Let me tell you up front that I'm not going to do justice to this passage. This is a powerful passage in God's Word. I've been very broken this week as I've prepared. Many times I came down the stairs and was weeping. I am convinced that this is in the Bible for more than us just understanding that Peter denied the Lord. There's a very important reason why this is in the Bible, and I pray that we can discover that this morning. In these nine verses, we have Dr. Luke's inspired account of one of the most important sins that is recorded in the entire Bible. Here, Peter denies the Lord. Now over the years, it has been my experience that the concept of denial in general and the concept of even Peter's denial here in this passage has been watered down to mean little more than somebody acting out of weakness during a time of stress. And there's a multitude of excuses and reasons given in sermons all over the world today as to why Peter did this. and I categorically reject most all of them. There are many preachers today who will gladly tell you that denying Jesus Christ is really not that big of a deal. That everybody does this at one time or another, so it's nothing to really stand out of the crowd about. But the English word deny comes from a Greek word that means to disown with accusatory tones. to disregard, to prove false to oneself, and to cherish a pernicious opinion and immorality as to apostatize from God in Christ. I also looked up the phrase to prove false to oneself and its first cousin to disbelieve. You have to understand. Again, I've been trying to be faithful to tell you all this. We're not saved by what we do. We're saved by what we believe. We're saved by what we trust in and what we confess. So to disbelieve is important. So I would suggest to you that this is a big deal. Because you can't have it both ways. If it is true as the Scriptures declare that we are saved by what we believe and what we trust in and what we confess and what not by what we do, then what we deny, what we disbelieve, what we unconfess, is of the utmost importance. We are told repeatedly to deny things like sin. We are to deny wickedness. We are to deny evil. We are to deny all manifestations of our broken life from which we have repented, our former life. I'm going to get into this in great detail in our Sunday night series on what does the Bible teach about conviction, confession, repentance, and forgiveness? How does that work? part of the process of repentance is that we examine what we've done that's been wrong. We talk about it. We write it down to remember it so we don't keep doing it. That we don't want to continue on in sin after we have been saved. But here, Peter, the very leader of the apostles, denies Jesus. And he denies Jesus repeatedly. And he denies Jesus by sealing the denial with an oath. So I will tell you that the sin of denial of Jesus by the apostle Peter, right here in this passage, is second only to the betrayal of Jesus by Judas. The differences in the two sins are almost negligible. And so this should bring us all into a serious examination of our own hearts and our own walk with God. So let's examine this passage carefully. Look again with me at Luke 22, verse 54. Dr. Luke writes, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, having arrested Him, Jesus, they led Jesus away and brought Jesus to the house of the high priest. But Peter was following at a distance. Now, remember this is early on Friday morning. And Judas has just led at least 600 soldiers to the Garden of Gethsemane where Jesus has been agonizing in prayer over a period of several hours. And we have seen that there's no reason to assume that Jesus was agonizing because He was afraid or that He was reluctant to be beaten or having second thoughts about carrying this out all the way to the cross. Jesus was not agonizing in the garden out of fear. That's just not true. And I explained why a couple Sundays ago if you need to get that message. Jesus knew where He had come from and He knew where He was going. He understood the future because He controlled the future. That's not fear. In order to fulfill His Father's will, all of the sins of all of God's elect had to be placed upon Jesus. And at that moment, God the Father and God the Son would be separated for the first time in all of the universe, in all of time. And that was almost more than Jesus could bear. So Jesus is begging God for another way. Now understand, friends, that Jesus is absolutely committed to carrying out God's will. But because of the horror that awaits him, not from men, but the horror that awaits him from God, and God laying upon Jesus the sins of us all and being separated from God, Jesus is seeking another way to fulfill God's plan. And so in this overwhelming grief and distress, Jesus cries out, My Father! If it is possible, let this cut pass from me." Now, if any of you understand quotes in the Bible, Jesus prayed a lot more than this phrase. He prayed at least one hour that we're aware of. It possibly was two, maybe three hours in this. And He is praying in such intensity that a word had to be created. The word agony had to be created to describe that kind of praying. Agonizing prayer to the point where He's sweating blood. Now why in the world was Jesus seeking another way? What is going on that Jesus is begging God for another way? You see, as sinners, we struggle with temptation because of our sinful and unholy flesh. We are a new creation incarcerated in unredeemed flesh. And so we are seduced by the remnants of our fallenness. So with us, our temptation has to do with us holding on to sin and not coming to righteousness. We struggle to read the Bible faithfully. Forget dying for the sins of the world. We struggle to read the Bible. We struggle to be nice all the time. We struggle to not hate our enemies. We struggle in our flesh to hold on to our sins. We struggle. We are tempted to hold on to the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the boastful pride of life. We struggle because the power of evil is so strong in us. We struggle because the power of sin is innate to us. Because the power of iniquity is intertwined in our being, so we have unholy impulses residing inside of us. Our battle is to fight against our innate attraction