Lectures on the life of Peter

… So shall we turn to the first chapter of John's Gospel. I believe we have here in this chapter what we might call Peter's conversion and we'll read from verse 35 down through verse 42 John 1 35 again the next day after John stood in two of his disciples and looking upon Jesus as he walked he said behold the Lamb of God and the two disciples heard him speak and they followed Jesus then Jesus turned and saw them following and said unto them what seek ye they said unto him rabbi which is to say being interpreted master where dwellest thou he said unto them come and see they came and saw where he dwelt and abode with him that day for it was about the 10th hour one of the two which heard John speak and followed him was Andrew Simon Peter's brother he first find that his own brother Simon and said unto him we have found the messiah which is being interpreted the Christ and he brought him to Jesus and when Jesus beheld him thou art Simon the son of Jonah thou shalt be called Cephas which is by interpretation a stone this is the first reference that we get in the in the gospels to Simon Peter and this this chapter itself is really very important as we see here these different ones who were from Galilee and they probably had been up to Jerusalem at one of the feasts and were on their way back and they had gone down to the river Jordan and then would make their way up the Jordan valley and cross back across the river away up further north to go back to Galilee and they found themselves there listening to John the Baptist as the people had gathered to all parts to hear John now it tells us here in verse 37 that two of John's disciples heard him speak and they followed Jesus and it says in verse 40 one of the two which heard John speak and followed him was Andrew Simon Peter's brother now we're not told who the other one was but it's been suggested that it could well have been John himself who's writing this epistle and this gospel because John never refers to himself personally toward the end of the gospel we find him referring to himself several times as that disciple whom Jesus loved i'm just suggesting it possibly the other one could have been John Andrew was there Peter was there and and it says of Andrew in verse 40 that he in verse 41 he find that he first find that his own brother Simon and said unto him we have found the messiahs which is being interpreted to Christ and Andrew found the Lord and abode with the Lord as it says because it says in verse 39 they said they they had said to the Lord in the 38th verse master where dwellest thou he said to them come and see they came and saw where he dwelt and abode with him that day it was about the 10th hour you know it's usually taken that the 10th hour was just two hours before night according to the Jewish reckoning now my personal view is that the 10th hour in John's gospel was was the same as what we would call 10 o'clock and the reason i say this is that apparently john gives roman time where the other three gospels give jewish time and we know that john's john's gospel john's writings were written a long time after the others john's gospel his epistles and the revelation were written about 60 about the year 60 a.d that about the year 90 a.d rather which would be 60 years after the death of the lord jesus about so that john comes in a long time afterwards and the reason why it seems that he gives roman time and not jewish time that we gather from the accounts of the crucifixion itself you cannot fit in the hours given as to the time of the truth of the events in the crucifixion in john with the other three gospels unless you take into account that john is giving roman time and the others are giving jewish time so if that's the case they spent the whole day we might say with the lord from 10 o'clock in the morning until evening they're with the lord and they're so occupied with the lord the time that they spent with him that andrew says i just can't keep this to myself i've got to go and tell my daughter so it says he first you notice that before he goes and talks to anybody else he first find that his own brother simon and said unto him we found the messiah and it says he brought him to jesus what a lovely lesson for us beloved if we have found the lord and we have enjoyed the lord's company and have learned to love him what better thing can we do can tell others about him our loved ones first those nearest to us and then also to let others know you know we're not told a great deal about andrew in the scriptures he's not one of the prominent apostles such as peter and john are he's mentioned in connection with the feeding of the five thousands it was andrew who says there's a lad here who has five loaves and two fishes and very little said about andrew but uh this is something very important about him that while andrew was not a very prominent a very prominent apostle he brought one to jesus who became a very prominent apostle you have often thought that when you see peter on the day of pentecost preaching and three thousand are saved andrew had something to do with that too because he was the one who had brought his own brother simon originally to jesus when the lord says to him in verse 42 they are simon the son of thou shalt be called cephas which is by interpretation a stone and cephas is the same as the word peter and the word cephas or the word peter means a stone and of course this was this is the name by which he became known we don't find him further on spoken of as simon so much as peter and the epistles that he wrote are not the epistles of simon they're the epistles of peter peter became the name by which he was known and is still known to the present day throughout the christian world as peter simon peter but especially peter and so the lord gives him this name cephas you know you find in the scripture that when someone gives someone else a name that it implies that that person who gives the new name has authority over the one to whom he gives it the lord changed abraham abram's name to abraham and syriac to sarah and jacob's to israel and so we find that the lord is exercising his sovereignty over the one who belongs to him to him we find in the book of daniel that maybe you could never change the names of daniel and his companions and because he had authority over them at least over their bodies he didn't have it over their souls as we know and even though he changed daniel's name to belshazzar daniel still is known by the name of daniel the name that uh that speaks of god because the word daniel means god is the judge and these other other three friends their names all had the name of god embodied in them and the names that were given to them of course were names that had referred to subservience to to the idols but i have no doubt that in their hearts they never accepted those names but the names did show that they were subservient to king nebuchadnezzar as far as the position they occupied in the land now here we found the lord exercising his equality over simon peter and peter no doubt recognizes the lord as the one that he's serving to follow he comes to know the lord and he becomes lord to him and how that should be with us beloved we belong to him and we should recognize his sovereignty over us and his lordship over us now we'll turn back to matthew's gospel and there we will read a verse or two and i want to read the incident that we have here in matthew and in mark and also in luke matthew chapter 4 and verse 18 and jesus walking by the sea of galilee saw two brethren simon peter and andrew his brother casting a net into the sea for they were fishers and he said unto them follow me and i will make you fishers of men and they straightway left their nets and followed him and going on from thence he saw other two brethren james the son of zebedee and john his brother in a ship with zebedee their father mending their nets and he called them and they immediately left the ship and their father and followed him now we turn to to mark's gospel the first chapter of mark where we have the parallel reference and we read in mark 1 and verse 16 now as he walked by the sea of galilee he saw simon and andrew his brother casting a net into the sea for they were fishers and jesus said unto them come ye out to me and i will make you to become fishers of men and straightway they took their nets and followed him and when he had gone a little farther he saw james the son of zebedee and john his brother who also were in the ship mending their nets and straightway he called them and they left their father zebedee in the ship with the hired servants and went after him and you notice one or two little differences between matthew and mark and these differences are not unimportant when we find differences in the scripture uh for some reason in mark the lord says i will not i will make you fishers of men he says i will make you to become fishers of men and you notice that mark also mentions that zebedee had hired servants but when james and john left for that they left their father zebedee with the hired servants it's not mentioned in and i'll refer to that a little later but i want to read the portion now in luke that at least it's connected with this it's a different incident but these three are connected the fifth of luke and it came to pass that as the people pressed upon him to hear the word of god he stood by the lake of denison and saw two ships standing by the lake but the fishermen were gone out of them and were washing their nets and he entered into one of the ships which was simon's and prayed him that he would thrust out a little from the land and he sat down and taught the people out of the ship now when he had left the people he said unto simon launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a draft and simon answering said unto him master we've done all and taken nothing nevertheless if i would i will let down the net and when they have this done they enclosed a great multitude of fishes and their net break and they get them down to their partners which were in the other ship that they should come and help them and they came and filled those ships so that they began to sink when simon peter saw it he fell down at jesus knees saying depart from me for i am a sinful man oh lord for he was astonished from all that were with him at the draft of the fishes which they had taken and so was also james and john the sons of zebedee which were partners with simon and jesus said unto simon fear not and henceforth thou shalt catch men and when they have brought their ships to land and followed him now going back we are now up in galilee andrew and peter have gone back it's possible that they went with the lord because after the lord is that five of john and river jordan there we're told that he returned into galilee and he began his ministry in galilee and so these two go back and if john was the other disciple mentioned he went back too and uh here in the sea of galilee and as we have the record here in matthew and mark the lord comes along and he sees these 15 companies of fishermen and it tells us it tells us of peter and andrew that when the lord came they were cast in the net and a little further on you find james and and john with zebedee their father and they're mending their nets you know it's here we get the lord calling peter to be a disciple john one day that's peter's conversion he came to jesus that's the first step where the lord calls him to be his disciple and you know i think sometimes and we think we refer to the 12 apostles as 12 disciples often and i think sometimes we forget that now some were called to be specially apostles that there was a special way we were all called to be disciples and of course they were called to be disciples in a special sense that they were to follow the lord and he made them apostles but they were all called to be disciples in the sense that we're all called to learn of him and follow him a disciple is one who follows his master follows his teacher and that's what every christian should be a disciple of the lord and you notice that when the lord calls peter and andrew they're not idle you know the lord doesn't call people to his work because they're doing nothing you find right through scripture that whenever the lord called anyone to do something for himself he called the person who was busily occupied in the work that he had in hand and here we find andrew and simon peter the very time the lord called them they're busy casting them into the sea they were fishermen and they were about their business when he called james and john they're not actually casting them up but they're doing a very important work in connection with the fishermen they are mending their nets because you know the nets get holes in them and if the nets are not mended the fish get away so that's a very very important thing when we come over to the to the fifth chapter look that we read there in that incident we find that they're washing their nets and that's very important too because the nets get dirty so in each of these instances we have something important they're casting a net they're mending nets and they're washing nets and beloved as the lord called peter and he said unto them come you after me and i'll make you to become fishes of men they weren't just going to be fishes of fish in the sea of galilee there are going to be fishes of men i believe the lord intended that in fishing for men there were important lessons to carry into important things to be put into practice that we learn from fishing for fish if you want to catch fish you have to cast the net you have to go where the fish are and cast the net you know if the fisherman doesn't sit down and invite the fish to come into his net he goes out where the fish are and he makes an effort to get the net out there where the fish are and that's what we have to do if we want to catch souls we have to seek opportunities from the lord to find where they are and meet them where they are to bring them to christ we also find that we have to have to mend our nets and we have to wash our nets that is we have to have times of fellowship and communion with the lord that we might have our nets mended and ready to catch the fish they have to be kept clean and that we might be usable instruments in the lord's hand to do his work the perfect lessons there let us beloved take them home to our house so the lord calls peter and andrew and it says he says to them follow me and i will make you fishes of men i'll make you to become as it says in mark fishes of men and the lord can make us to become fishes of men well you might say i'm only a sister and i'm not going to preach the gospel yes i know it has a lot of sisters to do in reaching souls you can give out trucks you can speak to people you can teach a sunday school class i believe that the lord has the lord has a work for every brother and sister in the assembly and i believe that we should be exercised from the very youngest fathers what is the work that the lord has for me to do what is it where's the special place now i fit in to do something in the lord's service and the lord will show you just what he has for you to do i want to notice that i already mentioned in connection with matthew in barth's gospel the mark's reference to this that it says of of of um james and john down in verse 20 of mark one straightway he called them and they left their father zebedee in the ship with the hired servant after him peter we know had a wife not told whether andrew had one or not and i'm going to refer them in to peter peter's wife uh she was not told about anything about james and john whether they were married or not but they did have an aged father and they just didn't go off and leave their father as it were which wouldn't have been the right thing either you know i think we learned from all this that uh if we have responsibilities we must see that the responsibilities are not and uh james and john they were partners with their father and he was an older man of course and it might have been a grievous burden to him if they'd just gone off and left him without anyone to help him in the business but mark distinctly tells us that they left him in the ship with the hired servants i like that but let's just see you see that that they just didn't go off and forget their father they saw that their father had those who could help him in the business that he was provided they employed servants and these servants were there to help their father so they just didn't go off and leave him with no one to help him in his old age because we know that even in the even when the lord was here there were those that uh would set aside the commandment that said honor on my father honor my father and my mother by saying that if they the money that they should have given to their father and mother but they gave it to the lord then they didn't have to support their father and mother and the lord found fault with him he says you've set aside the commandment of god by your tradition so i think this lets us see that james and john honor their father in not going off and leaving him without those who could help him they said well father god the lord has called us but we know that we were able to manage the business with the hired servants and so they felt that their responsibility in that sense was taken care now let me come over to luke's gospel we have a little bit of an incident here as you notice and it seems as if there's a contradiction here with matthew and mark both tell us that when the lord calls uh great peter and andrew and james and john they all forsake their ships and follow him immediately immediately follow him but here we have a different incident which seems to me occurred must have occurred around the same time but nothing but not uh uh what i mean is occurred just shortly afterwards not just uh it's not exactly the same incident it's an incident that's connected these incidents are connected and sometimes in scriptures you find what it seems that one thing immediately follows another but it really doesn't because sometimes the interval of time comes in between that uh it is not taken account of you have to he doesn't forget the lord here is preaching i think this incident in march will come shortly after the other they haven't left yet left their ships fully to follow them on may have been about uh this is preparatory to them completely leaving everything to follow them on but they stopped fishing uh they they brought everything ashore and they're cleaning up earlier nets so that they leave everything in good order peter and andrew and peter no doubt they would pass their business over to somebody else or maybe zebedee and the hired servants took over their business or maybe they sold it but whatever they did they would have to leave everything in order the nets all mended the nets all washed everything in order to hand over to someone else and you can imagine james and john doing the same they think well now we're leaving the business uh father's going to take it over now with the uh the hired servants so we've got to leave everything in order so there they are washing the nets and uh and that is wants to speak a great crowd gathered it says in verse one it came to pass that as the people pressed upon him to hear the word of god he stood by the lake of denisareth which is another name for the sea of galilee and saw two ships standing by the lake but the fishermen were gone out of them and were washing their nets and he entered into one of the ships which was simon's and told him that he would cast out a little from the land and he sat down and talked the people out of the ship now you see the uh the uh there's already a relationship here between the lord and simon simon had come to the lord down by the river jordan simon had had a call from the lord as we saw in mac matthew and mac so the lord already knows simon and simon knows the lord so without any sight he goes on board simon's ship and makes a saying well simon i know that you'll let me use my use your ship for a pulpit but just just flushed out a little from the land so that the people can all sit down on the on the sand because i want to speak to them and so he did we're not told here what what the lord taught but we do have instances in the new testament of some of the lord's discourses what's known as the sermon on the mount but we ensure that the lord gave them some very precious instruction as he spoke to them but the spirit of god hasn't seemed fit to record it here now when he thought he wants to pay simon for the use of his boat the lord's no man's better you know and there's nothing that we do for the lord that the lord doesn't take notice of it says even a cup of cold water given in the name of a disciple will not lose its reward and so the lord says simon now uh first up uh launch out into the deep he says simon and look down your next paragraph launch out into the deep now we have to do that there's a hymn that says on that line about launching out into the deep and sometimes in the lord's service the lord calls it launch out into the deep getting the shallow waters and not catching any fish and the lord calls us to just move a little and to launch out into the deep and peter says to the lord hey lord we've toiled all night and caught nothing but that by world he says i'll look down the net uh you notice there's a little uh play on words here it says the lord says in verse four let down your nets but it says peter says master we've toiled all night and taken nothing nevertheless of my word i will let down the net singular he just lets down the one net and the lord told him to let down the nets apparently peter's faith didn't didn't go that far but he was willing to let down the nets and it says that when he did that they enclosed a great multitude of fishes this was this was a revelation to peter as we see in verse in verse five it would be it would be toiled night and nothing peter had toiled all night and taken nothing and now if the lord's word in the broad daylight where you don't usually catch fish it's at night time that the fish are more easily caught the lord who is the who is the master of the seas who is the son of man who has authority over the fish of the sea as it says in the eighth psalm he calls the fish to be there and there were so many the net was so full that they couldn't fight them they had to call their partners in the other boat to come and help them and even then both of their ships began to sink with the great multitude of fishes what's the lesson that peter learns in this peter has learned who the lord is and he's apparently gets a great sense of his own unworthiness because it says when simon peter saw it he fell down at jesus knees saying depart from me for i'm a sinful man oh lord for he was astonished and all that were within at the drop of the fishes that they'd taken did peter really want the man to depart from him no what he really said was lord i'm not fit that you should be near me i'm not fit that you should come near me lord i'm a sinful man he got a he got a picture of himself something like joe did when he said i've heard of me but by the healing of the earth but now my life's free of faith and i abhor myself and repent in dust and ashes or like isaiah you know in the sixth chapter of isaiah in the previous chapter chapter five of isaiah he's pronouncing woe and woe and rose on all these different ones but when he gets a glimpse of the lord in the glory there in the sixth chapter isaiah says woe is me and then when he realized that that the angel came with a coal off the altar and touched his lips and he was sent forth with a message i think in all of these we see uh that's a preparation for service and i think that's what we get here with peter he's got a he's got a view of his own unworthiness and of the lord's worthiness and beloved this is a lesson we all have to learn we have to realize that in ourselves we are nothing and that the lord's everything perhaps i suppose before this peter thought he was a pretty good fisherman no doubt he was but he found there was one far greater than he and he's the one in whose presence he now realizes how small he is how little he is so you are in a position that the lord can use him and it says in verse 11 when they have the lord's or rather the lord says in verse at the end of verse 10 and jesus said unto simon fear not the men's fourth hour shall catch me and when we have brought the ships to land they have brought the ships to land they for sitting on and following and no doubt that not only refers to peter but it refers to andrew and james and john a sickle and follow jesus and so we have these four men and peter of course especially as the one whose life we're taking up here these four men they follow jesus there are one more scripture that i want to turn to for tonight and that is turning back to mark's gospel again in the first chapter mark one we will read verse 28 and immediately his fame spread abroad throughout all the region round about galilee and forthwith when they were come out of the synagogue they entered into the house of simon and andrew with james and john but simon's wife's mother lay sick of a fever and the man may tell him of her and he came and took her by the hand and lifted her up and immediately the fever left her and she ministered unto them and then it goes on and says even when the sun did set they brought for him all that were diseased and men that were possessed with devils and so forth and so on now here we have the next incident in the life of silent peter as we said before peter is a married man and it's been suggested that very possibly when peter told his wife that he'd been called to follow jesus when he was giving up his living as a fisherman she might have quite well been quite she might have quite well been quite worried about where the money was going to come from where the bread and butter was going to come from that would be a very natural thing for a wife and now her mother is sick as luke tells us with a great fever besides that the lord has come into the house as it says in verse 29 with simon and andrew and james and john no doubt she was quite concerned how was she going to be able to attend to her sick mother and those who were there but it says and then they tell him of her luke says they'd be sorting for her and immediately the lord lays his hands on her and the fever leaves her further it says and she ministered unto them you can quite well imagine now that peter's wife is fully satisfied and one who could raise up her mother from a sick bed could take care of their needs and what a lesson this is for all of the lord's servants to be able just to trust the lord not only for those who are called to serve him but if they have other responsibilities if a man is married his wife can trust the lord also they need to be able to trust the lord together they need to be able to trust the lord together and to go forward together in the pathway of faith and the lord always meets every need sometimes we think the financial needs of the lord's servants are the greatest and it's our privilege to minister to them in connection with these needs but they have spiritual needs and other needs as well so we need to pray to not to forget to pray for all the needs of the lord's servants we have a further thought here in connection with the fever she couldn't minister to them when she had a fever and how many there are who try to serve the lord with a fever they get an idea that the lord has something for them to do and they run around here and there in feverish activity with no blessing or little blessing on what they're doing how necessary it is for us to allow the lord to rebuke the fever so that we might sit like mary at jesus feet and hear his word and learn what his mind is so that we can go forth and serve him perhaps also we have another lesson in this portion we know that today it's a very common thing to make jokes about mothers-in-law peter received his mother-in-law into his own home and cared for her there and the lord certainly encouraged his wife in raising her up from the sick bed that she might be able to serve them all in doing this the lord was giving the proof of his messiahship that he was the one of whom the prophets had said would heal diseases thus both peter and his wife must have been greatly encouraged at the outset of their service for the lord and would go forth and would go forward in his service with all confidence …

… Let us turn to Matthew chapter 10. Tonight we're going to speak on Peter's call to be an apostle. Last night we took up Peter's conversion and his call to service and tonight we have his call to the apostleship. So we read in chapter 10 of Matthew and when he had called unto him his 12 disciples he gave them power against unclean spirits to cast them out and to heal all manner of sickness and all manner of diseases. Now the names of the 12 apostles are these, the first Simon who is called Peter and Andrew his brother, James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, Philip and Bartholomew, Thomas and Matthew the publican, James the son of Alphaeus and Lebeus whose surname was Thaddeus, Simon the Canaanite and Judas Iscariot who also betrayed him. These 12 Jesus sent forth and commanded them saying go not into the way of the Gentiles and into any of the cities of the Samaritans enter ye not but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel and as ye go preach saying the kingdom of heaven is at hand, heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils, freely ye have received freely given. Now we turn over to Mark's gospel to chapter 3 where we have the parallel passage and we read there in the 13th verse and he goeth in and he goeth up into a mountain and calleth unto him whom he would and they came unto him and he ordained 12 that they should be with him and that he might send them forth to preach and he gave power to heal sicknesses and to cast out devils and Simon his surname Peter and James the son of Zebedee and John the brother of James and so we have the list right down to the 19th verse and Judas Iscariot which also betrayed him and they went into a house. Now we come over to Luke's gospel where we get the third parallel passage in Luke and this is in the 6th chapter beginning with verse 12 of chapter 6 of Luke's gospel and it came to pass in those days that he went out into a mountain to pray and continued all night in prayer to God and when it was day he called unto him his disciples and of them he chose 12 whom also he named apostles Simon whom he also named Peter and Andrew his brother and so the garden of Gethsemane and they took them apart Emily the Lord and they started to play with him and they went to sleep and they're playing with him called the inner the booth we might use with a tree and circle always mentioned Peter is or perhaps he was the first bless him the mother known as the synoptic gospels the synoptic gospels that is Matthew Mark and Luke of the call of the 12 apostles and we notice of course that Peter is always the mention the first one mentioned and Judas Iscariot is always the last one mentioned and although we're not speaking on Judas Iscariot tonight I just want to point out the fact that every time in these three accounts that Judas is mentioned it says which also betrayed him or which also was the traitor and it's remarkable that Peter who is the first and was in a sense the foremost of the 12 apostles and Judas who's always mentioned last and who was the traitor that they that they both figure especially in the closing days of the Lord's life Peter denying him and Judas betraying him isn't it a sad commentary even on the 12 apostles that the Lord called and chose to be his apostles but the one who's mentioned first should deny him and the one who's mentioned last should betray him it just shows what poor material we are we human beings and yet it magnifies the grace of God that the Lord could take up Peter and the other apostles and even should call Judas and give him such a place of prominence even though he turned out to be a traitor God's grace toward we human beings now in connection with these three accounts uh that we have of the call of the apostles and the Peter especially as seeing that it's Peter that we are taking up each one of these three accounts is somewhat different that is each gives details that the other the others do not give so I want to take each one up first of all turning back to Matthew uh we notice a couple of verses at the close of the ninth chapter the close of the ninth chapter uh reading from verse 36 but when he saw the multitudes he was moved with compassion on them because they had fainted and were scattered abroad as sheep having no shepherd then said he unto his disciples the harvest truly is plenteous but the laborers are few pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest that he will send forth laborers into his harvest here we get the Lord as he looked around on with compassion on the multitudes and realized their needs he makes this observation the harvest was plenteous and the labor is few and you know beloved I've often thought in connection with the Lord's work that was true when the Lord was here that is true today and it seems that it's always been true it's always been true that the harvest is plenteous and the labor is a few the Lord could say that then and he said to these these disciples that he'd called he said pray the Lord of the harvest that he'll send forth laborers into the harvest and the next chapter goes on to say that he calls when he had called unto him his 12 disciples he he gave them power against unclean spirits and so on and then we get the names of the mentioned whom he called apostles I like to think that at least some of them must have been praying they must have taken home to their hearts the words of the Lord when he says pray the Lord of the harvest to send forth laborers into the harvest and as they prayed maybe the Lord laid it on their own hearts that they were to be the ones that the Lord was calling out to be laborers in the harvest field we know as we saw last night that he had already called Peter and Andrew and James and John to leave their fishing of which they did and to follow him in his service so they were already in this sense engaged in serving the Lord the Lord was now going to appoint them to a specific position in his service that of apostles and so it seems that this comes in a certain sense in answer to their prayers and someone has well said that if you get an exercise to pray for a certain work that needs to be done don't be surprised if you might be the one that the Lord calls to do that work in answer to those prayers because that has happened at some times but the very ones that are the most exercised because of their very exercise are the ones that the Lord is able to use to do that specific work for which they're praying so it seems that that's what happened here the Lord says pray the Lord of the harvest who is the Lord of the harvest why it's the Lord Jesus himself he's the Lord of the harvest and if we look to him to send forth laborers into the harvest he's going to send forth the laborers he might send forth the very ones who are doing the praying it may be others in this case goes on to speak about his calling these 12 and here and in Luke it mentions in both in both accounts that they were disciples and that he called them to be apostles we mentioned last night every Christian is called to be a disciple a disciple is one who follows the master and it's Peter and who is the first since the fourth was in of the 12 of the most apostles who's always me and Judas and should last who is the trait they that that they built the apostles were disciples that the Lord sent to do a specific work of course that is true of all of the Lord's servants he's they're all sent to do a specific work but the the word apostle while it just means a sent one in the new testament the word apostle means something more than that because as we we find out from the apostle Paul writing to the Corinthians when he was defending his apostleship an apostle was one who had to have seen the Lord and these these 12 apostles saw the Lord they were with him from the beginning of his ministry right through to the end and even though Judas proved to be faithless we find in the first chapter of Acts that Matthias was appointed instead of Judas because he was one who had had knowledge of these things from the beginning and could join with the other 11 to complete the 12 witnesses of all that the Lord began to do and to teach until from the time of his baptism until he was taken up and went back to heaven the apostle Paul of course is called out to be an apostle in a special sense and his ministry is somewhat distinct from that of the 12 apostles now when we come over to to Luke's gospel we find a further thought there if you'll turn just back for a moment to Luke we find in Luke that it says in verse 12 of chapter 6 it came to pass in those days that he went out into a mountain to pray and continued all night in prayer to God now this is something that Luke mentions that the others don't mention Luke tells us that the Lord before he called the 12 apostles continued all night in prayer to God Luke is the gospel of the son of man the dependent man and we have prayer mentioned in Luke 21 times and of those 21 times seven times we find the Lord in prayer in Luke we find we find the Lord mentioned praying in Luke more than in any of the other gospels he's the dependent man in prayer to his father and we might say well wasn't the Lord God wasn't he the son of God wasn't he divine why would he have to spend all night in prayer before he chose the 12 apostles the Lord it's true is the divine eternal son of God but he's also a dependent man and in Luke we find him as the dependent man the next day going to call his apostles and we can imagine the Lord throughout that night in prayer to his father as he would go over in fellowship with his father the names and thinking about of these 12 that he was to call he would think of Peter and he would in his mind go back to Peter's conversion when he was brought to the Lord by Andrew down by the River Jordan where John was baptizing and how that he'd called Peter from the fishing from from from his fishing at the Sea of Galilee to be a fisher of men and how that Peter had been spoken to again at that time when the Lord borrowed his was appointed because he was with that great multitude of fishes and then as he in his foreknowledge looked on to him what impetuous Peter would do and both the things that Peter would do that would be for the Lord's glory and the things that Peter would do for which the Lord might have to rebuke him as we find from time to time and finally how that Peter would deny him and then he looked on again to the great work that Peter was to do on the day of Pentecost in preaching the gospel so he could imagine the Lord in his mind going over each one of them and even Judas Iscariot that it was to betray him because it was necessary in order that the scriptures should be fulfilled that he that ate bread with the Lord should lift up his heel against him Ahithophel in the Old Testament who turned against David even though they walked together to the house of God I believe is a type of Judas who turned his back on the Lord so the Lord would go over these and we find him in prayer to God now I think there's a very important lesson for us to love it if the divine son of God as the perfect man needed to be found so many times in prayer in connection with his ministry and when he was to do such an important work as calling the 12 apostles if he needed to spend all this time in prayer how important it is for us before we make any important decision to spend time in prayer you know I'm sure in each one of our lives and I'm sure it's been true in my life that I have made decisions from time to time without spending time in prayer about them and then afterwards you look back and you see that you made the wrong decision because you didn't wait on the Lord in prayer and there have been times when we've waited on the Lord in prayer and the Lord has led us to do something different to what we expected to do or what we thought we'd do and we've been assured we had the Lord's mind in that because we waited upon him in prayer and he's been able to make known to us his will this is a very important thing prayer is the expression of our dependence on God as our father and so the Lord in that sense is the perfect example for us he is the true man dependent on his father even when he's going to call his 12 apostles and though Judah faithless proved to be fine in the first weeks that Matthias chapter 8 instead of Judas was appointed because he was Judas who had done huge of these things that had knowledge and from the beginning with the other could join to third of mark it says in verses 13 13 through 15 first of all it says he goeth up into a mountain and calleth unto him whom he would here we get the apostles received their call you say well uh hadn't Peter received his call Peter had received his call to be a disciple so had Andrew so had James and John their call is specifically mentioned there as they were fishing at the Sea of Galilee Matthew's call is mentioned in the word when the Lord calls him from the seat of custom and to be a follower of him but we might say that here it's a specific call they were called there to be the Lord's disciples here they're called to be his apostles this is the other was more of a you might say perhaps a more of a private call although in a certain sense it was public enough but it was more of an individual call here we get the Lord calling the 12 collectively it's more of a public thing so the Lord calls them and you know the lesson for us here i believe is that if the Lord calls us we need to do what they did it says and they came unto him he called them and they came would we suppose it's true sometimes that the Lord calls people and they don't come i believe that's true in the gospel i think there are men there are people men and women that are called in the gospel and they don't come each one of us here tonight we heard the Lord's call and we came but then there's a man there's a sense in which the Lord calls us to do some specific work for him and we need to come too if the Lord calls you or calls me to do something for him to do some specific work for him then we need to come you say well we don't get calls like that today i'm not quite sure supposing here in this assembly there is a need for someone to teach a certain class in sunday school and the brother who is takes responsibility in this he approaches you and he says to you perhaps a brother or sister he would you be exercised to take this class what you should should you do about it she said no oh no i i could never teach a class in sunday school i don't think that would be the right answer to get it may be that the Lord's not calling you to that class but at the same time you should make that thing a matter of prayer and seek the Lord's mind as to what he would have you do perhaps the Lord doesn't want you to do that and that might be true in many spheres of service the Lord gives us all a call to do something and we should be sensitive and if uh if we're approached about anything like this we should never turn it down immediately but say well i will had James and so had gone gone we mentioned the specific there the fishing at the Sea of Galilee fishing at the Sea of Galilee Matthew's call all his mention Matthew's call really means he appointed them it was more of a as i said a public appointment this was the public uh recognition that these 12 were to be officially the Lord's apostles they were going to go around with him throughout the whole country preaching the gospel of the kingdom the Lord was giving them special power as we see in the next next two verses giving them a special power to do a special work on his behalf and just this was and this was an important thing that there were 12 of them because there were 12 tribes of Israel and as the Lord had come as the King of Israel the fact that he would have 12 apostles 12 is the perfect number of administration would have a certain significance for the people of that day so he ordained them he appointed them and it says he appointed them that they should be with him then that he might send them forth to preach they should be with him i remember a dear brother at one time uh he happened to be speaking to a roman catholic priest and the priest asked him uh which college he'd been to which which seminary he'd been to and he said i attended mary's college oh he said saint mary's college now mary's college well he said what did you mean well he said you know the bible tells us mary sat at jesus feet and heard his word and that's the college that i've been to well that was a good college to go to isn't it and that's the college that these 12 apostles went to they he appointed them that they might be with him they were in the best seminary possible they were in the company of the lord and the lord taught them and then it says they went forth you know we were noticing last night in connection with uh with the call of peter with the conversion of peter it says they they abode with him that day they came it was about the 10th hour and they abode with him that day they spent the day with the lord and they didn't leave him they wanted to stay with him as we said mary sat at jesus feet and heard his word in the acts in the foreshort of the acts we find it says of the apostles that they took a sea of galilee fishing at the sea of galilee mary sat at jesus feet and heard his word in the acts in the foreshort of the acts they took a sea of galilee fishing at the sea of galilee from the seat of god calls him custom to be with him they didn't have any great education as the world would think of it but they'd been in the best school possible because they'd been with jesus you know there's a tendency today to think that unless a person has had a great academic education in the world's schools that they can't do very much in the lord's service now i'm not finding fault with education no doubt it's a very necessary thing and it's much better to be able to speak the language grammatically than not to and to have the knowledge of many many things that we learn in the school but we mustn't think that that is an absolutely necessary thing in the lord's school the most important thing in the lord's service is to be to learn from the lord himself and i don't believe that the young people in our assemblies need to go to these seminaries in order to prepare for the lord's service i believe that the study of the word of god in our homes the study of the good literature that we have available to us the faithful attendance of assembly meetings is the best seminary possible a brother or sister who is faithful to the lord in those ways will have a better training for the lord's service than in any seminary every one of these seminaries teaches that the clerical system is correct and you find mostly if our young people go to these seminaries in many many cases you find that they end up outside of the assemblies they are kind of a half way house they form connections with those that are outside, they learn certain certain teachings that are opposed to the path that we see to be scriptural and they end up outside of the assemblies and instead of the training helping them to carry on the lord's work and build up the assemblies it leads them the opposite way no, the lord's school is the best school and as I said it's the individual fellowship with the lord and the study of his word and the fellowship with the lord's people in the assemblies and if you want to do some service well then there's plenty of service for the lord in connection with our assemblies, giving out tracts reaching souls, teaching Sunday school, getting someone off the street to hear the gospel and so forth and so on, ample service to be done the world around is, the field is wide open, a brother said to me who was in another