We want to look today at a portion of the truth that we have read. Luke chapter 22, verses 31 and 32. And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, if all Satan has desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat, But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not. And when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren. There's four strands of thought we want to follow through here this morning. First of all, Taking your cue from the word desired. Satan has desired to have you, that he may sift your sweet. Taking your cue from that word desired, the desires of Satan. And then secondly, the sifting of Peter, particularly the sifting of Peter. because although there is a sifting of all the disciples, Satan has desired to sift, to have you, that's plural, all the disciples. But he says, but I have prayed for these, speaking particularly to Peter, and that would indicate to us that there's a sifting that took place particularly of Peter. So secondly, the sifting of Peter, And then from the words that the Lord spoke to him, when thou art converted, I have prayed for thee. And he also said, when thou art converted, you shall be converted, in other words. We have there then the restoration of Peter. And then finally, the strengthening of the church, and we get that from the words, when they were converted, strengthened by brethren. The brethren were the other disciples, but it goes wider than that. It was to include the church in all generations from there forward. These are strands of thought and for this morning, the desire of Satan, the sifting of Peter, the restoration of Peter's and finally the strengthening of the church and in that order. First then the desires of Satan. He desired to sift all the disciples. Now you all know what a sieve is. You don't need to go into that. And you know how grain is put into it and how it is vigorously shaken from side to side so that the through grain goes down through the sieve and the chaff remains at the top. And it's a figure that's being used here. Satan was going to put disciples into his cell. The purpose would be to show that they are all chaff. That is the way that he would have it. They're not all true. They're all chaff, they're all false. And that's all that will be left when I put them through my cell. Well, there's that sifting, then he decides to sift all the disciples. He decides to sift the whole church. And he has different sifts that he puts the church through, the believers through, the professing people through. There's the sift of prosperity. And there he believes that if they're put into that sin, that all that they will do will be to glory in their own self-sufficiency and forget about God. They're all false. They're not worshippers of God, he says. That's the sin of adversity. And he believes that when he puts them through that, that they will be murmurous and opposed to the providence of God. There's the sin of spiritual distress. There's different sins that Satan uses to put the professing church through. And we must be on our guard against these sins. We desire a mission. And that permission mysteriously is often granted. The Lord grants the permission to him with the intention of overruling Satan's purposes and bringing good to the church through Satan's malevolent intentions. Overruling them in that way. That's how it was with Job, remember. "'Hast thou seen my servant Job?' the Lord said to Satan, as Jacob appeared with other sons of God, with other angels, at the bar of God's judgment." In other words, have you set your heart, that's the way it's put in the margin, have you set your heart on this one? And then you know how Satan accused God that the only reason that Job was serving him was that God was putting a hedge in his providence around him. Take that hedge away, that hedge of hostility away, and he would curse you to the face. And the permission was given, and we were pointed, but with limits. The Lord set limits on how much the hedge would be taken away in a physical way, but the soul of that person, the soul of Job, would be secured and indeed would be blessed through the overruling of God in these circumstances. That's what we have here then, the Saviour's desire to sift the whole church, the whole lot of the disciples, in this case we can rule out Judas. We can quote Judas indeed, he as well, the sifting with the intention of proving that they are chaff and the Lord granting permission as I've just said. How we need to be a prayer then as regards the one who is going about seeking whom he may devote. and who often appears as an angel of light and who can be difficult to discern, unless we have spiritual eyes and spiritual ears to know him and to flee from his intentions. But there's also the sifting of Peter's. I have prayed for thee, he says to Peter. Individually, singularly, he speaks of Peter there. And therefore, we must gather that Peter was to be the target in a particular way of Satan's sifting. Why Peter, you might ask? Well, possibly because he was so impulsive. Possibly because he was so self-confident and self-sufficient. And that's a weakness in the Lord's