to sin, to fight against our fallenness and to strive to abandon it and embrace righteousness and holiness and purity. But that is not the way Christ struggles. Jesus struggled with temptation in exactly the opposite way. He struggled because of His holy flesh. He struggled because He was totally devoted only to that which was pure and righteous and perfect. He struggled because the power of holiness was the only motive He had ever known in His eternal being. The only motive Jesus had for every thought, every word, for every act was absolute pure holiness. We struggle with three things. The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. Jesus struggled against three driving, dominant, all-consuming, all-pervading impulses. Holy! Holy! Holy! So for us, we're struggling to abandon sin and embrace holiness. But for Jesus, He was being tempted to abandon holiness and embrace sin. Our sin. on the cross. So it's just the opposite. Jesus was having to fight against His own holy impulses. We have to fight against our own sinful impulses. We fight to hold on to God. He fought to let go of God. We fight to be joined to God. He fought against being separated from God. And the answer from Father was no. There was no other way for Jesus to do this. All of the sins of all of God's elect was going to have to be placed on Jesus. And for the first time, God the Father and God the Son would be separated and the righteousness of God would force God to damn those sins upon Jesus. And so Jesus prayed the single most important prayer that can ever be prayed, yet not as I will, but as you will. So Jesus humbled Himself here more than anyone has ever humbled themselves. His surrender to God was greater because Jesus had more to lose. In order to obey God, Jesus had to become sin. And yet right here, Jesus was fully submitted Himself to His Father's plan. And He did it through prayer. That comes first, beloved. Jesus came to the place where He was willing to become pure sin and have God the Father abandon Him while screaming in agony on the cross so we could be saved. He came to that place through prayer. Prayer comes first. We pray first. We pray. We pray. We pray. So now in verse 54, Jesus is being led away from the garden by these 600 soldiers and the temple guards along with some of the priests. And they led Jesus to the house of the high priest, it says. Now look at the end of the verse 54. Peter was following at a distance. We see that it's all different now. There will be no more crowds crying out, Son of David, heal us, feed us, bless us. No, the only thing that many of the very same people will cry now is, crucify Him. And this is the will of God. This is what the Father's plan is. We must remember, friends, that Jesus came to this earth the first time to die. He did not come to rule and reign. He did not come to be marveled at and admired. That's what we're going to do when He comes back. He's going to come back in this magnificent display of glory for two reasons. So we will admire Him and we will marvel at Him. That's why He's doing it that way. He could just appear, you know, and He's not. Jesus did not come the first time so that every knee would bow and every tongue confess that He is Lord to the glory of the Father. That's all going to happen when Jesus comes back. But this time, Jesus came to be rejected and scorned. This time, He came to be despised and struck down. This time, He came to be spit on and mocked. He came to be beaten and humiliated. This time, Jesus came to die. This time, it pleased the Lord to crush Him. Jesus Himself said in Mark 10, verse 45, for even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give His life a ransom for many. I'm not going to preach this this morning. Read that verse again. He did not come to be served. He came to serve you. So how do we serve God? Put that in your hat and wear it. The angel had told Joseph back in Matthew 1.21, You shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins. And the way that Jesus saves His people from our sins is by having all of those sins imputed to Him. And then God the Father pours out the full fury of His wrath on a screaming Jesus to judge those sins. And that is the only reason why God shows any of us mercy right now. And so God's sovereign will is in motion now. And Old Testament prophecy is being fulfilled nearly every moment. And although Jesus had the power to command 12 legions of angels to eviscerate these 600 soldiers and go free, He calmly submits Himself to God's will and walks out of the Garden to stand trial and be murdered. And the Bible says Peter followed at a distance. Can you just imagine what was going through Peter's mind? Here his Master and Lord is being drug down to his death. And what is Peter supposed to do? What would you have done? Why was Jesus doing this? I mean, obviously he had the power to stop it. Because when these battle-hardened soldiers came near, they all fell backward on the ground at just the words that Jesus spoke. And yet now Jesus is not stopping it. And then when Peter tried to defend Jesus, and lash out at the men who dared to take Him, Peter had tried to cut the head off of the first man standing there, and evidently the man ducked, and all Peter got was his ear. And it was Jesus Himself who healed the man. And He rebuked Peter and said, stop! No more of this! This had to be so confusing to Peter as well as the remaining 11 disciples. What are they supposed to do? Jesus doesn't want them to fight, but these soldiers mean business. Now many people see Peter following at a distance here as being weak. I've heard it preached even sinful. I don't buy that at all. I see Peter doing what he does best. He's leading. First of all, where's Levi? Where's Nathaniel? Where's Simon the zealot? You know, the zealot that's willing to kill and assassinate people? Where's Simon? Where's James? How come Dr. Luke only mentions Peter here? Where are the others? So criticize Peter all you want to. He was there following, yes, at a distance, but there. Huh? Now look at his first encounter from verses 55 through 57. After they had kindled a fire in the middle of the courtyard and had sat down together, Peter was sitting among them, and a servant girl, seeing him as he sat in the firelight and looking