group of Christians when I started out in the lord's work he says, come with us Will, he said he was a personal friend of mine but he wasn't in fellowship with us he was fellowship with another group of Christians and they had a lot more assemblies than we had he says, come with us Will he says, look at all the assemblies you can go around and preach the gospel to I said, Jack your assemblies don't need me to go there and preach the gospel they've got plenty of preachers there to preach the gospel and at that time I was on a gospel van visiting around in the country districts in New Zealand visiting the farms, the way out and the places where they didn't have any opportunity I says, when I go around on the gospel van I find plenty of opportunity to preach the gospel, I don't have to go along to your assemblies to preach the gospel I find people and to have the knowledge and to have in the school, in the school we mustn't say many many things we mustn't say an absolute in the lord's very thing most important school in the lord's thing it is, John Wesley said the world was his parish you don't have to leave the meeting to go to some other group to get a place to preach the gospel the world's wide open for the gospel to be preached the thing is to do as these apostles did that they might be with him and it says that he might send them forth to preach you see these two things go together the lord doesn't send people forth to preach unless they're first with him but if we are with the lord and learning from him then we'll have the preparation and then the lord will be able to send us forth to do the work that he has for us to do that's what he did with them he might send them forth to preach then we notice also that he gave them special power to do a special work that he doesn't give us today our commission of course to preach today is the one that the lord gave after his death as he was about to ascend to heaven going into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature we should be witnesses unto me the lord said in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and unto the uppermost part of the earth but these apostles were called to accompany the lord in the mission to Israel and you notice that if we turn back for a minute to Matthew that the lord distinctly says there in verse 5 these 12 Jesus sent forth and commanded them saying go not into the way of the Gentiles and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel and as ye go preach saying the kingdom of heaven is at hand heal the sick, cleanse the lepers raise the dead, cast out devils freely we have received freely given and so in Mark he says he ordained 12 that they should be with him and that he might send them forth to preach and to have power to heal sicknesses and to cast out devils so this was the specific work that the lord gave them they were to be the lord's representatives as the messiah you see the lord came as the promised messiah of Israel that we learn in many many things in the school we mustn't think that is absolutely necessary in the lord's very thing the most important thing is this to learn to be born king of the Jews and no one knew where he was they go to Herod and Herod doesn't know so Herod inquires of the chief priest and scribe where was he born oh they said in Bethlehem now you see what had happened was this apparently almost two years before when the lord was born the star had appeared in the east and these wise men had seen this star and they must have had a knowledge I believe of Balaam's prophecy that the star would rise out of Jacob and when this star was born it was made known to these godly wise men that that star was the star of the one that was to be born among the Jews the coming Jewish messiah they had some knowledge of the old testament and of the hope that Israel had that the messiah was coming and it was revealed to them that that was his star so they said well let us make a journey to that land to worship him when they get there nobody knows about it at least not in the upper circles they said well where is he that is born king of the Jews and when Herod hears about it he thinks well if some other prince has been born that's going to be king I've got to get rid of him and so that's why he sends to kill all the babies from two years among them according to the time that he inquired of the wise men when the lord didn't let Herod God didn't let Herod enter the lord's life because his time was not yet come it didn't come for over 30 years later but these men had heard that the lord had been born he was the messiah and so the lord had come as the messiah and you remember that in Luke's gospel in the fourth chapter when the lord begins his ministry there and he enters into the synagogue return to that verse chapter 4 and verse 16 it says he came to Nazareth where he was brought up and as his custom was he went into the synagogue on the sabbath day and stood up for the wreath and there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Isaiah and when he had opened the book he found the place where it was written the spirit of the lord is upon me because he hath anointed me to heal the broken to preach deliverance to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind to set up liberty them that are bruised to preach the acceptable year of the lord and he closed the book and he gave it to the minister and sat down and the eyes of all that were in the synagogue were fastened upon him and he began to say unto them this day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears now you see this prophecy that the lord referred to here in the 61st of Isaiah is one of the old testament prophecies that pointed on to the coming of the messiah and that when he came he would do these miracles he would as it says here he would preach the gospel to the poor he would heal the brokenhearted preach deliverance to the captives recover sight to the blind he would do these miracles he'd preach he'd preach the gospel and he would heal people they must believe of Balaam's prophecy of Jacob and this star would rise out of Jacob and this star was made that meant the star of the star of the of Israel and so the very miracles that the lord did in healing people they were the proof of his messiahship they were the proof that he was the messiah that was to come and as he sends forth his 12 representatives his 12 apostles he sends them forth with power to do these very same miracles and so the apostles go forth and the lord says to them heal the sick and so on cleanse the heal sicknesses cast out devils the kingdom of heaven is at hand they were to say heal the sick cleanse the lepers raise the dead cast out devils truly you've received truly give that was what they were to do you see people take this up today and say that's what we should be doing today no that's what they did then because that was the specific ministry that the lord gave them they were going forth as the lord's representatives and they didn't do these things in their own name they did them in the name of the lord and they went right throughout the whole country of palestine announcing the gospel of the kingdom the king has come here he is john the baptist preached the king was coming and he didn't know who he was until he came and baptized him there and then he realized who the lord jesus was because the he could say the one who sent him to preach the one who sent him to baptize and said to him may the spirit of god be sending and abiding on him he's the one that baptizes with the holy ghost and john then recognized who he was he knew this was jesus he was his relative according to the flesh but he didn't realize until that moment that he was the promised messiah and so now john the baptist ministries finished and the lord goes forth to announce the kingdom with his twelve apostles later he calls another seventy and sends them out too with the same message two and two into every town and village that he himself was to enter in so that the message that the lord had was preached right up and down the whole of the land through those three and a half years of the lord's ministry we know how it ended the nation didn't want him and he was crucified so they cast him out but israel had it's opportunity wide and wide and this star had they must believe a veil of knowledge whose prophecy would rise out of the star and with jacob born it was made this star was godly known to these men wide star of the lord's healing the people um and we'll read here verse sixteen in the previous two verses we have what we were referring to last night where the lord heals peter's wife's mother, peter's mother in law it says in verse fifteen he touched her hand and the fever left her and she arose and ministered unto them and now verse sixteen says and when evening was come they brought unto him many that were possessed with devils or demons and he cast out the spirit with his word and healed all that was sick that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by isaias the prophet saying himself took our infirmities and bared our sicknesses now you notice that it distinctly refers here to the fifty third of isaiah himself took our infirmities and bare our sicknesses now when did the lord when was this fulfilled that the lord took our infirmities and bare our sicknesses when he was on the cross no the lord wasn't on the cross here this was the lord's ministry during his life the lord healed people and the lord in his own body felt what the people were suffering in a certain sense that is virtue went out of him power went out of him to heal the people the lord sympathized with the people in their sufferings and in their trials himself took our infirmities and bare our sicknesses refers to the lord's ministry during his life and he associated the twelve apostles with him in this ministry of healing people the healing was done by the lord himself power went out from the lord to heal people when he himself healed them or when the apostles healed them in the lord's name and later on when he sent out the seventy when they were used to heal people it was all done by the power of the lord but not the atoning work of the lord it was the lord doing this during his life during his ministry now the fifty third of isaiah goes on to say that surely he has borne our griefs and calmed our sorrows yet be this demon stricken smitten of god and afflicted that refers to this but he goes on to say further that he was wounded for our transgressions he was bruised for our iniquities with chastisement that our peace was upon him and his stripes were healed and that's what the apostle peter refers to peter makes reference to that in his first epistle in the second chapter because he says there through his own self bear our sins in his own body on the tree when was it that the lord bore our sins and our iniquities and our transgressions that was on the cross it was when he was on the cross that he was bruised for our sins it was when he was on the cross that he was bruised for our iniquities so you see the importance of keeping these two things distinct there are certain certain people in christian today they say when the lord died on the cross and she arose at the now birth of them he was come they brought unto him and were possessed with demons of spirit and he cast out with his word and were filled with grief on the cross when he died for us when he was when he was wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities so it's very important to keep those two verses distinct the one verse in isaiah speaks of what the lord did in his life when he healed people the other verse in isaiah speaks of what the lord did in his death when he atoned for our sins it was what he did in his life that is referred to in this portion that we see here it might be fulfilled which was spoken by isaiah the prophet himself took our infirmities and bared our sins that's what the lord did in his ministry during his life now the fact that the lord is able to heal people in answer to prayer today even is a different matter altogether but then we mustn't bring in a wrong teaching connected with it and say that the lord bared our diseases on the cross because the bible never says that and in fact that is a teaching that would be very dishonoring to the lord jesus christ to say such a thing but i believe that whenever we are sick we should lift to the lord that the lord will give us wisdom and that the lord will bless the means used and there have been cases where even people have been given up by doctors that in answer to prayer the lord has raised the people up and healed them and the lord no doubt even in the things he allowed has special lessons for us to learn now one more thing i'd like to refer to just to finish off this what we have in connection with the call of the apostles and that is to notice that in matthew and in mark in the accounts that are given here we have a difference when we have the lists given of the apostles if you notice in matthew 10 they are in pairs it says in matthew 10 the first simon who is called peter and andrew his brother james the son of zebedee and john his brother philip and bartholomew thomas and matthew james the son of alpheus and lebbeus who's surname was thaddeus simon the canaanite and judas iscariot who also betrayed him here they are in pairs which her hand ava left her ministered unto she arose for them sixteen and now version has come when ava brought unto him they were possessed with many the demons the devils or he cast out and with his word again you have simon his surname peter and james the son of zebedee and john the brother of james and his surname bornerges and andrew and philip and bartholomew and matthew so you find in mark each is called individually in luke we would gather from the authorised version that they're in pairs again but mr darby's version gives them individual and apparently there's a little discrepancy in the manuscripts as to whether they should be in luke rather as to whether in luke they should be in pairs or individual but there's no doubt in matthew and mark so i gather from that what the lord wants us to see that he calls us individually and he also from time to time links his servants together in pairs we find that even when the apostle paul went out he went out with barnabas first then later on it was paul and silas and we find that he always seems to have been accompanied by at least one other brother and so we have in the lord sending out these apostles he sends them out two and two he sent the seventy out two and two and yet the lord calls us one individual so i learn from that beloved brethren that each one who is called the beloved has an individual call, an individual responsibility but there are times when the lord is pleased to link his servants together in special work and you know it's very important to be as to who it is that you're linked together with paul and barnabas didn't get along together because they didn't agree over john mark and they called a separation and so that's not such a good thing either so it's very important to be exercised as to who we should be linked together with and no doubt the lord linked those together who could work together compatibly and that's a very important thing so we've got to take all these things into consideration and i believe exercise before the lord as to whether the lord calls us to do a specific work alone or whether he should call us to work with someone else in a specific work when we come over to the acts i've noticed in the record that we have of the apostles after the lord was sentient to heaven in the first chapter of acts and if you'll notice it's a point of interest in act one when they're in the upper room there in verse 13 it says when they were come in and went up into an upper room where they abode both peter and james and john and andrew philip and thomas bartholomew and matthew james the son of alpheus and simon the lotus and judas the brother of james there are eleven of them here and you find there are four together there are two twos and there are one three and four are peter and james and john and andrew they're mentioned together then we have philip and thomas together you have bartholomew and matthew together and then you have james the son of alpheus simon the lotus and judas the brother of james together which makes eleven one in luke as to whether he impairs or in luke but there's no doubt but there's no doubt to see this individual this individual and he also well it's just a point of interest to see these three different groupings we have the mentioned as individuals we have the mentioned as pairs and then we have the mentioned four together two pairs together and three together and perhaps as they went forth to preach that was the order in which they went forth when they served the lord in the beginning of this dispensation there's very little about the preaching of the apostles other than peter because the apostle paul comes on the scene to be the one who carries on the work that we have the record of in scripture but no doubt every one of these apostles after the lord's ascension to heaven went out and served the lord in various spheres of service and were used of him so here we have in the portions we've looked at tonight the call of the apostles to service and especially the call of the apostle peter now as we've already noticed peter in every instance of these four groupings that we've looked at in matthew, matt, and luke and in the act peter is always the first one mentioned does this mean that he was made a kind of a head over the others no, we don't have any record of that in scripture it's true that it seems that there was an inner circle among the twelve apostles peter, james, and john these three were taken by the lord when he went upon the mount of transfiguration these three were present when joseph's daughter was raised these three were present in the garden of gethsemane the lord took them apart to play with them and instead of playing with them they went to sleep but these were the three we might call the inner circle and peter is always mentioned the first perhaps he was a little more aggressive and he certainly was a very faithful servant of the lord we'll see them as we go along in our study of the life of peter and we learn lessons from all of these things may the lord bless to us this little outline of the call of the apostles and especially of the apostle peter and they will be founded an individual version gives me there's a little bit of an apparent discrepancy of whether they could be in luke as to whether they should be but there's no individual we're called upon we're called upon now to at the close of the christian dispensation but there are general principles in connection with their call will be the same for our call as we've seen tonight so may the lord bless all of this to us for his own glory …

… Let us turn to the 14th chapter of Matthew, and we read verse 12. And his disciples, that is the disciples of John, came and took up the body and buried it and went and told Jesus. When Jesus heard of it, he departed thence by shipping to a desert place apart. And when the people had heard thereof, they followed him on foot out of the cities. And Jesus went forth and saw a great multitude, and was moved with compassion toward them, and he healed their sick. And when it was evening, his disciples came to him, saying, This is a desert place, and the time is now passed. Send the multitude away, that they may go into the villages and buy themselves little. But Jesus said unto them, They need not be fast, give ye then to eat. And he said, Bring them hither to me. Or verse 17, And they say unto him, We have here but five loaves and two fishes. And he said, Bring them hither to me. And he commanded the multitude to sit down on the grass, and put the five loaves and the two fishes. And looking up to heaven, he blessed and blake, and gave the loaves to his disciples, and the disciples to the multitude. And they did all eat, and were filled. And they took up of the faggots that had remained, twelve baskets full. And they that are eaten were about five thousand men, beside women and children. Now I want to turn over also to Mark's gospel, Mark chapter 6. Mark 6, and verse 30, And the apostles gathered themselves together unto Jesus, and told him all things, both what they had done and what they had taught. And he said unto them, Come ye yourselves apart into a desert place, and rest a while. For there were many coming and going, and they had no measure, so much as to eat. Now in these two portions that we read, it seems that we have two companies, or two groups of people, come to the Lord on that day. In Matthew it tells us that Herod had beheaded John the Baptist. He had sent and had John the Baptist beheaded. And John's disciples, they took, they went and took John's body and buried it. Then it says in Matthew, they went and told Jesus. His first twelve. His disciples came and took up the body and buried it and went and told Jesus. And when Jesus heard of it, he departed thence by ship into a desert place. Now in Mark's gospel, it says, in the 29th verse, when his disciples heard of it, they came and took up his corpse and laid it in the tomb. But it doesn't say that they told Jesus as it says in Matthew, but it goes on and says in Mark, and the apostles, that's the twelve apostles, gathered themselves together unto Jesus and told him all things, both what they had done and what they had taught. And if we turn over to Luke's gospel, in the ninth chapter, we have a further statement there on the same thing. It says in Luke's chapter 9, verse 10, and the apostles, when they were returned, told him all that they had done. And he took them and went aside privately into a desert place belonging to the city called Bethsaida. And then we go on in each gospel, it gives us an account of the feeding of the 5,000. Now we have here these two groups. John's disciples, they come and tell Jesus what has happened. The Lord's twelve apostles, that he had commissioned, as we saw in the 10th chapter of Matthew, and he sent out, given their commission to go out two by two into the cities into which he sent them. They have been on their mission and now they come back and they tell Jesus. So here we have two groups. John's disciples, they come to the Lord to tell him. The Lord's own twelve apostles, they come to him and the Lord listens to each group. He listens to John's disciples and no doubt he gave them some wonderful words of comfort. How precious it is for us when we're in trouble, when we've lost loved ones. This must have been a grave grief to John's disciples. They've been faithful to him. John was the Lord's forerunner. John was the one who announced that the one he baptized there at the River Jordan and pointed out as the Lamb of God was the Messiah. John had announced the kingdom and it's just as if he says now he is the very one, he is the king. And we read there in our first talk that we gave in the first chapter of John, of those disciples of John who came to Jesus and stayed with him. And they didn't leave him, they left John. I suppose that must have been true of these other disciples of John too. They now became disciples of Jesus and they followed him. So the Lord would give them his sympathy and he would give them his encouragement. So I think this is the first lesson we see here, beloved, is that no matter what the trials and the difficulties of the way are for the Lord's people, and we don't see anything in scripture that leads us to think that we're going to be exempt from trials. Christian people have to go through their difficulties and their trials, their ups and their downs in their daily life. God doesn't say because we're Christians we're never going to have any troubles anymore. You know that's what some people, some preachers do that. They tell people now you accept the Lord Jesus as your savior and you won't have any difficulties anymore. Now that's not true. It's right to say that you'll have one that'll be with you in your difficulties. It's right to say that you won't have any worries anymore about the question of your sins. If you come to Christ you'll know what it was to have your sins forgiven and to have eternal life and that the question of your soul's salvation will be settled and you won't have to be concerned about that when you trust the Lord Jesus as your savior because he's the one who paid the debt. But it doesn't say that we're not going to get difficulties in our lives and sometimes when we become Christians we have more difficulties than we had before. But the thing is that we have one now who's with us in our trouble, one to whom we can bring our troubles, one who can sympathize with us and one who can direct us, one who can who can show us what we should do when we do have these difficulties. And so that's the lovely lesson we learn here. John's disciples came and told Jesus. They knew to whom they should go and that should be the same with us. We should be able to come with all confidence to the Lord and tell him our difficulty. Now the apostles, the Lord's Twelve Apostles, it seems that same day or just around the same time, they have finished the mission that the Lord sent them out on, this first trip that they made around and they come back and it says that they told him all that they'd done. They came to the Lord and they told him, as it says there, the apostles gathered themselves together unto Jesus and told him all things both what they had done and what they had taught. We are not told whether we're allowed to approve or condemn anything. If they had done something they shouldn't have done, I surely would have told them. But they come and tell the Lord all about it. Told them no doubt how that they preached the message that he gave them, how that they've healed people, how that they had set him forth as the true Messiah, as the Son of Man that the prophets have set forth. And what does the Lord say then to them? He says, come yourselves apart into a desert place and rest a while. He calls them apart. Now that's what they needed. I've no doubt that John's disciples, after this strenuous time that they had had, they'd served the Lord faithfully in being John's disciples and they'd been under a great strain while John was in prison expecting that he would be delivered and he wasn't delivered. God has allowed him to be beheaded and so the Lord in his compassion, in his grace, well he says, come aside into a desert place and rest a while. And the Lord says the same to his own apostles. You've been on this trip, you've been expending yourself, you've been busy serving me, come aside into a desert place and rest a while. Let's have a time of rest and a time of fellowship together. And this is also something that's very necessary. The Lord's people need to have, to see that they get time to have fellowship with the Lord. That's why we have conferences. That's why we have camps or what sometimes are called retreats. You know in Israel, every male, every man in Israel, in the Old Testament, had to go up to Jerusalem three times a year. They had to go up there for the feasts that were kept, the seven feasts or set times of the Lord. They had to go up. They had to be there and they had to come together for those feasts that were held there at Jerusalem. And the Lord promised them even that those who lived on the borders of the country, where they would have enemies on their borders, that when they obeyed his word by going up to the feast, that no man would desire their land. So here we see the great importance of the Lord's people spending time with the Lord. Of course I don't mean to say that it's just only at conferences and camps we should come together with the Lord. I believe that this is true in our individual lives too. We need to take time to be occupied with spiritual things. We live in a day when everything goes at such a pace and when we're inclined to be so busy in the work that we're doing, that so often the danger is that our spiritual life gets crowded out. And this is a very grievous thing and no doubt accounts for a lot of the breakdown among the Lord's people. And we need to attend, beloved, to coming aside with the Lord and letting him speak to us. So we find the Lord meeting the need of his own, his apostles, and meeting the need of John's disciples. Come apart, he says, and rest a while. Sometimes the Lord says that to us when he puts us on a bed of sickness, you know. He says, now, you've been very, very busy, just come aside and rest a while. And we learn precious spiritual lessons even at that time. Now the second thing I think that we see in this portion is that the Lord meets the needs of the multitude. You see, when the multitude of people saw the Lord and the apostles going out into this desert place, they go after them. Doesn't seem that the apostles had a very, very long time to rest a while there because the people came to hear the Lord. And the Lord taught them when they were there. And when the evening came, the people were all hungry. They hadn't taken anything. And we know the story very well that they come to the Lord and they say, send the people away that they may eat. And the Lord says to the apostles, you give them to eat. And they find that they don't have anything to give them. Finally, Andrew, we don't get that here, we get that in John's gospel. Andrew comes and he says, there's a lad here that has five loaves and two fishes. I understand that these would be five small barley loaves and more like we would call buns and rolls and two small fishes. That's something like a couple of sardines. Just almost you might say a boy's lunch. Someone has suggested that when this boy was going out, his mother said, well, you better take something to eat. So she put him up a lunch to take with him. Well, that might have been that. Anyhow, that's what all they had. A lad with five loaves and two fishes. So the Lord says, well, bring them to me. You know, that boy had to be willing to give up his lunch in order that the Lord might be able to feed the five thousand. And he gave it up. When Andrew told the Lord that and the Lord says, well, bring them to me. Andrew must have gone back to the lad who says the Lord wants those five loaves and two fishes and he was willing to give them to the Lord. He might have said, well, what's the Lord going to do with my five loaves and two fishes? And here we have so many people. Turns out there were five thousand men besides women and children. And so probably a very, very large company gathered there. But with those five loaves and two fishes, the Lord feeds the multitude. So we see two things here. We see that the Lord always meets the need. And he's able to meet the need through his own who are willing to be used of him. You see, it's not the question of whether we have little or much. It's a question of whether we're willing to put the little or much that we have into the Lord's hand. Supposing someone else there had had 20 loaves and 100 fishes. Would that have fed the multitude? No. And the man with 20 loaves and 100 fishes might have said, well, I've got 20 loaves and 100 fishes there. Perhaps the Lord can use that to feed the multitude. That wouldn't have fed the multitude any more than the five loaves and two fishes would have. See, it wasn't a question of whether you had little or much. It was a question of whether you were willing to put what you had into the Lord's hand. And you know, sometimes it's like that in the Lord's service. He is someone who feels that he or she wants to do something for the Lord. And you feel that the Lord's calling you to do something. And you say, well, what can I do? I just have such a very little gift. I don't see that there's anything I can do. The question is, what are you going to do with your little gift? Are you going to put it into the Lord's hand? If you put what you have in the Lord's hand, he'll use that for blessing to many. But if you just keep it to yourself and you say, well, I can't do anything because what I can do is so insignificant, well, it'll never be used for the blessing of anybody. So I think this is a very important lesson that we learn. The little that we have, let's put it into the hands of the Lord. And the Lord will see that it's used for blessing the precious souls. Then it goes on and tells us in verse 22, and straightway Jesus constrained his disciples, we're in the 14th of Matthew, straightway Jesus constrained his disciples to get into a ship and to go before him onto the other side while he sent the multitude away. And when he had sent the multitude away, he went up into a mountain, a path to play. And when evening was come, he was there alone. Now I want to turn just a minute to the sixth chapter of John, because we have a verse there that shows light on this, what we have here, in John 6. And we read verses 15, verse 15. When Jesus therefore perceived that they would come and take him by force to make him a king, he departed again into a mountain himself alone. This is referring to the same incident. He is fed the 5,000 and it says that he departed. He went up into a mountain to play, Matthew says, and John says that he did that when he perceived that they would, the people would take him by force to make him a king. You see, as we already pointed out in these studies, the Lord came as the promised Messiah. He came as the king of Israel. They had recognized him as the one who is to come, the apostles have. They've recognized the Lord Jesus as the promised Messiah, as the Son of Man. They've owned him as that. And he's proving that he's the promised Messiah by the miracles that he's doing. Because in the Old Testament, as we saw the other night, we get the prophecy that the Lord, when he came, would heal the sick, would preach the gospel to the poor, and so on. And here's this great multitude of 5,000 men, besides women and children, that the Lord has fed. Truly, that was a miracle. Who could do such a thing? Could take five small barley loaves and two fishes and feed 5,000 people? Nobody but the Messiah. Nobody but the Son of God. And so the people realized this is the one who's come to be the king. And they would have taken him by force to make him a king, it says. But the Lord doesn't want that. That's not, that's not his purpose. He's come to be the king, it is true. But before the Lord could be the king, he had to be the Savior. He had to go, he had to be rejected and go to the cross. The people wanted him as a king to free them from the Roman yoke. But they didn't want him as one who would deliver them from their sins. That was the great test for Israel. They were willing to have the Lord as one who would be, who would be over them in a physical sense and deliver them from the Romans. But they didn't want one to deliver them from their sins. Isn't that true in so many instances today? People want the Lord as one who would, who would give them all the kinds of material things, but they don't want to repent of their sins and turn to him. So, as it says there in John, the Lord went up into the mountain. And going up into the mountain, while the disciples, it says, goes on and says in our chapter, verse 24, verse yes, verse 22, he constrained the disciples to get into a ship and to go before him onto the other side while he sent the multitudes away. And when he had sent the multitudes away, he went up into the mountain apart to pray. And when the evening was come, he was there alone. That's, that is a picture of the position that the Lord occupies now. The Lord up in the mountain, while the disciples are in the sea, in the boat, is a picture of the Lord Jesus now interceding for us in heaven and those that are in the boat. A picture of the believers down here going through the trials and testings of this life. The Lord was praying for them. And beloved, the Lord prays for us. He's the intercessor. He's our great high priest, maintaining us in the position into which he's brought us. And he's our advocate if we should fail. And so, the Lord comes, the Lord is up there praying for them. And then he comes to them. Because it tells us in the 24th verse, that the ship was now in the midst of the sea, crossed with the waves, for the wind was contrary. And in the fourth watch of the night, Jesus went unto them walking on the sea. And when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, it is a spirit. And they cried out for fear. But straightway Jesus spake unto them, saying, Be of good cheer. It is I. Be not afraid. And Peter answered him and said, and this is really where Peter comes into the story here. Peter answered him and said, Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water. And he said, come. And when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water to go to Jesus. So you see here, the Lord coming to his own, in their trial now, in the midst of the sea. They're in the boat and there comes up a storm. We understand that they get terrific storms on the Sea of Galilee. The Sea of Galilee, you know, is below sea level. And the winds come down these canyons that lead down into the sea. And when they come down, come down simultaneously down these canyons and on various sides around the Sea of Galilee, it really just churns it up like a boiling cauldron. And they're in great danger. Well, that's exactly what happened. But the Lord came to them. Right there it says in the fourth watch of the night. That's getting pretty near to the morning. See, the night's divided up into four watches. And this is the fourth watch. This is the last watch. And the Lord appeared to them just before the morning. And here they are when they see the Lord walking on the water. They're troubled. Why? They say it's a ghost, as we pray today. And the Lord speaks to them. He says, be of good cheer. It is I. Be not afraid. So here we have the Lord comforting his own again. He comforted them, the disciples of John when John was beheaded. He encouraged his own when they came and told him about all that they'd done. And now as he sees the twelve apostles there in the midst of the storm, he comforts them also. He appears to them. He comforts them. In another instance we have the Lord was with the disciples on the Sea of Galilee and went to sleep. And they were troubled and he had to rebuke them. But this time the Lord's not with them in the boat, but he's being up on the mountain praying for them. And now he appears to them. And he speaks words of comfort. Be of good cheer. In other words, he says, take courage. You know, there are times in our Christian life, beloved, when we need a word like that, don't we? Do we ever get discouraged? We really shouldn't, you know. I believe that really a Christian should never allow himself to be discouraged. Because discouragement is always a work of Satan. Discouragement never comes from God. The devil is the one who wants to discourage us. But just being what we are, we allow ourselves from time to time to become discouraged. We shouldn't do it. And I know that but they were discouraged. Here they'd been trying to get to land. They'd been rowing hard. It was no good using the sails. They'd just been ripped to pieces with this terrible storm of wind. And they couldn't get there. But the Lord says, now take courage. Be of good cheer. Be encouraged, the Lord says. And sometimes he says that to us. It seems we're in the midst of a storm that we can't get out of. Well, let's listen to the Lord. The trouble is sometimes we listen to everybody else instead of listening to the Lord. The Lord's the one who's able to give us the right encouraging word. He says, listen to me. Take courage, he says. It is I. It's I. What does he mean when he says it is I? I'm the Lord. I'm the creator of this lake. I'm the one who controls the wind and the waves. I'm the very fact he was walking on the water shows who he was. He's the Lord of glory. Become a man down here and come appears to his own. It's I, he says. The son of God and son of man. It's I. Be not afraid. Don't be frightened, he says. The ship's not going to the bottom. You're mine. I've given you a work to do. I'm not going to let you perish in the midst of the sea. You will be safe until your work's done. And then I'll take you home to glory to be with me. You see, nothing could, no harm could come to them. And so Peter, recognizing the Lord, he says, Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water. If it really is you, Lord, he says, tell me to come to you on the water. And the Lord says, come. And when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water to go to Jesus. Why was Peter able to walk on the water? He was able to walk on the water because he kept his eye on the Lord. You see, this is a miracle, not of Peter's doing, a miracle of the Lord's doing. Nobody can walk on the water ordinarily. But the Lord walked on it because he's the Lord of the wind and the wave. And Peter walked on it because the Lord called him to walk on it. He says, if it be thou, bid me come on the water. As much as I say, Lord, if it's really you, tell me to come and walk on the water to you, to walk on the water as you're doing. And the Lord says, come. And Peter was able to walk on the water as long as he kept his eye on the Lord. And this is the important lesson for us, beloved, because spiritually speaking, the Lord calls us to walk on the water at times. The pathway here is a pathway of faith. We have to walk sometimes in the pathway of faith with nothing solid beneath our feet. But if it's the pathway of the Lord, he'll make it solid beneath us and we'll be able to walk on the water. Where Peter failed was when he took his eye off the Lord and started looking at the waves, because it says in the next verse, when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid and began beginning to sink. He cried saying, Lord, save me. When he saw the wind boisterous or when he saw the wind strong, as the margin says, that means that he's, he got looking at those high waves that the wind was raising up. He took his eye off the Lord. If we take our eyes off the Lord and get our eyes on our circumstances, well then we'll begin to sink too. And if it weren't for, it wasn't for the Lord, we'd go right down to the bottom. But you know, the Lord doesn't let us go down to the bottom. Because as with Peter, it says, when he said, Lord, save me, immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand and caught him and said unto him, O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt? That was something, the Lord walking on the boisterous sea. The Lord didn't calm the sea before he walked on it. He walked on the stormy sea. And Peter set out to walk on the stormy sea. And beloved, we can walk on the stormy sea too, as we go through this life. And we'll walk on the stormy sea if we keep our eyes on the Lord. That is, we get our eyes off the Lord and begin to sink. Is the Lord going to let us go to the bottom? No. Once we know the Lord Jesus as our Savior, we have an eternal salvation. And the Lord will not let us go down. Peter began to sink, but the Lord immediately took him by the hand. The Lord held him. So it's a lovely picture, we might say, of the eternal security of the believer on the one hand and of the need of our keeping our eyes on the Lord in the pathway of faith on the other. We have, as it were, the two sides to this. You see, sometimes the Lord's people say, well, if I can't lose my salvation, then I can become careless in the walk. No, you can't. We can't allow ourselves to become careless in our walk. If the Lord has given us eternal life, thank God that we have that eternal life, that we should be exercised to be even more faithful, because the Lord has given us that eternal life. He won't let us sink, that's true. He says that he holds us with his hand, and the Father holds us with his. We have two hands holding us, we have two hearts to love us. The Lord puts the sheep upon his shoulders. He doesn't let it get off. That's the Lord's side. But our side is, we're responsible to keep our eyes on the Lord. If we don't keep our eyes on the Lord, the Lord won't let us be lost. But we will lose out in our service for him. He won't be able to use us. As long as we keep our eyes on the Lord, and are going on faithfully for him, then the Lord can use us. So it says, the Lord says to him, O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt? And when they were come into the ship, the wind ceased. And it tells us in one of the other gospels that immediately they found themselves at the land. They'd already reached the other side. When the wind ceased, there they were. Now notice what it says in verse 33. Then they that were in the ship came and worshipped him, saying, of a truth, thou art the Son of God. Now we notice in these studies that Peter, first of all, recognized the Lord as the Messiah. Then we notice that he recognized the Lord as the Son of Man. Now, he recognizes, and all of them, they recognize him as the Son of God. You see, they're making progress. Peter and the other apostles are making progress in their knowledge of the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. In our Bible study this morning, we had it pressed upon us the importance of being occupied with the person of the Lord Jesus. And that's exactly what was happening with them. They owned him as the Messiah, they owned him as the Son of Man, and now they own him as the Son of God. You see, God and man in one blessed person. How important it is for us to be occupied with this blessed one, who is both God and man. Now, if we go on to the next chapter, the 15th chapter of Matthew, we have a scene here. I'll read a few verses, but the portion really takes us from verse 1 through to verse 20. Then came to Jesus scribes and Pharisees, which were of Jerusalem, saying, Why do thy disciples transgress the tradition of the elders, for they wash not their hands when they eat bread? And he answered and said unto them, Why do ye also transgress the commandment of God by your tradition? For God commanded, saying, Honor thy father and mother, and he that cursed his father or mother, let him by the death. But ye say, Whosoever shall say to his father or his mother, It is a gift by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me, and honor not his father or his mother, he shall be free. Thus have ye made the commandment of God of none effect by your tradition. Then the Lord goes on and explains that further, and he says in verse 11, Not that which goes into the mouth defileth a man, but that which cometh out of the mouth this defileth a man. Then came his disciples and said unto him, Knowest thou that the Pharisees were offended after they heard this saying? Now then in verse 15, Then answered Peter and said unto him, Declare unto us this parable. And Jesus said, Are ye also yet without understanding? Do ye not yet understand that whatsoever enters in that the mouth goes into the belly and is cast out into the draft? That those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart and they defile the man. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies. These are the things which defile a man. But to eat with unwashed hands defileth not a man. Now, the great lesson we learn here, beloved, is this. That man needs a new birth. You see, the Pharisees, they were occupied just merely with what was external. They had to wash their hands every time before they ate. I suppose that started as a very good custom. You know, we like to do that too. We think that's a good habit, especially if we've got our hands soiled up with something, and we wash our hands before we eat. And especially so in those days when they didn't have knives and forks, and so that they would be dangerous getting something that was off their hands onto the food when they're eating it. But the Pharisees, they have made this a tradition that they have attached a religious significance to it. That if you ate any food without washing your hands first, that you were spiritually defiled by it. And you see when they saw that the Lord's disciples ate bread without washing their hands, they were scandalized by this. And so they asked the Lord the question. They say, why do you transgress the commandment of God? Why do thy disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? But they washed not their hands when they ate bread. How does the Lord answer them? He says, why do you transgress the commandment of God? They thought that the apostles were breaking the commandment of the elders. But the Lord shows them that they are breaking the Lord's commandment. Because they brought in a law that said, that if a man said he had a sum of money and he said, I've given this as a gift to God, then he didn't have to look after his mother and father. And the law had plainly said, honor thy father and my mother. So if the father and mother were in need, it was the children's duty to care for them. And here was a man, he could well have cared for his parents. And he says, well I'm going to give this money for the use of the temple. And the Pharisee says, well that's all right. If he's done that, he doesn't have to look after his father and mother. The Lord says, you by your commandments are breaking God's commandment. And then he goes on and shows them that they're drawing near to him with their lips and their hearts far from him. And then he says to the multitude that are around there that are listening, the crowd of people, he says, it's not what goes into a man that defiles him, it's what comes out of him that defiles him. But it seems that even Peter and the other apostles were not able to fully enter into this. You might say, well why can't they understand the Lord speaking so plainly? Because you notice what Peter says, he says, declare unto this this parable. Well you know, as we read this, it doesn't look like a parable, does it? It just looks like a plain statement. When the Lord says, knowest thou, when the Lord says, not that which goes into a man defiles, the mouth defiles a man, but that which comes out of a mouth defiles a man, people didn't understand it. What does the Lord mean by that? So the Lord says to him, he says, can't you understand this Peter? It's not the food that goes into a man that defiles him. If he does eat something he shouldn't eat, it's cleansed out through the stomach. But it's what comes out of the heart. It's the bad thoughts that come out of man's heart that become translated into bad actions. That's what defiles a man. If I get some evil thoughts, that's their defiling. And if I allow those evil thoughts to translate themselves or to become evil actions, I'm even more defiled. So that's what the Lord was referring to, it's what comes out of a man defiles him. I read, or I was told this rather, by a brother in the Lord who was in the army down in New Zealand. And he said in the outfit that he was connected with, there was a very faithful Christian boy. He was a Presbyterian, this Christian boy was. A very converted boy, very faithful. And the other fellows there, they used to like to make jokes on him because he was a Christian. And one morning he was having bacon for breakfast. And a couple of fellows came along and they saw him eating bacon. And they said to him, and their language was pretty lurid, it was interspersed with a lot of words that we wouldn't mention in public. But he says, if you were, if you believed what your Bible said, they said to him, you wouldn't be eating bacon for breakfast. He said to them, isn't that interesting? Do you know what I read in my Bible this morning? He says, I read in my Bible this morning that it's not what enters into a man that defiles him. It's what comes out of his mouth. That's what defiles a man. And the brother told me, he says, it was very noticeable that those two fellows left that young fellow alone ever after that. That came right home to their heart. It just happened that that morning he was reading this very scripture and he was able to quote it to them. They were rebuked and they left him alone after that. Because that's just what was defiling them. It was the language that was coming out of their mouth and it was coming out of their mouth because it was in their heart. And you know, when you see, hear people using all kinds of dirty language, it's all very well for them to say that that's not defiling them. If it comes out of their mouth, it's because it's already there. It's in the heart. And likewise, we Christians should be known as those who speak, who speak good things and right things and things that are pleasing to the Lord, because that's what we have in our hearts. But our hearts are occupied with the things of the Lord. And therefore that which comes out of our mouth will be that which will be profitable, which will be a blessing for those who listen to us. So you see, Peter says, declare the parable, the Lord declared it. And the great lesson here really is this. Man needs a new nature. See, the Pharisees, they were just trying to improve the old nature. That's all they knew. But the Lord had come to bring in something new. That's why the Lord said to Nicodemus who was a Pharisee, Nicodemus, you must be born again. Nicodemus was willing to own the Lord as a great teacher. But the Lord said, I'm more than a teacher, Nicodemus. You can't know me as a teacher until you receive the new life. I have come to give life. We've got to be occupied with the Lord Jesus as the one who is the life giver. And that's the great lesson that we're learning. Man needs a new birth and then he has a new outlook. If we get new life, we have a new outlook in life. We have the life of God. We have eternal life. We have the Holy Spirit indwelling and we have a whole new outlook. That's the great lesson Peter learned here. And so that ends this portion really. The great lesson of the need of a new life and a new outlook. Peter no doubt learned that lesson there. And later on in his epistle, he can refer back and he can say that we have this new life given to us. We're born again, Peter says, not of corruptible seed but of incorruptible by the Word of God that liveth and abideth forever. Peter was born again before this, but he didn't fully realize the meaning of it. And now he realizes what the true meaning is of new birth. That it is that man has a new life and he has a new outlook. He has a desire now because of this new life to please the one who has saved him. So may the Lord give us grace, beloved brethren, to be found here pleasing to him and serving him faithfully while we're waiting for him to call us home to be with himself. …

