Our sermon text this morning is found here in Luke 22, verses 31 through 34. Hear the word of the Lord. Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat. But I have prayed for you that your faith might not fail. And when you have turned again, Strengthen your brothers. Peter said to him, Lord, I am ready to go with you both to prison and to death. Jesus said, I tell you, Peter, the rooster will not crow this day until you deny three times that you know me. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Father God, we come to you this morning and we seek your blessing as we approach your word. God, we need your word. We find it to be for us like clean, pure water in a dry, thirsty land. We find it to be our bread and drink. We pray that you would nourish us by it, that you would refresh us with it. God, that you would use it to help us grow, that we would understand the truth that's here. God, that it would also do work in our hearts. We know, God, that you have business with us today. We pray that you would accomplish your purposes in and through your word. God, in order to keep us from falling, that we might be aware, properly warned, on guard against the possibility of spiritual failure, of falling away, of backsliding, and even for some of apostasy who maybe have not discerned their hearts very well and perhaps are not in the faith this morning. We pray that you would help us to discern our hearts, God, and we pray that your word would have its effect and influence in our hearts and ultimately that we might look to Christ for all that we need. We pray all of this in his name. Amen. Life is full of moments that test our faith, and there are times when we feel strong and we are convinced that nothing can shake us, and yet if we're honest, we've all faced moments of weakness, times when doubt creeps in and fear overwhelms us. We fall short of the faith that we thought we had. Peter, one of Jesus' closest disciples, a leader among the apostles, knew this experience firsthand. Here on the night before Jesus' crucifixion, Peter was confident in his devotion to Christ. He declared that he would never deny Jesus, never would he fall away or fail his Lord. But within just hours, he did exactly that, and not once, but three times. Yet what's remarkable about Peter's story is not just his failure, But how Jesus deals with him in light of his failure, his impending failure, as Jesus foresees this, and then prepares Peter for it, it's really remarkable. If you think about almost any other situation that we could be in, someone fails, there's very little grace in our world for failure. In fact, there's a whole idea of a cancel culture in our day where people are shown almost no grace at all. If you have an idea that maybe you'll come to regret in the future, but if it's once expressed online, it's basically a permanent record. and there's very little forgiveness or grace for for any of us for our failures and yet Jesus deals so grace to graciously with Peter knowing that he's going to fail in advance he deals tenderly with Peter he helps Peter and he prepares Peter for for his inevitable failure and what Jesus does for Peter we can be assured he does for all who follow him and are his including you who believe here this morning. And in Luke chapter 22 verses 31 through 34, we find in Jesus' words to Peter three powerful truths about faith, which are a real help to us as Christians, especially in light of our own, not only our strong devotion, which we all at times have, but in light of the possibility of our failure. And that's really our first point here this morning, the first truth that we find in here is the possibility of our failure. We see this in verse 31, where Jesus says here, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you that he might sift you like wheat. But I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. Well, there's a possibility here that Peter's faith might fail, which is why, if it wasn't a possibility, Jesus wouldn't have found need to pray for him, and yet Jesus prays for him. And certainly, it's not just a possibility, it is a prediction that Jesus makes, as we see in verses 33 and 34. Peter declares, never, this will never happen. Jesus says in verse 34, I tell you, Peter, the rooster will not crow this day until you deny three times that you know me. Not only is it possible, it's probable, it's going to happen, Peter. And to a certain degree, we need to make peace with the fact that we're not going to be perfect, flawless in our loyalty and our faithfulness and our steadfastness to our Lord. But each of us, if we live the Christian life for any length of time, we'll have opportunity to fail the Lord, to fall, to stumble, to backslide. We'll have cause for regrets, for a godly sorrow over what our sins have cause Jesus to suffer, and we need to make peace with this to a certain degree. I mean, it ought to grieve us, not to tolerate sin in our lives. We need to just realize, need to have that reality check that it's going to happen because I'm not Christ. He's the faithful one. He's the one that kept God's law perfectly. He did it for me. If I could do it, I wouldn't need Jesus. And so this is a real danger. and it's a possibility. I want you to notice that Jesus uses Peter's given name here, Simon. What's the significance of this? He doesn't call him Peter, and yet Peter is the name that Jesus gives to Simon whenever he calls him into his service, and whenever Simon makes the confession of faith that Jesus is the Christ, and Simon is given this new name, Peter, Jesus renamed him Peter when he came to faith. Peter was then, if you think about it, Peter was a name that represented his new life in Christ. And it signified that Jesus had claimed him and would use him. And with it was all these associations of walking with Jesus, of learning from him, of fellowship with his brothers in the faith. Now this new family of faith was being developed, this early church. And so Peter was a name that must have sounded very sweet to his ears, to hear, because of all that was associated with it, because of his connection to Jesus. But Simon? That name had to do with his former life. And it must have now rung hollow for him to hear those words, Simon. It's, I have in my phone, I don't