people. And it's a weakness that Satan can attack and do his malicious business with. You can see that self-confidence with Peter on this occasion because when the Lord warned Simon, Simon, and that itself was a warning, use of the old name, not the name Peter the Rock, but a reminder to him of this weakness. The old man was instilled, the old principle was still there. Simon, Simon, Satan has desired to sift you as wheat, but I have prayed for these. And as indeed said, the Lord is between the lines saying that Satan has decided to sift thee, Peter. And you notice how Peter responds. He said unto him, Lord, I am ready to go with thee both unto prison and to death. That was self-confidence. And the Lord said, I tell thee, Peter, the cock shall not crow this day before that thou shalt deny me thrice that thou knowest me. very self-confident, very self-sufficient there on this occasion, and the Lord, the Satan was being sifted, maybe with that in mind. But we need a prayer that will be kept low in our own esteem, lest we be among those who think they are I am to follow. Peter was very foremost among the disciples. And you see that on many occasions. You see it at Caesarea Philippi. He was the one who answered, thou art the Christ, the son of the living God. You see, I'm a transfiguration hero. He is the one who speaks. Let us build three tabernacles. He is the one whom you find later on also when the Lord says, will you also go away? And Peter is the one who says, where else can we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life. Peter was the one who was very much to the core, a leader as you might say in the church. And maybe this is a reason that Satan was targeting him also. What damage is done to the cause of Christ when one who is esteemed by others as a leader in the church is brought low? Again, the need to pray for ourselves and for others who may be foremost in the cause of Christ in our own day. Well, there's the desiring of Satan regarding the whole church, all of the disciples. There's the desire of Satan regarding Peter. But there was the desiring of Satan also regarding Judas. Now, we don't have any utterance by Satan, as it were, of the fire of judgment regarding Judas. And anything that we have here must be right between the lines. It is possible, it's even probable, that he appeared at that bar of judgment and sought permission to set his heart upon Judas, that he might be an agent in his hand, a treacherous, traitorous agent in his hand to give Jesus over into his clutches. But the word doesn't say that there was any word but that's only that aside. But undoubtedly there was the desire there that he would have Judas in his clutches and as his instrument to do that dastardly deed of betraying the Lord of Lom. And therefore he would be desiring that The restraint in God's common grace, as we call it, that was placed on Judas, even on Judas, remember, that restraint was there holding him back from the performance of that dastardly deed. What restraint, I ask you? What restraint, I ask myself? And I have been asking that as I've been seeking to prepare this to come to you. And I think this, and you can try the spirits yourselves this afternoon, that Satan, even Judas, would not perform this dastardly deed in the presence of those whom he loved. in the presence of that family, in the presence of the 12 disciples, a member of that group, a member of a family, you might say. And when you're a member of a family, there are certain sins. Yes, you may well perform them in secret, but you will not. There's a restraint that is placed on you in God's providence that you will not perform them in the presence of those on your belt. That was a restraint that was holding Judas, even Judas being held there. You know, I've touched on this I think before on several occasions, If there wasn't for that restraint that the Lord places upon us, it is common grace. It takes different forms, the restraint. Then we would be in a veritable hell. At present, as fallen creatures, we are totally depraved, but we are not yet absolutely depraved. Absolute depravity will bring us into hell. Absolute depravity, all the restraints will be taken away and we will be given up to the evil that is within us. But that restraint was there with Judas and that Satan would be deciding, take that away. And it seems again to me that that was granted. Satan entered into him. Satan entered into him. And there you see, I think, the restraint being taken away, being given up to becoming a virtually a fiend of him. I think you see a little of that, that fear of offending against the society in which he was found, the bond of that society in which he was found. When the Lord said, one of you will betray me, they all said, is it I? And then one of the Gospels says, and another said, and that's undoubtedly Judas, and another said, the Lord is at eye. Seems to me that that indicates he was not prepared to say openly in the presence of the other disciples, it is I. Later on, you find Satan's request has been granted when he appears after the Mount of Transfiguration incident when Judas comes with his cohorts, his gang, and