… Let us turn to the sixth chapter of John. We read from, first of all, verse 22. The day following, when the people which stood on the other side of the sea saw that there was none other boat there save the one wherein to his disciples were entered, and that Jesus went not with his disciples into the boat, but his disciples were gone away alone. Verse 24, when the people therefore saw that Jesus was not there, neither his disciples, they also took shipping and came to Capernaum, seeking for Jesus. We go down to verse 26. Jesus answered them and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Ye seek me not because ye saw the miracles, but because ye did eat of the loaves and the filth, neither not for the meat which perisheth, but for the meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of Man shall give unto you. For him hath God the Father sealed. Now, for the sake of brevity, although it would be good to read the whole chapter, but we'll pass over to the fifty-third verse. Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him. As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father, so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me. Going on now to the sixty-sixth verse. From that time many of his disciples went back and walked no more with him. Then said Jesus unto them, unto the twelve, Will ye also go away? Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life, and we believe and are sure that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God. Jesus answered them, Have not I chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil? He spake of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon, for he it was that should betray him. He is one of the twelve. In the beginning of this sixth chapter we have the Lord feeding the five thousand. And then in the fifteenth verse it says, When Jesus therefore perceived that they would come and take him by force to make him a king, he departed again into a mountain himself alone. And Matthew tells us he went up into this mountain to pray, and then as the disciples were crossing the lake, and the great storm came up, we read the account of how the water appeared to them, walking on the water, and how Peter went out to walk on the water to go to Jesus. Then we have in verse twenty-two what happened the day following, which is the next day after that. And we find the Lord speaking to these people and reminding them that they're really seeking him not because they were seeking the truth, but because they were the very ones that he fed with the loaves and fishes there in the wilderness when he fed the five thousand with the five barley loaves and two small fishes. And then we have the rest of this sixth chapter where we have this discourse of the Lord. And he makes statements here that have been greatly misunderstood. They were misunderstood then. They couldn't understand what the Lord meant when he said, for instance, in verse fifty-three, except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. They couldn't understand what the Lord said. And right down through the history of Christendom, this is the passage that has been misunderstood. We know that there's one certain denomination, in fact more than one. There are several denominations who take this up and teach that this is the Lord's supper and that when we break the bread, we're eating the Lord's flesh and drinking his blood. Now I think there's one verse in this chapter that shows the wrong of that preaching, and that is the sixty-third verse. He says there, it is the spirit that taketh us, the flesh prophet of nothing. The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life. So the Lord gives us to understand there that when he says, except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, ye have no life in you, that he's not referring to something material. He's referring to something spiritual. This is a spiritual assimilation of the truth of the Lord's death. The very fact that when we remember the Lord in the breaking of bread, that the bread and wine are separate, is a proof that this speaks of death. We remember one who died. We worship one who lives, but we remember one who died. We call to mind this one who went down into death itself and who was raised up again by the glory of the Father and is now seated at the Father's right hand in heaven. But the Lord does not allow us to forget that in order that we might have life, he went down into death. The breaking of bread is, we might say, a spiritual entering into what this sets forth. But here it's referring to the fact that through the Lord's death and through our acceptance of that work that he did for us, when he died and shed his precious blood, that we have spiritual life. What the Lord is really setting forth here is the necessity of believing in him as our Saviour. That's really what it is, making a spiritual application of this precious truth. I wonder if everyone here this evening can say, I have eaten the flesh of the Son of Man and drunk his blood. You may have partaken of the Lord's Supper many times, many days, but you haven't eaten his flesh and drunk his blood in the sense that it says here, unless you've seen yourself as a lost sinner and have accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as your Saviour, that you've believed on him, that you've taken him as the one who died and shed his precious blood for you. And so it tells us here, after the Lord had made this discourse, in verse 65 he said, Therefore said I unto you, no man can come unto me, except it was given him of my Father. And the next verse says, From that time many of his disciples went back and walked no more with him. You say, well, were these people converted or went back? It doesn't say. It says they were disciples. But we remember that Judas was a disciple. A disciple is one who makes a profession of following the Master. Whether he's real or whether he's not is proved in the end. And apparently there were a great many who became the Lord's disciples in this outward sense, but they didn't follow on. They went back and walked no more with him. And so that the Lord turns around and he says to the twelve, Would you also go away? Would you need me too? He says to Peter and the others, the twelve of them, and Peter answers. You know, Peter is always in the forefront to give the answer. Sometimes he says the right thing and sometimes he says the wrong thing. Here he says the right thing. Peter says, Lord, to whom shall we go? To whom shall we go, Lord? If we go away, where shall we go? Those who are going away, where are they going? Where were they going? They had nothing. The Lord was the only one who could give them something. Isn't that true today? The Lord's the only one that can give Saul anything. He is the answer to every problem in the world. This world today is full of problems. And people are seeking to satisfy their souls with all kinds of things. And the Lord is the answer. But they don't want him. He's the only one who can meet their needs. It doesn't matter what the condition is in which we find ourselves. Christ is the one who has the answer. And so Peter says, Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life. He makes two statements that Peter makes here. The first one is, Thou hast the words of eternal life. What the Lord has. He refers to what the Lord has. That is, the Lord's teaching. What he says. Thou hast the words of eternal life. The Lord has spoken to them of eternal life. Eating his flesh and drinking his blood is the acceptance of Christ as our Savior, which gives us eternal life. And he's the only one who has eternal life. He's the only one who can give us eternal life. We have that verse in John, the previous chapter, in verse 24. Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him, that shall think half everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but is passed from death unto life. Thou hast the words of eternal life. And we believe and are sure that Thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God. Or that Thou art the Holy One of God. I understand that there's a little difference there in some of the manuscripts. Some just state Thou art the Holy One of God and some state Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God, which is the same as what we have in Matthew that we'll turn to presently. But whichever it is, he's referring to the person. Thou art. So he spoke about what the Lord had and who the Lord was. And beloved, this is most important too. We must lay hold of the truth as to who He is. Thou art the Holy One of God. As we go through these Gospels and we trace the life of the Lord and the apprehension of Him that the apostles received, we find that they own Him as the Messiah. That they own Him as the Son of Man. And then, finally, we find they come to own Him as the Son of God. They make progress, as it were. They own Him as the Son of God and they see in Him all of those things. And it is only because the Father revealed that to them that they were able to take that home to their hearts. And so it is tonight. We have many people today who say, well, it doesn't matter whether we believe that Jesus is the Son of God or whether we believe that He's just a good man. If He's a good man, He's a great example to us. Beloved friends, tonight, there's nothing in that. If the Lord Jesus was just a good man, He couldn't give us anything. He couldn't give us any more than any other good man could give us. Praying God. He was the Son of God. And He was God the Son. He came there to His people as their Messiah. He came and was made known as the Son of Man as we have Him prophesied in Daniel, the 7th chapter of Daniel and in the 8th Psalm, the Son of Man. And He came as the Son of God, coming down from the presence of God. And it was because He was the Son of God that He was able to do an infinite work to save our souls. So Peter speaks the truth when he says, Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life. And we believe and assure that Thou art that Christ, the Son of the Living God. Lord, Thou art the Holy One of God. When the Lord says, haven't I chosen you twelve and one of you is a devil? He spoke of Judas Iscariot. You know, it's been suggested, this isn't a religion that's thought with me. It's been suggested that when it says, many of them went back and walked no more with him, that possibly Judas was on the point of joining them. He thought, this is too hard a shame for me. I can't walk anymore with him. I don't believe those words. Judas didn't. And he was about to leave, too, with the others. And then he thought, well, I'll stay with him a little longer. I can make a little more money off this. I'll sell him to the high priests and they'll pay me the money and he'll escape anyhow like he always does. And then I needn't continue being one of the twelve apostles any longer. And of course, Satan led Judas on to his doom. That's what he always does. So that the Lord makes this statement here that must have gone home to the heart of Judas. The Lord knew what Judas was thinking. He says, haven't I chosen you twelve and one of you is a devil? John is writing this many years afterwards under the guidance of the Spirit and looking back on that very thing that happened at that time. How sad. Not only that there were many that walked with him, weren't there, one? But there was one who continued on with him in his hypocrisy and stayed with the Lord in spite of what the Lord said even though he didn't believe it. That's a very, very sad thing. And you know, beloved friends, people can do that. Souls can do that. They can go on with the saints of God in hypocrisy and hiding what's really in their hearts that is going to come out sooner or later. And if it doesn't come out here on earth it'll certainly come out when we all have to stand before God and give an account. For we do trust there are none here tonight that are just mere professors, just disciples in an outward sense that you're only that and haven't accepted the Lord Jesus as your own personal Savior. Be sure that you have eaten the Lord's flesh and drunk his blood in the spiritual sense that you've taken the Lord as your Savior, that you've trusted in him and in that work that he finished for your salvation. Now let us turn to Matthew's Gospel to the 16th chapter of Matthew. In the 16th chapter of Matthew we find what, in the chronological order of events of the Lord's life down here, what took place shortly afterward. You see, we have the feeding of the 5,000 and then we have the feeding of the 4,000 in the 15th chapter here. And then in the 16th chapter we find the Lord speaking to them and reminding them in verses 9 and 10 of how he had fed 5,000 and fed 4,000 and then he goes away, it says in verse 13, to the coast of Caesarea Philippi, way up in the very north. And he said to his disciples, Whom did men say that I the son of man am? And they said, Some say that thou art John the Baptist, some Elias, and others Jeremiah saw one of the prophets. He said unto them, But who say ye that I am? And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the son of the living God. Peter again, you see it's very similar to what we have in chapter 6. Peter comes out to make a statement both as to the work and the person of Christ. Peter is the one here again who makes a statement about the person of Christ. Thou art the Christ, the son of the living God. And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. And I say also unto thee that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Then charged these disciples that they should tell no man that he was Jesus the Christ. From that time forth began Jesus to show his disciples how that he was killed in Jerusalem and suffered many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed and be raised again the third day. And Peter took him and began to rebuke him, saying, Be it far from thee, Lord, this shall not be unto thee. And the Lord then said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan, thou art an offense unto me, for thou savest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men. We learn from this portion that all kinds of speculations were going on in the land of Israel at this time. The Lord had been baptized in Jerusalem. The Lord had called out his twelve apostles. The Lord was traveling up and down the land teaching the people. The gospel of the kingdom was being preached and the apostles were preaching. And people were wondering who this one was. There were those who accepted him as we've seen, as the Christ of God. But when the Lord asks, What do men say that I, the Son of Man, am? They say, well, men say this. Some say, thou art Elias, or Elijah, some Jeremiah, or one of the prophets. They were speculating, this must be one of the old prophets that's come back again. But they didn't own him for who he was. So then he says to the apostles, Who say you that I am? And Peter says, thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. You know, we have again here the great truth as to the person of the Lord Jesus. I don't believe in these days in which we live that we can lay too much stress on the truth that the scripture presents to us as to the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Because if the Lord Jesus Christ was not what he claims to be and the one that we believe him to be, beloved, we have nothing. We have nothing. And we have three things here. We have, first of all, the last Lord asked the question, Whom say men that I, the Son of Man, am? He refers to himself as the Son of Man. Now we know that that's an Old Testament title of the Lord. In the 8th Psalm, we have the Lord is the Son of Man. What is man that thou art mindful of him? All the Son of Man that thou visitest him. That's not referring to us. That's referring to the Lord. What is man is referring to Adam's race. But when it says all the Son of Man that thou visitest him, that's referring to the Lord. Because it says thou makest him a little lower than the angels, thou hast crowned him with glory and honor. And in Hebrews 2, we have that definitely explained as referring to the Lord Jesus. That he was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, and he's now crowned with glory and honor. And in the 7th chapter of Daniel, Daniel sees the vision of the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven. The one who's going to reign. So the title of the Son of Man is the title that sets the Lord forth as the one who has the right to reign over this sea. That is, he's the second man. He takes the place of Adam. Adam was the federal head of the old race. The Lord takes his place as the Son of Man as the head of the new race. As the one who has the right to judge, as we have it in John 5, and as the one who has the right to reign. And the religious leaders of that, they knew that. They knew when the Lord claimed that he was the Son of Man, that he was referring to himself as the one that Daniel spoke of who was coming to reign. And they said, well, this is blasphemy. He's making himself God. They knew that the Son of Man was one that came through glory. That's why they refused it. So, he says, whom say men that I the Son of Man am? And they said, well, some of them say you're Elias or Jeremiah. That's not only him as the Son of Man. So then the Lord says, whom say you that I am? And Peter says, thou art the Christ. That is the Messiah, the promised anointed one of Israel. Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. Peter really refers to the two titles of the Lord that we have in the second psalm. In the second psalm, the Lord says, if we turn back to it for a minute, the second psalm, it says there, in the second verse, the kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord, that's Jehovah, and against his anointed. And Peter uses this verse when he's preaching to the Jews on the day of Pentecost and shows that this, the word anointed, is the word Christ or Messiah. The word Messiah is the Old Testament, the Hebrew word that's translated here anointed. The word Christ is the Greek word that means the same thing. So whether we use the word the anointed, the Messiah, or the Christ, it's just the same word. And so when Peter says, thou art the Christ, he really says, thou art the Messiah, thou art the anointed one, thou art the one that Psalm 2 refers to. And it was the kings of the earth of that day, and the kings of the, I believe that it says the kings of the earth, that's the Gentiles and the rulers of Israel, they took counsel together. Pilate and Herod were made friends together to get rid of the Lord, to crucify the Lord. They took counsel against the Lord and against his anointed, against his Messiah, against his Christ. So when Peter says, thou art the Christ, he's aiming, the Lord is the one that's referred to here. Further on in the psalm, it says in verse 7, I will declare the decree, the Lord has said unto me, thou art my son, this day have I begotten thee. So there we get him as the son of God. And so Peter aims him as that. Thou art the Christ, the son of the living God. Thou art the one Lord that he's referred to in the second psalm. And what's the Lord say to Peter? He says, Worship thou Simon, thou Jonah for flesh, and God hath not revealed it unto thee. You didn't get this, Peter, by some revelation from any other human being. My Father which is in heaven made this known to you. Peter was in fellowship with the Father, and the Father made known to Peter and brought it home to him in living power that that one that he was following, that he set out to follow there at the Sea of Galilee, first of all down there when John was baptizing in the River Jordan. And later on that the Lord called him his fisher, to be a fisher of men. But that one was the one that the second psalm spoke of. Thou art the Christ, the son of the living God. So we have him as the son of man, we have him as the Messiah, and we have him as the son of God. The full truth as to the dignity and the humanity of the Lord Jesus. And that's the full truth of his person. And that we must accept. And if we don't accept that, we have nothing. Oh, how precious it is. And we do accept it. Thank God. And I trust that everyone here tonight has accepted that precious truth as to the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Then the Lord goes on and says to Peter, he says in the 17th verse, Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon by Jonah. The flesh and blood is not revealed unto thee but my Father which is in heaven. And I say also unto thee, I'm going to add something to this, Peter, besides what I've said to you there, that thou art Peter. And upon this rock I will build my church. And the gates of hell or of Hades shall not prevail against it. Is the Lord saying here that he was going to build a church on Peter? No. You remember when the Lord called Peter in the first chapter of John, he says, Thou art Simon. And the word Simon means healing. The word Simon is the same as Simeon, one of Jacob's sons in the Old Testament. And it means healing. Your name is healing, Peter, but I'm going to give you another name. Thou shalt be called Cephas, which is by interpretation a stone. And Cephas is the same as Peter. And here he's called Peter and his name generally, not of Simon Cephas, but of Simon Peter, but it's the same word. And Peter, thou art Peter. You're Peter, you're a stone. But upon this rock, on this statement which you've made, Peter, as to the truth of my person, I'm going to build my church. I know there are those who say that we believe mistakenly, and maybe many that have followed this teaching are honestly mistaken, but it's a mistake all the same. A person can be mistaken and be honestly mistaken and yet be very mistaken. And as we read the word of God, we don't find that there's any justification for the belief that the Lord built the church on Peter. And if we turn to Peter's first epistle, we find that Peter himself didn't believe that. Because he says there that we are living stones and that the chief cornerstone is the Lord Jesus Christ. And we have built up a spiritual house. And Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone. So Peter knew that he was a living stone in this house, in this spiritual house that God is building. And that the foundation stone is the Lord Jesus and is the truth as to the person of Christ. And that's the church that God is building today. And every human born again soul is a living stone in that church. This isn't a question of denominations. This isn't a question of all the divisions that have come into Christendom. This is a question of whether we have living faith in the Lord Jesus as our Savior. And if we have that, we belong to the church that is built upon this foundation stone, the Lord Jesus Christ. And no matter what denomination you might belong to, if you're not resting on that foundation, you have nothing. So how important it is to be rested upon this foundation, to be a living stone that is built upon the rock foundation. That's why I asked Calvin to give out that hymn, On Christ, the solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand. Now after Christ, he says the Son of the living God, and the Lord says, On this rock, I will build my church. Notice that the Lord says, I will build, not I have built. You know, there is a teaching that's known as covenant theology. And this teaching is that the church existed from Abel down. But every soul that was saved from the beginning of time, right down, is in the church. Well, it's a wrong thought. God had saved souls in the Old Testament. We noticed in our study this morning, we saw Abel and Enoch and Noah mentioned, and we have that list in Hebrews 11. And we have all of those wordings that we have, that we read about in the Old Testament. Men and women of faith who believed on the Lord, and many, many that are not mentioned, many of them, who truly believed on the Lord as the one who was coming, but they weren't in the church. Before God called out Israel, there were individual believers, such as Enoch and Noah and Abraham. After God called out Israel, there were members of the nation of Israel, those who believed, and there were many other members of the nation of Israel who didn't believe. Some of them were sons of Demian, et cetera, wicked men, even though they belonged to the nation of Israel. A man said to me once when I was talking to him about the Lord, he says, do you mean to say, he says that according to the Bible, all those dreamy Jews are going to be in heaven? I said, my dear friend, that's got nothing to do with it. I said, those Jews in the Old Testament who believed in the Lord, they looked on to one who was coming, and those Jews in the Old Testament who didn't believe in the Lord will be lost, just the same as people today who don't believe in the Lord will be lost. And the Jews today, if they want to be saved, they must take the Lord Jesus as their Savior, just the same as we must take him as our Savior, because we just come in in the one way, and it's not a question of what nationality anybody belongs to, but whether they have seen themselves as lost sinners and have taken the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior. The church was still future, because the church could not be built until the head was in heaven, and the head could not be in heaven until he died on the cross. The Lord came down from heaven and became a man that he might die on Calvary's cross for you and me. You see why he had to become a man? He had to become a man in order to die. He could have become an angel, and that would have been a great humiliation for the Lord of Glory to have become an angel. But angels don't die, so he couldn't have died if he'd become an angel. He could have been a servant of God, but not an angel. So he passed his angels by and he takes a place lower than angels. We are a lower order of beings to the angels. They are a higher order in God's creation than we human beings are. And he becomes lower than the angels for the suffering of death, that he might die. He wasn't subject to death, but he was capable of dying because he was a real man. That's why he became a man. And having died and being raised up again, he's now seated at the Father's right hand in heaven, and he's there as the head of his church. He's there as many other things also. He's there as our advocate and as our great high priest. He's there as the second man and the last Adam. But for the purposes that we have here tonight, he's there as the head of the church. And as taking his place there, he sent the Holy Spirit down to form the church. And the church is being formed from the day it came to Cofftown, and this work is going to continue until the last one is saved, and then the Lord will come, as we were reminded yesterday afternoon, Friday afternoon, at the graveside of our dear brother there, that the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and the trump of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first, and we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord. What a glorious victory! What a triumph! You know, death was an enemy. In the Old Testament, it was a thing that they didn't know very much about. They looked upon it as it was going out into a kind of darkness. They didn't, didn't, nothing had been fully revealed about it. It tells us in the, in the epistle, Paul's epistle to Timothy, the first chapter, it says that life and incorruptibility have been brought to life through the gospel. It's only through the gospel that the full truth of what comes after death is brought out. And it's very plain in scripture, what is being brought out, that when we leave, when the believer leaves this scene, it's absent from the body until he is in the air. The believers are consciously now in the Lord's presence. Maybe they don't know whether they're in the body or out of the body, because Paul didn't know when he was caught up, whether he was in the body or out of the body. I think the other believers knew that he was dead and that Paul, Paul was gone, but he didn't himself know. He wasn't conscious of it. It shows that they're, they're consciously in the Lord's presence, rejoicing in his presence. But we know that the final triumph comes when the Lord will descend from heaven with a shout and the dead will be raised and the living changed. And that might take place at any moment. Then the church will be complete. I will build my church for the Lord's church. He's still building it. But you know, one day the last living stone is going to be added to the building. It could be, it could be that there's still one soul waiting that the Lord wants to save before he comes. But the last one is going to be added. The last one is going to be saved. And if there's one here tonight that's not saved, beloved friends, may you see to it that you put your trust in the Lord and that you, that you might be able to say, on Christ, the solid one I stand, that you're a living stone in God's house. Then the Lord says to Peter, I'll give thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven. Whatsoever thou shalt lease on earth shall be leased in heaven. This is a passage that's been greatly misunderstood because people have read into this as if the Lord said, I'll give thee the keys of heaven. The Lord doesn't say that Peter is giving him the keys of heaven. And they represent Peter with a great big key opening the door of heaven. And you've got to keep in with Peter, you know. And if you keep in with Peter, you'll, he'll open the door and let you in. And if you're not keeping in with Peter, well then you won't get in because he's the one that's got the keys. He doesn't say that. Scripture doesn't say that the Lord gave Peter the keys of heaven because he gave him the keys of the kingdom of heaven. You say, well what's the difference? The kingdom of heaven is the profession of Christianity here on earth. It's the spirit profession on earth. And Peter used the keys because the Lord gave him keys. I believe that this gives us all the key keys. The Lord called Peter to be the first one to officially preach the gospel to the Jews on the day of Pentecost. The very Jews that crucified the Lord. Peter uses the keys. He opens the door. He preaches the gospel to them. And when they say, what shall we do? He says, repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sin and you'll receive the gifts of the Holy Ghost. Peter was using the keys. And then again, the Lord sent him in the 10th chapter of Acts to be the first one to preach to the Gentiles. So he uses the key there also. And he opens the door to the Gentiles. And Corvinus and his household come in. But you know, once you've used the key to open the door and the door's wide open, you don't need to keep on using the keys because once God opens this door, but you close it again. He gave Peter the keys to open the door and Peter opened the door to Jews and Gentiles. And since then, Jews and Gentiles have been coming in. Peter had a special ministry to the converted Jews. And although he was the one to open the door to the Gentiles, God gave Paul the work to continue the ministry among the Gentiles. He was made especially the apostle of the Gentiles. And so, when it says that he, whatever he binds on earth will bound in heaven. And whatever he leases on earth is leased in heaven. That's what Peter did administratively. By these people being baptized, they were forgiving their sins. Peter, as you're aware, was asking for the Lord publicly before these people and letting them know on God's behalf that God was forgiving them. This power was later on in the 18th chapter given to the local assembly in connection with the administration of the Lord's blessing there on earth. Then we go on and I just want to point out in closing that the Lord from that time, it says, began to show that he must suffer. He began to make it plain. He made it plain to them that he has to go to the cross to suffer. It says there in verse 21. When the apostles didn't take it in, even though they were the Lord's twelve apostles, they didn't feel that they could take in the thought that the Lord has to go to the cross. And when the Lord said this, Peter, in his love to the Lord, didn't want the Lord to suffer. You know, sometimes our love for those that we love, because we don't want to see them suffer, might hinder something that the Lord wants them to do. Now, it was God's will from eternity that the Lord Jesus should suffer on the cross. But when the Lord says, I'm going to suffer and be rejected and suffer, Peter says, oh no, Lord. No, that's not, we can't let you do that. Be far from me, Lord. What did the Lord say to Peter? Get thee behind me, Satan. Does that mean the Lord was calling Peter Satan? I don't think so. But I believe that when the Lord said that, he saw in Peter's words the temptation of Satan. He turned him aside and he says, get thee behind me, Satan. This is not the will of God for me. The Lord saw in that a temptation of Satan. And Peter, really, in a certain sense, without realizing it, he became an instrument for Satan to seek again to tempt the Lord, to turn him aside from the path. Now, Satan is for things that be of men. So today, we've got to be very careful, you know, not to allow our love for our loved ones to desire for them a path. The desire to turn them aside from a path that might be of suffering is what God's will for them. There have been loved ones who have tried to dissuade people from going to serve the Lord, say, on a mission field where they know that they're going to suffer. And just because they know they're going to suffer, they try to turn them aside. I read about a preacher once who delivered a very eloquent message. Uh... Uh... Uh... Peter, putting before the people that he was preaching to, the need of a certain field in a foreign land where they needed a missionary. And he gave a most forward appeal. And when he got home at night, his daughter came up to him and she says, Father, she says, I'm the answer to your message tonight. He says, What do you mean? She says, The Lord has laid it on my heart that he wants me to go out and serve him on that field. Oh, no, he says. Not you. No. I didn't mean that for you. And the father brought such pressure to bear on his daughter that even though she felt that this was God's will for her, that he wouldn't let her go. And the story goes that within 12 months the Lord took that girl home to be with himself. And the father realized the big mistake he'd made was that it was God's will for that girl to go and make even the suffer in that land. And because of his love for her, he allowed his love for his daughter to blind him to what was the will of God. Now that's something that we see here with Peter. His love for the Lord led him to want the Lord not to have to suffer. And it was God's will that the Lord should suffer to save our precious souls. So that's why the Lord says, Get thee behind me, faith. And it just shows that Peter with all of his love for the Lord could be mistaken and was mistaken in this sense. So you learn lessons from these things, beloved, that the Lord would teach us. And no doubt Peter learned a precious lesson. And the Lord had to say in verse 24, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. And that's what we have to do. We all have to trust the tonight. If there's anyone saved here that he will be willing to do that, beloved friends, that you'll be willing to take up your cross. What does it mean to take up our cross? It means not to be ashamed to let people see that we belong to the Lord. Even though it might be suffering that we're His, that we belong to Him. We're those that He's redeemed in His precious blood and that we're not ashamed that others should know that we live in our daily life that the Lord Jesus is the one that we follow, that He's the one that we seek to serve. May the Lord bless His word to each one of our souls. …

