Grace Chapel Bible Ministries
worship Call 1102 The protocol Peter - 2024/06/26
(light piano music) (light piano music) (light piano music) (light piano music) (light piano music) (light piano music) (light piano music) (light piano music) (light piano music) Welcome to Worship Call with Bible teacher Buzz Lulbeck. Buzz is the pastor of Grace Chapel Bible Ministries located in Duncan, South Carolina. This ministry is dedicated to the verse by verse teaching of God's word and discipleship programs aimed at strengthening the faith of God's people. Now here's today's message. Peter denies, gee, let me see if we got everything set up this morning. Oh, there we go. All right, here we go. Peter denies Jesus by pretension. He denies him by oath, by swearing, by cussing. Every way that Peter could disassociate himself with Jesus he did. In the mind of Peter, he wonders how the Lord would ever forgive him after all has been said and done. In fact, Peter says I'm going back fishing. Maybe this was the biggest denial and the worst denial that Peter had rejecting the forgiveness of God. But while Peter is Peter, God is God, unchangeable, undimidishing and possessing a love that knows no bounds and within that love there is certainly forgiveness. This is the fourth day of the week in God's created order, the 26th day of the six month, 2024th year of our Lord, and this is another fine day in the Lord. Father in Heaven, thank you for this day. We thank Heavenly Father for your grace, your mercy, your kindness, your love. I pray Heavenly Father that we thank you this morning for getting mom through her surgery. We ask for a quick recovery. We thank you for the completion of our Bible study through Matthew last night. We pray Heavenly Father for our friend Greg up in Gatlinburg. We pray Heavenly Father for his wellness and his recovery from the problem with heat in his heart. We ask Heavenly Father that you bless his trip. We pray Heavenly Father to the traveling mercies of our family as they travel off. We pray for a safe recovery and coming back. We pray these things in Christ's name, amen. All right, and of course we are praying for our morning service as well. Mom asked about you last night. We tried to have some problems with the streaming and zooming, but I'll post the great upstate Bible challenge here later on this morning. But yes, Michael asked about you, glad you're out and glad you're in recovery. We continue to pray for that. We continue this morning with our study and we're moving. Coming back again to recap some Peter's denial. Let's go to Matthew 2669 here. Now Peter was sitting outside in a courtyard and a servant girl came to him and said, "You too were with Jesus in the Galilean." But he denied it before them all saying, "I don't know what you're talking about." When he had gone out to the gateway, a no servant girl saw him and said, "To those who were there, this man was with Jesus and Nazareth." And again he denied it with a note. "I do not know the man." Though later the bystanders came up and said to Peter, "Surely you too are one of them. For even the way you taught gives you away." Then he began to curse and swear, "I do not know the man." And immediately a rooster crowed. Peter remembered the word which Jesus had said before the rooster crows, "You will deny me three times." And he went away and whipped bitterly. And oh my goodness, it whipped bitterly. What does that mean? It means he whipped bitterly. It means that he just shelled out the corn when it was when the breaking of that. Peter, it really just boiled down to what Peter, non-believer, while he was at the same time denying, was he a believer? Was he at the same time denying Jesus? He was it. He was a believer. He was still a little faith. And it was still he still had some growing to do. And praise be to God that we have a forgiving, loving Lord. And while we may deny him, he will not deny us. So we receive information of doctrine through the ear gate. In the classroom we sit down and we open up our Bibles and we take our notes and we do all that. But there's and well, I'll go back to what my page said. If you're taking the Word of God and you're putting on Shelf, but until that until you call the Bible doctrine up to the line, when it comes to that situation, God is faithful to bring us to the challenges. That the image is just relying on the information. But Jesus is now taking Peter to the classroom. And it's and he's going to use Peter's denial to demonstrate the awesome forgiveness, his forgiveness, God's forgiveness. Matthew 18, first of all, Matthew 18, 21. Then Peter came and said to him, Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me and forgive me? Up to seven times? And Jesus said to him, I do not say to you up to seven times, but seventy times seven. That there is no limit to forgiveness, that you are always forgiving. And Jesus was going to teach this to Peter. It's not seven, but three times Jesus. And how could in the mind of Peter, how could he and Jesus ever forgive him? Now, as a Peter, that comes to the classroom of experience. Yes, Peter will deny Christ those times. But not only in just denial, but there's going to be a number of ways. Look at the ways that Peter denies Jesus. First of all, he joins with the crowd. He's with the crowd. He's outside the courtroom, also recognized. He's not in the temple, but he's outside of the courtroom. He's outside. And he is associating himself with the crowd. And what aid and comfort? We look so often when our hearts are vexed, when we are troubled and anxious. The first thing that we look to do