Would you please turn with me to Mark 14? We're going to finish chapter 14 today. In our passage last week, we studied Jesus' prediction that all his disciples would flee his prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane, his betrayal by Judas. And in today's study, we're going to see the religious trial as well as Peter's denial. And that is the section that we're in for Mark's gospel. So I'm gonna read our section for today. I'd invite you to stand please and follow along as I read. Starting at verse 53 and continuing to the end of the chapter. And they led Jesus away to the high priest And with him were assembled all the chief priests, the elders, and the scribes. But Peter followed him at a distance, right into the courtyard of the high priest. And he sat with the servants and warmed himself at the fire. And the chief priests and all the council sought testimony against Jesus to put him to death and found none. For many bore false witness against him, but their testimonies did not agree. And some rose up and bore false witness against him, saying, We heard him say, I will destroy this temple that is made with hands, and within three days I will build another made without hands. But not even then did their testimony agree. And the high priest stood up in the midst and asked Jesus, saying, Do you answer nothing? What is it these men testify against you? But he kept silent and answered nothing. Again the high priest asked him, saying to him, Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed? And Jesus said, I am. and you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the power and coming with the clouds of heaven. Then the high priest tore his clothes and said, what further need do we have of witnesses? You have heard the blasphemy, what do you think? And they all condemned him to be worthy, condemned him to be worthy of death. Then some began to spit on him and to blindfold him and to beat him and to say to him, prophesy, And the officer struck him with the palms of their hands. Now as Peter was below in the courtyard, one of the servant girls of the high priest came. And when she saw Peter warming himself, she looked at him and said, you also were with Jesus of Nazareth. But he denied it, saying, I neither know nor understand what you're saying. And he went out on the porch on a rooster crowed. And the servant girl saw him again and began to say to those who stood by, this is one of them. But he denied it again. And a little later, those who stood by said to Peter again, surely you are one of them, for you are a Galilean and your speech shows it. But he began to curse and swear, I do not know this man of whom you speak. And the second time the rooster crowed. And Peter called to mind the word that Jesus had said to him, before the rooster crows twice, you will deny me three times. And when he thought about it, he wept. Let's pray together, please. Our Father, as we continue this morning in this sobering section of your word, we ask for understanding. Lord as familiar as this material is I believe you have something for each one of us today. And so Holy Spirit I ask that you would use the words that I say to clarify your word. Lord my thoughts are worthless and yet your thoughts are above our thoughts your ways are higher than our ways and you are the one we desire to hear from this morning. So I'm asking Holy Spirit anoint me that I would speak clearly that I would speak accurately that your word your message to us today would come through loud and clear Father, for that to happen, for your word to take its effect in our lives, we need to have hearts that are ready to hear. So help us to pay attention with our ears and help us to be ready with our hearts to respond to your word today. May we recognize you speaking to us through your word and may we obey. In Jesus' name, amen. Thank you. You may be seated. Key phrase for you. I'm saying phrase because it's two words instead of one. False witness. False witness. It's a word that appears a few times. I think twice, literally, false witness, those words appear in our English text, but the idea appears multiple times. So, the question I'd like us to ask ourselves as we approach this this morning, who are the false witnesses in this passage? In this account, as we have it, through the Holy Spirit, through Mark, to us, who are the true and who are the false witnesses? Now the main ideas that I'd like us to take with us today are not exactly related to that. They're kind of tangentially related to that. And that is to know that true disciples sin, but true disciples repent. So we're gonna see all of that, I trust, through this passage. And in order to get a running start, in order to review, I know I just read that full passage, but I'd like to review some of the verses from last time. So I'm gonna begin reading at verse 27. These verses are on the screen that you can follow if you'd like or look farther up the page or back in your Bible. Verse 27, then