… Let us turn to the seventeenth chapter of Matthew, and then we'll read from the last verse of chapter sixteen, verse twenty-eight. Verily I say unto you, there be some standing here which shall not taste of death till they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom. And after six days Jesus taketh Peter, James, and John, his brother, and bringeth them up into a high mountain apart, and was transfigured before them. And his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light. And behold, there appeared unto them Moses and Elias talking with him. Then answered Peter, and said unto Jesus, Lord, it is good for us to be here. If thou wilt, let us make here three tabernacles, one for thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias. While he yet spake, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them. And behold, a voice out of the cloud which said, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear ye him. And when the disciples heard it, they fell on their face, and were sore afraid. And Jesus came and touched them, and said, Arise, and be not afraid. And when they had lifted up their eyes, they saw no man save Jesus only. And as they came down from the mountain, Jesus charged them, saying, Tell the vision to no man until the Son of Man be risen again from the dead. Now we'll turn over to Mark's gospel, where we have the parallel passage, and just notice there a few little variations. He's in chapter 9, Mark chapter 9. And he said unto them, Verily I say unto you, that there be some of them that stand here which shall not taste of death till they have seen the kingdom of God come with power. And after six days Jesus taketh with him Peter and James and John, and leadeth them up into a high mountain apart by themselves. And he was transfigured before them. And his raiment became shining, exceeding white as snow, so as no fuller on earth can white them. And there appeared unto them Elias with Moses, and they were talking with Jesus. And Peter answered and said unto Jesus, Master, it is good for us to be here, and let us make three tabernacles, one for thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias. For he wished not what to say, for they were sore afraid. And there was a cloud that overshadowed them, and a voice came out of the cloud, saying, This is my beloved Son, hear him. And suddenly, when they had looked around about, they saw no man any more save Jesus, only with themselves. And as they came down from the mountain, he charged them that they should tell no man what things they have seen till the Son of Man was risen from the dead. And they kept that saying with themselves, questioning with one another what the rising from the dead, or it really is what the rising from among the dead, should mean. Now in Luke's gospel, also chapter 9, we read in verse 28, And it came to pass, about an eighth days after these sayings, he took Peter and John and James, and went up into a mountain to pray. And as he prayed, the passion of his countenance resulted, and his raiment was white and blistering. And behold, there talked with him two men, which were Moses and Elias, who appeared in glory, and spake of his decease, which he should accomplish at Jerusalem. But Peter and they that were with him were heavy with sleep, and when they were awake, they saw his glory, and the two men that stood with him. And it came to pass, as they departed from him, Peter said unto Jesus, Master, it is good for us to be here, and let us make three tabernacles, one for thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias. Not knowing what he said, while he thus spake, there came a cloud, and overshadowed them, and they feared as they entered into the cloud. And there came a voice out of the cloud, saying, This is my beloved Son, be of him. And when the voice was passed, Jesus was found alone, and they kept it close, and told no man in those days any of those things which they had seen. Coming back now to Matthew, we were noticing in the last meeting, especially Peter's confessions of the Lord as the Christ, the Son of the living God, both in the 6th chapter of John, and here in the 16th chapter of Matthew. And in Matthew, the Lord's statements to Peter, and how that he told him that he was going to build his church, and the gates of hell would not prevail against it. And then the chapter goes on, and the Lord tells them that he begins to show to them that instead of setting up the kingdom, he's to go to Jerusalem, and to suffer many things of the elders, and of the chief priests, and of the scribes, and be killed and be raised again the third day. And Peter, it says, began to rebuke him. Peter says, No, Lord, that mustn't happen to you. And the Lord then has to rebuke Peter. You know, we find these ups and downs in Peter's life as we're going through Peter. Peter making some wonderful statements, and then making what seemed to us to be some foolish statements, and the Lord having to rebuke him. When Peter makes a true statement, the Lord commends him. When Peter says, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God, the Lord said to him, Blessed art thou, Simon, for flesh and blood is not revealed unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. And when Peter says to him, Lord, you mustn't do that. Be apart from me, Lord, to go up to Jerusalem, and to suffer, and to be killed, and so on. And the Lord says, Get thee behind me, Satan. Now, I don't believe this means that the Lord's calling Peter Satan. But the Lord saw in what Peter said a temptation of Satan, an effort of Satan, to use those words of Peter to turn him aside from the pathway that was marked out for him from the past eternity. And so, that was a temptation of Satan, and the Lord says, Get thee behind me, Satan. He says to Peter. But it was a foolish statement for Peter to make, of course. But Peter made it, I believe, even though it was foolish, in all love to the Lord. And you know, this is one of the dangers of natural affection. Now, natural affection is a very precious thing. And the Bible says that in the last days, people will be without natural affection. And so, that natural affection is a very proper thing for us to desire, to love those that we're in contact with, our own relatives, and our own brothers and sisters in the Lord, and to desire the best for them. But the danger is, in desiring the best for them, we might be inclined to turn them away from what is the will of God. No one likes to see his own suffer. And so, there have been places where there have been those who have been called of God to a special work, and that work entailed some suffering, and their loved ones, because they didn't want to see them suffer, have tried to turn them aside from the path. And that has become a temptation of the enemy, to turn them away from God's path for them. And that's what we find here. Peter's love for the Lord, his natural love for the Lord, his real desire for the best for the Lord, would have led him to desire to turn the Lord away from the path that was before him, the path of suffering. And then the Lord goes on and says, if any man will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. Then the Lord says, speaks about the coming glory, the Son of Man, verse 27, shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels, then shall he reward every man according to his will. Yes. We live in the day of the suffering and patience of Jesus Christ. The kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ. The kingdom and glory is coming. And it's when the glory comes, and when we're in the Lord's presence, then we'll see the full reward of our labors. And the Lord looks on to that. So he looks on to the coming glory as the time when all motives will be revealed and when all that is done for the Lord will receive its true praise from the Lord himself. Then the Lord goes on and says, there are some of you standing here, he says, but shall not taste of death until you see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom. And well, you say, well, the Son of Man hasn't come in his kingdom yet. And these people have been dead nearly 2,000 years. What did the Lord mean when he said this? The transfiguration that we have, that we've read of in the 17th chapter of Matthew and in the 9th chapter of Mark and Luke is the answer. And Peter, while he didn't understand this at the time, he makes a reference to it in his epistle. Well, if we turn over just for a minute to his second epistle of Peter, and you see that Peter refers to this very thing, and he refers to it as the kingdom, the coming kingdom. In 2 Peter chapter 1 and verse 16, Peter says, for we have not followed cunningly devised tables when we've made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For he received from God the Father honor and glory when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory, this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. And this voice which came from heaven we heard when we were with him in the holy mount. So you see, Peter says here that this transfiguration was what we might say a picture, a little replica beforehand of the coming power and glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. First of all, I'd like to point out what seems to be a discrepancy. Matthew and Mark says that it was after six days, six days that the Lord took these three apostles up into the mountain. But Luke says it was about eight days after. And you know the people that like to find fault with the Bible and say that the Bible has discrepancies and it says different things in different places, would take this thing up and they say, there you are, the Bible is not exactly correct. In one place it says six days, and in another place it says eight days. Well you know it's very easy to account for. Matthew and Mark give the Jewish reckoning which included the first and the last day, or rather which excluded the first and the last day. It's six days, but it doesn't include the first and the last. Luke gives us the Gentile reckoning, because Luke we know especially wrote for the Gentiles. Luke gives us the Gentile reckoning which would include the first day and the last day, which would be eight days, and so there's no discrepancy. It just depends on the viewpoint of the persons that were being reached, whether it was about six days after or whether it was eight days after. To use our language today we'd say it was about a week after that this happened. About a week after this wonderful statement of Peter that the Lord was the Christ, the Son of the Living God, and the Lord gave the revelation that he would build his church, we have this picture, this transfiguration, this picture of the kingdom. And Peter is here again, Peter, James and John. I think we said in one of the previous meetings these three form the inner circle of the Lord's apostles. These three are seen here on the Mount of Transfiguration, the Lord takes them with him up onto the mountain. These three are present when Jairus' daughters reign. These three are the ones that the Lord took into the garden of Gethsemane when he went in there to pray. And they were the, it seems that they were what you might call the inner circle, those that were the closest to the Lord of all the apostles, Peter, James and John. James, you know, we know was beheaded by Herod after the Lord's resurrection. And Peter and John continued on for many, many years in the Lord's service. And Peter is always mentioned first. Not that he had a place that a certain big group in Christendom had given him. They say he was the Pope and all that kind of thing. Scripture doesn't give any evidence of that at all. But he was a leader, the leader we might say, of the little apostolic group. And yet we find that he was a failing man who made some statements from time to time that the Lord had to correct. But it's a lovely thing to see when he refers to this back further on in his epistle there that we just referred to. He makes special reference to the voice that he heard from heaven. This is my beloved son. That really went home to Peter when the Lord caused him to hear that voice. First of all, we notice it says the Lord was transfigured. And from the three accounts that we read, it seems there was a change in his face and there was a change in his garments. It says his face did shine as the sun. He was transfigured. He looked different. And then it says here his raiment was white as the light. And Mark says it was white as no fool on earth can white them. No one who cleans things on earth, no laundry could make any garment as white as the Lord's garment appeared. And Luke says it was white and blistering or white and effulgent as the new translation says. So we find the Lord's countenance is altered and his garments are altered. What does this speak to us of? This is the glory. This is a picture of the glory. And beloved, when the Lord had a glorified body, after he rose from the dead, when he had a glorified body, we know that even the disciples didn't know him when they saw him. They afterwards realized who he was. He looked different. And I think this is a picture of what we'll look to when we get glorified bodies. We'll be different. The identity will be there, because even after the Lord rose from the dead, their eyes were holding that they shouldn't know him, but then when they did see him, they recognized him. And you remember, and we'll come to this later on in our studies, that when Peter went fishing after the Lord rose from the dead, when the boat gets nearer up to the land, they recognized that it's the Lord. John says it's the Lord. He could see that it was the Lord. He knew him. But here the Lord's glorified. His countenance is different. This is the glory. And this is what the glory will be. You'll see the Lord in all his glory. And his garments are different. They're pure white. It's a picture of the absolute spotless purity and holiness of the glorified position. While the Lord was down here on earth, he was here mingling among men, though absolutely perfect and sinless. But in the glory was a difference. And we will be glorified too. And there'll be absolutely nothing will enter into that glorious scene that has any of the marks of this world upon it whatsoever. The only thing I believe that's going to be seen there that reminds us of what man has done when we get there will be that the Lord will still carry in his hands, in his feet, and in his side the marks of Calvary. There you'll see where he was nailed to the cross. Those wounds will still be there. At least the scars, no doubt, will still be carried by the Lord as the reminder throughout eternity of what our redemption cost him. Then it says that there were two men with him, Moses and Elias, or Elijah as he's called in the Old Testament. I believe that in this picture, seeing that we have a picture of the coming kingdom, we have the Lord as the central one, his face shining as the sun, his raiment white as no sunnah on earth can whiten. And Moses and Elijah, they represent the glorified saints. Moses was the one who was buried by the Lord. You remember, says no man knoweth this sepulchre by this day. He wasn't allowed to get into the land. He was buried on the east side of Jordan, there on Mount Nebo. But here he is, he's finally in the land. He's there on the Mount of Transfiguration with the Lord. And Moses represents those who died and who've been raised up again. Apparently, when the Lord raised Moses up, that he might be on the Mount of Transfiguration, Satan raised some objection. I suppose Satan raised some objection because the Lord hadn't died yet, and yet he'd raised Moses up before he'd been raised up himself. And so Satan must have raised some objection about this because it tells us that Michael the archangel disputed with the devil about the body of Moses. We're not told exactly what it was, but I think it had something to do with the fact that Moses appeared on the Mount of Transfiguration. Moses represents, beloved, all the saints who have died and will be raised again when the Lord comes. And Elijah, you remember, he went to heaven without dying. The scripture says that he was caught up to heaven in the whirlwind and went up in a fiery chariot. And so Elijah represents those who will be alive when the Lord comes. If the Lord were to come tonight, we'll all be caught up, every one of us who is saved, we'll all be caught up as Elijah was caught up and as Enoch was caught up. We'll all be caught up to be with the Lord. So here we have Moses and Elijah representing the whole redeemed company, not only the church, but the Old Testament saints also. Turn Abel down, the dead raised and the living changed, as we have it set forth in 1 Corinthians 15 and in 1 Thessalonians 4, and all caught up to be with the Lord and to be there forever with the Lord. So we have Moses and Elijah there talking with the Lord. What are they talking about? Matthew and Mark don't tell us what they're talking about, but Luke tells us what they were talking about. It says they were talking about his decease or his departure that he should accomplish in Jerusalem. You know, that's a most remarkable thing. Up in heaven, Moses and Elijah had come down from heaven to be there. And they let us know what the theme was at that time in heaven. What they were interested about in heaven at that time was the fact that the Son of God was about to die on a cross in Jerusalem. They were talking about his decease that he would accomplish in Jerusalem. They knew in heaven. The inhabitants of heaven, God had made known to them in heaven that the Son of God who had come down to this earth was about to die in Jerusalem on a cross. And here Moses and Elijah were conversing with the Lord about this, and the Lord was conversing with them. They were interested. All heaven was interested in the fact that the Son of God was to die. This act that was to take place shortly at Jerusalem was the most stupendous act that has ever taken place in the history of the whole universe. The death of the Lord Jesus on Calvary's cross was a more important thing than the creation of this world. God spoke and called the worlds into being. The Lord created this earth and all that's connected with it just with his word. But in order for redemption to take place, in order for God to be glorified about the sin question, in order for sinners like you and me to be saved, the Son of God had to leave the glory and come down to this earth and be born in Bethlehem's manger and live his life down here and be nailed on a cross in Jerusalem so that there he might atone for our sins. And all heaven was interested in this. And if heaven was interested in it, and Moses and Elijah having come down there were interested in this, certainly Peter, James and John should have been interested in it too. And the sad thing about Peter, James and John was that they were asleep. You know, this was night when they went up there to this mountain to pray. The Lord was busy during the daytime and it was at night time that he went up into the mountain to pray. And it says in Luke that they went up to pray. Matthew and Mark don't tell us that. You've got to take these three accounts to get the full picture. But Luke says that they went up there to pray. The Lord is seen in prayer in Luke seven times and this is one of the times. They go up in the mountain to pray. And as he prayed, it says, the fashion of his countenance was altered. Maybe there's a lesson in that for us that if we prayed more, the fashion of our countenance would alter more. That we would give the manifestation that we were living in the Lord's presence. Perhaps many of our difficulties, beloved brethren, come in because we don't spend the time in prayer that we should. But we should be spending more time before the Lord in prayer. What was the Lord praying about? We're not told. We know that he spent all night in prayer when he was going to choose his apostles and no doubt he prayed specifically about that. But here, the Lord is spending the time in prayer with his apostles but instead of them praying with him, after the hard day's work, they go to sleep. The Lord had to say there in the Garden of Gethsemane, the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak. That's what it is with us sometimes, you know. You want to keep awake and you find yourself going to sleep because the flesh is weak. Not the flesh in the bad sense there. I think that just means the body's weak. And that's what it was with these three apostles. They were heavy with sleep. And it seems that while they were asleep, this scene was going on there. And when they were awake, they see his glory. And they see Moses and Elijah talking with the Lord. And Peter gets carried away in a kind of a rapture over this. Oh Lord, he says, how wonderful is this? Peter just felt this was such a wonderful thing that he just liked to stay like it was. To have the three of them there talking. And so he says, let's make three tabernacles, he says. One for these, one for Moses, and one for Elijah. Not knowing what he said. Peter didn't realize that in saying that, he was really putting these two men on a level with the Lord. And he was bringing the Lord down to their level. The father was displeased. Immediately there comes a cloud. And they were afraid, it says, as they entered into the cloud. Because the Jews knew what the cloud was. In the Old Testament, the cloud, the Shekinah glory, the cloud of God's presence. That went before the children of Israel through the wilderness. A pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. The cloud that filled the tabernacle, and again the temple with its dedication, was the signal or the sign of the presence of God with his people. And they knew what that cloud was. And they feared. Because they knew that was the divine presence. And then a voice comes out of the cloud. This is my beloved son. It's the father speaking. This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. Or, as the New Translation puts it even a little better, in whom I have found my delight. The father says, this is my beloved son in whom I have found my delight. Hear him. And what did the father really fully mean when he said that? Don't hear Moses. Don't hear Elijah. Hear his. Who were Moses and Elijah? Wonderful servants of God. And yet servants of God who failed. None is perfect. We don't find one perfect man in Scripture except God's beloved son, the Lord Jesus Christ. It's true that we don't have anything against Joseph mentioned, but we know that he wasn't perfect all the same. The only perfect person in the world of God is the Lord Jesus himself. Moses failed. He spoke unadvisedly with his lips and got kept out of the promised land. Elijah failed when he got scared of Jezebel and went for his life. Moses here, when the Lord says, this is my beloved son, hear him, I think we can take Moses here to represent the law. He was the lawgiver and it's just as if the father is saying, Moses had his place in giving the law. But now, my son has come. The law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. It's him you should hear. Elijah was the prophet and he had a wonderful work to do as a prophet when the people had departed in calling them back to the truth. Elijah stands out alone there before all of those prophets of Baal and the prophets of the grove and says, I am the prophet of the Lord. And if the God of Israel is the true God, let him answer by fire and send the fire down on the sacrifice. And if Baal is the true God, let Baal send the fire. We know what happened. Baal's priests called on their God from morning till evening and nothing happened. And Elijah makes the thing very difficult. He builds a big trench around and fills it with water. And when Elijah prays, down comes the fire and consumes everything. He even licks up the water. He calls the people back to the truth in the day of departure. That's what a prophet does. But now, we don't need either the lawgiver or the prophet because we have the one who's superior to both. The true prophet that had been prophesied in the Old Testament, in the book of Deuteronomy, the Lord Jesus himself has come. This is my beloved son. Hear him, says the father. And you know, beloved, in Christendom, we find that men have put others in the place of Christ. They've made others, other redeemers and other saviors and other mediators and mediatrixes between God and men. But the word of God still stands as we have it here. This is my beloved son, in whom I have found my delight. Hear him. Or as the apostle Paul says in writing to Timothy, there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, no other. That could be translated, there is one only God and one only mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. There is one God, was the great truth of the Old Testament, when many gods were brought in. And there is one mediator, is the great truth of the New Testament, and man has brought in many mediators. But the truth still stands, in the Old Testament, there was only one God for Israel. And in the New Testament, there's only one mediator for the whole world. And who is it? The Lord Jesus Christ, God's son. And we're all friends tonight, if there's one here unsaved, he's the only one who can save you. And if you've been looking to other mediators to save your soul, they won't save you. God only has set forth one, and that's his beloved son, the one that he gave testimony to here. One God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. And it says, and when they have lifted up their eyes, they saw no man save Jesus only. The Lord came to them. They were afraid. They realized they were in the presence of God. And they were afraid. And the Lord comes and touches them. He says, be not afraid. You know, that's very lovely. Be not afraid, says the Lord. Arise and be not afraid. So many times in the Bible we have these words. Be not afraid. Fear not. Do you remember when the, when the fiddle chef was brought before David? David finally, after he got established in the kingdom and remembered the pact that he made with Jonathan, he raises the question, is there any of Saul's house that I can show kindness for Jonathan's sake? And they said, yes, there's my fiddle chef. He's away down in Lady Bar. And send and fetch him. And the fiddle chef is brought to David. A poor cripple. His nurse had dropped him at the time that Saul and Jonathan were killed, or his brothers were killed. And he'd been crippled and he'd been a cripple ever since. And he's living away there nowhere in fear of his life, in fear that David will find him and kill him because he was of Saul's lineage. And David sends and fetches him and he's brought him and stands before David. We can imagine the fear that filled his heart as he brought him before the king. And he's, and he's thinking, well, now he is David. And my grandfather was his great enemy. And he tried to kill him. And no doubt he'll have his revenge on me. And he'll just order one of his soldiers to cut my head off. I can just imagine that's what the fiddle chef's thinking. And David says, sees him there as trembling. And he says, my fiddle chef, fear not. Fear not, my fiddle chef. Don't be afraid, my fiddle chef. I'm going to show kindness to you for Jonathan your father's sake. He didn't say, I'm going to have my vengeance on you because of what your grandfather did to me. And if he'd done that, nobody would have found fault with David. If he'd done that. But David says, no, I'm going to show kindness for Jonathan's sake. And so it is, beloved, that that's what the Lord says to the sinner. Don't be afraid. Because of your sins, because you belong to Adam's race, and because you're a sinner, I could judge, send you down to a lost eternity. And if God said that to us, we wouldn't be able to find fault with him. We'd say, well, God's only doing what's righteous. We're sinners. We belong to a corrupt and sinful race. And we've sinned ourselves. And if God sent us to hell, it'll be what we deserve. But God doesn't do that. God says, don't be afraid. I want to show kindness to you. I want to save your soul. The sad thing is that God is saying this to so many people, and they won't listen. They say, I don't believe it. Well, I don't want it. I just want to go on as I am in my sins, and I want to leave God out of my life. And here we find these disciples, these three apostles. They're afraid as they're going to enter into this cloud, and when the cloud has passed, there they are, and they're afraid. The Lord says, don't be afraid. And when they lift up their eyes, what do they see? Jesus only. Moses has disappeared. Elijah has disappeared. And Jesus only is standing there. And he's the one that we need. Yes, beloved, Jesus only. He's the only one that we need for salvation. Jesus only. He's the only one that we need for the Christian pathway. You know, Christians don't need to call themselves by the names of great men. All we need is to say, we are those who follow the Lord Jesus Christ. Call ourselves by his name. It tells us in the New Testament, in the book of Acts, that the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch. What does the word Christian mean? Christ's one. One who belongs to Christ. They, the people, called them that as a nickname. Why do you think they called them Christians? Well, because they were always talking about Christ. These are those who belong to Christ. And that's where the name Christian came from. So many people are known as Christians today, but they're not Christians at all. But if you know the Lord Jesus as your Savior, well then you're a real Christian. And we can rejoice in the name of Christ. Yes. So they saw no man save Jesus only. Now it says, as they came down from the mountain, Jesus charged them, saying, tell the vision to no man until the Son of Man be risen again from the dead. And Luke says they kept it close and didn't tell it to anybody. The Lord told them not to tell it to anybody. Why did the Lord say that they were to tell it until the Son of Man be risen from the dead? Because the Lord didn't want the truth as to his glory to be promulgated yet. This was something that had to be preached after the work of the cross was done. The Lord now had to go to the cross. That was what he said. He set his face as a flint, it says in Luke, to go up to Jerusalem. You know, in Luke we have several times mentioned, we see the Lord journeying toward Jerusalem. That was his last journey. And when he got to Jerusalem, he was crucified. And this was where the Lord was headed for. He set his face as a flint. He wasn't being turned aside to the right hand or to the left. The coming glory was not now to be preached. Now it was the cross. Now it was the suffering. Now the Lord had to bring home even to his apostles that he had to suffer. And even they didn't take it in. They couldn't take it in. They so had their hearts set on the fact that the Lord was going to be a great king and deliver them from the Romans. They didn't believe the Lord when he told them that he had to go to Jerusalem and to suffer. And you see, when those two go to Emmaus after the Lord's resurrection, they say, well, we thought it would have been he that would have redeemed Israel. We thought he was going to be the one who was going to deliver us out of the hands of the Romans. He did come to redeem Israel, not to redeem them from the Romans, but to redeem them from their sins. And that's what he's come to do still. He's still redeeming people from their sins. God isn't delivering, isn't working in delivering people from certain political entities today. God even allows governments to take over in some countries that are completely opposed to his. Like Russia and China, for instance, where you have communistic governments who even want to tell people that there's no God. God allows that. But his work's still going on. Sister Elsie Cole, who was with us in the Jamaica Missionary Conference, says that the Christians in Hong Kong reckon there are two million Christians in China, in communist China, meeting secretly, meeting in homes, even having the breaking of bed. They come together for a meal. And in the middle of the meal, they remember the Lord. And if someone from outside comes in that they don't know, well, they're just having a meal. And they get together for their meetings, and there are many, many Christians in Russia, in spite of all the political things that are going on. God's working, and God's saving souls. That's the work he's doing. And he's still doing that. He's still, because the message of his death and resurrection and ascension and the gospel is the message that brings salvation to precious souls. Well, something further we get here. The true rendering, when it says, the Lord says, tell this to no man until the Son of Man be risen from among the dead, is really the true expression. And it says the disciples, it tells us in Luke, they put among themselves what the rising from among the dead should mean. They knew quite well what the resurrection of the dead was. That was something that was believed on right back from Adam's day. Right back from the very time that people were first died, it was known. It was a well-known teaching, right through the Old Testament, the truth of the resurrection. And we have in the 16th Psalm, thou wilt not leave my soul in Sheol, neither wilt thou suffer thy Holy One to see corruption. Here you get a prophecy concerning the resurrection of the Lord. But the resurrection from among the dead, they didn't understand. The Lord said there would be two resurrections, the resurrection of the just and the resurrection of the unjust. But people generally in those days just thought of one final resurrection. And many people do today. We still have many people who say, oh yes, there's going to be just one great resurrection. The Bible says there's going to be two resurrections, beloved, the first and the second. And the first could take place at any moment. Tonight, if the Lord came, all those who died in Christ would be raised. The living would be changed. And we'd all be caught up to be with the Lord, as we already saw with Moses and Elijah, a typical of these two groups. And then in Revelation 20 it says, the rest of the dead, the wicked dead, live not again until the thousand years are ended. The wicked dead will not be raised. The unsaved, those who died in their sins, will not be raised until the end of the Lord's thousand years reign. And they'll be raised up to be judged and condemned. And so the resurrection from among the dead is the first resurrection. And we get this explained in 1 Corinthians 15. It says, Christ the first roots. Afterwards, they did a Christ that is coming. Christ was the first one to be raised from among the dead. And afterwards, all of those will be raised up when he comes for his people at the rapture. And then there's going to be some gleanings from the great harvest, because we find that those who were beheaded at the time of Antichrist will be raised up to have part in the first resurrection. So you have the first roots, Christ himself. The great harvest, the millions that will come out of their graves and rise to meet the Lord in the air when the Lord comes. To be united with the living who will be caught up and chained and caught up to be with the Lord. And then the gleanings, those who will be, who won't be able to enter into the millennium because they've been killed after the church is taken and before the millennium is established during those seven years. Those who will be headed for their testimony and those who refuse to worship the beast. They will have part in the first resurrection. What a blessed thing. I hope that everyone here tonight is going to have part in the first resurrection. Beloved, if you know the Lord is your Savior, you'll be there. Peter and James and John will be there. And I, by grace, expect to be there to faith in the Lord Jesus as my Savior. I trust this could be true of every one of us here tonight that can say, yes, we belong to the first resurrection because we know the Lord Jesus as our Savior. We're linked up with this very one. We've looked away from ourselves to see no man save Jesus only as our Savior. And may we look away to him more and more in our daily life to be occupied with him. Because it's not only to look to see Jesus only to save us. We need to keep our eyes on him day by day. We need to be occupied with the person of Christ. And that's what's going to keep us from the many snares that we find around us. The more we're occupied with him, the less time we'll have for the other distracting things around. People, Christians, get carried away with the distracting things around them because they get their eyes off God's beloved Son. So God, may the Lord help us, beloved, to keep our eyes on him. I'd just like to refer to one more thing before we close in connection with Peter. In the same 13th of Matthew, it says in verse 24, when they were come to Capernaum, that was the Lord's own city, they that received tribute money came to Peter and said, does not your master pay tribute? He said, yes. And when he was coming to the house, Jesus presented him saying, what thinkest thou, Simon, of whom do the kings of the earth take custom or tribute? Of their own children or of strangers? Peter said unto him, of strangers. Jesus said unto him, bring other children free. Notwithstanding, lest we should offend them, go thou to the sea and cast a hook, and take up the fish that first cometh up. And when thou hast opened his mouth, thou shalt find a piece of money. Take that and give it to them for me and thee. Now, this tribute money wasn't the Roman tax that Matthew had to collect. This was the temple money. This was the half shekel, like the half shekel that had to be given back in the book of Exodus when they numbered the people. Every Jew was supposed to pay this half shekel every year for the support of the temple. And when they came and said to Peter, does your master pay tribute? And Peter says, yes. It was just as if they were really saying to Peter, Peter, is your master a good Jew? Does he pay the temple tribute? And Peter says, of course my master's a good Jew. That's what he does. But when Peter came into the house, the Lord knew what Peter had done. So he says to Peter, he says, well, to whom do the kings of the earth take tribute? Of their own children or of strangers? And he says, of the strangers. Well, he says, the children are free. And they were the children of the kingdom. You see, Peter, the Lord was the head one and they were the children of the kingdom. But Peter, the Lord says, Peter, lest we should offend. It's just as if the Lord says to Peter, well, you know, really, I don't have to pay tribute, Peter. But I'm not going to offend people by not paying the tribute. I don't have to pay it. But he says, we'll pay it. You and I will pay it, Peter. Isn't it lovely how the Lord associates Peter with himself? But where did the Lord have the money to pay the tribute? He could say, the foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests and the Son of Man has not where to lay his head. Well, Peter, I'm the Son of Man. It's just as if the Lord said, I'm the Son of Man. I have power over all the fish in the sea. You go down, Peter, and catch a fish. And the first fish you catch, open its mouth. And there you'll find a piece of money. And this piece of money was just double the amount that each one was to pay. This piece of money, Peter, I'll pay for me and for thee. You go and pay it, Peter. So that's just what he did. So the Lord, you see, even though he didn't have to pay, he paid for himself and for Peter. I think there's a lovely lesson in this for us. Sometimes, as Christians, we have demands made upon us to do some things that perhaps we might consider that we don't really have to do. But we have to consider whether, by not doing it, we might offend and not give a good testimony. So we've got to raise up that question of, is this what we're doing, giving a testimony for the Lord, or is it not? And to give a good testimony, the Christian should have a good testimony for those that are outside. He should be one that recognizes his responsibility. And that's what we find the Lord did here. Take it for me and for thee. And so the tribute money was paid for the Lord and for Peter, too, with the piece of money that the Lord caused that fish to have in its mouth and sent Peter along to get it. Showing again who he was, the Son of Man, the one who is Lord over all things and over all circumstances. …

… Let us turn to Luke, chapter 22, and we'll read from verse 7. Then came the day of unleavened bread, when the Passover must be killed. And he sent Peter and John, saying, Go and prepare us the Passover that we may eat. And they said unto him, Where wilt thou that we prepare? And he said unto them, Behold, when ye are entered into the city, there shall a man meet you bearing a pitcher of water. Follow him into the house where he entereth in. And ye shall say unto the good man of the house, The master saith unto thee, Where is the guest chamber, where I shall eat the Passover with my disciples? And he shall show you a large upper room furnished. There make ready. And they went and found, as he had said unto them, And they made ready the Passover. And when the hour was come, he sat down, and the twelve apostles with him. And he said unto them, With a desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. For I say unto you, I will not any more eat thereof, until it be fulfilled in the kingdom of God. And he took the cup and gave thanks and said, Take this and divide it among yourselves. For I say unto you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God shall come. And he took bread and gave thanks and break it and gave unto them, saying, This is my body which is given for you. This do in remembrance of me. Likewise also the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood, which is shed for you. Here we have the next incident in sequence where we have the apostle Peter specifically mentioned in connection with a very important event that took place in connection with the Lord's life. We have come right up to the time that's just now a few days before the Lord's crucifixion, the last Passover. And when we read the three gospels, we need to read Matthew, Mark, and Luke to get the full account of what took place. Matthew says that the disciples came to the Lord and asked him where they were to eat the Passover. Mark says the same thing, but Mark gives us the impression that the very disciples who asked him were the ones that he told to go, as he says here, into the city, and they all mentioned that they would meet a man bearing a pitcher of water. But it's Luke that tells us that the two disciples that were sent by the Lord were Peter and John. And we sort of gather from Mark that these were the ones who asked the Lord. They said, Well, where wilt thou that we prepare the Passover? They knew that the Lord wanted to keep the Passover. He always kept it, and so they would be thinking, Well, now, Lord, the time's come to keep the Passover. Where do you want us to prepare? So the Lord sends Peter and John, and he says, Go into the city, and you'll meet a man bearing a pitcher of water. Well, what was so strange about a man bearing a pitcher of water? I think this would have been a rather unusual thing to see a man bearing a pitcher of water. It was the women that carried the water pots of water, and they would meet a man bearing a pitcher of water. And the Lord says, Now you follow him into the house where he enters in. And when you get there, say to the good man of the house, The master saith unto thee, Where is the guest chamber? Mark says in the new translation, Where is my guest chamber? Where I shall eat the Passover with my disciples. And he shall show you a large upper room furnished. Now, first of all, there's no doubt some special significance in the thought of the man bearing the pitcher of water. We know that water in the scripture is a type of the Word. And water is not only a type of the Word, water is a type of the Word in its cleansing power. The Word that cleanses. The application of the Word to the believer is what cleanses in the daily life. We're going to see a little bit more of that because I have another passage I want to turn to. And we're going to see that no doubt this very water that was in the pitcher, that man, the Lord caused him to take it there because we're going to see that the Lord had a use for that water. But the spiritual lesson we would learn would be this. The importance of following the man with the pitcher of water. The man with the pitcher of water would speak to us of one who is being guided by the Word of God. And you know, the apostle Paul could say, be ye followers of me even as I also am of Christ. We might say that Paul was a man bearing the pitcher of water. And those who followed him followed the Lord. We might say that today perhaps anyone of the Lord's servants would not want to say to others, follow me, because we realize how far short we come. And yet there should be a desire in our hearts that we might so follow the Word that if any did follow us, they would follow the Lord. But we've got to be careful against following men. But we're always safe when we follow the Word of God. Now they come into this house and they say to the owner of the house, the master said, where is my guest chamber? Who was this man? We're not told his name. We're not told anything else about him. But as soon as Peter and John say, the master said, where is my guest chamber where I shall eat the Passover with my disciples, he knew who the master was. They only have to say the master and he knew it was Jesus. He was a Lord, he was a disciple too. And he had a room in his house, I believe this was the best place, specially prepared, that he had there set aside. And I understand that there's a significance here in the words that are used. When the Lord tells them to say, where is the guest chamber? Where is my guest chamber? This was a small room that would be used to lodge guests. It's the same word that's used back in the 9th chapter when the time the Lord fed the 5,000. When the disciples came to him and they said, let us send them away that they may lodge and find food. A lodging place, a place to pass the night. Where is my guest chamber where I may eat the Passover with my disciples? And it's just as if the owner of the house said, I've got something better than just a guest chamber. I have a large upper room furnished. I have an adequate place for the Passover. If the master wants to keep the Passover here with his disciples, he is my best furnished room for them. What a lovely thought, beloved. The Lord comes along and asks for something small, and we're willing to give him something greater. That's what this man did. He didn't realize at the time that he was furnishing the place where the Lord was not only going to keep the Passover the last time it was truly kept according to the ordinance that God had given to Israel, but where he was also, after keeping the Passover, was going to institute the Lord's Supper or the breaking of bread. What a privilege that man had. You know, when we do something for the Lord, in obedience to him and out of love to him, we don't realize what effect that that might have even for the future. None of us knows anything that we do. Did Mary of Bethany know when she anointed the Lord's feet with ointment and wiped it with the hairs of her head that this was going to be spoken of wherever the gospel was preached throughout the whole world because it was embodied in the scripture? No, she didn't know. She did it out of love to the Lord, but the results of it are still going on. This man didn't realize when he said, he showed them a large upper room furnished, and he says, this is the room for the master to keep the Passover, that he was, that what he did was going to be recorded in the Bible and it would be read by people right down to our very day, and we don't know when we do something for the Lord what might be the result even for future generations. That some soul might be led to Christ, that he might lead someone else, and so the work goes on. The great thing for us is, is to be faithful, to do the work that the Lord gives us to do. It might appear very insignificant, but if we're doing it for the Lord, the Lord takes notice of it and that's what's of value. He shall show you a large upper room furnished. I just want to say a word or two on this. First of all, it was a large room. It was an adequate room for the Lord and the twelve apostles, but maybe for many more. And seeing that this upper room was where the Lord's Supper was first instituted, I think the thought of large has some special meaning for us when you think of the large number of people right down through this Christian era who had had the privilege of remembering the Lord according to what was instituted there on that evening. What a large company it has been. Yes, it's a large upper room that the Lord gives us the privilege, brethren, of gathering in because even though we may be a small company gathered in a specific place, even down to two or three, but when you think of the fellowship of the Lord's people throughout the world, we're in fellowship with a very large company. Yes, we're in the large upper room. Then it's an upper room. Now, the thought of an upper room gives us the idea of detachment from things around. An upper room is a little more of a separated room. It gives the thought of separation. It's not a room on the street level where you get all the noises of the street coming in. No, it's a little detached. It's a room where those who are there are in fellowship with the Lord. The world is outside. The Lord's people are inside with the Lord. It doesn't mean that outsiders can't come in to the breaking of bread. I think the breaking of bread is one of the most wonderful gospel testimonies we have. And people have been converted just through witnessing the breaking of bread. And the very language that's used in 1 Corinthians 11, ye do show the Lord's death or ye do announce the Lord's death till he come, that word really is ye do evangelize the Lord's death till he come. The breaking of bread is an announcement. It's a preaching. It's an announcement for those who are looking on. And God has used it to be the means of blessing the precious souls. But still, those who gather, those who partake, should only be those who know the Lord. There's no place there for the unsaved to be remembering the Lord at the breaking of bread. That's the thought of the upper room. The detached place where the saints gather together. Not that we literally need to have an upper room. It's the spiritual meaning of it that's important. And then it says it was furnished. It was furnished. It had the table. It had the chairs or the reclining couches as they used in those days. It had everything that was necessary except the emblems that need to be put on the table. And that's what the disciples put. Because they, it says that they made ready. There they prepared the Passover. They got the things ready. The man provided what was necessary and they did the rest. There they made ready for the Passover in that large upper room where the Lord came together with his own. And it says when the hour was come, he sat down in the twelve apostles with him. When the hour was come. They had a certain hour. We have an hour for meetings. And it's a good thing, you know, to be at the meetings when we can on the hour. Or before the hour. This is a good verse to quote for those who habitually come late to meetings. Now sometimes it's unavoidable. Sometimes you can't help getting late. Things come in sometimes. But I believe that those who make a point of being at the meetings on time, if they do happen to come late, everybody understands. But it's a sad thing when a brother or a sister has to be referred to continually. The late brother so-and-so or the late sister so-and-so just because they're always coming late for meetings. As you have sometimes heard, you know. So we have, I think, a scriptural word here. A scriptural precedent, we might say, for being present on time. When the hour was come, he sat down in the twelve apostles with him. The Lord was there and the apostles were all there when the hour was come. And for the last time, the Lord keeps the Passover. He says, I've desired, with desire, I have desired, or I have earnestly desired, to keep this Passover with you before I suffer. He was about to be offered up as the Passover lamb. Paul, writing to the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 5, says, Christ, our Passover, is sacrificed for us. So that the Passover, as memorial of Israel's deliverance from Egypt, has never been kept in the mind of God as it should have been, should have, as the Lord intended it since then. Because the Lord fulfilled it. The Lord fulfilled the Passover by his death. Since then, the Jews have kept it from year to year. But it's just an empty form. They say they're still looking for the Messiah. And they ignore the fact that the Messiah came 1900 odd years ago. So the Lord kept the Passover with them. He took the cup, the Passover cup, and said, divide it among yourselves. And then, taking of the very emblems that were on the table, that they had used, because they used red and white in connection with the Passover, the Lord instituted the supper. And we have that in verses 19 and 20. In fact, of the three Gospels that record the baking of bread, Luke gives the clearest demarcation of the three between the Passover and the baking of bread. They kept the Passover for the last time. And the Lord institutes the baking of bread. And this is the first time it's kept. It says, he took bread, verse 19, and gave thanks, and break it, and gave unto them, saying, this