intently at him, said, This man was with him too. But he denied it, saying, Woman, I do not know him. So outside the high priest's home was a courtyard. and evidently it was cold at night so they can build a fire in a group of people set around the fire now there's some confusion in the various gospel records about how all how the trial of Jesus actually went down and out. And this is what people that don't believe the Bible to be the word of God this is one of the things they used to say we'll see there it's a bunch of contradictions and they're all over the place and it's really not that way at all. So to be clear, we need to understand that there are actually, at this point in time, there are two high priests in this story. There is Annas who was the former high priest, and there is Caiaphas who is the current high priest. And Annas is the real power behind the power. He's pulling all the strings. While Caiaphas is Annas' son-in-law. And the houses of both of these religious hypocrites are joined together in the middle by a courtyard. And that is why there's some confusion in the various stories. The house here actually belongs to both Annas and Caiaphas. And so they take Jesus to Annas first because he was the real power to produce an indictment against him, even if they had to beat it out of him. And then they take Jesus back outside, across the courtyard, over to Caiaphas' part of the house to bring another indictment against him. And it is when they take Jesus back across the courtyard that he looks at Peter. And it is during these two phases of the trial which went on for a couple of hours that Peter's denials take place. So all three denials occur in the same courtyard that joins both of the high priest's houses. The first one is when Jesus is inside with Annas, and the next two are when Jesus is being confronted by Caiaphas. And what is interesting is just how Peter got inside the courtyard of the high priest in the first place. He didn't just walk in there. There's a gate with guards around it. So you had to have access to get in. And believe it or not, I really struggled with this. And Dr. Luke doesn't tell us. But the Apostle John does. In John 18, verses 15 and 16, the Word of the Lord says, Simon Peter was following Jesus and so was another disciple. Now that disciple was known to the high priest and entered with Jesus into the court of the high priest. So now right off the bat, there are two of the eleven that are following Jesus here. Not just Peter. But Peter was standing at the door outside, so the other disciple who was known to the high priest went out and spoke to the doorkeeper and brought Peter in. Now from the way this is written tells us that it was no doubt John who was that other disciple. That's John's style of writing to identify himself that way. He is the disciple whom Jesus loved. You never mention himself by name. So somehow John's family was connected to the high priest and evidently John had been there before. So he was recognized by the guards and John and the guards let Peter inside the courtyard. And so there's Peter, perhaps with John, totally baffled by everything that has transpired that night. And Peter is standing around this fire and then he sits down to keep warm along with some of the other people, probably keeping his head down so as not to draw attention to himself. And you know Peter's head is spinning, trying to put all the pieces together. And even though he's confused, he's trying to keep his word to Jesus that he said back at the Last Supper in Luke 22-33, Lord, with You I am ready to go both to prison and to death. And so Luke tells us in Luke 22, verse 56, And a servant girl, seeing him as he sat in the firelight, and looking intently at him, said, This man was with him too. Now you can just imagine how this went. This didn't happen just like that. She's looking at him. And she's trying to catch his features through the fire. And she's looking at this guy. Now, the servant girl is a female slave. And John Mark says she was one of the slaves of the high priest. And John says she was one who had let Peter through the gate. And that means that the slave girl knew John. Which could mean, also did mean, that she suspected Peter as being with Jesus because John is the one who asked to let Peter in. And so that was all what got this thing going. And so as she began to stare at Peter, she blurted out, this man was with him too. And Peter, true to form, never hesitated. He fires right back. Woman, I do not know him! Now, there's three denials. There's three sections of denials. There's three different confrontations here. But in each one of these confrontations, there is multiple accusations and multiple denials. And we know that by the tense of the verbs here. The way this is written shows us that the servant girl kept on making variations of this accusation. She didn't say this one time. She kept on. Which is why the various Gospel writers record her words differently. You don't just repeat the same words over and over and over. You use different words to get your meaning. This also means that others around the fire joined in with her. And so Peter's denial is especially evil because it is a blatant lie and a determined effort to deceive these people and to deny the Lord to protect himself. And this also means that Peter's denial is repeated several times during this first confrontation. And no sooner did he make that first denial than Mark 14.68 says, he went out onto the porch. Now, later manuscripts, I don't know what version you're using, but later manuscripts add a phrase at the end of the word porch here, and the cock crowed. That phrase was not in the original manuscripts. It was added later. So while the King James, the New King James, the Holman Christian Standard Bible, and the English Standard Version all have that added phrase, the NASB does not have it, and it is omitted here. Now during the first confrontation, Peter's initial thoughts were to save himself. But as the accusations increased, his denials became stronger and more strident. John Mark wrote that Peter said, I neither know nor understand what you are talking about. The Apostle John wrote that Peter said, I am not. And he's referring to being a disciple of Jesus. Now evidently these