Jesus said to them, all of you will be made to stumble because of me this night, for it is written, I will strike the shepherd and the sheep will be scattered. But after I have been raised, I will go before you to Galilee. Peter said to him, even if all are made to stumble, yet I will not be. Jesus said to him, assuredly, I say to you that today, even this night, before the rooster crows twice, you will deny me three times. But he spoke more vehemently, if I have to die with you, I will not deny you. And they all said likewise. Skip to verse 50. then they all forsook him and fled. What Zechariah prophesied, what Jesus prophesied that night happened. They all forsook him and fled. And we're gonna see in this section his prophecy that Peter would deny him three times happened just the same. Verse 53 then is new for today. And they led Jesus away to the high priest and with him were assembled all the chief priests, the elders and the scribes. The high priest, that was Caiaphas. Caiaphas was the current high priest. His father-in-law, Annas, was high priest before him, and at that period of time, it was appropriate to refer to either one of them as high priest. The chief priests, the elders and the scribes, we've seen that wording before. That means the Sanhedrin, the Jewish Supreme Court. Jesus endured two types of trials. We're gonna look at one today and one next time. This is the religious trial. This is before Annas, Caiaphas, and then the entire Sanhedrin. And then there is a civil trial before Pilate and Herod. So I have a chart here for you. I don't expect you to write this down. I just want you to see it. As we combine, as we look at the parallel accounts, It's called the Harmony of the Gospels. If we look at this section, you'll see that the religious trial was first before Annas, and that's recorded in John's Gospel for us, and then Caiaphas, and parts of that are in all four Gospels, and the Sanhedrin, and that's specifically stated in the Synoptics. That's Matthew, Mark, and Luke. That's where we're focused today, the parts that Mark tells us, but that's the overall picture. And then we'll look at Pilate, Herod, and Pilate. Herod is only in the book of Luke, so we'll probably mention him next time. But focused on Pilate and the religious leaders taking Jesus to him. And we'll talk a little bit today about why that was. First idea for this morning is that true disciples sin. And I could have worded it this way, even true disciples still sin. Because Peter's a true disciple. Let's not forget that as we look. Verse 54, but Peter followed Jesus at a distance, right into the courtyard of the high priest, and he sat with the servants and warmed himself at the fire. Notice that statement. Peter followed him. That'd be good if it ended there. Peter followed him at a distance. Peter followed. He still believed in Jesus, but that night he didn't want to be associated with him. I see a paradox here, a seeming contradiction. Peter cared enough about Jesus to follow him into harm's way, but he cared enough about himself to keep his distance from Jesus. Here's some advice. If you wanna be miserable in life, follow Jesus at a distance. Some of us try to live for him and for ourselves and our flesh at the same time, but life was never designed to work that way. We have enough Jesus in us that we don't fit into the world, but we have enough of the world in us that we don't desire to be close to Jesus. And there we sit on the fence, miserable. Been there, done that, you probably have too. Where was Peter sitting at this moment? It says he sat with the servants and warmed himself at the fire. Peter was in the wrong place with the wrong people. The servants here, and honestly, as I studied this week, that threw me off, because I kept reading and hearing statements that he's with the enemy, he's with the enemy. Well, why are the servants the enemy? The same word here that translated servants is translated officers in verse 65. So he is with the enemy. Some of these men had likely gone to the garden to arrest Jesus. Now, let me be clear, because my point is that true disciples sin. Peter has not sinned yet. I don't know of anything in here that's contradictory to what the Word of God would tell him to do. He hasn't sinned, so what's the problem? Because he chose to hang out with this group of people during the trial, he set himself up for temptation and failure. He was seeking comfort. To be specific, he was seeking warmth from the world and the enemies of Christ. Where we go, What we do and with whom we do those things matters. We can't and shouldn't completely close ourselves off from the world because Jesus sent us to make disciples of the nation. So we can't close ourselves off, that's not right. But we shouldn't knowingly place ourselves in difficult situations either. What time is it? I don't mean look at your watch. In our passage, what time is it? What do you think? Just if you had to guess. Early morning, it's probably between