know why I've done this stuff, but I don't have any nicknames in my phone. They're all just first and last name. And so people have seen, you know, like Lauren's phone, it says, for me it says Hubby Huff. You know, and probably your phone has something like that too. For me, it just says Lauren Huff. Not wife. My grandparents call me, it's Thomas Fennell. Not, you know. And so that must be strange for someone to see that they call my phone and they say, Who's Lauren Huff? Is that your wife? To speak of her so formally without that kind of endearing use of the word wife or some kind of pet name that I might have for her maybe sounds a little bit formal and cold. And to hear his name Simon must have sounded something like that to Peter. Simon? You call me Simon? This is a name that speaks of his former way of life. as if these past years of walking with Jesus have been erased, as if he might go back to his old life. And I think Jesus does this intentionally to remind him that he's not beyond this possibility of falling away. There's a warning here. Peter is not beyond the possibility of becoming Simon once more. He and you are not beyond the possibility of falling back into old patterns of sin that characterize characterize a former manner of life. And not only is this possible, we see again for Peter, it's predicted. And for us, it's a reality that we need to be aware of. There's a real present danger for each of us to fall back into a former manner of life, into patterns of sin which properly belong to what Paul will go on to call the old man, the old person. We've been made new. We're a new creature in Christ, and yet for some, there's that backsliding into an old way of life. But how can this be for a Christian? Well, we shouldn't underestimate the power of the enemy that calls us to stumble and fall into sin. Jesus begins to prepare Peter by helping him to know his enemy. And we have here, one of these great enemies mentioned, Satan. Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat, Jesus tells us. We actually have three great enemies of the soul with which to contend. We find these throughout the scriptures, and the first of them we might call the world, the world as an enemy. We can't get out of the world. We're not to seek to escape the world. We live in the world. We're, in a certain sense, we're to do ordinary things in the world, to marry and to be given in marriage, and to work jobs, and to build houses, and to labor for our earthly good, so long as we understand that it isn't our ultimate good, that we do belong to a heavenly kingdom, and that there is eternity beyond our life here and now. But the world is made by God, and there's some parts of it that are good, but the world also is spoken of in Scripture as a possible enemy of our soul, and a great one at that, In 1 John 2, in verses 15 through 17, we read this. John tells us, do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and the pride of life. So this is particularly what he means is this aspect of the world, how being in the world, it encourages this the desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes, the pride of life, it's temptation to sin, it's desires that are very carnal in their orientation, and a sort of pride that exalts us above God. We have to be aware because there is a sort of, we have concepts like peer pressure, and this really, we kind of think about this in terms of young people, when they spend so much time around a peer at their own age, and in school, and maybe in young adulthood, that there's a peer pressure. Well, the world is like that, that there is a compelling force that encourages us in how to think, what to love, what our priorities ought to be, what's sort of beyond the pale. And there's a tremendous pressure to conform ourselves to the way that people are in the world. And yet we're told here is that we're not to love the world in this sense. Because if we love the world, the love of the Father is not in us. But the world is passing away along with its desires, and whoever does the will of God, rather, abides forever. James 4.4, you adulterous people, do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. There's also a second great enemy of our souls, which we might call the flesh. And that is our human nature, insofar as it's been corrupted by sin. And so there's a part, not just externally, the world around us, but there's an internal desire and impulse and movement towards sin and away from God. And here's how the Bible describes this, Romans 8, 7 and 8. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law. Indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. Galatians 5.17, For the desires of the flesh are against the spirit, and the desires of the spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do as a Christian. So there is a part of us that does desire to please God, to live for God, to do right, and yet there is still, we have to contend with a fallen human nature. It's a part of who we are on the inside, that invisible part of us that thinks and feels and loves and makes decisions that still is inclined to sin. And we've got to recognize that. We've got to be willing to define sin in the way that God defines sins and notice when our hearts is leading us to sin and put that to death. So not only to turn our back on the world as it encourages sin in us, but also to put to death the desires of the flesh. And then there's the third great enemy of our soul, which Jesus touches on here in our passage, and that is the devil. In 1 Peter 5.8, Peter, who knew this well, as he learned it from Christ, says, Be sober-minded, be watchful, for your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. There is a invisible, but real, personal, spiritual enemy. fallen angels, there are demons, there is Satan, and these are personal. They can think, they have agency, they have intellect, they can think, they can plan, they can scheme, they can act. And although they don't have bodies, don't let that fool you into thinking that they are not dangerous. They can make shipwreck of your soul. We have to recognize that there is a spiritual warfare. And there are places in scripture where all three of these are included together. So for example, in Ephesians 2, In verses 1 through 3, the