initial accusations eventually died down and Peter once again returned to his thoughts to all that had happened that night. A while ago we took the Lord's Supper and it was quiet and it was peaceful and it was reverent and it was holy and it was beautiful. It wasn't that way with Jesus on the Last Supper. There was a lot going on, a lot of conversations going on, a lot of sin and wickedness being manifested right there at the Last Supper with Jesus. It's incredible how we have such a blessed service when He had such a terrible time. And so as the accusations died down, Peter began to move toward the porch. And he began to remember that his Lord was right inside being interrogated right at that moment. And Peter's soul was tortured. And so Luke tells us that Peter began to move onto the porch, which was probably near the gate that he had entered into. And this tells us that Peter was just trying to get away at this point. He was trying to get out of Dodge. He was trying to leave. Now read Luke 22.58. And this is what I'm trying to get. There could probably be maybe 10 sermons on this passage. But the concept that when things get hard, the first response we all have is to leave. That's easy. Isn't it amazing how we all that's the first thing we think about is to leave. Rather than to defend. Rather than to fight that we just want to leave, we want to get away. As though our location was a problem. If we get into different location all will be well. This world's broken. And where you go is broken. Your location is not the problem it's what's in your heart and what's in other people's hearts is the problem. You can't run away from your own heart. Now read Luke 22 58 a little later another saw him and said you are one of them too. And again that this phrase in the Greek it's kind of like yeah huh. They're not speaking the king's English. These are workers. These are slaves. These are just the average Joes on the street. But Peter said, man, I am not! So as he's moving toward the porch a little later, Luke says, another saw him. This is probably somebody that either knew John and made the connection or somebody who had seen Peter with Jesus or heard the accusations earlier. And this man began to accuse Peter and said, you are one of them too. And Peter says, man, I am not. The apostle Levi shows the emotion of Peter's denial and writes that Peter denied it with an oath. I do not know this man. I swear to you, I don't know this man. May my children be cursed if I'm lying to you. May God damn me to hell if I'm lying to you. That's what this means. The oath. So at this point, Peter is swearing an oath that he doesn't even know Jesus. And finally, Peter is confronted the third time with the most serious and detailed accusation. Luke 22.59, about an hour had passed. So this didn't happen in three minutes. Another man began to insist saying, certainly this man also was with Him, for He is a Galilean too. Again, these accusations came repeatedly, so there's different wordings between the different gospel writers. One said, his voice, he's got that southern twang. We know where you're from. You can't deny it. I was in an elevator at a pastor's conference in New York City, and we were going up to the 8 millionth floor, and there was people from Australia and New Zealand and Bangladesh in the elevator, and a guy turned to Rhonda and said, where do you live? And she says, I'm from right down the street. And he said, no, you're not, baby. Your voice betrays you. You're from the South. And so Peter's voice, his terminology, his expression betrayed him. He was an uneducated, unlearned, ignorant man from the backwoods of Galilee. We would say poor white trash. We would say a nobody. And that's why they marveled at these men, because they knew Jesus. And Levi gives us some additional information about this third confrontation in Matthew 26, 73. A little later, the bystanders came up and said to Peter, Surely you two are one of them, for even the way you talk gives you away. While the apostle John gives the most details in John 18, 26, one of the slaves of the high priest, look at this, being a relative of the one whose ear Peter cut off. What are the odds? What are the odds? Peter's doing his best to blend into the darkness. And the relative of the only guy he cut his arm, and the only guy that got healed is the guy accusing him. Huh? Is this not God moving here? Did I not see you in the garden with Him? I kind of remember the gleam of your sword. The accusations and the confrontations are now coming at Peter from every angle. This slave was a relative of the man Peter had tried to kill. And so Peter knows that he's going to be found out. He is already horribly confused and frightened about everything in the first place. He is unbelievably disillusioned and is being put on the spot. And Peter had never felt more distant from Jesus than he is right now. Have you ever been there where you feel distant from Jesus? And so he resorts back to his fishing days and how he handled things before he ever met the Lord. And Luke says in Luke 22.60, Peter said, Man, I do not know what you're talking about. Immediately while he was still speaking, a rooster crowed. Now both Matthew and Mark say this. He began to curse and swear. This is two things. Peter began to use profanity. Whatever profanity sounded like in the first century Jews. It must have been pretty bad for Luke to record this. And that's the cursing part. But then he attempted to give his denial credibility by sealing it with a curse upon himself. And the typical way that a Jew in the first century would do that is by saying, may God throw me into the pit if I'm lying. And the pit would have been a reference to Hades or Gehenna, which was all that those operating under the Old Covenant understood about the abode of the damned. We have to understand that the revelation about hell and the details that we understand today were almost exclusively revealed in the New Covenant. And so even though Peter's understanding of hell was vague, it meant the same thing. A place of damnation. So Peter was saying that he was lying about knowing the Lord. He hoped that God would damn him. Which is about as strong a denial as anybody could make. And as soon as he said that, the most frightening sound