midnight and 3 a.m. at this point. Why does that matter? Why do I bring it up? Because it was nighttime. And the Sanhedrin was not supposed to meet at night. Furthermore, they couldn't legally reach a verdict at night. But they overlooked that precedent. because they were on a tight schedule. Their goal was to declare the verdict at dawn so that they could take Jesus to Pilate immediately after that because Roman courts usually met first things in the morning. What's more, in capital cases, death penalty cases, the court was supposed to wait a day. If they found someone guilty, they were supposed to sleep on it before sentencing. But here they rushed to judgment, they didn't wait, because they wanted to eliminate Jesus. Where were they meeting? We know from the parallel accounts, they went to the house of Annas, they went to the house of Caiaphas, that's where they are here in Mark. Where were they supposed to meet? They were supposed to meet in their designated chamber in the temple. They weren't doing that either. What's the big deal? The religious officials ignored and disobeyed their own law repeatedly throughout Jesus' trial. And in so doing, they fulfilled Isaiah's prophecy. In Isaiah 53, 8, he was taken from prison and from judgment. The entire thing was bogus according to their law. They were twisting and bending rules right and left because they already had the outcome decided. Look at verse 55. Now the chief priests and all the council sought testimony against Jesus to put him to death, but found none. For many bore false witness against him, but their testimonies did not agree. All the council, their entire supreme court, sought testimony against Jesus to put him to death. Let that sink in for a minute. What was their job? Their job was to find evidence that would prove the accused, prove that he was innocent. That was their job. The way their court worked, he didn't have a defense attorney. Their job was to hear the evidence and if there was evidence that he was innocent, then certainly they wouldn't convict, they wouldn't sentence, they wouldn't execute. That was their job. What were they doing? They were seeking testimony. They were seeking evidence against him. They're acting as the prosecuting attorney. Why? It's very clearly stated there, to put him to death. The outcome is already decided. They wanted enough false evidence to give the appearance of a fair and legitimate trial. Now where it says testimony, they were seeking testimony against Jesus to put him to death, Jewish law required two or three witnesses to agree completely in order to establish a matter, particularly in a death penalty case like this. You can read about that in Deuteronomy 17, Deuteronomy 19. So they were seeking a case against him. They're seeking evidence against him. They're trying to get false witnesses to agree so that they can put Jesus to death. Verse 57. Then some rose up and bore false witness against him, saying, We heard him say, I will destroy this temple made with hands, and within three days I will build another made without hands. But not even then did their testimony agree. I will destroy this temple. That seems like an odd accusation to me, maybe to you. Why did they choose this line of argument? Why did they go after the temple statements? Well, number one, it seems that Jesus' statement about the temple seems to be the only topic on which the two false witnesses could agree. That's the only agreement they could find. So there's the practical, the pragmatic part of this. But second, destroying a place of worship was a capital offense. And if he was threatening to do violence to, to destroy the temple, they could have him killed for that. But number three, we know from previous studies, speaking against the temple was considered blasphemy and therefore carried the death penalty for blasphemy. So they're trying different angles and focusing on these couple of statements that he made about the temple. So let's fact check them a little bit. What did Jesus actually say? Here's John chapter two. This is early in Jesus' ministry. John records these words. Chapter two, verse 19. Jesus answered and said to them, destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up. Then the Jews said, it has taken 46 years to build this temple and will you raise it up in three days? Clarifying statement from John. but he was speaking of the temple of his body. So he's not talking about Herod's temple, not the one that took 46 years so far at that point to build, and he's not saying he's gonna raise that one back up in three days, because that's impossible. He's God, he could do it, but that wasn't what he was saying. So they're misquoting him there. Mark 13, more recently in our study in Mark, then as he went out of the temple, that's Jesus, one of his disciples said to him, teacher, see what manner of stones and what buildings are here. And Jesus answered and said to him, do you see these great buildings? Not one stone shall be