The Trial and Denial of God

So today's passage is from Mark 14 verses 53 through 72, so here we go.

And they led Jesus to the high priest and all the chief priest and the elders and the scribes came together and Peter had followed them at the distance right into the courtyard of the high priest and he was sitting with the guards and warming himself at the fire.

Now the chief priest and the whole council were seeking testimony against Jesus to put him to death but they found none for many bore false witness against him but their testimony did not agree and they stood up and bore false witness against him saying when we heard him say

I will destroy this temple that is made with hands and in three days I will build another not made with hands yet even at this their testimony did not agree and the high priest stood up in the midst and asked

Jesus have you no answer to make what is it that these men testify against you but he remained silent and made no answer and the high priest asked him are you the

Christ the Son of Blessed and Jesus said I am and you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of power and coming with the clouds of heaven and the high priest tore his garments and said what further witness do we need you have heard the blasphemy what is your decision and they all condemned him as deserving death and some began to spit on him and to cover his face and to strike him saying prophecy and the guards received him with blows and as Peter was below in the courtyard one of the servant girls of the high priest came and seeing

Peter warned himself warming himself she's looked at him and said you are also with the Nazarene Jesus but he denied it saying

I neither know or understand what you mean and he went out into the gateway and the rooster crowed and the servant girl with him began to say to the to the bystanders this man is one of them but then again he denied it after a little while the bystanders again said to Peter certainly you're one of them you are a

Galilean but he began to invoke a curse on himself and swear I do not know this man of whom you speak and immediately the rooster crowed a second time and Peter remembered how

Jesus said to him before the rooster crows twice you will deny me three times and he broke down and wept let's pray gracious Heavenly Father we bow down before you this morning confessing that we confessing that you are sovereign over all things nothing comes to pass apart from your eternal grace and even in the darkest of history when your son was betrayed denied and condemned it was according to your perfect will that for the salvation of sinners we give you praise that men what men meant for evil you proposed for our eternal good and in the weakness of Christ's suffering you displayed the power of your redeeming love father we confess that we we are no better than Peter in this passage our hearts are prone to fear of man more than you we're quick to profess loyalty with our lips and slow to remain steadfast and our hour of testing we acknowledge that in our strength we are weak and frail and apart from Christ we can do nothing yet we rejoice that where we are faithless

Christ remains faithful for he cannot deny himself so now as we turn to your word we ask that you help us we ask for you to help your spirit open our eyes and see

Christ and his steadfastness under trial to see the depth of his obedience and to be reminded that we under the shame for the joy set before him the joy of his redeeming of him redeeming his people may we see not only

Peters failure but the mercy of our Lord who restores sinners and builds his church upon the foundation of grace

Oh Lord give Josh the words to speak may he speak only what is true and profitable to the building up of your people because the word of cause the word to pierce our hearts and humble us under the weight of sin and lift us up with the assurance of Christ's finished work grant that through the preaching of your word your spirit would confirm conform us into your image that we might be bold in our witness steadfast in our trials and joyful in our obedience and father may

Christ be exalted in all time may every heart be drawn away from self -reliance and rest wholly on him who is righteousness our refuge and our

Redeemer let us hear with greater assurance in his grace greater hatred for sin and greater love for our

Savior we ask all this in Jesus name Amen Amos 2 4 through 16 the

Lord delivers a judgment to his people a prophecy of judgment he says thus says

Yahweh for three transgressions of Judah and for four I will not turn back its punishment because they rejected the law of Yahweh and have not kept his statutes their falsehood also has led them astray that which their fathers walked after so I will send fire upon Judah and it will consume the citadels of Jerusalem thus says

Yahweh for three transgressions of Israel and for four I will not turn back its punishment because they sell the righteous for money and the needy for a pair of sandals those who pant after the very dust of the earth on the head of the poor also turn aside the way of the humble and a man and his father go to the same young woman in order to profane my holy name on garments taken as pledges they stretch out beside every altar and in the house of their

God they drink the wine of those who have been fined yet it was

I who destroyed the Amorite before them though his height was like the height of cedars and he was strong as the

Oaks I even destroyed his fruit above and his root below and it was

I who brought you up from the land of Egypt and I led you into the wilderness 40 years that you might take possession of the land of the

Amorite then I raised up some of your sons to be prophets and some of your choice men to be

Nazarites is this not so Oh sons of Israel declares Yahweh but you made the

Nazarites drink wine and you commanded the prophets saying you shall not prophesy behold