that Peter ever heard shattered the night. The cockroach. And all of this happened at the very moment that Jesus was being moved from Annas' house to Caiaphas through the courtyard. And as Peter was cursing and swearing and the cock was crowing, Peter looked around just as Jesus was being moved in the courtyard. And Luke says the Lord turned and looked at Peter. And Peter remembered the Word of the Lord. How he had told him before a rooster crows today, you will deny me three times. Just as Peter was in the full fury of his cursing and swearing his denial of Jesus, Peter looked full into the beaten and bloodied face of the man Peter had seen transfigured in the brilliance of the glory of God. And Jesus looked Peter right in the eye. And immediately, Peter remembered what Jesus said. And Luke tells us, he went out and wept bitterly. Jesus looked at Peter. At that moment, Jesus looking at him was the last thing Peter wanted. Yet it was the only thing that rescued him from that terrible darkness that had come upon him. Peter was completely disillusioned with the whole thing and all he wanted to do was get out as fast as he could. But Jesus looked at Peter. And that is the only reason why Peter found a place of repentance. This is the very pinnacle of satanic evil. Right at the moment when Jesus is entering into the most horrific beating that any man has ever endured. Right at Jesus' weakest moment. When all of His followers have deserted Him. All have run for the hills. And two men, Judas and now Peter, have both betrayed Him. Right now, at that moment, the absolute supremacy of Jesus Christ is shining through. You see, I think the good doctor is telling us that there is a powerful dynamic being played out here this night that illustrates not merely Peter's denial, but also Christ's supremacy. I think that right now as Jesus is being led off to be beaten within an inch of His life and to be nailed to a tree to die for the sins of all of God's people, that Jesus is in complete control. We're going to get into this in the next couple of weeks perhaps. If not, we'll have to wait until about March. But the notion that Jesus was whipped 39 times is not true. Bible doesn't teach that at all Paul was beaten thirty nine times because Paul was a Roman citizen and if you beat him forty times and they live by law you had to let them go so they beat you thirty nine times and they could keep beating you every day. But the tactic is to get around the legal maneuver to get around the law. Jesus was beat and beat and beat and beat and beat on His face, on His front, on His back, on His legs. They beat Him till they got tired. But Jesus is not a victim here. Our Lord is the victor. He is not at the mercy of these evil men. Jesus, right now, is issuing out mercy to Peter, and through Peter to the rest of the apostles, who will change the world. Peter is right in the middle of experiencing his greatest defeat, his most serious failure, and his most wicked sin. Peter is betraying the Lord, not once, but three times, and sealing it with an oath. Peter is not standing strong as he imagined. He is not testifying to all who are there about his great love for Jesus. He is not willing to die for Jesus. Peter is denying that he even knows Jesus. And he is sealing that denial with a curse he pronounces on himself. Yet right at Peter's most sinful moment, even as he is exhausted from praying so hard that he sweat blood, as Jesus is being led to be beaten and killed, Jesus is not only going to transform Peter, He is at that very moment preparing Peter for ministry. Hallelujah! all of Peter's vacillation, all of Peter's fumbling and putting his foot in his mouth, all of his brashness and his impulsiveness, all of his wickedness and weakness is now laid bare with these denials. And through the greatest failure of his life, Jesus is going to rebuild Peter into a giant of the faith. You see, dear friends, to know Jesus is to treasure Jesus. Salvation is God giving unworthy sinners the power and the desire to put such a high value on Jesus that everything in this life, including our families and our possessions and even our own lives, is detestable by comparison. So you see, it is impossible to be truly saved and not hold Jesus Christ to be higher and better and more important than anything that has been made. And so if a person does not treasure Jesus Christ, it is because he has never experienced the miracle of the new birth. That is one and the same. Being born again means you now treasure Jesus Christ. We must continually remind ourselves that we do not have to be saved to want a better life down here. We do not have to be saved to want to be healed or fed or clothed or blessed. We do not have to be saved to want more money or more possessions. We don't have to be saved to want to go to heaven or to walk on streets of gold. or to pass through gates of pearl, or to be reunited with loved ones who have gone on before us. We don't have to be saved to want to drink from the water of life, or to have new immortal bodies, or to see glorious sights. We do not have to be saved to want to possess the power to relieve suffering on this earth or to either perform or receive spectacular miracles. We don't have to be saved to understand spiritual mysteries or to cast out demons or raise the dead. We have to be saved to love Jesus! We have to be born again of incorruptible seed to adore and value and treasure Jesus Christ more than anything else. We have to be redeemed by a sovereign miracle of God to find the fullness of our own joy in struggling against the lusts of our flesh by the power of the Holy Spirit to be found humbly submitted to the authority of Scripture all to the glory of God. We have to be radically transformed by the miracle of the new birth to see the commandments of God as being the pathway to our own happiness. We have to be sovereignly regenerated to be satisfied in God and to delight in God, receiving all the glory, even to the point of our own suffering. Ever since Adam fell, it is unnatural for human beings to love God. It is normal for us to love sin, and to love the world, and to love things in the world, and to love ourselves, but it is not normal for any fallen human to love God. We are attracted to sensual pleasures, riotous