then he goes up to Jesus and he says he kisses him and he betrays him with that kiss. And he does so in the presence of Peter and James and John. The restraint that would have been there before is now taken away. Satan desired that that restraint would be taken away. It was granted. The Son of Perdition was granted in this case. The desire of Satan And then secondly, let's look at the sifting of Peter. Now there's two particular sifts that the Lord, that Peter is put into. And the first of them is the sift of temptation. And there's different layers in that temptation as I understand it. you find one layer brought out in that he followed a pharaoh. And the temptation that I would say there is this, that he did not, that he was, the difficulties that they, the difficulties of witnessing, he saw them as so great, He was looking at things the wrong way around. He was tempted into looking at things the wrong way around. He saw the obstacle of witnessing at the time that Jesus was being forsaken by others. Jesus had been taken into arrest, as it were. He was tempted into viewing things the wrong way around. The right way is to see these obstacles through the God of the covenant, through the God who is almighty. And the obstacles, when we view them in that way, yes, they remain, but we see them in a perspective where they can be overcome. But say, Peter was tempted into viewing them in that way that he saw God through the obstacles. And God becomes small. And the obstacles become huge and we begin to compromise. And he followed a pharaoh rather than following Joseph. The Slave of Temptation, that's one layer of it. Another layer of it is when he entered into the bad company that he did on that night. And it was bad company. There would have been oaths and curses and carousing and drunkenness would have been there. But Peter went in there, and not only did he go in, but he stayed there. The temptation there, you see, of thinking, the self-confidence of Peter coming over, the self-sufficiency of Peter coming over, I can handle this myself. rather than seeking the strength of God when you are foisted into such conditions. If it's necessary for you to be there, that you seek the strength, better still that we don't enter into it at all. Entering into, failing in that temptation also, in that sin, that layer of sin. And then, the cockerel, the rooster crowed. And he remembered the words of Jesus. And the eye of Jesus met his eye. And undoubtedly an eye of pity. And it broke. It broke, poor Peter. It brought spiritual distress to people. He saw his sin now as so great, denying the Lord of glory with loathsome curses. Not only did he see his sin as so great, but the effect of that eye was the effect that he saw his own heart as so wicked, so deceitful, so Somebody has said that he might at that stage have realized that he would have seen as there that he was capable of very heinous crimes, maybe even a serial killer. He saw something of what was in his own mind. And he went out into the night and he wept bitterly. And he was two days Coming on for three, while the Lord was in the grave, in the tomb, Peter was alone. Well, not quite alone. Satan undoubtedly followed him and put him through that sieve, put him through that bringer, I should say, these days while the Lord of glory was buried in the ground. And oh, what he would have said. What accusations he would have brought. What darkness of soul Peter endured in that sin during those three days. None of us could understand it. Only the Lord himself understood it. Because when he arose, the words were, go tell my disciples and Peter. He knew, and he made a beeline, as it were, for him to comfort him, as we shall see later. But you notice that serve then. First of all, there's the serve of temptation, and then there's the serve of spiritual distress. He sees his own, the wickedness of his sin and as he sees the deceitfulness and wickedness of his own heart and as he is pursued by Satan to cause, to add to that distress. Let us look thirdly at the restoration of Jesus. Can I see it differently here again? First of all, it was even in these days when Satan was doing his utmost against them. Well, the Lord was with him spiritually also. He was being kept. I have prayed for thee that thy faith fear not. And he was remembering in the midst of all the agony of the act that was brought accruing to them through the accusations of Satan and the spiritual distress of soul. He was remembering and clinging on in the midst of all that to the words of the Samuel, I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail not. The Lord had said when thou art converted, the Lord had virtually said you shall be converted. And in the midst of his distress he was holding on to these things. He didn't have the comfort of them, but by faith he was laying hold of them. And that's the first layer in his restoration. Often that is the case with the believer, that he has to leave hold of promises. He doesn't have the comfort of them at the time, but he holds on by faith. Did not the Lord of Glory have something of that on the cross? The promises, the comfort was not there. The