left upon another that shall not be thrown down. We talked about that. That's prior to the Olivet discourse. Leading up to it, that was the question that prompted their further questions. And he is saying that that temple will be destroyed. Is he saying he's gonna do it? Not directly. Is he saying it's gonna happen right then? No. So hearsay or intentional misquoting or confusion, take your pick, maybe all of the above. They've put together their story and they finally have two witnesses that will agree on it, verse 60. And the high priest stood up in the midst and asked Jesus, do you answer nothing? This was highly unusual. He is, if you will, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. Can you imagine him coming out from behind the bench and coming right up to the accused and asking him questions directly? We wouldn't see that type of thing, and they wouldn't have at that point. Why is he involving himself? Why is he taking this further? Because it's not going well. It's taken a long time to get two people to agree and they still haven't gotten anything that they can prove for blasphemy. So he is asking, aren't you gonna say anything? Do you answer nothing? And that statement's repeated. What is it these men testify against you? But he kept silent and answered nothing. That's there on purpose. Mark is emphasizing he said nothing. Do you answer nothing, he asks. The answer is no. Jesus is not gonna answer anything, because these are false witnesses. They're speaking lies against him. He kept silent and answered nothing. This is another fulfillment of Isaiah's prophecy. This is chapter 53, verse seven. He was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth. He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth. He's fulfilling prophecy. So far, he seems not to have said anything. And under their law, he didn't have to. But continuing in verse 61, again the high priest asked him, saying to him, are you the Christ, the son of the blessed? According to Matthew 26, the high priest put Jesus under oath, asking him to swear to tell the truth about his identity. This also was illegal. Somewhat like our Fifth Amendment, an accused person could not be forced to give testimony against himself. Now what is the statement, after he's put him under oath, what is the statement that Caiaphas is asking? Are you the Christ, that's Greek for the Hebrew word Messiah, are you the Messiah, the son of the blessed? That sounds funny to us, but remember, in their thinking, in order not to take God's name in vain, they would have never said Yahweh or Jehovah, they would never have said that. So they had these, fancy word I learned in high school, periphrastic epithets, roundabout ways of saying the same thing. So they're saying the son of the blessed. What's he saying? Are you the Messiah, the son of God? Are you the son of God, which is synonymous with God? This time Jesus had to answer. And if he hadn't answered, or if he had said no, he would have become a false witness. And we know that Jesus is a true witness. So we have his words recorded in verse 62. Jesus said, I am. And you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the power and coming with the clouds of heaven." When he said, I am, this is showing us his deity. He could have simply said, yes. And that would have been true. But he said much more of that with those two little words, I am. I am, we know from the Old Testament, this is the covenant name of God. translated into Greek. This is the same way that the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament, translates God's name that was given to Moses for the first time at the burning bush, Exodus 3. Whom should I say is sending me? When they ask me who is sending you, tell them I am, I am that I am. This is the name of God disclosed to Moses, Exodus chapter three, and he didn't say it accidentally, folks. Those of you who've studied the Gospel of John, all those statements, I am the way, the truth, and the life, I am the light, I am the shepherd, I am the door, those are intentional. Because he is God, he is the God of the Old Testament. So Jesus was declaring in no uncertain terms that he was and is both Messiah and the Son of God and therefore he is God. But he's not finished. That was just two words. You will see the Son of Man, his humanity as well, sitting at the right hand of the power and coming with the clouds of heaven. Jesus combined that favorite description of himself, Son of Man, that's from Daniel 7, with Psalm 110 to announce that he was going to God the Father and that he would be crowned conquering king. Jesus, interestingly, also avoids using the name of God. He says the Son of the Power. Now, some of you may be wondering, I don't know about that, because yes, I believe that about Jesus, but he's saying that you will see. You will see this happen? This sounds kind of like the second coming, right? Did any of the people who were there in the courtroom, well, Caiaphas' house, did