I am weighted down beneath you as a wagon is weighted down when filled with sheaves so flight will perish from the swift and the strong will not instill his power with courage nor will the mighty man make his life escape he who grasps the bow will not stand his ground the swift of foot will not escape nor will he who rides the horse make his life escape even the most courageous of heart among the mighty men will flee naked in that day declares

Yahweh we saw that text come to life last week as the disciple of Christ in the in the garden fled leaving even his cloak behind and he fled away naked and Mark continues at the end of this chapter he continues with his structure of beginning middle end where the middle is where we draw the emphasis and we see in this text we see the beginning with Peter skulking around at the outskirts he is too loving of Christ to run completely away but he's too afraid to get up close and we know from the writing of John that John actually goes in and witnesses this trial while Peter stays behind and then the end of this text deals with the consequences of fearing man instead of fearing

God but what I want to do first in this two point sermon is I want to draw the most attention to the focal point of this passage and if you look in your

Bible that is the unending confession that Jesus makes in verse 62 that is the focal point of this text in many ways that's the focal point of this entire gospel is this one true confession see it's easy to miss and it's easy to draw our attention away and look immediately at Peter and see the denial of Christ but what

I want to do is to look at the trial of Christ first by his own people and his astounding confession that happens to be true in the middle of this in the midst of a trial full of lies in fact every word that's uttered in this chapter until verse 62 is a lie and then the

Lord speaks and the truth causes the anger of man and the truth causes false accusations galore and it brings on a murderous intent because the men in Jesus's day panted after the dust they would sell out the righteous for a they would give up their

God for the bricks that they saw around them are we so different today

I think the question has to be asked and the evidence mounts against us but I don't want to primarily go there yet I want to look first at the so -called evidence against God as we look at the trial of God by his own people that their judgment was already sure but they solidify the judgment with their abomination to God so in this text we see skipping to verses 55 through 59 we see the chief priests and the whole

Sanhedrin this would be the Jewish Supreme Court they have all gathered together because they are going to put

Jesus on trial and the reason why well because he threatens their position and he threatens their religion and we have seen increasingly in this text that their religion is worthless if you miss

God what's the point of your religion if you don't understand who Jesus is and all of the fulfillment of the many prophecies of their

Holy Scripture what good is your scripture if you miss Jesus then none of this means anything and these guys missed him and the reason they missed him is because they saw

Jesus as many do today as a threat to what they like and their comfort and their status quo and they can make arguments pretty easily and they will before Rome as we'll see in the next chapter that he threatens the very state of their nation because he has come to divide never forget this the

Bible says many things that we have to hold in tension we've seen those come to the forefront in the last couple of weeks that we're told to love our enemies we're also told that we hate

God's enemies with a perfect hate we know that we are to be united in the

Holy Spirit Ephesians talks much about that Galatians 3 that were united at the table but it also says that Jesus came to separate families and he has come to divide this nation in judgment as he has come and he has seen that the fig tree is withered that it bears no fruit and therefore its destiny as he would lay out in John 15 is that any branch that bears no fruit would be taken away and burned this has all been prophesied and ordained and if you've forgotten that Mark 10 gives us this explicit prophecy behold we are going up to Jerusalem and the

Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and the scribes and they will condemn him to death and deliver him over to the

Gentiles and they will mock him and spit on him and flog him and kill him and three days later he will rise again and so Jesus sits amongst the most powerful of Jerusalem and he listens to their constant lies this court shows that it's very difficult to consistently prove a lie there's too many contradictions and so what these guys have done is they've been plotting and they've been plotting and as God shows the blindness and the insanity of his enemies he pushes them to a hurry and this week as Jesus enters into Jerusalem and this plan and this unrest that they felt goes into full speed and in their speed and in their haste to murder the

Son of God they put on a trial that's really illegal to its core and then it is show it's it's actually not justice they want it to be justice against one who threatens their status but what it really is is the final condemnation because they are an abomination to the very law that they proclaim to follow they seek testimony in the moment but they don't find it and we learn from our

Lord how we should exist in the face of liars today see what

Jesus does is he lets the self -defeating testimony of these false witnesses fall apart on itself in modern parlance we would say that Jesus assumes the center don't understand that's not a third way that's not neither the left nor the right but the middle that's not what

I'm talking about Jesus assumes the center in that he is the one who is right and the other people need to assail and go against that claim he assumes the position of strength and authority and he does it without opening his mouth and the reason why he doesn't open his mouth is because the witnesses are ridiculous they cannot get it together they're stumbling around in the dark