is my body, which is given for you. This do in remembrance of me. Likewise, also the cup after supper, saying, this cup is the New Testament in my blood, which is shed for you. And this, of course, is enlarged on by the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 11, set forth there as something specially given from heaven, that he received from the Lord. And words added that we don't get here, that we hope to turn to a little later. Now I want to turn over to the 13th chapter of John. Because in the 13th chapter of John, we have, I believe, something that comes in between the record in verse 18 and what we have in verse 19. Although we wouldn't gather that all together from verse 21. But we have to remember that Luke never gives us the chronological order. If you want to get the chronological order, or the order in which the events happened, we get that in Mark's gospel, and not in Luke. Luke gives us what is known as the moral order. But if we come over to the 13th of John, we have here something that took place between the Passover and the breaking of bread. And we read some verses here in John 13. Now before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour was come, that he should depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end. And supper being ended. And the supper here is the Passover supper, not the breaking of bread. And supper being ended, the devil now having now put into the heart of Judas Iscariot Simon's son to betray him, Jesus knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he was come from God and went to God, he riseth from supper, and laid aside his garments, and took a towel and girded himself. After that he poured water into a basin, and began to wash the disciples' feet, and to wipe them with the towel wherewith he was bearded. Then cometh he to Simon Peter. You see, Peter comes in to the picture again. And Peter said unto him, Lord, dost thou wash my feet? Jesus answered and said unto him, What I do thou knowest not now, but thou shalt know hereafter. Peter said unto him, Thou shalt never wash my feet. Jesus answered him, If I wash thee not, thou hast no path with me. Simon Peter said to him, Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head. Jesus said unto him, Need it is washed, need it not save to wash his feet, that is clean every whip. And ye are clean, but not all, for he knew who should betray him. Therefore said he, Ye are not all clean. So after he had washed their feet, and had taken his garments, and was set down again, he said unto them, Know ye what I have done to you? Ye call me master and lord, and ye say, well, for so I am. If I then your lord and master have washed your feet, ye also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you. Verily, verily, I say unto you, the servant is not greater than his lord, neither is he that is sent, greater than he that sent him. If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them. I believe that the right sequence, as we said is, that the Lord kept the Passover. And then it says here, supper being ended, or supper going on. That is right at the very end of the keeping of the Passover, John tells us something that the other three don't tell us. John doesn't mention at all the breaking of bread. That doesn't come into John's writings at all. It's not in his gospel, it's not mentioned in his three epistles, and certainly not mentioned in Revelation, because that takes up a different subject. So John completely ignores in his ministry the breaking of bread. John's esteem is the family of God. Now the apostle Paul, who takes up teaching us to the church of God, he is the one who takes up the matter of the breaking of bread. And of course, the institution of the supper is mentioned in Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Although, as we said, Luke gives us the clearest division between the Passover and the breaking of bread. And John gives us here what takes place between the two. The Lord has kept the Passover with these twelve apostles. Judas is still there. He's there with the others. And then the Lord rises from supper, and he puts aside his garments, and he takes a towel, that is, without a garment he would be wounded, and he takes a towel and girds himself. The Lord takes the place of the servant. You know, in the Eastern homes it was the work of the servant to wash the feet of the guests when they came. And you remember how the Lord had to chide Simon the Pharisee because he hadn't given him water to wash his feet when he came in in the 7th of Luke. But if there was no servant in the house, the master of the house washed the guest's feet. He took the servant's place. And that's what the Lord does here. The Lord rises from supper, and he lays aside his garments and girds himself with a towel. Perhaps this is a little picture of what the Lord had already done in laying aside his glory, as it were, in veiling his divine glory and coming into this scene, as we have him set forth in the 2nd chapter of Philippians, where it says he emptied himself and took all those steps down, becoming obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. And it says he took upon him the form of a servant. That's what the Lord did. Then he begins to wash the disciples' feet. Of course, the Lord does this because he wants to teach them a spiritual lesson. We do have some groups of Christians today who carry out literal feet washing. There's one group, they say that washing of the feet is an ordinance that they keep, the same as they keep baptism and the same as they keep the breaking of bread. But we don't believe that the Lord intended this to be a literal thing that we should do. Baptism, yes, and the Lord's Supper, yes, but the feet washing, the Lord was teaching here a spiritual lesson through what he was doing literally. He goes round and starts to wash the disciples' feet. Then he comes to Peter, and Peter says, does thou wash my feet? Peter doesn't want the Lord to wash his feet. The Lord, Peter loved the Lord. In spite of all of his failures and shortcomings and the things that he did, Peter really loved the Lord. And he thought that the Lord was demeaning himself by taking a servant's place and getting down there low before him, kneeling down before him to wash his feet. And so he raises the question, Lord, are you washing my feet? And the Lord says to him in verse 7, what I do thou knowest not now, but thou shalt know hereafter. You don't understand, Peter, what I'm doing now, but you'll know afterwards. And Peter says, Lord, thou shalt never wash my feet. Lord, I'm not going to allow you to wash my feet, Peter says. And so what does the Lord say? If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me. And what does the Lord mean when he said to Peter, if I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me? Does that mean that if the Lord didn't wash him, that Peter, that it would mean that Peter was not saved? That Peter would not be with the Lord in heaven? No. The Lord doesn't say, if I wash thee not, thou hast no part in me, but thou hast no part with me. Now, in Christ is salvation. But with Christ is communion. And what the Lord is saying to Peter, Peter, if I wash thee not, thou hast no communion with me, thou hast no part with me. You're not in fellowship with me, Peter, if I don't wash you. And so then Peter goes to the other extreme, and he says to him, Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head. If that's the case, Lord, wash me all over, Peter says. You see, Peter didn't understand what the Lord was trying to teach him. And then the Lord says, he that is washed all over, it's two different words used here, and the word used here in verse 10, he that is bathed, he that is washed all over, he that is bathed needeth not save to wash his feet, but is clean every width. And you're clean, but not all. Because he knew that Judas Iscariot was going to betray him, so he wasn't all clean. The Lord really says, you disciples have all been bathed. You've all been converted. But you need, your feet get dirty, and you need to have your feet washed. But there's one among you even that isn't even cleaned. He's not even been bathed. But the rest of you, you need to have your feet washed to have part with me. I believe the whole picture here, if we can see it, in those lands, they didn't wear shoes as we do. They wore sandals. They didn't even know what socks and stockings were. No such thing had been invented. They wore sandals to protect their feet. And they certainly didn't have a lot of paved streets like we have, but very dusty, dirty streets. And here would be a man who would go to the public baths to bathe himself. And he would bathe himself all over in the public baths. But then as he walked back to his house through the dusty street, what would happen? His feet would get dusty. Just wearing the sandals, his feet would become dusty. And so when he got back to the house, he would need to wash his feet. He wouldn't need to bathe again. He would be clean. But he would need to clean his feet in order to be in the house with the others. And so this is what the Lord is saying to the apostles. He says, You've been to the baths. You've been washed all over. You've been washed in the water of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost. My precious word has been applied to you for salvation. But you need to have your feet cleansed. You get your feet dirty along the way. And so do we, beloved brethren. We who know the Lord as our Savior, we've been bathed. We've been washed all over. But you know, day by day, we pick up the defilement of the way. This is a defiling scene in which we live. We cannot walk through it without being defiled. And how do we get rid of this defilement along the way? The Lord applies his word to us. It says in the epistle of the Ephesians, where it speaks about the Lord giving himself to the church, that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word. The Lord could say to the apostles or there in the 15th chapter of this very book a little later on, now are ye clean through the word which I've spoken unto you. Yes, the word of God has a cleansing effect upon us. I remember reading about a dear old saint and he said, you know, I really don't think it's much good my reading the Bible anymore because my mind's like a sieve and I can't even remember what I read. I read something and then I forget it. And the brother said to him, well, you know, if you have a sieve and it gets dirty, even though it doesn't hold any water, if you let the water run through it, at least it keeps the sieve clean. And if your mind is like a sieve, the word of God will have a cleansing effect on it, even though you're not able to retain any of it. And of course, it's not quite true that you don't retain any because you will retain some of it. And so it's necessary. That's why we need to read the word of God daily and not only read it, but allow the word to have its effect upon us. It's cleansing effect on us as we go along day by day through this sieve. So the Lord taught Peter and the other apostles made out an important lesson. And he said to them in verse 12, no, down in verse 15, verse 14, if I then your Lord and master, well, first of all, verse 13, he says, you call me master and Lord and you say, well, for so I am. If I then your Lord and master have washed your feet, ye also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example that ye should do as I have done to you. Do you notice the contrast between verses 13 and 14? He says, ye call me master and Lord. But he says, if I your Lord and master, they put the word master or teacher first and Lord second. But when the Lord uses the expressions, he puts Lord first and master after. You know, Jesus has to be our Lord before he can be our teacher. We have many people who are willing to own the Lord as a great teacher, but they're not willing to own him as Lord. Without the apostles even, we're failing in that. Nicodemus came to the Lord as a teacher. We know that thou art a teacher come from God and no man can do these miracles that thou doest except God be with him. But he didn't get no Jesus as his Lord. And the Lord told him, Nicodemus, you need to be born again. You don't need to just follow me as a teacher. And it's only when we give the Lord his place as the Lord of our lives that we really get the benefit of his teaching and we can follow him as a teacher. So the Lord says, I your Lord and master have washed your feet. We also ought to wash one another's feet. Well, how is it that the Lord washes our feet? I believe he does it as we read the word and the word comes home to our hearts. That's how he cleanses us as we go along. Then it may be that in a meeting in the ministry of the word, something is said that comes home to our hearts that the Lord uses to convict us of something that we're doing that we shouldn't do. And in that way, the Lord washes our feet. Or it may be the Lord brings a portion of his word to our minds and the scripture to our minds. But the Lord is the one who is washing our feet along the way, cleansing us from the defilement of the way. And he says that if he's left, if he washed their feet, they would have washed one another's feet. And this is something that we can do. And you know, I think there's two or three things here that we can see that we can learn some lessons from. The Lord not only washed their feet, but it says he dried them. He wiped them with the towel wherewith he was girded. He not only washed their feet, he wiped their feet and left them dry. You know, it's very uncomfortable to have your feet wet and just sit there with wet feet. They start to itch and you don't feel very comfortable. And how soothing it is after you've had your feet washed to have them dried with a towel. You know, if we go to wash one another's feet, we have some very precious lessons to learn here. One lesson is, you know, that if you're going to wash someone's feet, you've got to take a very low place. If there's another sitting there that needs his feet washed, and I want to wash his feet, I've got to get down on my knees pretty low before him and pick up those dirty feet and wash the dirt off them and then dry them with a towel and leave him nice and comfortable. That's humbling work. You just can't come along to a person and take a superiority attitude and wash his feet. And the lesson for us is that often maybe the Lord could use us to be a help to one another. If we see a brother who's got his feet dirty or a sister who's got her feet dirty, and to be able to just go along to that one and wash the feet. I'm sure the Lord didn't use the water too cold or he didn't use it too hot. We'd like to get a bucket of cold water and throw over the feet of some people or perhaps we'd like to get a bucket of hot water and we think that would have a better effect because they feel it a bit more. Neither of those things would do any good. The Lord washed the feet and he dried them with a towel. And if we want to be a help to one another, we've got to take a humble place, brethren. Maybe we've got to own ourselves that we've had something wrong in ourselves and take a very low place and then the Lord could use us to be the means in his hand of washing the feet of one who's gone astray. So we have here precious lessons. Now, we might say that we have in this chapter three things that begin with B. We have the bath, he that is bathed or he that is washed all over. Then we have the basin. The Lord took the basin to wash their feet. But we have one more thing and we have the bosom. It tells us in verse 23 when the Lord said that one would betray him, now there was leaning on Jesus' bosom one of his disciples whom Jesus loved. Simon Peter therefore beckoned to him that he should ask who, he should ask who it should be of whom he spake. Then he lying on Jesus' breast said unto him, Lord, who is it? And Jesus answered, he it is to whom I shall give a sop when I have dipped it. And when he had dipped the sop, he gave it to Judas Iscariot the son of Simon after the sop Satan entered into him. And then said Jesus unto him, that thou doest do quickly. Now no man at the table knew for what intent he spake this unto him. For some of them thought that because Judas had the bag that Jesus had said to him, buy those things that we have need of against the feast or that he should give something to the poor. He then having received the sop went immediately out and it was night. Isn't that a significant verse? Judas goes out and he goes out into the night. And it wasn't just that he went out into the night in a physical sense, but spiritually Judas went out into the night. He went out to take the servants of the chief priests and the scribes to the garden of Gethsemane and to declare the Lord Jesus with a kiss. And it was night for Jesus. It says Satan entered into him. You know, we have people that say they believe Judas was converted. I don't think scripture gives us any world to say that Judas was a converted man. Judas was a hypocrite. Judas was one who was in that place of great meanness being one of the apostles, but he never got near the Lord. He never called Jesus Lord. You notice that wherever Judas Iscariot speaks, he calls him master, teacher, but he never called him Lord. And no man can say Jesus is Lord from his heart, but by the power of the Holy Spirit. Judas didn't know Jesus is Lord. He only knew him as a teacher. Judas was like many people today who are willing to own that Jesus was a good man and that's as far as they get. Oh yes, he was a good man. He was a great teacher. He was this, that and the other, but they don't own him as their Lord and they don't own him as the son of God. And therefore they have nothing. And it tells us of Judas that he went to his own place and that wasn't heaven. He went to his own place. Satan was into him. He became a fool of Satan. Of course, I don't think he thought the Lord would allow himself to be betrayed, to be a taker. He thought the Lord would escape out of their hands and he would remain with 30 pieces of silver in his pocket and no one would know anything about it. But he loved money and the love of money was what led him to his doom as it's led thousands since. Sad to say. Bible says the love of money is the root of all evil. It's one of those deadly things that you find in this scene that people, whether they have it or whether they don't, people don't have to have a lot of money to love it. Some of the people who love money, most of those that don't have it and they'll do anything to get it and it leads them to commit all kinds of crimes in order to get it and leads people down to a lost eternity and down to hell. And that was Judas. Judas goes out. The Lord now has kept the parcel with his own. He has washed the disciple's feet and Judas goes out and now the Lord takes of the bread and the wine on the table and institutes the breaking of bread. You see why it was that that man went into that house with a pitcher of water? That water was necessary there. Here was that great big earthenware pitcher full of water that that man carried in. I think it must have been a very large pitcher. Perhaps it was too large for a woman to have carried and therefore this man carried it and so he takes it in there and there's the pitcher of water that the Lord was able to pour into the basin when he washed the disciple's feet. That water had a specific purpose. It was necessary there for the Lord to wash the feet and so we have the word of God that God has given us and if you want to study up more about this study the teaching that we have in the 19th of Numbers on the red heifer where we have the water of purification and I'd like to turn now to 1 Corinthians 11 just for a minute to round out this whole subject because in 1 Corinthians 11 we have a further teaching in connection with this precious subject of the Lord's Supper or the baking of bread. Portions we often read Lord's Day Morning and you get the term the Lord's Supper mentioned in verse 20 of 1 Corinthians 11. You have the Lord's table mentioned in 1 Corinthians 10 and verse 21. You cannot be drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of devils. You cannot be partakers of the Lord's table and the table of devils. So there's the Lord's table. Now when we come to 1 Corinthians 11 we get in verse 20 when we come together therefore into one place this is not to eat the Lord's Supper because they were doing it wrong and then the apostle tells us from verse 23 that he'd received a communication from the Lord about this for I've received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you that the Lord Jesus the same night in which he was betrayed took bread and when he had given thanks he said and he drank it and said take eat this is my body which is for you it should read which is for you this do in remembrance of me after the same manner also he took the cup when he had stopped saying this cup is a new testament in my blood this do ye that which you drink it in remembrance of me now this is more or less the same as what we have in the gospels but then we have verse verse 26 and what follows added by the apostle Paul under the guidance of the Holy Spirit giving specific instruction for us Paul as often as ye eat this bread and drink this cup ye do show or announce the Lord's death till he come therefore whosoever shall eat this bread and drink this cup of the Lord unworthily shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord but let a man examine himself and so let him eat of that bread and drink of that cup for he that eats it and drinks it unworthily eats it and drinks it that nation or judgment to himself must be serving the Lord's body for this cause many are weak and sickly among you and when he sleep many sleep for if we would judge ourselves we would not be judged but when we are judged we are chastened of the Lord but we should not be condemned with the world and sin and verse 20 33 wherefore my brethren when ye come together to eat carry one for another if any man hunger let him eat at home but ye come not together unto condemnation and the rest will I set in order when I come well just briefly we have here five things in connection with the breaking of bread we have first of all it's an act of obedience the Lord says this do do this the Lord says and if we do it we will obey him so to remember the Lord is an act of obedience then he says in remembrance of me this is mentioned twice this do is mentioned twice for the bread and for the cup in remembrance of me is mentioned twice for the bread and for the cup and when he says in remembrance of me it's an act of remembrance we remember him we show his death and we remember him then he says in verse 26 ye do show the Lord's death or ye do announce the Lord's death so that shows us that it's a testimony every time we remember the Lord we're giving a testimony to the fact that we are his loyal people who are remembering him in his own appointed way and calling him to mind as the one who died first as Mr. Darby I think it was who says we worship a living Christ but we remember a dead Christ we remember one who died but we don't worship one who is dead thank God we worship one who's living but he did die and the Lord's suffer is a reminder of his death you know I think that the reason why we have two ordinances in Christianity and only two is that it's God's confession to us human beings as Christians while we're still here when we're in the perfect state in glory we won't need these things to remind us Israel had an infinitude of ordinances until they became a burden they were all done away with except baptism and the bathing of death and they don't have to do with the Lord's death baptism is our individual identification with the Lord in his death the Lord's suffer is the continuing remembrance of the Lord as the one who died first and if we were in the perfect state as we will be in glory we won't need one or the other and if we could be perfect while we're down here we wouldn't need them but we're not perfect yet we're still in the body we still don't need as many things to distract and the Lord has given us these two things where by which we participate in something which only need three elements water, bread and wine to carry them out baptism as the initiatory ordinance and the baking of bread as the continuing ordinance to remember the Lord so it's a testimony then it says till he comes so it's a hope we're looking forward to his coming again we will show the Lord's death till he comes I remember reading about Brother Ironside was one time invited by a minister of some church to give a message to his congregation and he preached on the Lord's coming and the pastor came up to him afterwards and he says Mr. Ironside he says I'm sorry you preached on the Lord's coming again because he says we don't believe in that in this church and Mr. Ironside noticed that they had down in the front of the pulpit there a table as they usually have in these places what they call the communion table and so he said to this preacher well he says what do you call that table that you have there well he said we call that the Lord's table well he says what do you do with it well he said we use that when we have the Lord's supper well he says you do he says and how long do you expect to have the Lord's supper and of course the minister didn't know what he was getting at well he said I don't know I suppose as long as we're here and then Brother Ironside turned to this verse as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup ye do show the Lord's breath till he comes and he said to him you know if you don't believe in the Lord's coming you shouldn't be celebrating the Lord's supper because the two things are connected yes in the breaking of bread we look back to his death and we look on to his coming again and we're in the little interval between and that's why I never like to miss the breaking of bread unless I can possibly help it because it might be the last one you remember that Thomas wasn't there when Jesus came when he first appeared to his own he missed out but the Lord gave him another chance he was there the next week it says Thomas was there the second time when the Lord appeared so we should make a point of being in fact Brother and I don't believe we should miss any meeting that we could possibly be present at we can't afford to miss the breaking of bread we can't afford to miss the gospel meeting we can't afford to miss the prayer meeting we can't afford to miss the ministry if we can possibly be there now there are times it happens we can't be things come in that we can't make it and we can't be there or sickness and one thing in another but whenever we can we should make an effort to be at the meeting for the Lord's sake for our own sakes and for our brethren's sake when we're preaching the gospel for the sake of those that come in outside because if we all say well I'm not going to go along to the meeting and some outsider came in and said what kind of a place is this I'm the only one here and the preacher would only have him to preach to we should have fellowship with those who announce the gospel by our presence and it does us good to hear the gospel preached even ourselves we show the Lord's best when we come now the last one is it's a responsibility it says let a man examine himself and this comes in somewhat with the feet washing the Lord says we should we should apply the we should apply the washing of water to ourselves let a man examine himself you know the priests of the of the tabernacle the priests that uh that served in the tabernacle they had their in the court when you entered into the court of the tabernacle you went through the gate and there was first of all the the brazen altar then there was the laver and the laver was for the priest to wash their hands and their feet every every time that they went to minister at the brazen altar they first of all had to wash their hands and their feet and whenever they went inside to minister in the holy place they had to wash their hands and their feet and we need to wash our hands and our feet with the washing of water by the word and that's what it means let a man examine himself i don't think it just means that we just should examine ourselves just before we're going to go to break bread but that we should live in a in a state of examination that is of of judging ourselves in that condition not allowing things in our lives that would bring dishonor to the Lord let God's word apply to us and let us not forget to be thankful for the Lord's present work he's still washing our feet he's in heaven as our high priest to maintain us in relationship with himself he's able to say to the uppermost women that come unto God by him he's in heaven too as our advocate if any man's sin we have an advocation of the father Jesus Christ the righteous we come to him and confess our sin and he's faithful and just to forgive us our sin and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness he applies the washing of water by the word and as i said before we can help one another by applying the word and doing it in humility and in that way we can help our brothers and our sisters that the word might be applied to them if it's failure and that they might continue on in fellowship with the Lord we do not lose this salvation that God has given us but beloved we can't lose the fellowship and the Lord said to Peter if we don't get washed and cleansed we lose our communion we have no part with him we can't lose our part in him but we can lose our part with him so he's connected with the life of the apostle Peter the use of the word for blessing to our souls …

… Let us turn to the 22nd chapter of Luke, and we'll read from verse 31, Luke 22, verse 31, And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat, that I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not, and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren. And he said unto him, Lord, I am ready to go with thee both into prison and to death. And he said, I tell thee, Peter, the cock shall not crow this day before that thou shalt thrice deny that thou knowest me. In our studies on the life of Peter, we've arrived at this portion where we have Peter's denial of the Lord. In our last meeting, we were speaking on this previous part of this 22nd chapter of Luke, where the Lord institutes the supper, and after having washed the disciples' feet, as we have it mentioned in the 13th chapter of John's Gospel. And these verses that we've read, that is in verses 31 and 32, where the Lord says to Peter, Satan hath desired to have them, that he might sift them as wheat, we only get this statement in Luke's Gospel. We have in the other three Gospels, in fact in all four Gospels, various things in connection with Peter's denial. But here we find that beforehand, the Lord says this to Peter, Satan has desired to have you. You notice that when he says Satan has desired to have you, that's plural. You see, our Bible's written in Old English, where the pronoun you is always the plural. We use it today for the singular as well as the plural. But in our Old English, Shakespearean English, in which our authorized version is written, you is plural, and thee is singular. So, the Lord says to Peter, I have prayed for thee. Satan's desired to have you, the whole twelve of you, or at least the eleven. Judas has already gone out, Satan already had him. But he desired to have the other eleven, and he desired to have them, that he might sift them as wheat is sifted. Now, this is the picture of the old threshing floor that they used in those days. They have a threshing floor, they still use this in the rural parts of Columbia, down in South America where we labored for the Lord. They have a flat piece of ground, often it's on the top of a hill, that is a piece that's been leveled off and trodden hard, the clay trodden hard. And that's where they, when they reap the grain, where they spread it all out. And then they run the animals round over it. And as the animals run around, in Bible times it was oxen, down there it's usually horses. As they're running round and round, the men are there with forks, tossing it up all the time to keep it moving. And the animals run round this threshing floor, and they literally tread out the grain. The grain is in this way, trodden out from the stalks, where it is, the heads of the wheat, until it's all trodden out. Then what they have to do, they have to winnow it. They rake off all the loose straw, and then they gather the grain together. And with the grain, there's a great deal of chaff. And what do they have to do with the chaff? Well, they have to get rid of it. So they winnow it. They toss it up in the air when the wind's blowing, and the chaff all blows away. And finally, they have the chaff all over there, and here's a heap of wheat. And so that's what Satan wanted to do with the apostles. He wanted to sift them. But you know, it doesn't say that he may sift you as chaff. It says he may sift you as wheat. Now Peter, and James, and John, and Matthew, and all of those eleven apostles, they were all wheat. Judas was chaff, and he'd already been sifted out. And Satan would like to have sifted all the others out. But you know, the more you sift wheat, the more you get rid of the impurities. Even after the wheat has all been winnowed, before it can be used, before it can be ground and used to bake bread, they have to go through it. And they lay it all out on a table, and the servant girl goes through, and every grain is pushed on one side, and the little bits of stone and other things that have gotten into it, they're pushed off on the other side until they have wheat that's just pure wheat, ready to be ground and used to bake bread. So this is the old process that was used in this time. And we can see that when Satan was going to put Peter and all the apostles through the sieve, what it would do was that it would just sift out what was not wheat and leave what was pure wheat. Now there was a good bit of chaff with Peter, as we know. And so the Lord allowed Satan, when Satan wanted to sift the apostles, the Lord allowed them to be sifted, that the chaff might be sifted out, and that the wheat might be made. So the Lord says to Peter, I've prayed for thee. As much as to say, well, you apostles are going to be sifted. But I've made you a matter of special prayer beforehand, Peter, which your faith might not fail. Now this is a lovely thought, is it not, beloved brethren? That this prayer of the Lord for Peter is a little picture of his prayer, his present work for us, in anticipation of trials and testings that the Lord allows us to go through. He allows us to be tested. The devil tests us, and the world tests us, and the flesh tests us, and the Lord allows the testing. But he prays for us that our faith might not fail. This is the Lord's present work in the glory as our great high priest. We saw that, we referred to that briefly when we were looking at Peter's, when he tried to walk on the water, you know, and how that the Lord, even before that, he had been up in the mountain praying for them. And then he came to them on the water. That's what he does, he's up on the mountain, he's in the glory, bearing us up in prayer. Satan's desire is to have you, apostles. I've prayed for thee, Peter, that thy faith fail not. Now, we turn back to Matthew, and I want to link up what I already read there with verse 33 in Matthew 26. Or rather, we'll read verse 31. Then said Jesus unto them, All ye shall be offended because of me this night. For it is written, I will smite the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered abroad. But after I am risen, I will go before you into Galilee. Peter answered and said unto him, Though all men shall be offended because of thee, yet will I never be offended. Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, That this night before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice. And in Mark's gospel, the Lord says to Peter, This night before the cock crowed twice, thou shalt deny me thrice. Mark is the only one who mentions that, but actually the cock was going to crow two times before Peter denied the Lord. But the other gospels just mention the one time. It just shows how in many things, Mark, while he's so similar to Matthew in many of the things that he says, he brings in some little points which you do not get in the other gospels. For here we get the protection of the guidance of the Holy Spirit in leading each apostle, or each evangelist rather I should say, each writer of the four gospels to record that which was in keeping with the special theme that he had in writing that particular gospel. So here we have Peter when the Lord says all shall be offended. He'd already said as we read in Luke that Satan desired to have them. And now he says all shall be offended because of me. All you shall go, you shall all be offended because of me. And he quotes the scripture as we have it there in we see where it's in Zechariah, isn't it? Yes, we have it in Zechariah. I will smite the shepherd and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered abroad. This was going to be fulfilled that very night. And so Peter says in all of his zeal for the Lord that all men shall be offended although all shall be offended because of thee yet will I never be offended. We've said before in these talks that we do not believe that Peter was a hypocrite. When Peter said something like this Peter meant what he said. Peter was not hypocritical. He really meant it. He loved the Lord. And Peter couldn't conceive at this moment when he said this that it would be possible for him to be offended with the Lord or to deny the Lord or to be ashamed of the Lord. He just didn't think such a thing was possible. He really meant it. But the trouble with Peter and the trouble so often with us too is he didn't know his own heart. He didn't realize what the deceitful heart of man is capable of doing even to a believer. You know the word says in Isaiah the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it? And the answer is I the Lord. The Lord knows our hearts. When it says the heart's deceitful above all things and desperately wicked that's not just referring to the unsaved. That's referring to the heart of every person. You and I have hearts like that. The Lord has saved our souls. But we are capable of doing some things we shouldn't do and we do sometimes. And we are surprised ourselves at the things that we do that we dishonor the Lord. Well that's what Peter was going to find out. So we might say that here we have the first step the first step down that Peter takes that leads eventually to his fall. Peter here is boasting. When the Lord had said Satan's desire to have you that I prayed for thee and when he said all of you are going to be offended in me this night the wise thing for Peter to have done would have been to say Lord keep me from being offended in me. I don't want to do that and to look to the Lord that he would allow him not to deny his Lord not to do anything that would dishonor the Lord. But now Peter takes up what we can see now is a boasting attitude. Though all should be offended yet will I never be offended. Remember when Peter's finally restored in the 21st of John that the Lord says to him Simon son of Jonas lovest thou me more than these? Why does the Lord say lovest thou me more than these? What did the Lord mean when he said lovest thou me more than these? I read somewhere once where a man was writing on this and he said that the Lord was saying to Peter lovest thou me more than these fishes. Now that's just nonsense. The Lord is saying Peter do you love me more than the other apostles love me? The Lord was probing Peter because that's exactly what Peter said here. He says Lord though all should be offended I love you Lord more than all the other apostles here and even though John and James and Matthew and Bartholomew should be offended I wouldn't be offended in you Lord. I love you more than the other apostles love you. I'd never be offended in you. You see Peter's taking a boasting attitude and this is a sad thing. Now we want to be careful in studying this not to do it in the sense of finding fault with Peter exactly but in seeing that what Peter did is what we can do. We're capable of doing and if we take an attitude like this of boasting of our love for the Lord and of our service for the Lord and what we're doing for the Lord we're really in a dangerous position. We're taking a step down that could lead us eventually to do exactly what Peter did because there's no one reaches a point of when we get away from the Lord there's no one reaches a point where he's right away from the Lord overnight. When we get like that it's because there's been a course that's led us there. Peter took a course down Peter took several steps down and one step followed another and this it seems is the first step Peter's boasting the Lord shall be offended because of thee yet will I never be offended he's boastful instead of humble. We go on a little further when we read verse 36 then come of Jesus with them unto a place called Gethsemane and saith unto the disciples sit ye here while I go and pray yonder and he took with him Peter Peter's here again you see he took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee James and John and began to be sorrowful and very heavy then saith he unto them my soul is exceeding sorrowful even unto death carry ye here and watch with me then he went a little farther and fell on his face and prayed saying oh my father if it be possible let this cup pass from me nevertheless not as I will but as thou wilt and he cometh unto the disciples and findeth them asleep and saith unto Peter what could ye not watch with me one hour watch and pray that ye enter not into temptation the spirit indeed is willing but the flesh is weak and he goes further on but the Lord comes back and still finds them sleeping he findeth them asleep I believe we have here the second step down with Peter you might say well Peter was excused because it was night time no doubt he was tired and very sleepy hadn't had enough rest and that's true that's what the Lord meant when he said the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak and the flesh is not used here in the bad sense the flesh as opposed to the spirit but in the sense of the body being tired and we know what that is everyone of us knows what it is to be tired when we sit in a meeting sometimes and you find yourself nodding off to sleep even though you want to keep awake and listen to what's being said that's what is meant here the flesh is weak the spirit's willing but the flesh is weak it's because of that's just how we're made and yet there's really no excuse when the Lord of glory is here just before he's to be betrayed and he's there in the garden of Gethsemane no doubt he'd been there many many times before in this garden of Gethsemane Judas knew the place it says Judas knew that the Lord was wont to be there in that garden with his disciples that he was that he had the custom of spending a lot of time there praying and so the Lord there goes into the garden and he takes Peter and James and John these three who seem to be a little closer to the Lord than the rest and he takes them with him and then he withdraws from a little further and he there falls on his face and says oh my father if it be possible let this cup pass from me you know this is a passage that sometimes has not been understood what did the Lord mean when he asked the father to let this cup pass from him what was the cup? the cup was the work that he had to do in going to the cross and in the Synoptic Gospels Matthew, Mark and Luke we find the Lord praying this prayer let this cup pass from me the Lord I believe in his humanity in his holy humanity he shrank from that awful contact with sin that he was going to have at the cross when he who knew no sin was going to be made sin for us and so he asked the father if there's any way that thou mightest be glorified by this cup passing from me do it but he adds nevertheless not my will but thine be done you know I have to say something here I have heard from time to time people say the Lord didn't have any will of his own well I don't think that's the right expression the Lord had his own will in the sense of the Lord the Lord had a will to do what had to be done the point is here that he submitted his will to the father scripture doesn't say the Lord didn't have a will of his own but he did make the father's will his will I think when people say that that's what they mean sometimes but I think it's an expression that's liable to be understood each one of us has a will and it's a good thing that we do have a will it's right to have a will but it's not right to do what we want to do if it's in opposition to the will of God our will should be subject to God's will so we can say in the things in our lives not my will but thine be done and then it's a question of submitting our will to his it's not a question of giving up our will but our will being in keeping with God's will and being in submission to God's will so that's what we find with the Lord now when we come to John's gospel we don't find this prayer we find what the Lord says later when they met him in the garden of Gethsemane and Judas comes to betray him the Lord says the cup which my father has given me shall I not drink it? you see he's already accepted the cup from the hand of the father and he's going to drink it that's why he doesn't want Peter to go slashing off the high priest's servant's ear because the Lord is now in the prayer here he knew that the father's answer was no it's impossible to take this cup away so the Lord has submitted to the father's will the cup which my father has given me shall I not drink it? now what what is the second mistake that Peter makes? he's sleeping when he shouldn't be watching the Lord says there in in the in the 36th verse he said to his disciples sit ye here while I go and pray yonder and then in verse 38 he says my soul is exceeding sorrowful he says to the three even unto death tarry ye here and watch with me so he wants them to pray with him and he wants them to watch with him and they don't pray and they don't watch he comes and finds them sleeping in verse 40 and he says to Peter because it seems that Peter is the special offender in the case what could you not watch with me one hour? watch and pray that ye enter not into temptation what a lesson this is for us we need to watch and to pray these two go together it says in Habakkuk that Habakkuk set set himself up on the watchtower and you know if you're on the watchtower praying you're also in the place where you can see the enemy when he comes in the olden days when they had these these castles and they had their watchtowers and the man that was on the watchtower had to be awake all the time but when he was on the watchtower he could see when the enemy was coming it was a high place he could see a long way off and if we're on the watchtower spiritually then we'll discern the enemy if we get off the watchtower or if we're there and go to sleep we won't see the enemy when he comes so this is a very necessary thing watching and praying they go together perhaps we don't know nearly as much about this as we should but here we find that Peter is sleeping when he should have been on the watchtower when he should have been praying so the Lord says watch and pray that ye enter not into temptation and then he says the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak but you see even though the flesh is weak we don't find that the Lord makes any excuse for the fact that Peter and the others were sleeping when they should have been praying in fact he rather he rather reproves them it's a kind of a gentle reproof he says what could ye not watch with me one hour have you ever tried to spend a whole hour just praying you sort of find yourself running out of subjects to pray about perhaps if we were just to get down and pray a whole hour but we find the Lord spent whole nights in prayer to God so I think that maybe