is go find somebody on phone. Go find comfort from a crowd or what have you. And somebody is going to render comfort. Sometimes the best thing to do, and maybe this was going to be the best thing to do for Peter, was to find solitude. Is to find a place rather than find an aid and comfort with the crowd. But to find solitude and have aid and comfort with the Lord in prayer. What was he doing in the crowd of curious onlookers to begin with? Those in Christ are set apart from the world. These people had nothing to offer him. So what would be the alternative? Jesus told them when they were in the garden. And let's look at this. In the garden, Peter says to Peter, Jesus says to Peter, James and John. Say here and pray and keep watch. Keep watch. It won't go over and pray. He tells them. And each time we noted that it was three times he comes back and they were sleeping each and every time. They did not know the severity of the moment. They didn't know the crises that were ahead. And the things that they should, excuse me, don't you just hate half sneezes. I would rather than blow it all out than just woo. Anyway, I digress. So when did he tell them to stop praying? When did he tell them, okay, you know, prayer time is over, let's go. It was Jesus that was taken away, not the disciples. In fact, they could say, well, we failed three times. Let's not continue failing. Let's just stay right here in the garden and pray and pray and continue. At least Peter could have done that. He was busy out to nine. So first of all, he denies in a sense that he tries to hide himself within the crowd. He denies himself by pretension, claiming ignorance in the matter. I don't have pretending that he doesn't know Jesus' pretension. I don't know him. I don't know what you're talking about. I don't know this man. Let's go back to that again. I'm going back up here. Matthew 18, 21. Still not there, Matthew 26, 69. Now Peter was sitting outside the courtyard. Server girl. Listen, this servant girl, it says servant girl here. What? When you are, here's another point. When you're rejecting the Lord, there's everything to be scared about. He's frightened of a little servant girl. Now Peter, he was intimidated by her. No apparent threat. Now Peter was sitting outside in the courtyard and a servant girl came to him and said, "You two were with Jesus, the Galilean." Remember what John did? John just opened up and he went right on into the proceedings. You know, he asked for Peter. He told the girl and asked him. And look at this. He goes, "You two." There you go. He said he asked that. A servant girl came to him and said, "You two. Who's the other one?" John? John apparently had no problem with fear of the girl. The old girl, the young girl, the servant girl led him in. He said also let Peter in. Didn't seem to be too much of a threat to John. Why should it be a threat to Peter? Peter was scared. And he denied it before them all. Say, "I do not know what you are talking about." See, this would have been a great time for the gospel. Do you not know Jesus? Do you not know what's going on? Do you not? This is some great time for application in the middle of the crisis. But sometimes we are afraid of our own safety to even mention the name Jesus. When he had gone out of the gate, another servant girl saw him. And that's in the house. Another saw him. And this probably don't necessarily have to be a servant girl. It could be another, some other individual saw him and said to those who were there. This man was Jesus and Nazareth. And again denied it with an oath. I do not know the man. I do not know the man. Just so impersonal that he comes to this declaration. I do not know the man. So first he joins himself of the crowd. Second of all, he denies by pretension, claiming ignorance of who Jesus is. This man, I do not know this guy. I do not know this man. I do not know this Jesus. Who me? With Jesus? I do not know what you are talking about. Another problem is that Peter followed Jesus at a distance. We saw this in 2658. But Peter was following him at a distance. As far from the courtyard of the high priest and entered in and sat down with the officers to see the outcome. Just the words itself, following Jesus at a distance. Just don't come a time. And we call ourselves Christ followers. Peter. And when times were good, Peter, James, John, the others, they had no problem with saying, "Yes, I am with Jesus. I am with Jesus." When times were good, that is where we are. That is where many of us are. We are following Jesus. We are no problem with calling him our Savior and referring to ourselves as Christ followers. But how closely are we following Jesus? And when we make it a practice to follow him afar, and our relationship with Jesus is by convenience. And we are following him at a distance. We should be walking with him. Day to day walk. We should be practicing. It is not in the time of crisis that we need to be figuring out where we are in Christ. Again, Adrian Rogers would say that Christians are like teabags. You never know what is in them until they are in hot water. And how closely you follow Christ. Because if you are coming into a crisis, if you have a close relationship with Christ, you will probably have a closer relationship with him. Coming into a crisis, if your relationship with Christ is a distant one. It is just Jesus is somebody you know. And if it comes down to just that, he is a acquaintance, then it will be much easier for you in a time of crisis and for me to deny him altogether if you are just a small faith. Coming into the crisis with just a small