I imagine Mark doesn't give it that give us this but I imagine that they're making wild claims about things he said as he cast out demons we know that they called him the son of Beelzebul earlier that he cast out the power of demons because he was a demon himself ridiculous how can you win a war that way by killing your own people that's not the way it works and so Jesus chided them and they had nothing to say and over and over again in Mark we've seen that they have tried to trap him and they he disarms them and they have nothing to say so now all they have left is lies and what we have to understand is biblically think about this trial they're bringing these people in they want the death penalty and these witnesses are proven time and time again in front of everyone in the court to be false what is the punishment for false witnesses in this case it would be the death penalty because the witness who bears false witness gets the punishment of the defendant that's being sought but we see that these men have no desire for justice whatsoever they are using the court for their own personal ends and God is making a mockery of them

Psalm 2 comes to mind where God laughs at the plans of his enemies because even as they are about to kill the

Son of God they are falling right into his hand and his plan see these witnesses should have been afraid but they were afraid of the wrong people they were afraid of the

Sanhedrin they were afraid of the Supreme Court and the religious leaders of the day instead of being afraid of God who sat in front of them and they were breaking their own law right in front of God think about our sins many of our sins that we engage in we think in our stupidity and in our craziness that God isn't watching and many times we think that we do these hidden things in the dark and that they'll never be exposed to light and we are foolish that way these men do not have that excuse they are sinning by bearing false witness being an abomination to God in front of the living

God himself he is watching them and listening to them as they testify against him it's an astounding thing as they're stumbling around in the dark trying to concoct all these stories they come up with the one story that they think is a winner this is a winner he said that he would tear down this temple what do they have though it's still a lie

John gives us what Jesus said one time he said this publicly in Mark remember when he talks about the temple he is talking only to his inner circle it's the

Olivet discourse in Mark 13 in John it says that the

Jews said to him this was after the first cleansing he went to the temple and he ran out all the money changers early in his ministry this is three years before this trial said what sign do you show us for your authority in doing these things and Jesus answered them destroy this sanctuary and in three days

I will raise it up so not only tear it down but raise it up the

Jews then said it took 46 years to build this sanctuary and you will raise it up in three days but he was speaking about the sanctuary of his body so when he was raised from the dead his disciples remembered that he had said this and they believed the scripture and the word which

Jesus had spoken so we understand from Matthew that there are two witnesses that give this story that he has said that he's going to tear down this temple and then build it back up so let's look at what this is what are the possibilities number one that Jesus is literally going to tear down this temple and then build the physical temple back in three days those are the words of a madman or God because no one else can possibly say something like that and if he's a madman he's no threat to you at all but if he's

God then all of this is true another option would be that he is talking about something spiritual and that's how his disciples heard it and that's how anybody who had a brain heard it what authority do you cleanse this temple and Jesus says the authority that I have over all of this

I will tear it down and build it up and we learn from that who is the temple well

Christ is the head of the temple and the church is the temple we are living stones that sanctuary built with human hands that took 46 years that they were oh so proud of that they didn't even build themself it was a

Herod that built it and they're so proud of it it's gone and it'll never be built back but even in this story the witnesses are inconsistent and so you can imagine

Caiaphas in his frustration as he hears yeah Jesus said this and the finer points of these stories are mixed up they're contradictory and even in this claim they have no evidence and the

Jewish leaders are starting to get afraid and so Caiaphas does the thing and this is the center point of the sermon this morning there's nothing they've got nothing and he stood up in their midst all

Caiaphas does and he questioned Jesus saying you answer nothing what are these men testifying against you that's a good question

Caiaphas what are these men testifying against you the answer that is what nothing they are testifying nothing against Jesus they are lying and they are obviously lying and they are incense in a dark humor way they are hilariously lying there's nothing they can do

Jesus kept silent and did not answer again the high priest was questioning him and said to him are you the

Christ the son of the blessed one and Jesus said

I am and you shall see the son of man sitting at the right hand of the power and coming with the clouds of heaven there's a decision point with Jesus let me jump forward to a little bit of application we we sit at a time in our culture where there is a lot of unrest let's talk about things to the glory

God new atheism has failed atheism is a joke you guys know this it's out there everybody laughs at it and the reason why to our shame is because people believe in a devil today because things are so obviously evil and because they believe in a devil and they're open to supernatural things they know there's gonna be a