any of them see Jesus come in the clouds? No. But that's the point. Jesus rose again bodily three days later. He will resurrect all of them bodily and judge them. So he ascended to the Father. That seems to be what Daniel's talking about. Remember he went up in the clouds and the angels said he'll come back in like manner in the future. So he is at the right hand of the Father, the right hand of power. but he will someday resurrect them and they will stand before him and he is the judge. Those who were judging him unjustly at that moment will someday be judged by him in righteousness. Now, if you judge Jesus unjustly and inaccurately today, if you believe that He never lived, or that He didn't die, or that He didn't rise again, or that He was just a good man, or just a good teacher, if you refuse to believe that He is God, the Son of God, and the only Savior from sin, you too will stand before Him someday, and He will judge you. Verse 63, then the high priest tore his clothes and said, what further need do we have of witnesses? You have heard the blasphemy, what do you think? And they all condemned him to be deserving of death. The high priest rent or tore his clothes. This was appropriate for him to do if the high priest heard blasphemy. And he believed he had. Whether this was a show or whether he was genuinely concerned and offended, I don't know. The text doesn't tell us, but I personally, just my opinion, I wonder if Caiaphas had a hard time keeping a straight face at this point. He's tearing his clothes, pretending to be offended by hearing this blasphemy, but he was getting exactly the outcome that he and everyone else wanted. This is what they'd been hoping for. What do you think? That was his question of the others. Those of you in this room, what do you think? Had Jesus spoken blasphemy? I'm getting lots of blank stares and a couple of no's. Okay, the no's have it. Why? Because it was true. Jesus was and is God and therefore it's not blasphemy for him to say that. But they all condemned him to be deserving of death. That was the penalty for blasphemy under the Mosaic law, that's Leviticus 24. To be specific, the guilty person was supposed to be stoned. But by this point in Jewish history, Rome had taken away any other nation's ability to execute anyone. Instead, they had to ask Rome to carry out the execution for a person that they had convicted. And we'll study that second phase of Jesus' trial before Pilate next time. Verse 65, they've gotten what they think is their evidence, they're ready to convict him, and indeed they did, they passed judgment on him at first light of day. But now that that's out of the way, they can let everyone know how they really feel. Then some began to spit on him and to blindfold him and to beat him and to say to him, prophesy. And the officers struck him with the palms of their hands. They showed total contempt for him. That idea of spitting on someone has not changed over the years. I can't think of any way that you could show more contempt for a person. And that's how they're treating the Son of God. Isaiah 50 verse six says, I gave my back to those who struck me, and my cheeks to those who plucked out the beard. I did not hide my face from shame and spitting. He endured that for us. He endured that because of our sin. They didn't stop there, they blindfolded him and beat him and then said prophesy. They wanted him to tell, who's hitting you? Now this, I don't know about you, this has always struck me as weird. But I learned as I studied this week, they were misapplying Isaiah 11 three that says he shall not judge by the sight of his eyes. If you want to look it up, Isaiah 11, two, three, four, somewhere in there. The Messiah is prophesied that he doesn't have to see and he doesn't have to hear in order to pass righteous judgment. And in their thinking, according to their traditions, their interpretation, they had decided the Messiah can adjudicate the law just based on smell. That was their weird interpretation. But because of that, they said, we're going to blindfold him because if he's the Messiah, he doesn't need to see in order to know. And did Jesus know? Jesus is God. Jesus is omniscient. He knows all things. He knew who was hitting him. but he bore it. He allowed them to keep hitting him, even though he was blindfolded. Think about that for a minute. If you see a punch coming your way or a club, it doesn't say whether they were punching him at this point or beating him with clubs or rods, but you can get out of the way, you can dodge, you can move. If you're blindfolded, you can't see it coming. And he endured, he took all of those blows. And that wasn't enough. That was what the Sanhedrin was doing. The officers also started slapping him with the palms of their hands. Then Mark changes the focus. We return to Peter in the courtyard. What's that first main idea for today? True disciples sin, verse 66. Now as Peter was below in the courtyard, one of the servant girls of the