that we don't know a great deal about this we need to spend more time in private prayer even though we come together in the assembly I believe that every brother in the assembly should be exercised in the prayer meeting to pray and while we're on the subject of prayer I think that we older brothers have got something that we've got to watch against and that is not to pray too long prayers in the prayer meeting you know I heard of a young brother once in a meeting and someone said to him why don't I ever hear you praying in the prayer meeting well he says the trouble in our prayer meeting is we have some brothers that pray locust prayers they said well what do you mean by locust prayers well he said they eat up every green thing and they leave us they leave nothing for us you know the young brother stressed that the old brother has prayed all around the world for everything you know it's a better habit to pray twice in a prayer meeting two short prayers and one long prayer supposing we come together for a prayer meeting and two or three brothers pray and they pray for various things that are on their hearts but each brother doesn't have to pray for everything that's on his heart I get up perhaps and I pray for several things and there are many other things that I'd like to pray for I shouldn't keep up I should stop and leave another brother opportunity to pray for those things and the other brothers then should be exercised before the Lord about other points that they want to pray for and then if after several brothers have prayed and there's a pause and there's something specific that I feel of not that should be prayed for that hasn't been prayed for well then I can pray again a second time so I recommend this to you because it's a good thing and I think we should be more exercised about taking part and not expecting not just waiting and sitting and expecting someone else it's the same the principle is the same in the breaking of bread of course we shouldn't just be sitting there not exercised to take part but rather exercised as to what part we should take I think sometimes we sit there without an exercise we should be exercised Lord, what is my part in this meeting? we brothers are responsible to keep the meeting going I think we disappoint the sisters sometimes we were in the meeting once and the brothers a sister told me this I wasn't at this particular meeting of course I could have been there though and they sat and sat and sat and sat and sat and no brother did anything and one sister gave another one a poke she says give out of him it might wake the brothers up well maybe I find fault with the sisters if they do that but maybe they if such a thing was done it would be a good thing sometimes perhaps to wake the brothers up well I'm not going to recommend it brethren but I'm just mentioning it as that these things cause exercise you see we brothers are responsible to not be dumb priests you read in the Old Testament about dumb priests so you see there's the two extremes a brother can take too much part in the meeting and a brother can take not enough part in the meeting and this is a little off our subject of prayer but anyhow I just felt that I'd mention it in connection with Peter Peter's second point in connection with Peter's fourth he was sleeping when he should have been washing and praying then the Lord goes on and says to them in verse 45 after he prayed the third time sleep on now and take your rest behold the hour is at hand and the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners rise let us be going behold he is at hand that doth betray me and while he yet spake lo Judas one of the twelve came and with him a great multitude with swords and staves from the chief priests and elders of the people now he that betrayed him gave them a sign saying whosoever I shall kiss that same is he hold him fast and forthwith he came to Jesus and said hail master and kissed him and Jesus said unto him friend wherefore art thou come then came they and laid hands on Jesus and took him and behold one of them which were with Jesus stretched out his hand and drew his sword and struck a servant of the high priests and smote off his ear and Jesus then said Jesus unto him put up again thy sword into his place for all that take the sword shall perish with the sword thinkest thou that I cannot now pray for my father and he shall presently give me more than twelve legions of angels but how then shall the scriptures be fulfilled that thus it must be now here we have I think the third point in Peter's fall although he's not mentioned here but Peter is the one that's mentioned in John the 18th chapter of John where it says behold one of them which were with Jesus that was Peter John says it was Peter who smote off the high priest's servant's ear and it was the Lord who put out his hand and he healed that ear that Peter had cut off here we have of course the treachery of Judas Judas comes to betray the son of man with a kiss and the Lord said to him betrayest thou the son of man with a kiss you know I don't believe that Judas thought that the Lord would allow himself to be taken although Judas it's very evident from scripture that Judas was not a believer that Judas has gone down to a lost eternity yet Judas no doubt would did not want the Lord to be taken as he was and crucified Judas had seen the Lord do so many miracles that he thought the Lord would escape out of their hands I truly believe I believe that Judas loved money and the love of money is the root of all evil and Judas thought I'll betray him I'll promise to the scribes and Pharisees that I'll betray him to them and he went and bargained with them to do it for 30 pieces of silver they'll pay me the money I'll betray him to them and he'll escape out of their hands and nothing will happen to him and I'll have the money in the pocket I'll be 30 pieces of silver richer and nobody will know anything about it and it was when he saw that the Lord allowed himself to be taken to be condemned to death and to be crucified that remorse filled his heart and he went out and hanged himself you see the great difference between Judas and Peter Judas betrayed his Lord Peter denied his Lord but we never read that the Lord said to Judas I have prayed for thee because Judas was not one of the Lord's but the Lord said to Peter I've prayed for thee and I believe we have in Peter and Judas an example of what it says in Corinthians that godly sorrow worketh repentance unto salvation not to be repented of but the sorrow of the world worketh death with Peter it was godly sorrow that worked repentance unto salvation not to be repented of Peter was truly restored because it was godly sorrow but with Judas it was the sorrow of the world that worketh death and that's the big difference between repentance and remorse a believer if he does wrong repents an unsaved person if he does wrong and goes his own way and doesn't know the Lord and there's no true repentance before God there becomes remorseful and that's what leads people to do the things that they do it's remorse well Peter thinks he's got to be very faithful to the Lord you see he's out of touch with the Lord in a sense he was he was boasting when he should have been humble and then when he should have been praying watching and praying he's sleeping he's away from the Lord he's not in the current of the Lord's force now the master is not resisting Judas betrays him the Lord allows himself to be taken and if the master is allowing himself to be taken the disciple should be following the master the Lord isn't fighting the master should the Lord isn't fighting the master isn't fighting the disciple shouldn't be fighting but Peter thinks he's got to defend the Lord and I really believe that what Peter did he took out his sword and he made one swipe intending to take that man's head off and apparently he to avoid Peter's sword he ducks one side as we say and Peter just sliced off his ear just caught his ear sliced off the ear of the high priest serpent whose name was Malchus as John tells us and the Lord heals the ear and the Lord has to rebuke Peter Peter's fighting now when he should have been submitting you see it's a further step away from the Lord and yet the Lord in grace the last miracle we might say that he performs he heals the ear but his unwise servant has cut off and there's no doubt a spiritual lesson in this too you know you can you we can we read in Ephesians that the that our weapon is the sword of the spirit which is the word of God now that doesn't mean to say that we are justified in making a wrong use of the scriptures to use the scriptures as a sword in the wrong way would be like doing what Peter did to cut off somebody's ear not literally of course but if you cut off a person's ear well then they're not going to listen to what you say and even a brother offended if I were to be one of the strong city scriptures is and even if an unsaved person is offended by something we do that really cuts off their ear then they don't want to listen to us so to me we've got to be very important we've got to be very careful about how we handle the scriptures when it says in Ephesians in the last in the fifth chapter the sixth chapter of Ephesians when it mentions the sword of the spirit which is the word of God it's really the sword of the spirit which is the saying of God and it's that that portion of the word that meets the occasion that that proposed that meets the need of the soul that's what it means there it's not just quoting scripture at random I believe that when the Lord was tempted by Satan in the wilderness and he quoted three times from the book of Deuteronomy in answer to Satan he was using the sword of the spirit he was using the word he was using that verse or those verses in the scriptures that just met that particular need that was the saying of God for that particular occasion it's only as we know the word of God that the Holy Spirit can bring to our minds the portion or verse needed for the occasion so the third step in Peter's fall is that he's resisting when he should have been submitting now we continue on reading from verse 56 that all this was done that the scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled then all the disciples forsook him and fled and they that had laid hold on Jesus led him away to Caiaphas the high priest where the scribes and the elders were assembled but Peter followed him afar off unto the high priest's palace and went in and sat with the servants to see the end here we have I believe the fourth step Peter follows afar off of course when we read the account given by John we find that that John followed the Lord also and as he was known to the high priest he went in to the high priest's house but verse 56 says that before that all the disciples forsook him and fled it seems they fled from the scene as the servants from the high priest came and laid hold on the Lord to lead him away and then it seems that Peter and John they decided to follow the Lord as he was taken along to the high priest's house but it specifically says of Peter that he followed afar off it doesn't say this of John and of course seeing that it's Peter that we're looking at and that that this account refers to because he was the one who denied the Lord this is a further step he's not as close to the Lord now as he should have been these previous steps have caused him to be at a distance from the Lord and that's what it is with us if we take steps down in our Christian life if we allow ourselves to become careless in one thing or another then we find that we're away from the Lord we're not close to him and therefore we become capable of doing things that we otherwise would never have thought of doing if we take the account given to us the accounts given in the four gospels with regard to the high priest's house and the sequence of events in connection with the next steps of Peter we have to keep in mind the construction of the buildings in those days it seems that the construction there was somewhat like many of the Spanish houses where there was a door leading to the street that was kept by a porter or as in this case a porteress that kept the door a girl kept the door then there was a vestibule that led in and inside an open courtyard or patio as we say in Spanish that was open to the sky and the rooms were built around this and no doubt the main room in the high priest's house into which the Lord was taken would lead off this inside yard this inside courtyard or patio in fact in Luke's gospel if you'll notice it mentions instead of the hall in the midst of the hall it says in the midst of the court that the fire was made and so we have the picture we have the doorway the outside door we have the vestibule or passageway leading to the big inside open yard or patio and then we have off that a number of rooms including the room into which the Lord was taken and where the judgment was held and that might not even have had doors so that from where Peter was there in the yard he could see the Lord inside the room when the process was going on a further step is now mentioned in connection with Peter's fall in verse 58 where it says he sat with the servants to see the end he not only follows the Lord afar off but he's there with the servants of the high priest Matthew just mentions this that he's there with the servants he's sitting with them it's we might say a further step he's associated there with the servants of those who were opposed to the Lord and who were who were seeking his death seeking to put him to death the first psalm says blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly nor standeth in the way of sinners nor siteth in the seat of the scornful and the sitting in the seat of the scornful is mentioned last as the final step walking standing and now sitting that's what Peter's doing he's sitting with the scorners he's sitting with those who were opposed to his master and apparently wanting to pass as one of them when we read the account in John's gospel we find that Peter it seems originally stayed outside of the door that was on the street it seems and John had gone in because he was known to the high priest so he goes to the girl that keeps the door and asks her to let Peter in and then Peter comes in now apparently this girl must have must have scrutinized Peter carefully as he came in and then realized that he was one of the Lord's disciples so it seems that shortly after this she goes up to Peter as he's sitting there with the servants gathered around the fire and she said to him aren't you aren't you one of his disciples and Peter denies it then we find that again someone speaks to him and Peter denies that he's the Lord's disciple I rather gather that it's after the second denial that the cock crows the first time as we have it in Mark's gospel and then about an hour afterwards Peter's still sitting there warming himself by the fire someone has said it's a picture of a Christian warming himself by the fire of the world because he seeks to be be warming himself spiritually with spiritual warmth and no doubt there's a good lesson for us in that well someone else says to him that charges him that he's one that is associated with Jesus of Nazareth as Matthew puts it in verse 73 after a while came came unto him they that stood by and said to Peter surely thou also art one of them for thy speech be rarely apparently several made the charge and then he began to curse and to swear saying I know not the man and immediately the cock crowed Peter really finally is acting as he did when he was a fisherman no doubt in his unregenerate days before his conversion as a rough fisherman on the sea of Galilee Peter knew what it was to curse and to swear and he'd given that up and now in order to prove that he's not one of the Lord's disciples he begins to curse and to swear and it says and immediately the cock crew and the second time Peter hears the cock crowing and this touches a chord in his heart in his memory he remembers what the Lord said and yes this is Peter he wouldn't have believed it and we wouldn't have believed it but there it is why has Peter reached this step that he's denied the Lord three times and the last time with cursing and swearing because these other steps down preceded the final steps of the threefold denial of his Lord and Master and so for this meeting we leave Peter there what lessons there are in this for us and may we beloved brethren learn from the fall of Peter that our own hearts are capable of deceiving us let's just go over the steps again we find Peter boasting of his love to the Lord when he should have been humble we find him sleeping when he should have been praying should have been watching and praying we find him resisting when he should have been submitting we find him following afar off when he should have been following closely we find him sitting with the servants of the high priest when he should have been in separation from them as one that was loyal to his master who was there being unjustly tried and finally we find him denying the Lord three times before the cock crew to remind him of the words of the Lord when he said before the cock crow thou shalt deny me thrice in the next meeting God willing we trust to take up the various steps in connection with Peter's restoration and we'll see how he was truly restored truly repentant and truly restored so that he became a useful vessel in the hands of the Lord for future service as we have it recorded in the scriptures …

… Let us turn to the 22nd chapter of Luke and we'll read from verse 61. We're going to speak tonight on Peter's restoration. We spoke the last time, last day afternoon, on his fall. And so we start off with the 61st verse, and the Lord turned and looked upon Peter. And Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how he had said unto him, before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice. And Peter went out and wept bitterly. In connection with Peter's fall, we saw that this was not something that came suddenly. There was a course of events that led to Peter's denying the Lord, starting, according to the record, with his boastfulness, when the Lord reminded him that all were going to be offended in him that night, and also that Satan had desired to have the apostles that he might sip from the sweet. And so we find these various steps down until Peter does exactly what the Lord said he would do. He denies the Lord three times. And it says in the 60th verse, when he denies the Lord three times, when they charged him with being the Lord's disciple, it says, man, I know not what thou sayest. And it says in one of the other gospels in Matthew, it says he began to curse and to swear, and then the cock crowed. And at that moment when the cock crowed, it says the Lord turned and looked on Peter. We were explaining in the last meeting the layout of what it seems to us was the layout of the high priest's house, with an entrance, a vestibule going in from the street, a large open courtyard or patio, and then various rooms leading off that. And one of these rooms, no doubt, was the room where the Lord was on trial, and possibly not even any doors between them, so that to where Peter was out in the courtyard where the fire was kindled and the high priest's servants were warming themselves, there was a clear view right in there where the Lord was standing. And I believe what must have happened was that when Peter denied the Lord and realized what he'd done, he would instinctively look toward the Lord, and at that very moment the Lord turned and looked on Peter, and their eyes would meet. I've thought sometimes what kind of a look the Lord gave Peter, because it says the Lord turned and looked upon Peter, and Peter remembered the word of the Lord. Right at that very moment when the cock crewed, and then the Lord's look, those two things together, Peter remembered what the Lord had said. I believe it was a look of compassion. I believe it was a look that said to Peter, I'm doing all this for you, Peter, and you've denied me. It must have been the look that melted Peter's heart, as he realized the terrible thing that he'd done, the very thing that the Lord said he would do, but he denied the Lord when he should have been there confessing him and not being ashamed of it. But I believe that this look of the Lord is the first step in Peter's restoration, the Lord's look. And you know, if we get away from the Lord, the Lord is looking on us, and I don't believe the Lord looks on us with anger if we deny him. He looks on us with pity. The Lord had said to Peter, I have prayed for thee, when he told Peter before his fall that the Satan desired to have them, that he might sit them as we desire. I prayed for thee, Peter. The Lord had prayed for Peter in anticipation of this very thing that Peter had done. And the Lord's look is really, you might say, the confirmation of the prayer that he's already made for Peter. And so the Lord's look, as the Lord looks on him, it's the first step in Peter's restoration. The second step, I believe, is what follows. Peter remembered the word of the Lord. He remembered what the Lord had said. The whole thing came back to him in that instant. All what the Lord had said to him, and how the Lord had said that the cock wouldn't crow twice before he denied him thrice, and how he had denied the Lord these three times, all of this came back to Peter. He remembered the word of the Lord. And as he remembered the word of the Lord, he would no doubt remember not only that the Lord says that you'll deny me, but the Lord had said, I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not. Because at that moment, Peter would just feel like giving up the whole thing altogether. That his faith would fail him. And the Lord says, I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not. So Peter would be remembering all of these different things that the Lord said. And there we get, we might say, a second step in Peter's restoration. He remembers the word of the Lord. And the third step is, Peter went out and wept bitterly. He went out, he found a lonely place, and he wept. He wept bitterly. However could I have done it, thought Peter. He just showed so ashamed of himself, to think that after all the company that he'd had with the Lord from the time of his conversion, right up to that time, of all the Lord's love that he'd shown, all the Lord's patience, and that now in the very, at the very time when he should have been faithful to his Lord, and he should not have been ashamed to confess his Lord, that he's denied it. But you see, these were tears of repentance. These were true tears of repentance. He went out and wept bitterly. And I believe that with repentance, there must always be tears. Now they mightn't be physical tears. You know, some people very much more easily move to tears than others. And you find some people that they're very sorry about things they've done, but the tears both come to them so easily. But at least there should be tears in the heart. That is, and that's what it was with Peter, I believe it was both. The tears that streamed from Peter's eyes were really the expression of the sorrow of his heart, as Peter was truly sorry and truly repentant, as he realized the enormity of what he had done, that he had denied his Lord right at the time that he should not have been ashamed of it. Peter went out and wept bitterly. Yes, he was. There was true repentance. It was godly sorrow, as we mentioned the other night with Peter. It was godly sorrow that worked repentance unto salvation, that is, unto his restoration. And it wasn't a godly sorrow not to be repented of. It was repentance from the heart. You know what happened to Judas with Judas? It was the sorrow of the world at work of death. I believe the sorrow of Judas was the sorrow of remorse, and the Lord didn't say he'd prayed for Judas, because Judas wasn't one of the Lord, but Peter was. And so there was godly sorrow, and Peter is truly repentant. This is a further step in Peter's restoration. We turn over to the 24th chapter. We don't get any further mentioned about Peter in the meantime. We have the account of the Lord's trial, the final days of his trial, the final moments of his trial, the Lord's being led away to be crucified, his being crucified, and his death, and his burial. But when we come over to the 24th chapter, we get the Lord's resurrection. He's risen from the dead. And it says in verse 10, it was Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Mary the mother of James and other women that were with them, which told these things unto the disciples. These are the women who went to the sepulchre, and they found the stone rolled away. They went to anoint the Lord, and the Lord had already risen. And the stone was rolled away, and the angel spoke to them and told them to go and tell the apostles what had happened. And so they went and told them. But it says in verse 11, their words seemed to them of idle tales, and they believed them not. Then arose Peter and ran unto the sepulchre, and stooping down, he beheld the linen clothes laid by themselves, and departed in himself, wondering of that which was come to pass. Now, I want to turn over for a minute to John's gospel, to the 20th chapter of John, where we have the account also of this first day of the week. And we'll read from the first verse. Then the first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early, when it was yet dark unto the sepulchre, and seeth the stone taken away from the sepulchre. Then she runneth and cometh to Simon Peter, and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, that was John, and saith unto them, They have taken away the Lord out of the sepulchre, and we know not where they have laid him. You notice that in the end of the 19th chapter, when it refers to the Lord, it refers to him as Jesus. But in the 20th chapter, it refers to him as the Lord. And it's very important to see that as long as the Lord was on earth, they called him Master and Lord, but he's referred to as Jesus. But the moment he's risen from the dead, they speak of him as the Lord, and we should speak of him as the Lord. It's not a good sign when you hear Christians always just referring to the Lord as Jesus. He's the Lord Jesus. We give him the title that belongs to him in respect. They have taken away the Lord, she says, out of the sepulchre, and we know not where they have laid him. Peter, therefore, went forth from that other disciple and came to the sepulchre. So they ran both together, and the other disciple did outrun Peter, and came forth to the sepulchre. And he, stooping down and looking in, saw the linen clothes lying, yet went he not in. Then come of Simon Peter, following him, and went into the sepulchre, and seeeth the linen clothes lie, and the napkin that was about his head, not lying with the linen clothes, but wrapped together in a place by itself. Then went in also that other disciple, which came first to the sepulchre, and he saw and believed. For as yet they knew not the scripture that he must rise again from the dead. Now we might say, hadn't the Lord told them time and again that he was going to rise from the dead, and rise from among the dead? Yes, yes. It says that they didn't know it. I think this means up to that time they hadn't realized it. Now they did. Now they had the evidence. They run to the sepulchre, John and Peter. John gets there before Peter. Possibly he was a younger man. I don't know. Scripture doesn't say so, although it's supposed to be that John must have been the youngest, because he lived a very, very long time after the Lord's death. Of course, that could have been to a great old age, because the Lord told him that he might, told Peter that even if John lived until he came again, what was that for him? But at any rate, John gets there first. But John doesn't go in. He looks in, but when Peter comes, he goes right in. And they see, and then John comes in, and they see the evidence of the resurrection. Now what was the evidence? What did they see when they looked into that sepulchre? I believe, brethren, that they saw these linen clothes that had been that had been wrapped around the Lord's body, lying there just like a chrysalis. And the napkin that was about his head would be wrapped in the place by itself. You see, when Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus buried the Lord, it says they took the linen cloth and they took all of this about 100 pounds weight of spices, and they wound this cloth around the Lord as the manner of the Jews was to bury. They would be wound around his leg, each leg separately, each arm separately, and wound all around the body. And with all of these spices that were in it, this cloth would be like as if you wound something, a cloth round that had been starched, so that when the Lord disappeared out of it, the shape of the body was still there. That's what they saw. They saw the clothes that the Lord had been wrapped in, the stiff linen cloths that the Lord had been wrapped in, just like they were when they were wrapped around him, that the body had disappeared. The Jehovah's Witnesses say it dissolved into gases because they don't want to believe in the resurrection. The Word of God tells us that the Lord rose bodily and he was there and came there and spoke to Mary Magdalene. And we have ample evidence in the Gospels that the Lord was risen from the dead. Over 500 brethren saw him at one time. And when Paul wrote to the Corinthians, over half of them were still alive, because he says the greater part remain under this presence. That means over half of them were still there and could have been spoken to and given their testimony at that time. There's ample evidence as 1 Corinthians 15 sets out of the resurrection of the Lord. They believed that he was risen from the dead. They didn't know up to that time, but the Lord had hadn't gone home to them. And I think this is what we might call the fourth step in Peter's resurrection. He realized that the Lord was risen. He realized that the Lord was alive. He realized that his Lord that he denied was not dead, he was a living Lord. And he was going to have the opportunity of getting this whole matter set right. What a lovely thing for Peter to lay hold of this truth. And what a wonderful truth it is for us to lay hold of, beloved, that we have a living Savior. That's the great strength of the Christian, of our Christian belief. Every time we have a funeral of one of the Lord's saints, one thinks, if this were all laying the body in the grave, if this were all how sad we'd be. Of all men most miserable, because we'd just be believing a myth. We'd be deceiving ourselves. But thank God it's not all. As the Lord rose from the dead, every one of his own is going to rise from the dead. And so we reverently lay away the mortal remains of our dear brothers and sisters, as the Creed puts it, in sure and certain hope of a glorious resurrection. It's a sure and certain hope, no doubt about it. As the Lord was raised from the dead, Christ the firstfruits, as 1 Corinthians 15 says, afterwards, later the Christ that is coming. So Peter really lay hold upon the precious truth that the Lord was risen again from the dead. Now to come back to Luke's Gospel, we have a further thought in connection with Peter's restoration, and this is what we might call the fifth point. In Luke 24, and in Luke 24 we have the two that walked to Emmaus, and how the Lord met them. And then, when the Lord made himself known to them in the breaking of bread, they get up that same hour and return to Jerusalem. It says in verse 33, and they rose up the same hour and returned to Jerusalem, and found the eleven gathered together, and then that were with them, saying, The Lord is risen indeed, and hath appeared to Simon. The Lord is risen indeed, and hath appeared to Simon. In the 16th of Mark, we have a little note there, we needn't turn to it, in the seventh verse, we have a little, as I was saying the other night, Mark gives us little incidents that are not recorded in the other Gospels. It's very precious to see that the Lord has led Mark to refer to a number of things that we don't get anywhere else. Mark says that the Lord said to the women, Go and tell his disciples and Peter that he goeth before you into Galilee. Why does the Lord have and Peter? I think that that was because Peter might have doubted whether the Lord would ever own him as a disciple again. Peter thought, well, I denied the Lord, can I ever be now one of his disciples? I have forfeited all claim to be an apostle now. So the Lord says, you tell his disciples, but don't leave Peter out, and Peter. Tell that Peter now, that I'm going before them into Galilee. I expected to see him there with the rest, and Peter was there too, as we're going to see. And here we have then that the Lord appears to Peter. I like to call this Peter's private restoration. We're not told what went on, but the Lord made a special appearance to Peter. He gave Peter a special interview. The Lord appeared to Peter alone, and Scripture hasn't recorded what went on. What Peter said to the Lord, or what the Lord said to Peter. It is a very important lesson in this for all of us. If we get away from the Lord, if we do something that's dishonored the Lord, we've got to have a private interview with the Lord. Our brethren can say all kinds of things to us that's necessary to say, and we can say all kinds of things to them that might be necessary to say. But there's one thing above all that's necessary first of all, and that is that we get alone with the Lord, and speak to the Lord. That's what Peter did. The Lord gave Peter an opportunity to get the things put right, and no doubt with him was put right. Peter owned before the Lord his mistake, and confessed it. And the Word says if we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And the Lord forgave Peter. So Peter now, as far as his personal relationship with the Lord was concerned, his fellowship with the Lord was restored. So there we get what we might call the fifth step in Peter's restoration. Now let us turn back again to John's gospel, and we have two more steps there that I want to refer to. Back in John 21, this time. In the 21st chapter of John, we read from the first verse, because we get Peter mentioned here several times. After these things, Jesus showed himself again to the disciples at the Sea of Tiberias, and on this wise showed he himself. You see the Lord had said to them, after I'm risen, I'll go before you into Galilee. And this is in Galilee. This is up at the Sea of Tiberias, which is the Sea of Galilee. There were together Simon Peter, and Thomas called Didymus, and Nathanael of Canaan in Galilee, and the sons of Zebedee, James and John that is, and two other of his disciples. We're not told who they were. Simon Peter said unto them, I go a fishing. They say unto him, we also go with thee. They went forth and entered into a ship immediately, and that night they caught nothing. But when the morning was come, was now come, Jesus stood on the shore, but the disciples knew not that it was Jesus. Then Jesus said unto them, children have ye any meat? They answered him no. He said unto them, cast the net on the right side of the ship, and ye shall find. They cast therefore, and now they were not able to draw for the multitude of fishes. Therefore that disciple whom Jesus loved, said unto Peter, it is the Lord. Now when Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he got his fish's coat unto him, for he was naked, and he cast himself into the sea. And the other disciples came in the little ship, for they were not far from land, but as it were, two undercubits, dragging the net with fishes. And as soon as they were come to land, they saw a fire of coals there, and fish lay there on and death. And Jesus said unto them, bring of the fish which ye have now caught. Simon Peter went up and drew the net to land full of great fishes, a hundred and fifty and three. And for all there were so many, yet was not the net broken. Now there are several things here that speak to us. Peter and the others were waiting for the Lord, and maybe they got tired of waiting. Peter was an impetuous fellow, as we know. He got tired of waiting around, and he said, well maybe I'm going fishing, he says, going back to his old occupation. Not that there was anything wrong with fishing, because that was the work that Peter did before the Lord called him to preach. But it does seem a little stepped down, that he's gone back to fishing for fish, when he should have been there waiting for the Lord. Anyhow, the others, when Peter says, I go fishing, the others, they say, well we'll go with you. So there's Thomas and Nathanael, and James and John, that's four, and two others, that's six of them go with Peter, seven all together. The other apostles, if they were there, they didn't go. These went. What happened? They toiled all night, and they caught nothing. When morning comes, there's the Lord standing on the shore. He's come as he said he would. They didn't recognize him. And the Lord says, cast the net on the right side. He says to them, he says, have you any meat? They said no. Have you caught any food, that is? No. You haven't caught any fish? No. Cast the net on the right side. So they cast the net, and immediately they get a great multitude of fishes. What would this remind Peter and John of? Why, of course, that time that the Lord calls them to get the great multitude of fishes, there when Peter was called to preach the gospel in the first place, as we saw when we were looking at Peter's call. And John recognized that it was the Lord. You see, John's always a little closer to the Lord than Peter is. John says, it's the Lord, he says. And when Peter heard that it's the Lord, he couldn't get to the Lord quick enough. He says he cast his fish's coat about him because he was naked. I think that means he just had apparently just their underclothes on when they were hauling all these fish in, and so he wanted to be respectable. He put his fish's coat around him and cast himself into the sea to get to the Lord. You know, I think this is what we might call another step in Peter's restoration. In contrast to Peter's following afar off. You see, in his fall we saw Peter followed afar off. John went into the high priest's palace and Peter follows afar off, and John has to ask him to go in. But here, he's not following afar off. He wants to get as near to the Lord as he can. He's been restored to the Lord privately, and now he wants to keep near the Lord. It's been a little lapse, as it were, that they went away fishing there and they didn't get anything. But now the Lord gives them the great multitude of fishes, and even the net wasn't broken. A lovely picture. Some think this is a millennial scene, a title, millennial scene, where the net won't be broken, but where all the fishes of the corps will be brought to land. And then the Lord says, come and dine. When the Lord says, bring of the fish into your corp, Peter hauls in the fish himself, and then the Lord feeds them. Come and dine, he says, and none of them ask him who he is. They all know who he is. He must have looked somewhat different in his resurrection body, yet they all recognize it was the Lord. And then when the Lord has fed them, and they're all satisfied and comfortable, because they must have been pretty hungry, you know, they toiled all night, worked hard all night and caught nothing. Then the Lord speaks to Peter. Now this is what we can call, this is the seventh point, and this is what we can call Peter's public restoration. Peter denied the Lord publicly, so he had to make a confession publicly also to be restored. I believe we have a principle here, brethren, which regards, this even comes in connection with the assembly, that if a person has dishonored the Lord publicly, there must be both a public, there must be both a private restoration and a public restoration. You know, sometimes people say, well, if I did wrong and I confessed it to the Lord, what else should I do? Well, if the wrong which is done has been known publicly, you should let it be known publicly that you've been restored. That's why if a person has to be put away from the assembly, and it's a public act in their having to be put away, it has to be publicly announced that they're being received back. And if a person's truly restored to the Lord, they'll never resent that, but rather be glad that the brethren have the thing is settled, and that the brethren are satisfied and able to receive them back. But people shouldn't just sneak in. I've seen cases where this has been omitted, and the person has never really been right. They've never really been, they never seem to have gotten to the bottom of the thing that was wrong in the first place. And we get a precious lesson here, where Peter has to publicly, before the others, undo the very wrong thing that he'd done when he denied the Lord. So the Lord says to Peter, Simon son of Jonas, love us thou me more than these. What's the Lord mean when he says, love us thou me more than these? Do you love me more than the rest of the apostles, Peter? Because that's what he said, you know. He says, though all be offended, yet will not I. Peter had really said, Lord I love you more than all the others, because even though all the others are going to be offended in you, I'll never be offended. It was really very boastful, as we saw when we were studying this fall. So now the Lord says to Peter, do you love me more than these others, Peter? Peter says to him, yea Lord, thou knowest that I love thee. But in our authorised version we don't get the full force. The Lord says, do you love me, Peter? And what Peter really says is, Lord I'm fond of you, or I'm attached to you. The word that the Lord used has been called the love of prizing. The love of something or somebody because of what that person is. You love someone because of who he is. And the word that Peter used is the love of liking or fondness. The Lord says, Peter do you love me? And what Peter says, I won't go as far as the word that you are using, Lord. I'm fond of you. Peter didn't now want a boast of his love, you see. This shows a true humiliation on Peter's part. He's not, he's not saying now I love you more than all of them. He's only saying, Lord I'm attached to you. The Lord says to him, feed my lambs. Feed my lambs, Peter. The Lord's accepting what Peter says and he gives him the commission. I'm now giving you the work of feeding my lambs, Peter. One that's denied his Lord to feed his lambs, yes, the Lord's forgiving him. Then the Lord says the second time, Simon son of Jonas, lovest thou me? No, he doesn't say the second time, lovest thou me more than these, you see. He just says to Peter, Simon son of Jonas, do you love me? Using the same word as he used before, Peter says, yea Lord, thou knowest that I'm attached to thee. And the Lord says this time, feed my sheep, or as it really should be, shepherd my sheep. You'll notice if you have the new translation. Shepherd my sheep. Shepherd my sheep, Peter. Now the third time the Lord asks him, why does the Lord ask him three times? Because Peter denied the Lord three times. You see, the point of departure is the point of recovery. I don't know how many here have read Pilgrim's Progress, but if you haven't read Pilgrim's Progress, it's worth reading. I advise the young people to read Pilgrim's Progress. It's a very old book, but it has a very up-to-date message. And you know, the pilgrim was going along and he found, he found the path rather difficult and stony, and he saw another path running parallel to it that was a nice easy path. And so he got, he got onto this narrow, into this, onto this smooth path that was running parallel to the path that he was traveling on. But he didn't notice that this smooth path that he got on gradually drew away from the other, and he ended up in doubting castle. And finally, to, in order to get back on the right path, he had to go all the way back to the point where he got wrongly to get back on the right path. And that's what we have to do. That's what Peter has to do. The Lord takes Peter right back to the point of departure, when Peter says, I love thee more the Lord, and then the Lord told him he'd deny him three times, and that's what he did. So three times the Lord probes Peter. Now the third time the Lord says, Peter, are you attached to me? He uses Peter's word. Are you attached to me? Is it really even true, Peter, that you're attached to me, after all that you've done? You might say, what's the Lord stirring up, stirring up the, opening up the wound for him and making it more painful? Well, the Lord just wants to get right down to the bottom of Peter's heart and to assure him that he's forgiven him and to give him his commission. It says, Peter was grieved because the Lord said unto him the third time, art thou attached to me? And he said unto him, Lord, thou knowest all things. You know my heart, Lord. You can live right down to my heart. Even though I denied you, Lord, even though I, it seems that I don't have any love for you at all, you know all things, Lord, and you know that there is some little attachment in my heart for thee, Lord, he says. Thou knowest all things, he says. Thou knowest that I am attached to thee. What does the Lord say? Feed my sheep. Feed my lambs, shepherd my sheep, feed my sheep. Did Peter do that? Yes. Yes, Peter was called to be a fisherman. He didn't stop being a fisherman. He threw out the net on the day of Pentecost and he caught more than 153, he caught 3,000. But then, and a little later on he caught 5,000. But then he developed into a shepherd. I don't think Peter ever ceased to be a fisherman for Saul, but the Lord used him in his later years to be a shepherd. And God has given us in the scriptures the two epistles that Peter wrote where he sought to shepherd the lambs and sheep of the Lord's flock, of Christ's flock. And we still have those precious epistles of Peter, those two epistles of Peter. Feed my sheep, feed my lambs, shepherd my sheep, and feed my sheep. Then the Lord says to him in verse 18, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, when thou wast young, thou girdest thyself and walkest whither thou wittest. But when thou shalt be old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hands, and another shall gird thee and carry thee whither thou wittest not. This faith is signifying by what death he should glorify God. And when he had spoken this, he said unto him, follow me. The Lord said to Peter when he made him a fisherman, follow me. And now when the Lord makes him a shepherd, he says, follow me. And that's what we have to do, beloved. Our work is to follow him. We don't have to follow men. We have to follow the Lord. And the Lord lets Peter know that he's going to die a marvellous death, that someone's going to take it, and where he wouldn't naturally want to go. And history tells us, and there's really no reason to doubt this, but possibly, probably it was true, that Peter suffered crucifixion. I think every one of the apostles died a marvellous death with the exception of John. History tells us John died of old age, and it also says that he was thrown into a corner of boiling oil and came out alive, which could have been true too, the way the Lord used miracles in those days. But anyhow, Peter knew that he was going to die a marvellous death, and it's stated that he refused to die upright because he said that was how his Lord died. And they crucified him upside down, which must have been a terrible suffering for poor Peter. But he honoured the Lord in his death by having the privilege of suffering for the Lord in that way, by the marvellous death. But in the meantime, he was faithful in his service. Then Peter, verse 20, turning about, seeth the disciple whom Jesus loved following, which also leaned on his breast to suffer, that's John, and said, Lord which, or leaned on his breast to suffer and said, Lord which is he that betrayeth thee? Peter seeing him said to Jesus, Lord, what shall this man do? Jesus said unto him, If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? Follow thou me. This is just Peter, wasn't it? Well, what about John, Lord? What's he going to do? The Lord says, That's nothing to do with you, Peter. If I was him to live till I come again, what's that to me? You follow me. You know, sometimes we like to say, Lord, what shall this man do? Why is this one not doing this? Why is that one not doing that? What would the Lord say to us? Brother or sister, what's that to you? You follow me. You do the work that I've given you to do. And if John or Charlie or Mary doesn't do the work that I've given them to do, that's not your business. That's my business. If I want John, the Lord says, to tarry till I come, what's that to thee, Peter? You follow me. And the saying went abroad, you know, that John wasn't going to die because the Lord said that, and John has to correct that here. You see, John's gospel is written about 30 years after the other gospels, and in John we find John puts right some wrong impressions that some had on some things, and this is one of them. And this saying had got abroad, it says, this saying went abroad among the brethren that that disciple should not die. Yet Jesus said not unto him he shall not die, but if I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? Now, in a certain sense, there was no doubt attached a little parabolic meaning in what the Lord said, because John does tarry till the Lord comes in his ministry. John's ministry, especially in Revelation, takes us right on to the Lord's coming and beyond. So when the Lord said if I will that he tarry till I come, he didn't mean that John wasn't going to die. He meant to Peter, say to Peter, Peter, even if he does, even if I do want him to tarry till I come, that's none of your business. You follow me. But it is sort of intimating at the same time that in his ministry, John would go on till the Lord comes, and so he does. The Lord gave John the ministry in his epistles that meets the needs of the faiths right down through this period. And in the book of Revelation, he takes us right on into the eternal state when God will be all in all. Well, may the Lord bless to us these few thoughts in these seven steps in the restoration of Peter. Peter denied the Lord, but Peter was restored. Peter learned the lesson. And as you read his epistle, you can see certain references. For instance, he says, kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation. Why does Peter say that? He knew what it was. It was only the power of God that could keep it. I believe Peter was a much more useful vessel after this because of the experience he'd been through. He'd learned the deceitfulness of his own heart. He'd learned not to trust it. And he'd learned the Lord's loving grace, loving restoring grace. And may we realize the Lord's restoring grace to us, even though so often we might fail. …