faith. We will probably leave you with no faith at all. So I ask the question, how many Peters are among us? How many of us follow Jesus at closely or at a distance? All right, so then we have denial. Falling into the crowd and Jesus denies with a pretension. I don't know him pretending not to know him. And then there is a denial by oath. He gives an oath, 26, 71, 72. When he had gone out to the gateway, another saw him and said to those who were there, this man was with Jesus the Nazareth. And again, he denied it with an oath. Let's see oath. That's going to ruin Nida on this. And the word oath is "I'm Numi. I'm Numi." And it's to affirm the truth of a statement by calling on a divine being to execute sanctions against the person if the statement in question is not true. In the case of a deity talking, taking an oath, his divine being is regarded as validating the statement, to swear, to make an oath. How incredible is this? He's saying, may God strike me down if I'm lying. I do not know this Jesus. Wow. And that's something, to make such an oath to protect your own physical being. Remember that when Jesus said to Peter, or he says, "Who do you say that I am? You are the Messiah. You're the Son of God." He said, "Blesser, you Peter, Barjona, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but the Father in heaven." And now he's calling on the Father in heaven to strike him down if he even knows Jesus. Wow. What contradictory terms we fall into. You see, unbelief is irrational, isn't it? Unbelieving is irrational. Who wants to continue on in unbelief? So to a loving God, one who is believing makes no vow, but believes in his heart. See, all it took for us that God opened up the eyes of our hearts to trust in him, to trust in his Son, and we, in response, believe. And now it's necessary for Peter, or he feels it's necessary for Peter to take an oath, and give an oath to, you know, his work to the people backed up by the Word of God to say, to say he doesn't even know Jesus. Is it no wonder that Peter just fumbles over his unbelief. And then we have it as that he rejects Jesus by cussing and swearing. So look at Matthew 26, 23, or 73. A little later, a bystander came up and said to Peter, "Surely you too are one of them, for even the way you talk gives you a..." Peter was a Galilean. He wasn't from that area. So Jesus, Galilean, you know, people spoke dialect around. There were different dialects all over the place, the diversity of languages, and so they could recognize people from where they were, you know, sort of like down here, people. You go up north, people know. I think we've all done this before, we've done any travel. You're not from around here, are you? You say two words, people say, "You're not from around here, are you?" But they recognized that Peter was a Galilean, and associated his way of speech with that of the other Galileans, and Jesus was a Galilean. And so 73, a little later, the bystanders came up and said to Peter, "Surely you too are one of them, for even the way you talk gives you a way." Now look at this. Then he began to curse and swear, when in Rome, as the Romans, "I do not know the man." Okay, so whenever you're not sure of a statement or you want to make somebody, if you want to turn around and you want to convince somebody of it, just raise your voice and be dogmatic about it. That's what Peter was doing. He was being dogmatic. He was changing his vernacular. Then he began to curse and swear, "I do not know this man." And immediately the rooster crowed. Peter was recognized as a Galilean, cursing and swearing. Peter seeks to describe his own speech to a disguise, that's what I'm trying to say. Disguise his own speech. While those who are associated with Christ, words should not set up them apart from the world. Our words. And Colossians, Paul talks about in the way we speak. Colossians 4-6, "Let your speech always be with grace as those seasons with salt so that you will know how you should respond to each person." Matthew 26-75. And Peter remembered the word, which Jesus had said before the rooster crows, "You will deny me three times." And he went out and wrapped barely. And why would he weep barely? Why would it be that, well, first of all, the all-knowing Jesus out, the shame, the moment of weakness, the a lot's going on in this man's heart at this point. Could he be remembering back what Jesus said in Luke 9-26? "For whoever shamed of me in my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his glory and the glory of the Father and the Holy Angels." Here's the thing. It's the end game. Maybe he's thinking this. Maybe it would be in our mind. It's the end game, folks, as long as God's grace and God's mercy. She sin separates us. Listen, when we sin, we are denied Christ. It may not be denied Christ the way Peter did, but maybe in comparison, many of us do. And sin, we are associating ourselves with a broken world. And sin, we are associating ourselves with our own brokenness. Going back to our vomit. In sin, we are denying God's sovereignty, his righteousness. We separate ourselves from God and break that association. And in sin, when we're walking a sin, when we're walking carnality, we are distancing ourselves from God. So all of this, we may ourselves cast historical stones back at Peter, but how often? Because it is Paul that says we all sin and come short of the glory of God, and the wording is we continue to do so. But God has woken us up this morning, and we've taken another breath, and the Lord says, though sometimes the Lord, the Lord is more willing and passionate for us to turn