living. But in our fallen state, we are not attracted to God. We are overwhelmed and overcome by the cares of this life and the deceitfulness of riches and the lust of other things, but we are not overwhelmed and we are not overcome by God. We are happy to be first, to be on top, to be enlarged. We are vindicated when we are important and when we receive applause and we feel validated when we are made much of. But ever since Adam's sin, we do not normally or naturally enjoy God. We do not normally delight ourselves in God or the things of God. Therefore, it is nothing short of a breathtaking miracle to comprehend the magnitude of the work that God did all by Himself and at great cost to Himself. The death of His own Son that so radically transforms us that rebels now have the distinct honor of knowing God and loving God and enjoying Him forever. How did that happen to you? How did you conjure that power up? How did you rub the two sticks of your own decisions and your willpower together to produce a delight for God? No, you didn't. That's a gift to you from God. For wicked sinners to be so changed that they now adore and treasure Jesus Christ and take genuine delight in Him took nothing less than the horrific murder and glorious resurrection of the only sinless man that ever lived. And so it is not what we do that causes us to be saved. It is what God has done for us all by Himself. No fallen human in his lost state initiates love for God. But we also have to know that it is also not anything in us that brings about repentance, or conviction, or confession, or forgiveness in our lives either. It is one thing. Jesus looks at you. God told Isaiah that the problem with man was sin. When He said in Isaiah 59 and 2, but your iniquities have done what? Made a separation between you and God. And your sins have done what? They hide God's face from you. God's face is hidden because of our sin. So all of Israel operated under the reality that their sin made a separation between them and God. And as a result, God hid His face from them and did not look upon Him. But on this night, the prophecy of Isaiah, in Isaiah 57, verses 15-19. Do you want to go there? Isaiah 57, 15-19 came to pass for Peter. For thus says the High and Exalted One who lives forever, whose name is Holy, I dwell on a high and holy place, and also with the contrite and lowly of spirit, in order to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite. For I will not contend forever, nor will I always be angry, for the Spirit would grow faint before me and the breath of those whom I made. Because of the iniquity of this unjust gain, I was angry and struck him. I hid my face and was angry. And he went on turning away in the way of his heart. I have seen his ways, but I will heal him. I will lead him and restore comfort to him and to his mourners, creating the praise of the lips. Peace. Peace to him who is far and to him who is near, says the Lord, and I will heal him. Now, over the last several weeks, we've examined two men, Judas and Peter. Two chosen men, two human beings, both born of woman, both products of the fall, both sinners, both in need of salvation, both called. by Jesus Christ. Both given the great privilege of personally walking with the incarnate God for three and a half years. Both being eyewitnesses of spectacular miracles. Earth-shaking demonstrations of divine power. Unexplainable supernatural manifestations and perfect teaching. Both Judas and Peter were given power to perform miracles themselves. To heal the sick. To cast out demons and to raise the dead. Both were among the closest men that Jesus ever had while He was here on earth. And both betrayed the Lord. Judas, the son of perdition, was fueled in his betrayal by at least two things. Number one, his love of money. And number two, his disillusionment with Jesus. And he sold the Prince of Life for 30 pieces of silver. Betrayed Him with a kiss. And eventually took his own life and went to his own place in hell. And in so doing, Judas fulfilled many Old Testament prophecies. And then there is Peter, who was also fueled in his denial by at least two things. His complete disillusionment with Jesus and his fear. And at one of the critical points in this entire drama, he denied that he even knew Jesus and sealed that denial with an oath. and in so doing fulfilled not only several Old Testament prophecies, but the promise by Jesus Himself earlier that very night when Jesus told Peter straight up in Luke 22-34, I say to you, Peter, the rooster will not crow today until you have denied three times that you know Me. So what was the difference between these two men? What is it that made Peter end up being one of the most beloved apostles of the Lord while Judas' name is reviled to this day? What made Peter to eventually become a martyr of the Lord while Judas went to his own place in hell? Both of them sinned. Both betrayed the Lord. And what is amazing is that the Holy Bible tells us that both Peter and Judas felt grief over what they had done. And I want you to trust me on this. I want your eyes to see this. Turn with me to Matthew 27. Just one verse. Matthew 27, verse 3. I want your eyes to look upon this. Matthew 27, verse 3, Then when Judas, who had betrayed Him, saw that He had been condemned, he felt remorse and returned the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders. Now, I read seventeen commentaries this week about what this all is about. Three or four of them said the same thing. Well Judas felt remorse but Peter wept bitterly. There you go. Remorse versus bitterly. Go to the Greek. Go to the Greek. There's not a there's a there's a paper thin difference between remorse and grief and repentance. Now notice that the Apostle Levi says here that Judas felt remorse. And then Levi went on to say that this remorse was so great that Judas actually returned the money that the chief priests had given him, which was one of the motivating factors in him betraying the Lord in the first place. Huh? Now I would think that if any of us to this morning saw somebody who was so remorseful over what they had done that he went to the extent of refunding money that they had received from their sin, that most of us would applaud that. And see, that is a sign of genuine repentance. I