… Let's turn to the first chapter of the Acts, chapter one. We read from the first verse, The former treaties have I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and to teach, until the day in which he was taken up. After that he, through the Holy Ghost, had given commandments unto the apostles whom he had chosen, to whom also he showed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God. And being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not be fast in Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith he, ye have heard of me. For John truly baptized with water, but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence. When they therefore were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel? And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power, but ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you. And ye shall be witnesses unto me, both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uppermost part of the earth. And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up, and the clouds received him out of their sight. And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven, as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel, which said, which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner, as ye have seen him go into heaven. And they returned, then returned they unto Jerusalem, from the mount called Olivet, which is from Jerusalem a Sabbath day's journey. And when they were come in, they went up into an upper room, where abode both Peter, and James, and John, and Andrew, Philip, and Thomas, Bartholomew, and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon Jalopeis, and Judas the brother of James. These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brethren. And we'll continue on as we go on with the talk. In our last meeting, we took up the restoration of the Apostle Peter after his denial of the Lord. And the end of Luke connects up somewhat with this first chapter of the Acts. We have, in the end of Luke, the Lord giving a commission. He said, thus it is written, and thus it behoves Christ to suffer, and to rise up from again the third day, and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name in all nations beginning at Jerusalem. And we have something similar here in the eighth verse. And we know that the writer of the Acts of the Apostles is the same Luke who wrote the Gospel of Luke. So in a certain sense, the Acts is the continuation of Luke. But Luke gives us in his Gospel the Lord's life and death, and his resurrection and ascension. And then in the Acts, he goes on from there, giving us the descent of the Holy Spirit, and the preaching of Peter in the first part, and then goes on into the conversion of Saul of Tarsus, and continues on with the ministry of the Apostle Paul. And we find here that in verse four it says, they were assembled together, that is, I take it the twelve apostles or the eleven apostles, they were assembled together. And the Lord says to them that they should not depart from Jerusalem. Don't leave Jerusalem. They might have thought, well now that the Lord has finished the work of redemption, and he's told us that we are to go out and preach the Gospel, we should immediately go. But the Lord says, no, wait in Jerusalem. There's something else very important to take place. In fact, there are two very important things to take place. The Lord was not yet ascended, and the Holy Spirit has not yet come. And so while the Lord is there with them, he says, now don't go out of Jerusalem. Wait for the promise of the Father, which ye have heard of me. As we recollect that the Lord in the 7th of John had said, or rather it tells us in the 7th of John, the Holy Ghost was not yet given, because that Jesus was not yet glorified. And in the 14th, 15th, and 16th chapters of John, in the Lord's closing ministry, he refers in all, in each one of those chapters, to the coming of the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, that he would come. So the Lord says, now I've told you that the Holy Spirit's coming, now you wait until he comes. And you receive power, he says, in verse 8. They thought, they still had their hearts set on the restoration of the Kingdom to Israel. They thought that, as they thought when the Lord was here in his public ministry, they had their hearts set on the fact that he was going to deliver them from the Romans and set up the Kingdom. And he told them that he had to go to the cross, but they couldn't seem to take it in. But now that he's risen from the dead, they still have the same thought before them. They said, Lord, now is the time that you're going to restore the Kingdom to Israel. The Lord says, not for you to know the times and seasons. As much as to say, that's something else, that's something that's completely outside of the work that you have to do. The Father has that in his own hand, and he's going to restore the Kingdom to Israel when the right time comes. And we know that it hasn't come yet, but it's coming after this period of God's grace and calling out the church is finished, then the Lord is going to restore the Kingdom to Israel. But, he says to the disciples, you'll receive power when the Holy Ghost has come upon you, and ye shall be witnesses unto me, both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uppermost part of the earth. Jerusalem, the very city where the Lord had been crucified, the city that had the greatest guilt to the people that had the greatest guilt, his own, to whom he came, and he refused it. There, the witness was to begin, then to extend out to that whole province of Judea, then to go up to Samaria, and finally to reach unto the uppermost part of the earth. Yes, we here in California at that time were certainly, I mean this part of the world was certainly the uppermost part of the earth, and yet here, and throughout the whole world, the gospel has spread out and continues to reach out to those who've not heard it, so that they might be saved. And it says that when he spoke in these words, while they beheld, he was taken up, and a cloud received him out of their sight. You see, he led them out of Spyrus to Bethany. Bethany, that little place, a Sabbath day's journey, it says it was, from the city, there where the Lord so often stayed in the home of Mary and Martha and Lazarus. That was where he ascended, on the Mount of Olives. And it says that a cloud received him out of their sight, and as they're looking up into heaven, the two men stood by them, and so they say, ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? The same Jesus. The same Jesus which is taken up from you into heaven shall so come in light manner, as ye have seen him go into heaven. That has not yet been fulfilled. The Lord is coming again, and he'll come in his own time. We're looking for his coming in the clouds to take us to be with himself. In the meantime, they go back to Jerusalem, and they remember the Lord's words, wait in Jerusalem until the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And so they gather there in the upper room. And here we have Peter mentioned in verse 13 for the first time in the Acts. And in these first four chapters, Peter is mentioned 12 times. We get the other apostles mentioned here, and then as we go on, we get John coupled with Peter several times. But the name Peter occurs 12 times in these first four chapters. And of course, it's Peter that we're especially occupied with in these talks. Peter, James, and John, they're all mentioned here as we pointed out in connection with the call of the apostles. We have them grouped a little differently here. We have a group of four, two groups of twos, and a group of three. Eleven all together. Judas had hanged himself, as we know, after realizing the terrible mistake he'd made in selling the Lord for 30 pieces of silver. And it says they continued, in verse 14, with one accord in prayer and supplication with the women and Mary, the mother of Jesus, and with his brethren. I'd just like to point out here that this is the last mention we have of Mary, the mother of Jesus. She disappears from the scene after this. She's not mentioned again. She's there in the upper room with the apostles, and with her other children, with the Lord's brothers, the Lord's half-brothers, her sons there, who apparently, at the time of the Lord's crucifixion, have been truly converted. Because the 7th of John says, neither did his brothers believe on it, but now they do. And I think that the very scenes of the crucifixion must have been the means of the conversion of the Lord's brethren. And Mary is there with them. Mary mentioned for the last time. She's a humble servant who's finished the work, the wonderful work that the Lord gave her to do, to be the mother of the Lord according to the flesh. And now she disappears from the scene as far as Scripture's concerned. Her work is done. She's not the co-redeemer, the Mediatrix, or the Queen of Heaven, or anything else that Romanism has made her. She was just a servant who did her work and did it well, and will receive a reward for what she did, as every true servant of the Lord will receive a reward for what they've done for the Lord's glory. And then Peter, realizing and led of the Lord, no doubt, realizing that there must be 12 apostles as a complete witness, none must be chosen to take the place of Judas. And so he refers to the Scriptures. I won't read all of that, but you notice that in verses 20, in verse 20, he quotes from the 69th Psalm and from the 109th Psalm, where references made to Judas. Now, I believe those references originally were, those references were made to Ahithophel. Ahithophel was David's counselor, but he turned against David and followed Absalom at the time of Absalom's rebellion. And David could say, of him, he that eateth bread with me hath lifted up his heel against me. But Ahithophel, in that sense, became a type of Judas, the one who went to the house of the Lord with the Lord, and yet he lifted up his heel against him, the one who ate bread with him. Ahithophel, in the Psalms, referred to in the Psalms as a type of Judas. I believe the reason why Ahithophel turned against David was, he never forgave David for what David did to his granddaughter. You see, his granddaughter was Bathsheba. And the Lord forgave David, and even though Ahithophel must have felt very bad about this, when the Lord forgave David, Ahithophel should have forgiven him. And I think in Ahithophel, we see a lesson of the great importance of not allowing personal and family considerations to influence our judgment in the things of God. And this is so often done. Had Ahithophel forgiven David as the Lord forgave him, he would have lived to see, he would have lived to see his grandson on the throne of Israel, Solomon, reigning over Israel. Instead of that, he went and hanged himself, as what Judas did. Of course, Judas was a different character, but I mean, in type, Ahithophel represented Judas. Just that, by the way. Then, so, they, Peter says, in verse 21, of these men which have accompanied with us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from the baptism of John, until the same day that he was taken up from us, must one be ordained to be a witness with us of his resurrection. There must be one who have known the Lord from the time of his baptism until his ascension to heaven, who was a witness of all these events. And they have two there that seem to meet the qualifications, Matthias and Justus, and Barthapus, whose surname was Justus. And so they pray. Peter says, now, Lord, show us which of these two. So they cast lots. You say, well, now, what did they cast lots for? Well, that was the Old Testament way of doing things. And here they're still on Old Testament ground. You might say, well, what's, what's, here we're in the New Testament. How are we on Old Testament ground? We're on Old Testament ground until the Holy Spirit comes, and the Holy Spirit hasn't come yet. We get him coming in the next chapter. So they're following the means that God had given in the Old Testament, casting lots. The lots judged between the righteous, the Psalm says, the Proverbs says. Casting lots was, was a method that God recognized in the Old Testament. So they cast lots, the lots fell upon Matthias, and he was, he was given the place with the twelve. Now there have been some people who've said that this was not recognized of God, because that the Lord later on called the apostle Paul, and therefore that showed that the calling of Matthias was imbalanced. But I believe that is through not understanding the great difference between the apostleship of the twelve and the apostleship of Paul. I believe that the, the, the placing of Matthias with the other eleven was recognized by God, and the twelve had to be complete. But Paul occupied a very distinct place as an apostle, and he was, he was made the apostle of the Gentiles, and he was given a distinct work to do, and a special apostleship connected with the church, or the assembly of God, which was not given in that sense to the others. So that I don't believe it's right to say at all that the, that the election of Matthias was wrong. It was reckoned, it was right, and the right thing to do. Now when we come to the next chapter, when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them closing tongues like as of fire, and it set upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. Now first of all, the word Pentecost just means fifty days. And the day of Pentecost was the day of the, it was the beginning of the, of the feast, what is called the Feast of Weeks, that took place fifty days after the Feast of First Feasts, in the, as it's recorded in the 23rd chapter of Leviticus, where we have this feast, or set times, of Jehovah. We have the first, the Passover, which is typical of the Lord's death. We have the Feast of First Feasts, which was typical of his resurrection. And we have the Feast of the Fifty Days, or the Feast of Pentecost, which was typical of the coming of the Holy Spirit. And so they were there waiting, and when this day came, the day of Pentecost was fully come, it says, they were all with one accord, or they were all together, as it says in the New Translation, in one place. It is a question as to whether this all refers to the 120 that are mentioned in the first chapter, or whether it just refers to the twelve apostles. It isn't, it doesn't definitely say so, but I do not think that they were in the upper room, as we find them there. We find them in prayer there in the upper room in the first chapter. It doesn't say where they are here, but it seems it's a little more public place where they are in the second chapter. At any rate, they're there. The twelve apostles were there at least. Whether there were others there, we're not quite sure, but the twelve apostles were there, and they hear this great noise of a violent, impetuous blowing, as Mr. Darby translates it, or just as if they heard a very heavy breathing. They wonder what it is. It's the Holy Spirit come down. It's something special. It's something that has not existed before. In the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit came upon people, and then he left them. When the Lord was baptized, the Holy Spirit descended on him in the form of a dove. But here, the Holy Spirit has come down to baptize these disciples into one body, and to give these apostles a specific power that they needed to be the Lord's witnesses. They were told, you wait, and you will receive power after the Holy Ghost has come upon you. If they had gone out to preach the gospel before they received the Holy Spirit, they wouldn't have had the power. But the Holy Spirit is the power that the Lord, by which the message that we preach is carried to the hearts of the people. And it's the Holy Spirit, it's he who empowers us in giving out the message, and that they would have been useless without the power of the Holy Spirit. And it says they were all filled with the Holy Ghost in verse 4. And there appeared cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat on each of them. And it says in the in the fourth verse, they began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. It seems that it was the 12 apostles that began to speak with other tongues. Because when the people are amazed, it says there, you see, in verse 5, they were dwelling with Jerusalem Jews, devout men out of every nation under heaven. And when this was noised abroad, the multitude came together and were confounded. Others heard them, these men speaking in other languages. And the thing got noised abroad, and they all came together to see what it was all about. And because they heard every man who will speak in his own language, and they were all amazed and marveled and wondered, saying one to another, Behold, are not all these which speak Galileans? That makes me think that it was the 12. They were Galileans, the 12 apostles were Galileans. And there must have been many others among them there in Jerusalem, among that 120 who were not Galileans, who were from Jerusalem. And so it seems that these were the 12 apostles to whom the Lord gave, enabled to speak in these languages. Now what did God give these languages for? As a proof to these people, to these Jews who were there, that something new had happened, something that was of God. This was a supernatural thing. These men were unlearned men as far as the schools of the world were concerned, and yet they were able to speak in the languages of these Jews who'd come from all of these different countries of the Roman Empire. And they heard them speak in their own languages. I believe six feet or more languages are mentioned here of what they spoke in. And they heard them speak, it says, in their own tongue, the wonderful words of God. And they were amazed, it says in verse 12, and were in doubt, saying one to another, What meaneth this? And some said, Well, these men are drunk. And so Peter, and here we have Peter mentioned again in verse 14, Peter standing up with the 11, he's there with the other 11 apostles, the 12 all together, standing up with the 11, lifted up his voice and said unto them, Ye men of Judea, and all ye that dwell at Jerusalem, be this known unto you, and hearken to my words, for these are not drunken, as ye suppose, seeing it is but the third hour of the day. It's only nine o'clock in the morning. And they hadn't had the regular meal by that hour, according to the Jewish custom. It is possible for these men to be drunk. And then he says, This is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel. He doesn't say this is the fulfillment of what Joel said, because there are things mentioned here, that Joel, this prophecy quoted from Joel, that didn't take place at this time. Joel says that the Lord is going to pour out his spirit in the last days, and when the prophecy of Joel is fulfilled, there'll be signs in the heaven above and in the earth beneath, blood and fire and vapors of smoke, the sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon into blood, before that great and notable day of the Lord shall come. Now we don't get that part of it fulfilled at all here on the day of Pentecost. So what is Peter referring to Joel for? To show that Joel speaks of a similar thing. He doesn't say this is the fulfillment of what Joel says, but he says Joel spoke of an outpouring of the Holy Spirit in the last days. And here we have an outpouring of the Holy Spirit. You shouldn't be surprised, you men of Galilee, that the Holy Spirit should be poured out. Joel spoke of such a thing. And this is what we have, brethren, in many places where we have partial fulfillments of Old Testament scriptures, and the final and complete fulfillment is yet future. And this is one of them. The day is coming when this will be fulfilled, what Joel said, after the Lord takes the church away and God takes up Israel again. But here, at the beginning of the church dispensation, the Holy Spirit is poured out and he unites these believers into one body, which is the formation of the church of God, and he indwells each believer, as Ephesians tells us, that we're sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, and he empowers his servants for the work that he's given them to do. So he says you shouldn't be surprised that this, Joel spoke of such a thing. And whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. The Holy Spirit has come, and who soever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. Now, Peter then goes on to give them a message. Peter now has received the power, and he's led by the same Holy Spirit that he has received to give a message out. And he says, you'll notice from verse 32 on, ye men of Israel, hear these words. And he speaks about the life of the Lord Jesus on earth, Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs which God did by him in the midst of you, as you yourselves also know. Him being delivered by the determined counsel and poor knowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain. You see, Peter is laying upon the people of Israel the guilt of the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus Christ. God sent his Son to be the Messiah. God sent his Son to be the Savior, and he proved that he was the one that was sent of God by the miracles and wonders and signs that he did in your midst, Peter says. He raised the dead, he cleansed the lepers, and so forth and so on. And what did you do? You refused him, and by wicked hands you slew him. Yet it was all allowed of God. God allowed it. He was delivered by the determined counsel and poor knowledge of God. You have taken him, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain him. They might have said, well, it was Pilate that gave judgment that he should be nailed to the cross. Yes. If it was the wicked hands of the Gentiles that nailed him to the cross, it was the wicked heart of the Jews that asked for him to be nailed to the cross. And that's what Peter's pressing upon them, that you are guilty of the crucifixion of the Lord. The whole world is guilty. The Jews were guilty, the Gentiles were guilty, the whole world was guilty of the Lord's crucifixion. But Peter's pressing it upon them, he says. And then he says in verse 24, God has raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that he should be holding of it. God raised him up. So Peter now speaks of the resurrection, and he shows that the resurrection was in keeping with the scriptures, because he says David referred to the fact that the Lord was going to be raised. He refers there to the 16th Psalm, you notice, in verses 24 and 25, 27. Because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell or in Hades, neither wilt thou stop a thine holy one to see corruption. The Lord's soul was not left in Hades, his body didn't see corruption, but he was raised up for third day. And then he goes on to refer further to David, down there in verse 30 and 31. And then he says in verse 32, referred to again, this Jesus of God raised up for us, we're all witnesses. We apostles, we twelve apostles, he says, we're all witnesses that God raised him up. And I've no doubt that many others that were there could have been witnesses also, because we're told in the first, the 15th chapter, 1 Corinthians, that more than 500 veterans saw him at one time. And here we only have 120 gathered in Jerusalem, so there must have been many, many more believers, perhaps up in Galilee, of where the 500 saw the Lord at one time. And when Paul writes in the Corinthians, he says, of whom the greater part remain unto this present. And when Paul there is seeking to bring the evidence of the resurrection of the Lord, more than 250 people, the greater part, which means more than half, could have been brought forth as witnesses to testify that they had seen the Lord after he rose from the dead. I don't think we have any evidence in Scripture that any unsaved saw the Lord after he rose from the dead. But God saw there was ample witness of his own people who saw him. And the evidence has never been disputed, nor could it be. There was no need to prove that the Lord was crucified. That was done out in the open, where everybody could see the Lord nailed to the cross on that, near that public road. But God saw there was ample evidence of his resurrection. So Peter here shows that not only are they witnesses of it, but that it's in keeping with the prophecies of the Old Testament that these Jews should have known. Then he says, in verse 33, therefore, being at the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he has said forth this which ye now see and hear. For David is not ascended into the heavens, but he himself said, the Lord said unto my Lord, sit thou on my right hand until I make thy foes thy footstool. So he quotes a further verse to prove the Lord's ascension. That this verse taken from the 110th Psalm is referring to the Lord's ascension. So you see, Peter here refers to the Lord's life from his baptism on, his public ministry, he refers to his death, he refers to his resurrection, and he refers to his ascension. And he quotes scripture to justify every one of these things, that every one of these things, that the Lord's life was according to the prophecies of the Old Testament, the miracles that he did, his death was according to prophecy, his resurrection was according to prophecy, and his ascension to heaven was according to prophecy. And these Jews who had the Old Testament in their hands could verify these things, that this was something that the nation of Israel should have realized. And you see, he's bringing it home to their hearts, he's applying the scriptures to them, and that they were guilty of neglecting the word of God and doing the very thing that scripture says would be done. That the Lord would die and that they were responsible for his death. And he says, as we read there, in verse 33, being at the right hand of God exalted, he has shed forth this. That is, the Lord, having taken his place on high, has now sent down the Holy Spirit. So the coming of the Holy Spirit here on the day of Pentecost is a result of the Lord's glorification. So here we get the fulfillment of what was said in the 7th chapter of John, where it says the Holy Ghost was not yet given because that Jesus was not yet glorified. The Spirit could not come down as a person to dwell on earth until the Lord had taken his place in heaven. And beloved, these are the two great facts of Christianity. The two great facts of Christianity are, Jesus, a man in the glory of God, seated on the Father's throne, and the Holy Spirit here on earth. A divine person in heaven and a divine person on earth. Christ there was the head of his church, and the Holy Spirit sent down here to convict men of sin and to form the Church of God. To indwell the believer and to be the power for the Christian life and testimony. Let's never forget that these are the two great facts of Christianity. A lot of people say, oh, why, the Church existed in the Old Testament. That's not true. Saints existed in the Old Testament. God had a nation of his own people in the Old Testament that had in it many who were true believers and many who weren't. They were just a nation of Israel. The Holy Spirit came upon people and left them. But there was no such thing as the Church in the New Testament sense until the Lord had taken his place on high to be the head of the Church and had sent down the Holy Spirit to form the Church. So Peter presses these points upon them. And he brings it home to them finally in verse 36. Therefore, he says, let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God hath made that same Jesus whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ. So here we have for the first time the Lord's full title. Jesus, Lord, and Christ. Or as we have except for so many places elsewhere, our Lord Jesus Christ. God has made that same Jesus. That's referring to his name as a man on earth, the Jesus of Nazareth whom they crucified. God has made him Lord and Christ. And now they realize it. Many of them. No doubt many of them scoffed and mocked. But many realized the truth of this. This really came home to their hearts. And it says in verse 37, now when they heard this they were pricked in their hearts and said unto Peter. And you see here we have Peter again. They said unto Peter, and Peter is mentioned as I think I said 12 times in these first four chapters of Acts. They said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, man, devil, what shall we do? We realize we've made a big mistake. We realize now that when we said away with him, crucify him, crucify him, that we were sinning against God. We are guilty. We've been guilty of the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. The one that God has seated at his own right hand in heaven. What shall we do? They don't say what shall we do to be saved. Maybe many of them were true believers but they didn't realize what they'd done until Peter brings this home to their hearts. What shall we do they say? We've made a big mistake. We should have accepted him as our Messiah. And now we realize that we didn't accept it. What shall we do? And Peter says, repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of your sin and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. I've added the word your because that should be there, the remission of your sins. What shall we do they say? Well Peter says the first thing is repent. What's repent? That turn about face. Repent is really to own that what God says is true. And I believe in asking the question that's what they were doing. They were repenting. And he says you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Separate yourselves from the guilty nation and you'll receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. For the promises unto you and to your children and to all of our far off even as many as the Lord our God shall call. And as many other words did he testify and exhort say save yourselves from this untoward generation. This is an untoward or a crooked generation. Israel is a crooked nation. They've rejected their Messiah. And if you don't want to come under the judgment of God that's going to come upon the nation for this you separate yourselves from the nation. And that's what they did in baptism. And it says in verse 41 then they that gladly received his word were baptized. And the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls. You might say where did they go to get to carry out the baptism? I don't know. Scripture doesn't tell us. But they baptized three thousand people. That was a lot of people to get baptized in one day. And three thousand were added. Three thousand of the Jews that were gathered there in Jerusalem recognized their great sin in the rejection of the Lord. And they said we want to separate ourselves. We realize that God's judgment is coming upon the nation for what's done. And they took their stand with the Lord. And then they received the Holy Ghost. You see that is not the order we get in the 10th chapter in the house of Cornelius. They received the Holy Spirit and then were baptized. But these Jews had to be baptized first and separate themselves from the guilty nation before they could receive the Holy Ghost. They have a special guilt I believe in connection with the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus Christ. And God didn't give them the Holy Spirit until they had taken that step of separating themselves from the guilty nation. Then it goes on and says in verse 42 they continued steplessly in the apostles doctrine and fellowship and in the breaking of bread and in prayer. Four things which characterized the original assembly. These three thousand now added to the 120 formed the assembly in Jerusalem. The first assembly in Jerusalem. And they met together in homes no doubt. They couldn't all get in one place. In many homes perhaps in Jerusalem. The apostles doctrine. What the apostles taught. The apostles fellowship. The breaking of bread and prayers. Just those four things simple things. And these are four things that should still characterize every assembly of God. Now I just want to go back a little and make a little reference to the question of these the question of tongues because this is something that is very much to the front of the present day. People teaching that everyone who is a Christian should speak in tongues to give proof that he received the Holy Spirit. Have you noticed that it doesn't say anything about these three thousand speaking in tongues. It says that the apostles spoke in tongues. And this was a witness to these Jews that this was this new thing was of God. You see the Lord had only dealt with Jews in the Old Testament and those who were outside were were were. If they wanted to come in at all they just have to come in and become Jewish provenance. But now that God was establishing something new. It was a completely new thing for the Holy Spirit to come down. God was beginning a new dispensation. And we find in Scripture that every new dispensation begins with miracles. When the world was calling Israel out of Egypt to take them into the land of Canaan. We find miracles all through miracles in Egypt miracles through the wilderness miracles in the land of Canaan. I believe the Lord caused many earthquakes to take place. It tells us in the Psalms that the mountains skip like lambs and the little hills like lambs. That's earthquakes. You see the mouses jumping around like that. That's an earthquake. And no doubt the Lord caused these things to happen as signs to the people of the land that these were God's people. He was bringing them out and bringing them in. And so the dispensation in the church begins with God giving this gift of tongues to the apostles. But we don't find with any mention of these 3,000 speaking in tongues. In fact we only find speaking in tongues mentioned three times in the Acts of the Apostles. Today at Pentecost they spoke in tongues. Apparently the apostles. If any of the others that were there spoke in tongues it doesn't definitely say and it could be that I personally doubt it. But of those who were converted that day no mention of their speaking in tongues. It doesn't say they spoke in tongues as a proof that they had the Holy Spirit. And I think that if this thing was to be so important well it should have been so important it would have been mentioned right here. Now when Cornelius and his company are converted they speak in tongues. But this is done to prove to Peter and those that are there that God has received the Gentiles in the same way that he received them. That it's the same Holy Spirit that's come upon them that came upon the 12 apostles here in Jerusalem. So it's given to show that it's the same thing. In fact here Peter is using the key that the Lord said he was given the key to the kingdom of heaven. He's using the key to open the door to the Jews on the day of Pentecost and he uses the other key to open the door to the Gentiles in the 10th chapter of the Acts. Now we have one more instance of men speaking in tongues in Acts and that's in the 19th chapter. And that was where those who'd only known of John's baptism that Paul found there in Ephesus were converted or rather when they received the Holy Spirit. Because all they had heard about the John the Baptist they heard about John the Baptist preaching that Christ was coming. They didn't know that Christ had come. They didn't know that the Holy Spirit had come. And that was why Paul says to them when they said we haven't even heard of the Holy Spirit he could see that they were professed believers outside of Judaism but that he could see that there was no spirituality about them. They hadn't received the Spirit. And when he says to them have you received the Holy Spirit since you believe? They said well we haven't even heard about the Holy Spirit. If the Holy Spirit's come. Well he says unto what will you baptize? Because if they'd been baptized as Christians they'd have been baptized under the name of the Father Son and Holy Spirit. And then Paul explained to them that John only pointed on to Christ. And he must have explained something like this about the Lord's life, his death, his resurrection, his ascension and the sending down of the Holy Spirit. And when they were baptized in the name of Jesus and they received the Holy Spirit and they spoke in tongues showing that it was the same Holy Spirit that had come upon them. Only those three instances. No others. Just specific. Not that everybody should speak in tongues as a proof that he received the Holy Spirit. We do not find any proof of that in the Word of God. Those who claim that have read that in the description. And we find many very very godly men who've been used of God right down through the Christian era. And you've never heard of them speaking in tongues. I believe that the gift of tongues was in a certain sense, we might say a picture of the fact that the gospel was to be preached in every language. You know the Bible has been translated into over a thousand languages. People in over a thousand languages and dialects can read the Word of God in their own language. This was what was going to take place in the Christian church. And the Lord did give to some, as we find in 1 Corinthians, the Lord did give to some the gift of tongues. There were these signed gifts given that this was a special thing that the Lord gave to some. But it was not given ever as a proof of receiving the Holy Spirit. It was given as a gift as other gifts were given and in the beginning of the church's history and the gift was withdrawn after Christianity became established. What we call the signed gifts. Gifts of tongues. The gifts of tongues and gifts of healing especially were the signed gifts given at the origin of their Christianity. Now there is a sense in which some people have the gift of learning languages and can learn them very quickly. And we know that with regard for healing that the Lord heals in answer to prayer. But that's a very different thing from people saying they have the gift of healing. You don't believe that. That this hasn't been proved at all. And there's a great lot of fakery goes on in connection with it at the present day. But God does heal. It's always true that the prayer of faith will save the sick and the mercy will raise him up. And how often we've seen answers to prayer where the Lord has raised up those who were sick. Now I just want to go on into the next chapter where we get Peter again with John. Now Peter and John went up together into the temple at the hour of prayer being the ninth hour which would be our three o'clock in the afternoon. And a certain man named from his mother's womb was carried whom they made daily at the gate of the temple which is called beautiful. Who asked alms of them that entered into the temple. Who seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple asked an alms. And Peter fastened his eyes upon him with John said look on us. And he gave heed unto them expecting to receive something of them. Then Peter said silver and gold have I none. But such as I have give I thee. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk. And he took him by the right hand and lifted him up and immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength. And he leaping up stood and walked and entered with them into the temple walking and leaping and praising God. And all the people saw him walking and praising God. And they knew that it was he which sought for alms at the beautiful gate of the temple. And they were filled with wonder and amazement at that which happened unto him. It's the hour of prayer. Isn't it lovely to see Peter and John going up to the temple at the hour of prayer. You know it says in the previous chapter in connection with the baking of bread that they broke bread in the house. The baking of bread forms no part of Judaism. It was a new thing. But prayer was something in which Judaism and Christianity had in common. And you see it's still a transitional stage here. They haven't completely separated from the Jewish temple yet. We get that later on. And so is the hour of prayer at the temple. Peter and John go up to the temple at the hour of prayer. They don't neglect prayer. Prayer occupies a very important place in the book of Acts. We have prayer mentioned many times. In fact we have prayer mentioned more times than we have preaching. I think prayer is mentioned about three times to one time mentioned in preaching showing that if we were truly to carry this out, which I'm sure none of us do, we would spend about three times as much time in prayer as we do in preaching. And maybe there was something for us to take home to our hearts there that we should remember that. Anyhow, this man sees these two coming in. He asks an arm. He puts out his hand. Won't you give me something? As they do in many countries. They used to do that in Puerto Rico when we lived there. Now they've gone away with all that. They don't allow it anymore. It still exists down in many countries in South America. Beggars on the street asking you for money. And Peter says, silver and gold have I none. Oh how disappointed the poor fellow was. He expected to receive something. Silver and gold have I none, says Peter. So he's disappointed. Then Peter says, but such as I have, give I thee. Well then he gives the stick. What is he going to give me? And Peter grabs his hand. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk. And the man felt his strength coming into his ankle bones it says. And he stood up and he walked. And he was 40 years old. And he'd been lame since he was born. He'd never walked. And all of the people around the temple knew that man. They took him along there every day to ask for some money. That's the way the poor fellow lived. What a testimony. Were Peter and John faith healers? No. They weren't claiming to be faith healers. They were just led of the Spirit to do this. God was working. God was proving by this that the name of Jesus was what had power. Because this is the great thing in these two chapters 3 and 4 is the power of the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. In the name, Peter says, of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. And it says in verse 11, as the lame man which was healed held Peter and John, all the people ran together unto them. In the port cities called Solomons, greatly wondering. And when Peter saw it, he answered them to the people. Ye men of Israel, why marvel ye at this? Why look ye so earnestly on us, as though by our own power or holiness we had made this man to walk? The God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob, the God of our fathers, hath glorified his son Jesus, or as it should read, his servant Jesus. Peter preaches Christ as the servant of God. Paul preaches Christ as the son of God, hath glorified his servant Jesus, whom he delivered up, and denied him in the presence of Pilate when he was determined to let him go. But ye denied the Holy One and the just, and desired a murderer to be granted unto you, and killed the Prince of Life, whom God hath raised from the dead, whereof we are witnesses. And his name, through faith in his name, hath made this man strong, whom ye see and know. Yea, the faith which is by him hath given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all. Peter now seeks to bring a message home to the people gathered there in Solomon's porch, as he did to the others on the day of Pentecost. It's a further message. He has a further audience. And the Lord has, in the power of the name of Jesus, has healed this man as a testimony. This is in the name, the very one that you rejected. And when Pilate wanted to let him go, you asked for him. You see, it's some of the very people that fell away with him crucified. Now notice something very important. Peter says, Now brethren, verse 17, I walk that through ignorance ye did it, as did also your rulers. Why does Peter say that? Because God counted it a sin of ignorance. You know, there is no forgiveness in the Old Testament for a presumptuous sin. There was forgiveness for a sin of ignorance. You say, well it seems that this was really presumptuous. They knew who the Lord was and yet they crucified him. But you remember the Lord's prayer on the cross? What does he pray? Father forgive them, for they know not what they do. Father forgive them, for they know not what they do. Father forgive them, because it's a sin of ignorance, in other words. And Peter is saying the same thing here. He says, God's willing to forgive you. You've done a terrible thing, but if you repent of what you've done and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, you can be forgiven. Those things which God has showed before by the mouth of all these prophets, that Christ should suffer, he is so fulfilled. Repent ye therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out. So that it should read, so that times of repression shall come from the presence of the Lord, and he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you, whom the heavens must receive until the times of the restitution of all things, which while was spoken by the mouth of all these holy prophets since the world began. Now here we have something further than what Peter preached on the day of Pentecost. The message here is specifically connected with the name of Jesus and Peter says, not only does forgiveness call you, but he's really speaking to them as a nation here. If Israel as a nation will repent and believe in the name of Jesus, God will forgive the nation and then the times of repression shall come from the presence of the Lord. He'll send that very same Jesus back again to reign and the kingdom will be established. Now the Lord knew of course that they didn't accept it, but it was presented to them. The kingdom was actually by this message of Peter presented to the nation as such, that if they would receive the Lord and own that they made a mistake in crucifying him as a nation, that these times of repression would come. And then he goes on and quotes Moses as referring to the prophet that this was the war. And he says in verse 26, unto you first, that's Israel first, to the Jew first, unto you first, God having raised up his son Jesus, sent him to bless you in turning away every one of you from his iniquities. But as a nation they didn't receive him. And when we go on into the fourth chapter, we find that the captain of the temple, the priests the captain of the temple, and the Sadducees, came upon them being grieved that they fought the people and preached through Jesus the resurrection from the dead. And they laid hands on them and put them in hold until the next day which was now even. Albeit many of them which heard the word believed and the number of men was about five thousand. So we see that the nation in the person of their rulers, the chief priests, and the scribes, and the Sadducees especially, rejected Peter's message. The nation rejected it. But five thousand people accepted it. So we have another five thousand added to the three thousand who were saved under their printing cost. And you notice that in the Gospels, the chief opponents of the Lord were the Pharisees because the Lord exposed their hypocrisy. But in the Acts, the chief opponents of the Lord are the Sadducees. The Sadducees were the rationalists and what they objected to most was the resurrection. They didn't believe in the resurrection. And so when the apostles preached that Jesus had risen from the dead, that's why they were so opposed. And it's the Sadducees who come to the front here as the opponents of the preaching of the apostles as it was the Sadducees who were the greatest opponents of the Lord himself during his ministry. And then we go on right through this fourth chapter where Peter again preaches to the people and brings home to them the great truth that there's none other name. You notice that in verse 12. Neither is there salvation in any other for there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. They put them in jail but they can't stop them. They put them in again, God opens the door and lets them out. And when they charge them that they're not the preaching this name, we find in verse 19 that Peter and John answered and said unto them whether it be right in the sight of God the heart and unto you more than unto God judge you. For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard. And so they continued, Peter and John and the other apostles preaching the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. And it just it ends up saying in the 32nd verse the multitude of them that believe were of one …