high priest came. And when she saw Peter warming himself, she looked at him and said, you also were with Jesus of Nazareth. But he denied it, saying, I neither know nor understand what you are saying. And he went out on the porch and a rooster crowed. He was in the courtyard. From John chapter 18, we know that Caiaphas knew the disciple John, and that John had told the servant who was keeping the door to let Peter into the courtyard. That's how he got there. That also may be why the servant girl said, you also. That may be where the also comes from, because there are two of them there, John and Peter. And he gets accused of knowing Jesus of Nazareth, but he denied it. He said, and the statement he makes seems kind of formal to us. Apparently that was part of Jewish culture. That was what you would normally say to deny something. I neither know nor understand what you're saying. And he went out on the porch. What's he doing? That's the entryway. He's trying to leave. He's trying to make a getaway. He's moving farther from the Lord. He was following at a distance. Now he's trying to get away completely. And it says a rooster crowed. Either he didn't hear it, because he was so busy defending himself, or he didn't understand the significance of it at that point. Verse 69, and the servant girl, it's the definite article, the same servant girl, saw him again, and began to say to those who stood by, this is one of them, but he denied it again. And a little later, those who stood by said to Peter again, surely you are one of them for you are a Galilean and your speech shows it. Your speech shows it. In this case, he talked like a northerner. The people in Judea talked with a dialect and the people up in the Galilee spoke differently in the same way that North, South, West, you can hear different dialects in our country. So they knew you're not from around here. You talk like somebody who's from Galilee, because she had already said Jesus of Nazareth. You must be one of them. Everybody, it also means that Peter had been talking. And as they heard him defend himself and deny Christ, his mouth gets him in trouble again. Verse 71, then he began to curse and swear, I do not know this man of whom you speak. And when it says he cursed and swore, it is not saying that Peter used profanity. Instead, it means that he called down a curse on himself as if he were lying. When I was a kid, we used to say, cross my heart and hope to die. So that's the childhood version of it, perhaps. A more grown-up version, probably closer to what he was saying was, if I am lying, let me be cursed, let me be damned. This is serious. He wasn't finished. He put himself under an oath. I don't know him, I swear it. That's what he's saying. I also notice that he says, I do not know this man of whom you speak. The servant girl wasn't afraid to use Jesus' name, Jesus of Nazareth, back in verse 67. But Peter was so fearful to be associated with Jesus in that moment that he chose not to use his name at all. Now the question I said I wanted us to ask and answer, who are the true and false witnesses in this account? And yes, there were many false witnesses and they finally had two that agreed, I understand that. They are not my focus. Because I want us to think for a minute about Jesus and Peter. That seems to be the contrast that Mark is drawing for us and the reason he's arranging his account, his story, his telling of it the way he is. What did Jesus do? Jesus kept silent. What did Peter do? What did Jesus do when he finally did speak out? He told the truth. What did Peter do? He told lies. I don't know him. Never heard of him. I don't know what you're talking about. Both of them took oaths. We know from Matthew 26 Jesus was put under oath and told the truth. Peter put himself under an oath and lied. So who is the true witness? Jesus. Who is the false witness? Peter. And it's very easy for us to be down on Peter. But let's be honest. We can relate to this, can't we? There have been instances when you and I didn't speak up for Christ, or worse yet, denied that we knew Him. Warren Wiersbe put it this way, how many times have we denied the Lord and lost opportunities to share the gospel with others? Do we, like Peter, talk when we should listen, argue when we should obey, sleep when we should pray, and fight when we should submit? If we were honest, probably most of us could come up with instances of all of those things. But, praise the Lord, there's grace for people like us. The first idea is that true disciples sin. Even true disciples still sin. But true disciples also repent. Verse 72 says, a second time the rooster crowed, then Peter called to mind the word that Jesus had said to him. Before the rooster crows twice, you will deny me three times. And when he thought about it, he wept. Luke adds an interesting detail. That second time the rooster crowed, Luke tells us that the Lord turned and looked at Peter. And I believe that he was not looking at Peter in condemnation. It