior, Lord, we pray that you would bring them to faith and that you would heal the deep wounds that always open up when we put our confidence in ourselves. God, we pray that even this morning, you would do the work of salvation, that you would help those of us who already know you to live in light of your grace and your mercy to us. We pray all of this in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, please stand together. Before I give the benediction, I'm going to say a quick prayer over the feast that we are about to receive. And I want to encourage you to stay. Even if you forgot that today's our anniversary, you didn't bring any food, don't be embarrassed. We have plenty of food. And so please stay and help us to eat it all up. I want to ask that we allow visitors to go through the line, the serving line first, and then the older Dayspringers after that, and the youngest will straggle and come through the line after the rest. Let's pray real quickly for the food. Our great God and Father, you are our great provider. You've provided grace to this church for 46 years, and we thank you for the provision of this feast to celebrate your faithfulness to us. Lord, I pray that you'd bless the food, that you would strengthen us by it to have energy today to give glory and honor and worship to you. We pray all of this in Jesus' name, amen. And now may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of His Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.