loss of the conscious comfort of the Father's presence was there with them. until he could say at the last, into thy hands I commend my spirit. And then the comfort came, and he could say, my father. But that's what you have with Peter, clinging on by faith without the promise, without the comfort zone. And then you have the appearance of Christ to them. And the third to it, go tell my disciples, I'm Peter. And among the first to be met by the risen Christ was Peter, Simon Peter. The Lord knew what he had been going through. The Lord came to him undoubtedly to comfort him. Now, there's a veil dressed over that encounter. Scripture does not tell us much about that encounter except that it occurred. It doesn't tell us of the words that were spoken. It doesn't tell us if the Lord showed him his hands, he probably did. It didn't tell us if he showed him his side, he probably did. It doesn't tell him of, did the Lord explain to him something of the meaning of the atoning sacrifice, he probably did. Where else could he find comfort? But comfort accrued to him there at that meeting. And there was a restoration into the joy of the Lord, undoubtedly, that accrued to him from that encounter. But you know, Although he has been personally restored, the other disciples would still be looking on to him with a bit of suspicion, I think. More or less saying, well, you're not really The foreshooting as far as being a disciple is concerned. You've let us down. You've let your sheriff down. You've let the Lord down. You've let us down as the family, the apostles, the disciples of Christ. And there's that other layer in this restoration, and you find it in chapter 21 of the Gospel according to John. The counter and the sea of Tiberias. And the words that were spoken to him, Simon sort of told us, love us thou me more than these. Love us thou me, love us thou me. And their public acceptance before the other disciples, feed my lambs, feed my sheep, feed my sheep. restored not only personally but before the others into the service of the Master, into the fellowship of the Master. And now finally, fourthly, the strengthening of the Church. I've already referred to Peter as having the qualities of leadership, being always foremost among the disciples. I've referred to the incident at Caesarea Philippi. He was the one who answered the word to Christ of God. I've referred to the transfiguration mound that is full of the three tabernacles. I've referred to when the Lord said, will ye also go away? Peter was the one who answered, where else can we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life. Good qualities, good strong leadership qualities Peter had among the other disciples. But you know, leadership qualities are useless in the Lord's habits if we are full of self-confidence and full of self-sufficiency. And that's what must be dealt with on this occasion. Satan had intended to do as much damage to this disciple as possible, but the Lord is overruling it to take away that self-confidence, to take away that self-sufficiency, to make Peter to become more Christ-centered, to make Peter to become more Christ-dependent. And that's what you find is occurring here. And as Peter is being made more Christ-dependent, so he is now able to strengthen others. It's when we are weak, as Paul says, that we are made strong, that we are strong. We have to be strengthened with might by the spirit in the inner man. How? By being humbled in ourselves and learning in our weakness to lean upon the one who is strong. That's what Peter learned. When David says, so they from strength and where it goes to forward and to strength, that strength is not self-confidence. That's not self-sufficiency. But you might put it so there from, so there from conscious weakness still forward go into conscious, into more conscious. Because in their conscious weakness, they lean upon it. And then in their greater conscious weakness, they lean upon it more. And the more they are leaning upon Christ, the more they are being prepared for the host of many mantras, and the more they are fitted to be of benefit to others, to strengthen others. I don't know if I can put it any other way. to teach them their weakness, to teach them their need of Christ, to teach them to lean the weight of their never dying soul security upon the passion and the faith with Christ. More and more, it's there that we are being stamped. It's more there that we are becoming fitted for the enjoyment of those Well, these are some thoughts then on this portion today. We've tried to look at the desire of Satan. And we've seen how they've been overruled. We've tried to look at the sifting of Peter. We've tried to look at the way that Peter has been restored. And we've tried to look at the way he's been made an instrument for the strengthening of his brother. And you see that When you look at his epistles, the epistle of Peter, first and second Peter, a different man altogether from the man you meet in the Gospels. Oh, he is very more Christ-dependent and Christ-loving and self-abasing. And that's what you and I need to learn also. Let us call on the name of the Lord in prayer.