Apostle Paul says, you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, that is the devil, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once lived, in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind. And also in James 3.15, this is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is talking about something that's contrary to our faith that we must be on guard against. But it is earthly, that is the world, unspiritual, that's the flesh, and demonic, that is the devil. So we have such powerful forces of evil that are aimed at corrupting us and encouraging us to abandon our devotion to the one only living and true God. And in light of all of these enemies, all of the combined forces of evil which are aimed against your soul, what chance is there of withstanding such an onslaught? So it's time, I think, that we properly appreciate the danger of our spiritual situation. And it's easy for, I know people who are, if you've ever heard of preppers, you know people who want to prepare for every kind of disaster that might befall, a nuclear fallout or some kind of global pandemic. Those kind of people weren't so made fun of back then or during the hurricane that just came through. I was thinking I might need to start stocking up on some supplies in light of that. But when I think about a nuclear bomb hitting and living in that kind of, I think you know what, I would just rather it hit me, you know. I don't want to live in that kind of world. And it's easy to kind of live in denial of the situation that we're in or to wish ourselves to be totally removed from it. But the reality is this is the situation we are fraught with. The world in which we live is fraught with spiritual dangers. You are in danger where you're sitting right now. You're in danger this week. You will be in danger. And it's important we properly appreciate this. So Jesus tells Peter in advance Satan has demanded to have you. Satan's already at work in other of the disciples. Satan is on the prowl. He's at work. And it's not just Satan. We have enemies both within and without with which to contend. And so we need to properly appreciate the danger of our spiritual warfare. There are real stakes, real enemies, and success is not a given. It's not a given. And yet Jesus speaks with tenderness, I think. Simon, Simon, he says. That's the way I speak to my kids when I want to calm them down. you know, that they're angry or they're sad, they're overwhelmed, and I say to them, Molly, Molly, you know, Thomas, Thomas, Andrew, Andrew, and when I speak to them in this way, the repetition, it suggests concern, I'm trying to communicate sympathy, a comforting presence with them, sometimes I put my hand on them to let them know, and that I'm with them, and Jesus says here, Simon, Simon. He's gonna tell him something that's very concerning or upsetting, but he's speaking in words that communicate concern, sympathy, comforting presence and tenderness. Although our failures are possible and even inevitable, Jesus is there for us, he's with us, and he's there for us. And what we see, secondly, in this text is, The prayer for our faith we find in verses, in verse 32, Jesus says, I have prayed for you. That ought to really, we could meditate on those words and find such spiritual help and just the realization that our Lord, he's not just telling us, listen, do your best, I'm out of here, I've got this ascension thing coming up, I'm going to heaven, you're on your own, do your best. But he says here, I have prayed for you. And we know that Jesus has prayed for us, we know that he does pray for us, and what a profound encouragement that not only are we granted access to God in prayer, which we are in Jesus' name, but Jesus himself prays for us as he prayed for Peter. 1 Timothy 2.5, for there is one God and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. He is our mediator. listen to this 1st John 2 1 my little children I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin but if anyone does sin we have an advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous he's a mediator he's a mediator who knows that we have sinned and will sin and when we sin he advocates for us before the throne of grace Romans 3 8 34 Who is to condemn? Jesus Christ is the one who died. More than that, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Jesus intercedes for us. Hebrews 7.25 says that He always lives to make intercession for us. Do you imagine that Jesus prays for you? You pray to Him. You pray for yourself and for others to Jesus, but do you imagine that Jesus prays for you? And that if you've ever thought, you know, I don't know if God really hears my prayers or if he'll answer my prayers, because James does say that the prayers of a righteous man availeth much, but I don't always feel very righteous. Would you think that God is going to answer Jesus' prayers for you? Is he sufficiently righteous that God would answer his prayers for you? I think so. We find a wonderfully, I think it's just such comfort in John 17, in Jesus' high priestly prayer. And Jesus prays in John 17. He lifts up his eyes to heaven and said, Father, the hour has come. Glorify your son, that the son may glorify you since you have given him all authority over all flesh to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. And this is eternal life that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. Jesus prays, I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence and with the glory that I had with you before the world existed." So he's praying really for himself here. But then in verse 6, he transitions and begins praying for others. He says in verse 6, I have manifested your name to the people who you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Now they know that everything that you have given me is from you. For I have given them the words that you gave me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you. And they have believed that you sent me, and I am praying for them. I'm not praying for the world, but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours. All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I'm glorified in them. And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I'm coming to you, Holy Father." So there's a recognition here that Jesus will not always be with Peter. He'll not always be with his disciples bodily present, you know, in the flesh with them to encourage them and to correct them and to strengthen them for the Christian life. And yet he says here, I'm not longer in the world, but he says, Holy Father, Jesus prays for you. He prays for me. He says, Holy Father, keep them in your name. Keep them in your name, which you've given me. that they may be one, even as we are one. While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you've given me. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost, except the son of destruction, that the scriptures might be fulfilled. But now I'm coming to you, and these things I speak now in the world, that they may be, that they, let me back up a second here, verse 13, but now I'm coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves. I have given them your words, And the world has hated them because they're not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. They're not of the world, just as I'm not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth. Your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sake I consecrate myself that they also may be sanctified in truth." So Jesus is recognizing here our spiritual danger. There's the world that we're not being taken away from. He's leaving the world, but we're not. So there's the danger from the world. There's the danger from the evil one. He's praying for us. The Father would keep us, would guard us. Verse 20. I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word. Which tells us that Jesus is not there only praying for the 12, or for at this point, the 11. He is praying for all of those to ever believe through the apostolic testimony. That includes us, brothers and sisters. So let me read verse 32 again. I have prayed for you. I've prayed for you that your faith may not fail, he says. And what comfort to know that the Lord prays for us, that Jesus intercedes with the Father such that we, while not immune from falling or failing, will never fall away or fail to inherit eternity. And I think that as we consider how difficult the Christian life can at times be, how low we can go, what valleys we must walk through to know that we're not there alone, that Jesus through the Holy Spirit is with us, and that Jesus as with the Father advocating for us and interceding on our behalf. But there's a third truth here, and that is the purpose of our fellowship. There's a word about fellowship here, Christian fellowship, and I want to touch on briefly conclude our sermon this morning. Jesus says here in verse 31, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat. What's interesting here is that in verse 31 only, the word you is not communicated in English, although it ought to be, I think. It's a little difficult to communicate in English, not for Southerners, but for other people, unfortunately. And that is that in sort of standard English, there's not a really great plural way to talk about you. So some people in other parts of the country say youse guys or you all, but we have this great word, y'all. And that's what Jesus says here. He says Satan demanded to have y'all, that he might see if y'all like we. He uses you in the plural, which means that Satan has demanded to have all of the disciples. That he might sift all of them. They're all in danger. Jesus is actually, he's speaking this to Simon in particular, but there's a warning here for all of the disciples. But then in verse 32, Jesus is zeroing in on Peter. He's zeroing in on Peter and he says, I've prayed for you. In particular, Not that he doesn't pray for the rest of them, but he's speaking to Simon, and he's giving them a sense of purpose in relation to the rest. He's saying, I've prayed for you that your faith may not fail, and when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers. So one of the ways that Jesus is going to help all of them to persevere in their faith, and to endure many trials, and to be victorious in the spiritual warfare, is he's going to use Peter to help the rest. And he's going to use each of them to help one another. And the reality is that he uses us in the lives of our brothers and sisters in Christ. So we have this additional support and encouragement from the Lord is that he is going to help you to endure, to persevere, to have victory. He's praying for that. God will surely hear that prayer and answer it. And then he is going to use you as the instruments of his redeeming and sanctifying grace in the lives of your brothers and sisters. And so see that you're needed and God will use you to strengthen the ones that sit beside you on Sundays in the pews that you might too be used to help others from falling away and to lift them up and restore them to grace as Jesus restores Peter. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Father God we thank you that you have given us such hope. If we're really honest, we may be with the best intentions like we do every new year as we make resolutions to change, to be better, to do better. We might think that it would be possible for us to be faithful to you and never to fail or fall. But God, deep down, we have a suspicion that it's only all too possible and perhaps even inevitable. We fear this, maybe we look back at recent failures with a sense of shame and regret, and yet God, here you are speaking to us with words of tenderness and sympathy. God, to warn us against these things, that we might be on guard, that we might not tolerate sin in our lives or in our midst, that we might not grow complacent, fall asleep behind the wheel, God, we thank you that you've given us such powerful supports that if we are alert to the dangers, we know that we have an advocate, an intercessor in our Lord. In his body, we have a powerful support and a strength that we can draw from. We pray that you would uphold us, that you would keep us and guard us. that you would, Father, answer the prayers that our Savior prayed that night in Gethsemane, and that you would protect us from the evil one, and guard us from temptation, and preserve us in this world, God, that we might be faithful to you, and that we might stand before you someday in glory. We pray all of this in Christ's name, amen.