God not the way we would really like it to happen but to God be the glory that people have put atheism away it was ridiculous from the start it's insane it's stupid okay and it should be treated by us as arguing from the center you don't have to prove

I don't have to prove to you God exists your position is insane so let's go from there but as we look and we start to see what's going on Jesus brings to a decision point because Jesus does not claim for himself small little things that we can grab on to Jesus does not claim to be an excellent teacher of the law

Jesus does not claim to be one who teaches us good morals by which we can flourish if we just listen to him as a

Jesus does not claim even to be merely the God of heaven who is watching everything play out no he doesn't do that see

Jesus claims in this statement he claims to be God I am he claims to be in power as a king at the right hand of God in the ancient of days as Daniel prophesied in Daniel 7 but even more than that he claims that he will be coming in judgment the message is clear and Caiaphas did not miss it but he went the wrong way here's the message

I'm the king I created everything and if you don't bow to me you will die it's a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living

God and if you are an enemy of this king you don't want to see this king coming in the clouds but to his people that's the glory of God and we cry out how long

Lord how long will the wicked prosper how long are these things going to happen and the answer from God the

Father is there is a time appointed there is a time appointed so choose wisely and choose now choose quickly so why will

Jesus not answer these charges well first of all they make no sense if you argue with a fool he will take you down to his level and beat you with experience it's an idiom

I like to use it at school Jesus doesn't answer their questions because their questions are insane

Jesus does not answer their questions because he doesn't need to dignify them with response they are doing a good job of defeating their own testimony by continually yapping so he lets him yap but we also know there is prophecy intertwined a verse you guys will all know

Isaiah 53 7 he was oppressed and he was afflicted yet he did not open his mouth like a lamb that is led to slaughter and like a sheep that is silent before its shearers so he did not open his mouth

Jesus knows what the end of these proceedings is going to be he was not agonizing in the garden of Gethsemane so that he could develop a legal defense and get out of this kangaroo court he knew that his delivery was not going to be from somehow avoiding the lawfare that his own people had devised against him he knew that the only way out was through because there was a real lawbreaker in this scenario and it was you and I and if we were to be saved if we were to enter into the kingdom of God if we were to have anything but terror at the coming of the

Son of Man in the clouds then he was going to have to fulfill the law on our account Jesus is led like a lamb to this slaughter without opening his mouth because as he knows from praying to his father it's the only way and then this question this question are you the

Christ the son of the blessed one there's many in this are you the son of God are you the son of David are you the

Messiah all of these questions are rolled into one by this wise question by Caiaphas understand Caiaphas asked the right question this is the only thing that matters in this trial who are you that's the only thing that matters because if he's not

God he's insane and you should just let him rattle on out there on the outskirts but if he is

God then he is extremely dangerous terribly dangerous and if your chief thing is the holding on of power and this beautiful temple and the worship and all of the system that has made me and my buddies rich and has made us powerful if that's your thing if Jesus truly is

God then he is the most dangerous person you've ever met in your life and guess what else if he's the

Son of God your defeat is at hand and it's sure Jesus is the

Son of God Jesus does come from the line of David on both sides and he is

God there's a a guy who commentates on the internet that I I really love he's

I've watched him for a long time his name is AD Robles and he's taken this week to trying to teach out of the

New Testament or out of the Old Testament and what he says is when he reads the law he says this is what the

Son of God commands you and that is true because in the beginning was the Word and the

Word was with God and the Word was God every word of the Old Testament is what the

Son of God commands you to do and I think it's a helpful distinction because see Caiaphas and this whole court is disobeying the

Son of God even while trying to kill the Son of God the story that comes to its crescendo here is the story of the

Son of God who condescends into flesh who lived in divine splendor for eternity past and he takes on the form of man and he humbles himself to gain a people and because his kingdom comes from going through it in many ways the

Son of Man will sit on the throne of man and so it is Jesus the

Son of Man who will rule over man it's a piece of what Lewis gets so profoundly right in his chronicles of Narnia that a son of Adam would sit on the throne and rule