would. And yet Judas had not repented. And Judas was not saved. And he was not forgiven. And Judas went to hell. But now contrast that to what Dr. Luke wrote about Peter from Luke 22, verse 62. Very short statement. He went out and wept bitterly. So Judas was so remorseful, he returned the blood money, and Peter went out and wept bitterly. Now, he didn't actually do anything. Luke says Peter simply wept bitterly. And by saying that, I'm not trying to minimize Peter's grief. That's not the point I'm making. If we're looking for outward signs of repentance, Judas seems to have actually had more than Peter. And the point here is that we can't say that the reason Peter was forgiven was because he repented and Judas didn't. Because from what is written, it looks like Judas' grief was actually greater than Peter's. In fact, look again at what the Apostle Levi wrote in Matthew 27, verses 3-5. Then when Judas, who had betrayed him, saw that he had been condemned, he felt remorse and returned the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, saying, I have sinned, and by betraying innocent blood. But they said, what is that to us? See that to yourself. And he threw the pieces of silver into the temple sanctuary and departed and went away and hanged himself. Now look closely at what Levi wrote in v. 4. Judas openly confessed two very important things. He says, I have sinned. Isn't that what we're supposed to do? And then he called Jesus' blood innocent. So here we see that Judas actually confessed he had sinned and that Jesus was innocent. And then in v. 5 we read that Judas was so overcome with remorse that he killed himself. So what did Peter do? He went out and wept bitterly. That's it. He didn't try to speak with those to whom he had betrayed the Lord to correct the record. He didn't rush over to where Jesus was to worship him and display his love for his Savior publicly. Peter went out. He went out of the courtyard where he had betrayed the Lord and he wept. And he wept bitterly, the Bible says. Now before I go on, I don't want there to be any misunderstanding of what I'm trying to say this morning. I am not taking up for Judas at all. I do not believe and I am not teaching that Judas was forgiven. I am telling you clearly this morning that Judas was not forgiven, that he went to hell. Judas was evil and was not saved. He was never saved. So it isn't that Judas was at one time saved but then lost his salvation because he betrayed the Lord. Judas was never saved. And I am also telling you that Peter was forgiven. And He was saved even though I don't think Peter was saved at this point. I think Peter was saved at some point after this moment and that it was this very moment that was instrumental in Peter being saved. All I'm saying is that from a human standpoint, Judas' grief looked more like repentance than Peter's did. And yet Judas was not forgiven and Peter was. Why? Well, first of all, the answer is not because Peter cried and Judas didn't, as so many commentators have taught over the years, because crying doesn't have the power to wash away sins. And we know that because of what the writer of Hebrews told us. So go quickly with me. Hebrews 12. Hebrews chapter 12. I want to show you something. This has everything to do with what I'm talking about. Hebrews chapter 12. Three verses. Verse 15, 16, and 17. Hebrews 12, verses 15 through 17. The writer of Hebrews says to the people of this little small church in what is now Asia Minor around 68 A.D. that was comprised of three different groups of Hebrews, some saved, some curious, and some not curious at all, see to it that no one comes short of the grace of God. That no root of bitterness springing up causes trouble, and by it may many be defiled. That there be no immoral or godless person like Esau, who sold his own birthright for a single meal. For you know that even afterwards when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, look at this, for he found no place for repentance, though he sought for it with tears. Wow. Now, I'm kind of crowding into what I'm teaching on Sunday night here, but most of the leaders of the modern church don't really get too deep into this issue, which is why there's so much confusion about this subject. But this is an issue that has profoundly disturbed me over the years. Look again at what the writer of Hebrews says about Esau in verse 17. He found no place for repentance, though he sought for it with tears. So even though Esau actively sought a place of repentance with tears, he did not find that place and was not forgiven and was not saved. So that tells us that repentance is not something that we do or that we get, but it's something that God must grant to us. And again, it isn't that Esau was saved at one point but lost his salvation because he sold his birthright. No, no. Esau was never saved. And so Esau sold his birthright because he despised it. And he despised God. So Esau did not delight in God or what God had done. And so he took the slightest provocation and showed the depth of his hostility toward God by selling his birthright. And gave the lame excuse, I'm going to perish. I'm going to die. Baloney. That's not the first time he ever got hungry. And that ain't the only time he got hungry that day. He was looking for a way out. Now the writer of Hebrews goes to great lengths to tell us some interesting things about all this. In verse 16, the writer says that Esau was immoral and godless. And that means that Esau was not saved. He was never saved. In fact, the Bible is crystal clear that Esau was never going to be saved. Because in both Malachi 1, verse 2 and 3, and Romans 9, verse 13, the holy, inspired, infallible, inerrant Word of the living God says, Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated. And then in verse 15, he says that we need to take heed to ourselves so that we don't engage in those activities that will prove that we are immoral and godless. What does immorality look like? What does godlessness look like? Here it goes. See to it that no one comes short of the grace of God. What does it look like to come short of the grace of God? Well, it looks like a root of bitterness that springs up, that causes trouble, and then by it many are defiled. That's what being godless and