wasn't a look of scolding. It was probably a look of compassion. I don't want to read into it too much. But Jesus already knew. Jesus already said it was going to happen. So I don't think it was disbelief and I don't think it was condemnation. I think it was a look of grace. It was a look of compassion as he looked at Peter. And their eyes met according to Luke. Peter, for his part, responded with sorrow and repentance. Where it says wept, it doesn't mean a tear came down his cheek. This word can also be translated mourn, lament, bewail. He didn't just shed a tear, he wept bitterly is what both Matthew and Luke tell us. What does that mean? It means that Peter was broken hearted over his sin and failure. One of my commentaries said, Peter's remorse opened the way for true repentance. He had faith in Jesus that could be renewed, could be restored. 2 Corinthians 7, 10. For godly sorrow produces repentance, leading to salvation. Not to be regretted, but the sorrow of the world produces death. Where is that godly sorrow? When I come face to face with my sin, and I recognize my sin compared with the holy God. I humble myself, I confess, I repent. So what does repentance mean? If godly sorrow brings about repentance, we've looked at this many times before, we'll look at it many times again, repentance is a change of mind, a change of heart that results in a change of action. That's repentance. It's making a U-turn. That describes Peter. After this huge failure, denying Christ three times, we don't have details really in the gospels, we don't have much about this, but he must have confessed, he must have repented, he must have turned, because Luke tells us about the private, and actually, 1 Corinthians 15, Paul does too. Paul and Luke tell us about that private restoration when Jesus appeared to Peter, and then John records for us the beautiful story in 21 of his gospel, asking Peter three times, do you love me? Feed my sheep. He publicly restored him as well. We're not gonna get into it right now, and since Mark doesn't say more about Peter and his denial, or Judas and his betrayal, we may not come back to it this time, but we know that in the Gospels, Judas was sorry, but he didn't repent. Judas hung himself instead. He killed himself. Peter was sorry, and he repented, and he turned, and he got restored. Have you read the book of Acts? God used him mightily from Pentecost and beyond. Was he perfect? No, he still messed up a few times. The Bible is honest. But God used him in amazing ways in spite of his denial. Why? Because he admitted it, he confessed it, he forsook it, he turned his back on his sin, he came back to God. Two big ideas for today. True disciples sin, true disciples repent. There could be somebody watching online, there could be somebody here in the room. You've never put your faith in the one true savior, Jesus Christ. He suffered, we talked about some of that today. He suffered, he died in your place. And he rose again so that you could have eternal life. And believing on him is to receive salvation, eternal life. Believers is there a sin that you need to repent of this morning? I Don't know what it is I don't need to know what it is, but if the Holy Spirit is convicting you of anything confess it forsake it There could be somebody in here you you've been trying to be the disciple following at a distance and You've been trying to have it both ways that, okay, yeah, I'll come to church, but I want to be cool with my friends at school or at work. I want to keep this Christianity thing low key. It's miserable. You can repent and forsake that today. Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. James. How's your witness? Will you bear true witness about Jesus today, or this week, or the next time you have an opportunity? When we pause a moment, you could pray and ask God to give you the courage and to give you the words for the next time that that happens. That you wouldn't deny Him, but that you would bear true witness of Him and for Him. Would you bow your heads and close your eyes? I'm going to be quiet and give you just a matter of seconds to do that, but you obey whatever the Holy Spirit may be leading you to do this morning. Our Father, we confess that we are unworthy. Too often we are disciples that follow afar off, or we are secret disciples. Too often, through carelessness, we put ourselves in the place of temptation. and too often we fall and fail. Lord, forgive us of sin. I pray that there would be people in this room today who are naming specific sins and confessing them as sin and receiving your righteousness, your cleansing. Lord, we've seen today that your lead apostle, your lead disciple, fell and fell hard. Lord, may we not put ourselves in places of temptation. May we not sleep when we should be praying. May we watch and pray so that we are not entering into temptation. Lord, may we be forthright with our witness. May we be honest. May we be obedient, we pray in Jesus' name, amen.