… Let us turn to the fifth chapter of the Acts, the Acts chapter 5, we read from verse 1. But a certain man named Ananias, with the father his wife, sold the possession, and kept that part of the price, his wife also being privy to it, and brought a certain part and laid it at the apostles' feet. But Peter said, Ananias, why has Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost, and to keep that part of the price of the land? While it remained, was it not thine own? And after it was sold, was it not in thine own power? Why hast thou conceived this thing in thine heart? Thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God. And Ananias, hearing these words, fell down, and gave up the ghost, and great fear came on all them that heard these things. And the young men arose, wound him up, and carried him out, and buried him. And it was about the space of three hours after, when his wife, not knowing what was done, came in, and Peter answered unto her, Tell me whether ye sold the land for so much? And she said, Yea, for so much. Then Peter said unto her, How is it that ye have agreed together to tempt the Spirit of the Lord? Behold, the feet of them which are buried by husband are at the door, and shall carry thee out. Then fell she down straightway at his feet, and yielded up the ghost. And the young men came in, and found her dead, and carrying her forth, buried her by her husband. And great fear came upon all the church, and upon as many as heard these things. We go back just briefly to touch on the closing verses of chapter 4. We closed the last meeting referring to verses 32 and 33, and I'll just read that portion again. And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul. Neither said any of them that all of the things which he possessed was his own, but they had all things common. And with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. Neither was there any among them that lacked, for as many as were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and bought the prices of the things that were sold, and made them down at the apostles' feet. And distribution was made unto every man according as he had need. And Joseph, who by the apostles was surnamed Barnabas, which is being interpreted the son of consolation, a Levite, and of the country of Cyprus, having land sold it, and bought the money, and laid it at the apostles' feet. We just read the 32nd to 37th verses of Acts chapter 4. And we were noticing as we closed the last meeting that verse 32 gives us inward unity. And verse 33 gives us outward testimony. And these two things need to go together. If we want to give a good outward testimony, beloved, we must have inward unity. And I believe there's nothing that spoils the outward testimony of an assembly like the lack of inward unity. And if there's a lack of inward unity, we should be exercised as to why that is, and seek before the Lord the means of remedy in that. It tells us here they were of one heart and of one soul. And because of that, neither said any of them that all of the things which he possessed was his own, but they had all things common. You know, the communists, when they like to quote scripture to prove their point, they'll take up this verse that this doesn't mean that private ownership was done away with. It just means that under those circumstances in which they found themselves with so many Jews from other countries there in Jerusalem needing to be cared for, the Lord so worked on the hearts of those who'd been converted and who had possessions that they very gladly sold what they had so that they could provide for their brethren who were in need. It was a lovely spirit of true fellowship among the saints of God. And we need a little more of that spirit, the spirit of seeking the good of one another and the practical communion one with another and seeking to work together. It's a great thing for the saints to work together. And you know, one of the difficulties that we have in our assembly so often is that we don't live near one another. We live scattered. That's one of our big problems in the Los Angeles area, and I think it's a lesser problem with you here, but still it becomes a problem. And so that often the only times we see one another is when we get to the meetings together. Well, we have found that up there that we need more meetings to get together in a social way, but not just only in a social way, but combining that with a time of spiritual fellowship. That's why we started these quarterly Saturday afternoon meetings. We feel it's an opportunity for the saints to get together and have fellowship together and enjoy the word of God together. Now here, that's what we find. And so there was great power given to the apostles. With great power they gave witness to the resurrection and great grace was upon them all. And then it tells us about Barnabas. Barnabas had some land and he sold the land and he laid the money at the apostles' feet so that they could distribute it where there was need. Now, you know, wherever God works, Satan is working. And Satan comes in with counterfeits. And so we find very soon this lovely testimony that was being given, this blessed inward unity that led to this good outward testimony, Satan sought to spoil it. And he does it by working on the hearts of this man and his wife. When they saw that Barnabas laid the money at the apostles' feet and maybe others did the same and they saw that these were well thought of because they did that, they thought, well, we're going to put on a good appearance before the apostles too. We're going to sell some land and then we'll keep part of the money for ourselves. But we'll make them think that we're giving them all that we've got for it. And you say, well, what was wrong with that? Didn't they have a right to keep part of it to themselves? Yes, they did. That's what Peter said. He said down there in, where do we get that now? In verse 4, he said to Ananias, Whilst it remained, was it not thine own? And as it was sold, was it not in thine own power? Where hast thou conceived this thing in thine heart? Thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God. What Peter says is, that was money that God had made up of land and money that God had allowed you to be responsible for. And it was for you to make use of it as the Lord laid on your heart. Now, if you wanted to give some to relieve the needs of the saints and you needed some of it for your own needs, that was all right. But where the deceit was in this, was that they made up that they'd given it all. They pretended that they were giving all the money to the Lord when they're only giving part of it and keeping part for themselves. That's why Peter says that you've lied to the Holy Ghost. What they were really doing was they were denying the presence of God by the Holy Spirit in the midst of the assembly. And this really was the same sin as Achan committed. It's a remarkable thing to me that we find in the beginning of Israel's history when they get into the land and the beginning of the church history here, we see the same thing. What did Achan do? He stole, or he took rather, of the spoils of Jericho a goodly Babylonish garment and some silver and some gold. And what was he going to do with that? What would a man like Achan need to have that Babylonish garment for? To make him appear more important than the rest of the people. You see, if Achan had put on that Babylonish garment, which was, I suppose, a kind of a priestly garment connected with a Babylonish idol, a crypt, people would have thought that he was much more important than he really was. And that's exactly what we find here with Ananias and Sapphira. They wanted to be more important than they were. Pride filled their hearts. The same thing that led to Satan's fall. What they were really doing was glorifying themselves. Satan was going to glorify himself instead of glorify the Lord. Ananias and Sapphira were going to glorify themselves instead of glorify the Lord. And the condemnation of Babylon in the book of Revelation is she has glorified herself. You know, the Lord said that when the Holy Spirit came, the Lord says in the instructions on the coming of the Holy Spirit in the 16th chapter of John, he said, He shall glorify me. Now, the Holy Spirit always leads us to glorify Christ. He never leads us to glorify ourselves. Now, the Holy Spirit led Barnabas to glorify the Lord. But Satan led Ananias and Sapphira to glorify themselves. So we see in Ananias and Sapphira, Satan is seeking to introduce the principle into the assembly that later on we see full-blown in professing Christendom and that is going to result finally in the destruction of Babylon the Great and it says the Lord is going to destroy her because she glorified herself. Now, this comes home to our own hearts in this way. Do we allow pride to fill our hearts? Do we try to appear more devoted than we are? Or do we want a place greater than what the Lord has given us? The word of God says, God resisteth the proud and he giveth great to the humble. So this is a very important lesson right in the beginning of the church's history. And it says here, as a result of the rest no man doth join himself. The power of the Holy Spirit was present in the assembly and Peter was given discernment to see what these people were up to. And both of those people fell down dead. We might raise the question, were Ananias and Sapphira truly converted? Maybe they were. Perhaps they were truly saved and this was a sin unto death. Because there is a sin unto death. It's possible for a Christian to be ready for heaven, to be fit for heaven and not fit to live on earth. Fit for heaven because they're covered by the blood of Christ but not fit to live on earth because they're bringing dishonor on the Lord's name. But scripture doesn't exactly say whether they were converted or not. It could be they were. It could be it was just a false profession. But it lets us see that they were there in the assembly of the saints. If they weren't converted, well then they were spuriously there. And if they were really saved, which is possible, well then God, the Holy Spirit was making very plain that he wasn't going to allow in the assembly of his people that which would bring dishonor on the Lord's name. Notice the result. It says in verse 14, And believers were the more added to the Lord multitudes both of men and women. This is the first time we have women mentioned. We have 3,000 on the day of Pentecost. We have 5,000 further on. And now we have multitudes, it says, both of men and women. Possible there were women with the others too but they're not mentioned. But here it mentions women being saved as well as men. And the Lord was working in a marvelous way. Verse 15 says, They brought forth a stick into the streets and laid them on beds and couches that at least a shadow of Peter passing might overshadow some of them. It seems that the Lord was using Peter in a very special way. Peter was heading up the Lord's testimony to these people and the Lord caused these miracles to take place so that these Jewish people in Jerusalem would realize that what Peter was doing, he was doing it in the name of Jesus of Nazareth. You saw the other night, it's the name of Jesus of Nazareth, the very crucify that caused that lame man to be healed. And so the Lord is letting the people see that it's through that name and in that name that these miracles are done. People are healed and souls are saved. Now the result, it says in verse 17, The high priest rose up and all that were with him, which is the sect of the Sadducees, and were filled with indignation and laid their hands on the apostles and put them in the common prison. But the angel of the Lord by night opened the prison doors and brought them forth and said, Go stand and speak in the temple to the people all the words of this life. When they heard that, they entered into the temple early in the morning and thought that the high priest came and lay with him and called the council together and all the sons of the children of Israel and sent to the prison to have them brought but when the officers came and found them not in the prison, they returned and told, saying, The prison truly found we shut with all safety and the people standing without before the door but when we opened we found no man within. Now when the high priest and the captain of the temple and the chief priest said these things, they doubted of them whereunto this would go. No wonder they doubted, God was working. You notice, I pointed this out before, you notice here that the chief opponents of the testimony of the apostles are the Sadducees. Now in the Lord's ministry, in the Lord's ministry from the baptism of John until right up until his death, his chief opponents were the Pharisees. You notice right through the gospel it mentions the Pharisees but the chief ones who opposed the Lord were the Pharisees because the Lord exposed their hypocrisy. But here it's the Sadducees. Now why did the Sadducees come to the front so importantly after the Lord's resurrection? Well for one thing, the high priest was a Sadducee and the Sadducees denied the resurrection. They didn't believe there was a resurrection. It tells us that, it says, The Sadducees say there is no resurrection, neither angel nor spirit but the Pharisees confessed both. And that's why later on when Paul saw an opportunity to divide those who were opposed to him in Jerusalem, he says, I'm a Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee. And he lets them see that he believed in the resurrection of the dead and it was the resurrection of the dead, the Lord's resurrection that was called in question. So the Pharisees took Paul's side and the Sadducees were against him. Now here, the Sadducees are opposing Peter and the other apostles because they're preaching the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. The great testimony of the apostles is the resurrection. They explain that the Holy Spirit has come down because the Lord has been raised up and ascended to heaven. And every time they preach, something is said about the resurrection. And then the Sadducees denied any such thing as a resurrection. And you know that's what many are doing today. They deny the resurrection. You take Jehovah's Witnesses, they deny the resurrection. Or they'll say they don't deny it. Or they'll say, well, no, we believe that Jesus rose, but it was only a spiritual resurrection. Beloved, there's no such thing as a spiritual resurrection. If the Lord didn't rise bodily, he didn't rise at all. And so for them, the Lord is dead. They have a dead Christ. There's no such thing as a spiritual resurrection. The resurrection in the Bible is the resurrection of the body. Every person on this earth that dies is going to be raised again. The Lord Jesus rose in the same body in which he died. And every person who has died is going to be raised up again. And you say, well, how can God raise up people who have been dead a thousand years? Well, that's just a foolish question. Because God is omnipotent and he is able to raise persons up. The identity will be there. Even these bodies that we're in now, the doctors tell us that this body that I have now, it's not the same flesh as I had seven years ago. The body keeps on changing. But the identity's there, right through. And the identity will be there in the resurrection. We'll know one another in the resurrection. They knew the Lord. Their eyes were holding that they shouldn't know him at first, but then they knew him. So they found the pharisees were so disturbed because they preached the resurrection. But the Lord brought them out of jail and said, now you go and, or the angel of the Lord says, you go to the temple and tell the people all the words of this life. And no wonder they wondered where through this thing would go. And so they say there in the 28th verse, did we not straight, not me straightly command you that you should not teach in this name? And behold, you filled Jerusalem with your doctrine and intend to bring this man's blood upon us. You notice how they don't want to use the Lord's name. They said, this name, your doctrine, and this man's blood. They don't say, didn't we tell you not to preach in the name of Jesus? And now you filled Jerusalem with your Christian doctrine and you intend to bring the blood of this Jesus of Nazareth upon us? They don't say that. They don't even want to take the Lord's name on their lips. You see? They're opposed to it. And what does Peter answer? Peter and the other apostles answered and said, we ought to obey God rather than men. The God of our fathers raised up Jesus. You see? They ring the changes on the resurrection. You Pharisees, you Sadducees don't believe in the resurrection. But we obey God rather than men. And the God of our fathers, the God of the Jewish fathers raised up Jesus. His youth flew and hanged on a tree. Their guilt in the crucifixion of the Lord. And they're cut to the heart, it says. And they were going to kill them. You see? And when the word of God goes home, it either convicts people of sin or else it cuts them to the heart and makes them angry. And we find that here. Those who heard Peter preach on the day of Pentecost, it says they were cut to their heart. And they said, what must we do? Whether dead or what must we do? They wanted to be saved. These people are cut to the heart. The very word that is salvation for some, it makes others angry. You know, they say that when Wesley used to send out his preachers, when they came back, he'd say, did anyone get saved? Or did anyone get angry? And if no one got saved and no one got angry, he'd say, well, now you'd better go back to your trade because you're not preaching the gospel right. He figured that if they really preached the gospel as they should, some people would either get saved or else they'd get angry. It would either bring them to Christ or else they'd manifest their opposition to it. Well, that's what we find here. We find that many were saved, but the leaders got angry. And they were going to kill the apostles, but the Lord has one who stands up for them. Gamaliel says, well, now just a minute. And Gamaliel was a very prominent man among the Jews in Jerusalem. Paul says later that he sat at his feet. He was a teacher. He was a rabbi. And he taught, and Paul will learn a great deal from him. He says, just a minute now, says Gamaliel. If this is of God and you oppose it, you'll be fighting against God. And if this is not of God, it'll die out. So just leave these men alone. And they listened to what Gamaliel said. So the Lord overruled him. But the work might continue on. And it says that even though they commanded them, it says in verse 40, to him they agreed. And when they called the apostles and beaten them, they commanded that they should not speak in the name of Jesus and let them go. And they departed from the presence of the council rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name. And daily in the temple and in every house they ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ. Peter was carrying out from the other apostles what they already said before. We ought to obey God rather than men. Now, you might wonder when it says that they beat them and yet they departed rejoicing. If you got beaten, if you and I got beaten for the name of Christ, just because we were giving testimony to him, do you think we could go away from there rejoicing? I believe we could. In fact, another brother and I had an experience of this very thing at once when we were down in Columbia. We got stoned by a mob led by a Catholic priest. They stoned us. And one stone hit me on the head and cut my head and the blood started running down and that brother who was with me got hit on the face. And anyhow, the Lord miraculously preserved us. I don't know where it might have ended, but the Lord sent a horrific downpour of rain and that caused the people to disperse and enabled our horses to be brought and we got away. But do you know, the Lord filled our hearts with a great joy. As we drove away from there, we just were filled with joy. It was something that you have to go through to explain, you have to go through it, you need to understand it. That the Lord should give you such joy in your heart even though you had been persecuted for the Lord's sake. Not that we were really hurt, but we could have been rather seriously hurt and I don't think we would have made any difference. We felt joy in our hearts and we felt pity for those poor people who were deceived and led on. And the result of that very afternoon's happening was that a man who was there was saved and afterwards came into fellowship in an assembly there. So God works still today when his people are persecuted. And I have no doubt that things like that are happening in countries like Russia and China where the Lord's people have to suffer for the name of Christ. Now I want to turn over to the 8th chapter. We have in the 6th chapter the appointment of the deacons for caring for the funds. Peter's name isn't mentioned there although it does mention the apostles. In the 7th chapter we have the stoning of Stephen. When we come over to the 8th chapter we have the persecution that broke out after the stoning of Stephen. Just read a verse at the beginning that says and Saul was consenting unto his death. And at that time, or on that day it really is in the New Translation, on that very same day there was a great persecution against the church, which is Jerusalem. And they were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria except the apostles. And devout men carried Stephen to his burial. I wonder who these devout men were. I believe they must have been some devout Jews, godly Jews who hadn't yet become Christians because all the Christians were scattered. And certainly it wasn't the apostles. They stayed in Jerusalem. But no Christian would have dared show himself. And so the Lord saw that there were among the Jews some devout Jews who gave Stephen a proper burial. They carried Stephen to his burial. As for Saul, he made havoc of the church entering into every house and hailing men and women and committing them to prison. Therefore they that were scattered abroad went everywhere preaching the word, announcing the glad tidings. And Philip went down to the city of Samaria and preached Christ unto them. Now we find without reading it all that the whole city turned to the Lord. Down in Samaria. You know, the Lord in Samaria, in the fourth chapter of John the Lord said, I sent you to reap that on which ye bestowed no labour. Other men laboured and were entered into their labour. And he mentioned about one sowing and another reaping. And I like to think that in the fourth of John the Lord sowed the seed in Samaria. And here in the age of Acts, Philip goes down there. The Christians are all scattered from Jerusalem. Philip was one of the seven deacons chosen to care for the widows. Well, the widows are all scattered too. That work was finished. There was nothing to be done anymore. So what does Philip do? Well, Philip found out in the meantime that the Lord had given him a work to do. He could preach. He was an evangelist. Philip, the only one in Scripture, is called an evangelist. So Philip goes down to Samaria and preaches the gospel. You see, this is the first time the gospel has been preached in the Samaritans. Up till now, the gospel has only been preached as far as the record goes, has only been preached to Jews. It hasn't really spread outside of Jerusalem except some that were there on the day of Pentecost had gone back to their Gentile cities but we don't have any record of that in the Scripture. So we find now, for the first time in Scripture, the gospel is going outside of Jerusalem. It's going to the despised Samaritans who were a kind of a mongrel people. They were a mixture of Jews and people that had come to be sent down there from Assyria at the time of the Ten Tribes were carried away, captured, to Assyria. And the Jews always despised them. And also they had a kind of a rival religion. And they still have it, you know. There are still Samaritans who have their worship there on Mount Gerizim, up in Samaria. And the Lord explained that to the woman that Jerusalem was the center and not Samaria. Now, when it goes down there to preach and many souls are saved and it says in verse 14, Now, when the apostles which were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent unto them Peter and John, who, when they were come down, prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Ghost. For as yet he was fallen upon none of them, only they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then laid they their hands on them and they received the Holy Ghost. Now, you might say, Why did Peter and John have to go down from Jerusalem to Samaria and lay hands on these people before they received the Holy Spirit? We don't find that the apostles laid hands on the day of Pentecost in order to receive the Holy Spirit. In fact, Peter said on the day of Pentecost, Be baptized and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Well, I believe that the reason for this was that had the Samaritans who were converted received the Holy Spirit in independence of the apostles of Jerusalem, they would have continued on in Christianity as a separate group as they had done in Judaism. And this was to preserve the unity of the assembly. You see, beloved, the unity of the assembly of God is a very important truth. Now, we have learned something of the importance of this truth, the truth of the one body. And as we go through the Acts, we find how important it is. You've seen back there the inward unity was connected with the outward testimony. Satan sought to break up that inward unity by what happened with Ananias and Sapphira. But God came in so that the unity was preserved. Now, if the Lord had allowed these Samaritans, the Holy Spirit, apart from the apostles Peter and John coming down, there would have been a danger that they would have just continued on and said, well, now God has given us the Holy Spirit in Samaria. And even though it's the same as in Jerusalem, but he's given it to us independently of the brethren in Jerusalem. So we'll just continue on and we'll be the church in Samaria and we won't have anything to do with the church in Jerusalem. You see, that would have been independent. The apostles come down from Jerusalem and when they lay hands on them they receive the Holy Spirit. And so the unity's preserved. These in Samaria are in fellowship with those in Jerusalem. They continue on together as one assembly. Now there's an assembly in Jerusalem, now there's one down in Samaria. So the work is continuing, but it's one work. It's a united work. The truth of the one body of Christ. The saints of God united to one another and united to the head in heaven by the same Holy Spirit. This is a precious truth. You know, we're not united to one another by faith. We're united by the Holy Spirit. This is something in the New Testament that didn't exist in the Old. In the Old we find saints. We find people who are converted. People who are believers in the Old Testament like Abraham was. Then we find when God called out the nation in Israel, many people in Israel who were saved, and we find many people who were not too. We find sons of Delia, but they were all members of a nation, the nation of Israel. But now we find it's a different thing altogether. The body of Christ composed first of Jews, then of Samaritans, then Gentiles come in, and today the church is composed mostly of Gentiles saved from various countries, from various races, from various languages, from various peoples, but all one in Christ. The church of God is what we might call a supranational body composed of people saved out of all nations but linked up with Christ who's the head in heaven. Isn't it a lovely thought? It's really a wonderful thought when you think of it. And so the unity is preserved. And we get this Simon the sorcerer here. He had made a great profession, you know, and when he saw that his power was gone, he wanted to get the power of the Holy Ghost. And he offered Peter money, really, that he might give him the power that when he laid hands on people they'd receive the Holy Ghost. And Peter discerned what this man was up to. And so he says there to him in verse 20, Peter said unto him, Thy money perish with thee, because thou hast thought that the gifts of God may be purchased with money. Thou hast neither path nor lot in this matter, for thy heart is not right in the sight of God. Repent therefore of this thy wickedness, and pray, God, if perhaps the thought of thine heart may be forgiven me, for I perceive that thou art in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity. Then answered Simon and said, Pray ye to the Lord for me, that none of these things which he which he hath spoken come upon me. But it doesn't say that he repented. He just asked Peter to pray to him that these things mightn't happen. But it doesn't say that there's any repentance on his part. So we have no no indication in the Scripture that there was any real work of God done in this man's heart. That's a very sad thing to see, if you have cases like that. Neither path nor lot, for thy heart is not right. That was the trouble. And this is the important thing. What is our heart set upon? His heart was set on being important and making money. And he saw he'd lost that. He'd lost his importance, and he'd lost his money. His heart was not right in the sight of God. I just want to make this one thing, and that is that when they receive the Holy Ghost it doesn't make any mention of any special phenomena connected with it. It doesn't say they spoke with tongues. And we noticed the other night that we only have three references in the Acts to speaking in tongues on the Day of Pentecost, in the House of Cornelius, and again in the 19th chapter. But we get all of these other people mentioned that they were saved and they were baptized, but we have no mention of their speaking in tongues. So I think this is very eloquent to see that the speaking in tongues is not necessarily a cause. It wasn't even in those days a sign that persons had received the Holy Spirit. Now let us turn over to the 9th chapter. In the beginning of the 9th, or I should say at the end of the 8th chapter we have the continuation of Philip's ministry where he goes down into the desert and initiates a new conversion. In the 9th chapter we have in the first part the conversion of Saul of Tarsus, this great persecutor of the church who was the instigator of the stoning of Stephen and this great persecution that broke out after the stoning of Stephen that caused Philip to go down to Samaria and preach the gospel. The Lord saved this man. And we have in the beginning we have the account of his conversion given here and also in chapters 22 and 26 in the book of the Acts. But we have it here right down takes up the apostle Paul right down to the end of the 31st verse. And from the 32nd verse we have something more about Peter. So I want to refer to that now. Chapter 9 and verse 32. And it came to pass as Peter passed through all quarters he came down also to the saints which dwelt of Lydda. And there he found a certain man named Enios, which had kept his bed eight years and was sick of the palsy. And Peter said unto him, Enios, Jesus Christ make us behold. Arise and make thy bed. And he arose immediately. And all that dwelt of Lydda and Sarum saw him and turned to the Lord. Now there was a certain disciple named Tabitha which by interpretation is called Dorcas. This woman was full of good works and arms, these which she did. And it came to pass in those days that she was sick and died. Whom when they had washed, they laid her in an upper chamber. And poor as much as Lydda was nigh to Joppa and the disciples had heard that Peter was there, they sent unto him two men desiring him that he would not be late to come to them. When Peter arose and went with them. When he was come, they brought him into the upper chamber. And all the widows stood by him weeping and shewing the coats and garments which Dorcas made while she was with them. But Peter put them all forth and kneeled down and prayed. And turning into the body said, Tabitha, arise. And she opened her eyes and when she saw fit, she sat up. And he gave her his hand and lifted her up. And when he had called the saints and widows presented her alive. And he was known throughout all Joppa and many believed in the Lord. And he came to pass that he carried many days in Joppa with one Simon of Cana. Now I believe that we get a picture here of Peter's ministry among the Jewish saints. What are called in scripture the saints of the circumcision. You see Peter was given a special ministry to feed the lambs and sheep of the Lord's Jewish flock. The apostle Paul was given a special ministry to preach the gospel to the Gentiles. The Gentiles are called in scripture the uncircumcision. The Jews are called the circumcision. And it tells us that very plainly in the first chapter of Galatians that Peter was the apostle of the circumcision and Paul was the apostle of the uncircumcision. And so we find Peter here fulfilling his ministry. What Peter's doing here is that he is doing what the Lord told him to do at the time of his restoration in the 21st of John. When the Lord says feed my lambs, feed my sheep, shepherd my sheep. This gives us a little example of how Peter went around doing it. And in his two epistles you can read there the type of oral ministry that he gave to those people. So you like to link this portion up with what we have linked this up with Peter's epistle. Here we have Peter doing pastoral work. And in the epistle, his two epistles, we have the doctrinal instruction that he gave in connection with his pastoral work. He goes down there to near the coast. This is near Jaffa. Jaffa, you know, is the ancient name for Jaffa, which is the chief Palestine seaport, at least for the central part. And the city of Tel Aviv is right near Jaffa. And it was apparently an important port even way back at that time. Middle and fair and near there. In fact, Sharon is the same word as Sharon in the Song of Solomon. It speaks about the rose of Sharon. And that's the plain. There's that great plain of Sharon. It originally belonged to the Philistine in the olden times. And that's the same word as Sharon is here. So, Peter goes down there and he sees this man that has been eight years foot of the pole. Apparently, a kind of a paralytic. He hasn't heard the word for eight years. And Peter has faith to believe that the Lord is going to raise this man up. And he says, Aeneas, Jesus Christ make us behold. Arise and make thy bed. And he arose immediately. You notice that wherever the Lord healed people, and wherever the apostles healed people in the name of the Lord, it was always a perfect work, and it was done immediately. It wasn't like these who claim to be faith healers and half, and majority of the people that go there don't give any evidence of healing. And then when they say something about it, they say, well, you didn't have faith. There's not any question here of faith in this man at all. It's Peter telling him that it's the Lord Jesus who's healing him. You see, this is the proof, as we said before, these were the proofs to these Jewish people that this work was of God. These fine gifts were given to prove that Christianity was a divine thing. And this man is healed. And no doubt he wasn't only healed in his body, he was healed in his soul. You never find the Lord healing people just for the sake of healing their bodies. Several instances we have the Lord telling them when he healed them their bodies, to be past that their faith had made them whole, that they were saved. That woman that cuts the hair of his garment, she was saved. She wasn't just bodily healed. The Lord only healed the body to reach the soul. And no doubt that's what Peter's doing here. He heals the body to reach the soul, and to reach the souls of others. And then there's this woman at Joppa, Tabitha, or Dorca. A woman full of good works and arms deeds that she did. This woman is a lovely example for our Christian sisters who want to do something for the Lord. This is a woman who spent her time seeking to serve others. You know, we serve the Lord when we serve others. When we seek to help others, well then, we're showing the Lord's character. You know, God makes his sun to shine upon the evil of the good, and turns his rain on the just and the unjust. I was very surprised some years ago when a brother said to me he's with the Lord now, and I'm sure he knows better, when he said that he didn't think it was right for a Christian ever to help an unconverted person. Because you would be having fellowship with that unconverted person. That is, to help a neighbor, for instance, if he was in trouble. He didn't help his neighbor because he thought that would be a wrong thing. Now I think that is carrying out the principle, there is a right principle of separation from evil. But that's giving the wrong application to it. God expects us to help others. It says, do good unto all men, especially to them who of the household are faithful. While he's your neighbor and his car has gone flat on his car, and you go out and give him a hand with it, you're opening the door to be able to put a little word in there and to tell him about the Lord. God uses these things. A Christian should be the first one to help others. We should help one another, first of all. And we should try and help, do all the good we can in helping others. And in that way we give a good testimony by our actions, but we shouldn't only leave it to our actions, we should follow it up by our words and use it as an opportunity to speak to people about the Lord. Well, that's what Dorcas was doing, apparently. She was full of good works and arms, as we did. It came to pass in those days she was sick and died. She died and they washed her and got her all in her burial and they sent for Peter. He's quite near there at Joppa and Peter comes down in two men and he comes down to them. I suppose they thought that Peter would be able to preach at the funeral and give a message that the Lord had something better. It says, they were all standing around and weeping there and showing all the garments Dorcas had made, what a feat it is. She puts them all out and he prays and the Lord came in and this woman opened her eyes and when she saw Peter she sat up and he gave her his hand and lifted her up and when he had called the faith and widow presented her alive. What was the result of this? Many believed in the Lord. Many believed in the Lord. The Lord was worth it. The power of the Holy Spirit was manifest. God was saving souls and the Lord was using Peter among the saints, among the people of the circumcision, among the Jews saving souls and bringing them to Christ. Now I want to notice that in this chapter we have three times the word saints used and this is the first time that the word saints is used in the New Testament except in the last chapter of Matthew where it says many of the bodies of the saints which slept arose and went into the Holy City after his resurrection. We have the word saints there. But apart from that and for the first time in the Acts we have the saints. We have mentioned here in verse 41 and we also have saints are mentioned in the beginning of the chapter here as I remember now. Anyhow in two other places. Yes, the 13th verse in the 13th verse it says we have heard Ananias answer Lord I have heard by many of this man how much evil he has done to by saints in Jerusalem. We have the word saints mentioned there and there is one other place as I remember in this chapter I oh yes, in verse 32 in verse 32 it says Peter passed to all quarters he came down also to the saints which loved me there and then we get the saints in verse 41. This is the first time the word saints is used in the Acts but it's used a great deal in the epistles and you know this is a good scriptural word to a good scriptural word to express what the Lord's people are. We are saints. It's one of the words. We are brethren that is brothers and sisters. We are disciples perhaps we don't use that word as much as we should. It's used in the Gospels a lot but not so much in the epistles as it's used at all but the truth of discipleship is one that we should not forget and we are saints and we are believers and the word saints is a good word it means those set apart for God those whom the Lord has set apart for himself the Lord has sanctified and set us apart. That's just what the saints mean. Of course we know in certain so called Christian circles they only think of the saints as especially holy people that have died and gone to heaven they're the saints. They don't like to think of being saints on earth. But every true believer in the Lord Jesus is a saint so we need to realize what these various titles mean and live up to the truth of it. We are saints ones who are separated to the Lord. We believe him because we believe on him. We are brethren because we belong to the same family. We are brothers and sisters in Christ We are disciples because we are following the master and we are to be faithful in following him the one who is rejected and will be rejected too. So these are all titles that have to do with our Christian testimony on earth. So may the Lord enable us to take home the truth to our hearts that we are saints of God Now this evening God willing we hope to go on with the fifth chapter and take up the conversion of Cormelians as we have in chapter 10 I'd like to point out that in these three chapters, chapters 8, 9, chapters 9, yes 8, 9 and 10 we have after the stoning of Stephen a man saved out of the three great branches of the human race you know the whole human race is descended from Noah. We are all descended from Adam but the race started again with Noah and Noah had three sons Shem, Ham and Jacob and I believe it's right to say that the descendants of Shem belong to the continent of Asia the descendants of Ham to the continent of Africa and the descendants of Jacob to the continent of Europe the white races generally speaking are descended from Jacob the black races are descended from Ham the Jewish people and the Semitic people and maybe perhaps the Chinese the intermediate the brown races you might say or yellow races it seems that they are descended from Shem so you have these three branches of the human race now you have a man out of each branch saved here in the eighth chapter we have the conversion of the Ethiopian Eunuch he is one of Ham's descendants from the continent of Africa it says in the ninth chapter we have the conversion of Saul of Carthage he is one of Shem's descendants from the continent of Asia in the tenth chapter we have a Italian conversion a European from the continent of Europe a descendant of Jacob and it seems that we have in these three conversions a little picture that the gospel is now to go out worldwide the stoning of Stephen was the Jewish people saying to the Holy Spirit we don't want you they said to the Lord we won't have you they crucified him now then God sent them his Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit was working to convince the Jewish people of their sin that as a nation we might turn to the Lord but when they stoned Stephen they really said just as we refuse Jesus we refuse the Holy Spirit they couldn't stone the Holy Spirit or they couldn't crucify the Holy Spirit as they had the Lord so they stoned the man who is full of the Holy Spirit and in doing that they say we refuse the Holy Spirit's testimony, well God says well the Jewish nation is now completely set aside it's not that many years afterward that the Jews were destroyed and the Jews met away captive among all nations where they've been ever since until a few years ago and then great majority of them still are among the Gentile nation so now the Lord says now the gospel is going out worldwide it's going out to the Africans, it's going out to the Asians it's going out to the Europeans it's going out to every nation under the sun it's going out to every branch of the human race it's going out to whosoever will and it's still going out and thank God, it doesn't matter what country we come from what nation we belong to what line of knowledge descendants we're descended from God's gospel is the same it goes out to sinners and every sinner who turns from his sins and accepts the Lord Jesus Christ as his Saviour receives a full and free salvation what a privilege we have beloved brethren to proclaim the glorious gospel of God's grace to whosoever will may it continue to be blessed for ever and ever …