coming short of the grace of God looks like according to the Bible. So the writer warns and has saved people, we cannot allow two things to be true in our lives. See to it that no one comes short of the grace of God, that no root of bitterness springing up causes trouble. Now the phrase, see to it, is an imperative command. It means that we are to pay strict attention, we are to make sure, we are to do whatever it is that we need to do to assure that we do not come short of the grace of God. We are to pay strict attention. We are to do whatever it is that we need to do that we are to make sure that no root of bitterness springing up causes trouble. And the trouble that the writer of Hebrews is talking about is what happened to Esau, who sold his own birthright for a single meal. And since he came short of the grace of God, and since Esau had that root of bitterness, look what happened. He found no place for repentance, though he sought for it with tears. The difference between why Esau came short of the grace of God and Jacob didn't. The difference as to why Esau operated under the root of bitterness and Jacob didn't. The reason why Esau sold his birthright and Jacob didn't. The difference as to why Jacob found a place for forgiveness and Esau didn't had nothing to do with any noble or good quality in Jacob. It isn't because Jacob never sinned, because he did. A lot. It isn't because Jacob's sin was less evil than Esau's. Is it because Jacob tried harder than Esau? Is it because of anything in either Jacob or Esau? The reason why God loved Jacob and hated Esau was solely because before the foundation of the world, God chose to set His love upon Jacob and God determined to leave Esau to Himself. Look what the Apostle Paul wrote about this in Romans 9, 11-13. For though the twins, Jacob and Esau, were not yet born, look at that, and had not done anything good or bad, so that, look, God's purpose according to election, His choice, so that God's purpose according to His choice would stand. And it would stand not because of works, but it would stand because of Him who calls. That is why it was told to their mother, the older will serve the younger. And the proof behind that is just as it is written, Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated. We have to understand, friends, that God is the only true free being in the universe. And even though you may not like this, and even though this might not sit well with you, the Holy Bible is crystal clear that before He made the world, before any of us were born in His absolute freedom, God determined in Himself to save some of the fallen race of Adam, and God determined to leave the rest to themselves. And that is the only reason you're saved. And the Bible goes on to say that the reason God did this was so that the glory of His grace might be displayed through the salvation of His elect. And so man's decision to repent is not decisive. God's decision to grant repentance is decisive. Man's will is not what determines who will be saved. God's will determines who will be saved. Man cannot repent on his own. God must mercifully grant us the gift of repentance. Man cannot believe in his own strength. God must give us the gift of saving faith. So it is not what any of us does that determines whether God will receive us and forgive us. It is what God alone does for us that determines God's forgiveness in our lives. So unless Jesus looks at us We are doomed! And so the reason why Peter was forgiven and Judas wasn't was not because Peter repented and Judas didn't. It wasn't because Peter wept and Judas didn't. It wasn't because Peter was serious and Judas wasn't. The reason God forgave Peter and didn't forgive Judas was because Jesus looked at Peter. Hallelujah! Thank You, Jesus! And that very night, just hours before, he betrayed the Lord. Listen to what Jesus told Peter. Simon! Simon! Behold, Satan has demanded permission to sift you like wheat. But I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. Glory to God. Brother Jason, Jesus is praying for us right now. Hallelujah. But Jody, Jesus prays for you, brother. Brother Robert, Brother Don, Brother Cory, Chris, Andy, Vern, Jesus is praying for us! Hallelujah! We cannot fail! And look at what he said. And you, when once you've turned again, strengthen your brothers. Peter had the only thing that Judas lacked, and it was nothing inherent inside of himself. It had nothing to do with anything that Peter did or did not do. It is no more complicated than this. Jesus prayed for Peter, and Jesus did not pray for Judas. And so when Peter was in the very depth of his denial and betrayal, Jesus looked at Peter, and He didn't look at Judas. Jesus looked at Peter in his weakest moment when he had just committed his greatest sin. And because Jesus looked at Peter, Peter found that place of repentance. But before he looked, Jesus interceded for Peter. Jesus was determined to interrupt Peter's lie. Life. Jesus stepped in to stop Peter. Jesus violated Peter's will. Jesus imposed Himself into Peter's life. And Jesus prayed to His Father that Peter's faith would not fail. And one time Jesus said, I thank You that You always hear me. I can't say that. I can't pray like that. Sometimes my prayers go silent because I'm praying amiss. Every time Jesus prayed, His Father heard Him. Hallelujah. And Jesus prays for me and you. And that is why Peter was forgiven and Judas was not. So all you need, all you have a need for, dear friend, in your darkest moment of your life, in the blackest day when you can't see daylight, all you need when you have failed God the most, when you are at your weakest moment, when you can't even walk another step. All you need when you are at the very edge of coming short of the grace of God. All you need when the root of bitterness threatens to empower you to sell your birthright. All you need when you are at the very threshold of your greatest sin is for Jesus to pray for you that your faith fail not. All you need is for Jesus to look at you And when Jesus prays for you, your faith will not fail. You will not sell your birthright. You will not operate according to the root of bitterness. And you will find a place of repentance. And the supremacy of Jesus Christ will turn your denial into glory. Let's pray.