back to him in repentance, because that's the answer. Then we are to accommodate it, to say, "Yeah, I'm going to repent back to the Lord." You see, what Peter did later would be even a greater, might be even a greater, and infraction, he might say, but let's start with Peter weeping. It crushed him. And you know what? I think there are many Christians, believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, who in the same way that we've just disguised, and their sin and their carnality, blending in with Edna crowd, giving oaths, whatever they're doing. And if they're truly saved, if they're truly born again, they will stand face to face with the Lord Jesus Christ, because while they may be unfaithful, God is faithful. What can separate us? What can separate us from the love of God? Says Paul. Nothing. Nothing can separate us from the love of God. And when we stand before the judgment seat of Christ, and we stand face to face with, we're going to be also face to face with our own failure. And yes, every tear is going to be wiped away. Peter had his tears right here. Peter had his tears on this earth, so that he could, and God's grace and mercy gave him the opportunity to rebound, to confess, to do better, because there's going to be a, there's going to be a chance. There's going to be, let's do it again, Peter. Okay, you failed that one. But unless you're a group, you come back together, because God's grace and God's mercy is still in play, and God's love. But this comes to what I think is Peter's greater failure, because after the resurrection, after the second time encountering the resurrected Christ, Peter is so, so, so broken. So Poochy lip about his own failure may be self-pity, and all that. I failed, God's not going to forgive me, Jesus is not going to forgive me. He forgets the whole lesson, and this is what the lesson's all about. And Jesus, so they go out, and what does Peter say? I'm going fishing. I'm going back to what I'm good at, because I'm apparently not good at following Jesus. I'm going to go back fishing fishing. Jesus didn't tell Peter to drop his net, so that he could pick it back up again. Jesus didn't say drop your net and follow me. Just so that Peter could go back and pick the net up. Okay, yeah, Peter, you failed, but you're still in the game. How do we know that? So one of the biggest things is one of the worst denials. I would say Peter denied Jesus a fourth time. He denied Jesus' love and forgiveness. Because when he said he went back to fishing, he was out there fishing, and came back. Jesus was on the beach. He was after the resurrection. He's cooking up fish for him, and he says, "You haven't caught nothing. No, it's children. It's children." And he said, "No, I'm casting that on the other side." You read the story, they had that big catch, and they said, "That's Jesus. Peter jumps out of the boat and runs to fulfill the gap." So Jesus is cooking fish, and he asked Peter, he says three times. He said, "Do you love me?" And he says, "Do you love me?" Peter said, "Yeah, I do. He can feed my sheep." "Do you love me, Peter?" He says, "Yes." And then Jesus says, "10, my sheep." And then for a third time, he says, "Are you my friend? Are you my filleus?" And Peter, he says, "Yes, you know all things." "Yes." He goes, "Then turn my sheep or feed my sheep." Peter, you're not a fisherman. Peter, you're not a fisherman. I made you not a fisherman, a man of fish, but a fisherman of men. Peter, what are you doing out there? Do what I told you to do. I haven't given up. I haven't stopped loving you. My love isn't based upon your failure, but upon the integrity of God. Lesson, Peter, the love of God. It's too strong for you and for your denials, no matter, Peter, no matter how you deny me. No matter how long you deny me, no matter how wretched you have been, it has not affected my love because my love doesn't depend upon your failure, but upon the faithfulness of my divine character. And this is what Peter needs to remember. This is what we need to remember. We don't forgive people on account of the sincerity, on how bad we've been injured, or we don't expect forgiveness on the basis of how sincere we can be or how many tears we can pour out our eyeballs and how broken heart we commit now. No, our forgiveness is on the basis of the very character of God, the character that we have denied, we must come back, recognizing that God's love for us is so deep. And it's not dependent upon who we are, but upon who he is, for God is love. And in that love, we find forgiveness. Father, in heaven, thank you for this opportunity this morning to fellowship in your Word. We pray heavenly Father, you open our hearts to these things, in Christ's name you pray, amen. All right, we will not have worship call for Thursday and Friday. We'll be back here on the Lord's Day, Lord Willens, Spirit God. And we will continue our study in Hebrews. Again, be praying for the family as they are traveling this weekend. And for those in about, also be praying for my friend, our friend, Greg. He does have some heart issues. He's experiencing them there. He's relaxing, his son's pushing around in the wheelchair right now. We're praying for strength of him and continuing to pray for mom. Take it easy, keep your feet up, watch the movie, and get better. And so, again, till Sunday morning, stay motivated, Lord, keep your armor on. Keep fighting in good fight of our faith. Lord Willens, Spirit God, rapture pending. We'll see you then. Father, in heaven, thank you for this time together in Christ's name we pray, amen. [silence] [silence] [silence]