Narnia but let's adjust it a little bit it's not a son of Adam a son of Adam will never rule over men it's going to be a son of Christ a son of Jesus because in Adam we are dead but in Christ we live the story that Jesus tells here of his ascension it would be witnessed he says that he's going to be lifted up and people hear this in the court and many of this same court will become part of the way as this all unwinds itself understand there is a breaking going on in Jerusalem as Jesus is on trial here because he witnesses to the truth of his word and at one day he is going to rise from the dead and everyone's going to know about it some will suppress and some will embrace but no one stays the same and then he will ascend into heaven on the clouds and his witnesses will go forth and many who even convicted and condemned him will turn towards him the truth is a scary thing the truth is a thing that we try to bury underground we try to dig it deep and put all the dirt on it that we can but the but the truth it wiggles up comes up out of the ground and we know this all things that are done in darkness will have light shed on them the central point of this is that Jesus has every right to say this every right and the judgment is coming because these men are an abomination to God Proverbs 2010 says differing weights and differing measures both of them are an abomination to Yahweh do you know that there were many false

Christ going around in this day in Jerusalem where's their trial see the trial of Jesus affirms the truth of Jesus claims because these madmen walking around in Jerusalem in Israel at this time they're being put in the outskirts they might have a small following but they don't have people laying down palm branches as they enter into the city crying out glory to God Hosanna the trial itself proves that Jesus is the

Son of God and so the leaders strain and they strain and they strain and they fight to hold on to their position wickedly in the face of evidence that they will lose everything see it's it's because of these actions they are condemned how do we know

Jerusalem will be condemned that his temple will be torn down because of this text right here this is why in this trial is the fruit of hard -hearted blindness and hatred to God let's bring it all back in mark he has been on this theme over and over and over and over repetition is the key to learning is it not and over and over again we see the three levels of blindness we see totally blind that's the

Sanhedrin the Supreme Court doesn't even know what they're dealing with even though they know the power of it they refuse to see it they suppress the truth that is right in front of them and they will die for it and that is how

God judicially hardens but there are some like Peter and like John who are near and they are not completely blind but they don't see the glory of God in front of them not yet and so they don't run away but they're not hardened they're just afraid and then we see the only one who's seen clearly in this text and he's obvious Sidney Jesus sees everything understand that Jesus didn't have to respond to these charges because he knew the charges eternity past he ordained these false charges these wicked men are following the plan that had been left for them in the beginning when before creation even happened

Jesus for knew every single man woman boy and girl that he would save the treasuries of God's wisdom are so deep who can understand who can mind them but there is a stern warning because in the face of this true confession that is the reason this church exists do we not brothers and sisters do we not believe this morning that Jesus is the

Son of God and that he is coming on the clouds we all believe that that is the substance of our confession that is the hope that we have in Christ is that he will judge the living and the dead and that he will open the books and not one word or even one thought will pass without his judgment and his examination we confess that but Caiaphas doesn't the blindness of God's enemies is severe that's why we have to fight them not with swords but unless they repent see we don't fight evil in a disembodied form to be sure we fight principalities and authorities they're demonic that are in power but we also fight people and the way we fight people is by tearing down every lofty argument and subjecting it to the truth of what

Christ has taught us and friends the reason we sit here in this state today in America is because far too often we've acted more like Caiaphas in the face of strong preaching in the face of law -breaking than we've acted like Jesus I wish we acted more like Peter and many of us do but many of us in the church when we hear a bold condemnation of sin in our culture what we do is we tear our own robes and we throw them out of our own churches see we tolerate the evil left every day and we live under their gaze and we choose our words carefully because of the power they wield and when someone goes one millimeter to the right of you we throw them out of the church they're intolerant they're hostile they're mean -spirited this is not of Christ Jesus tells the truth and that's what we're called to do we're told we're called to tell the truth it's not the good people on both sides thing how long will we suppress the truth in unrighteousness and act like the unredeemed

Gentile when we have the very oracles of God who have told us and we confess friends

I would love us to act more like Peter and just simply run away but that's not the end either is it we're told to act like our

Lord that's the very name that we call for ourselves Christians Christians like Christ we're called to that standard not to Caiaphas's standard not to Peter's standard and we have been so blind and one of the prayers that I urge you to pray in the coming days pray that we would stop being blind

I think it's the overreaching call of the gospel of Mark is that his people need to stop being blind friends when we pray that we will not be blind anymore he will take our blindness away and he will give us courage where do you think the courage comes from anyway it's not an act of willpower it's not getting up in the morning and eating your steel -cut oats and maybe some bacon and sausage going

I'm ready to fight the world today that's not where it comes from it comes from prayer and the gift of the Holy Spirit courage is a godly attribute it's not of man the only way to be courageous is to have no fear and the only thing we should fear is

God how is your fear going this morning Christian we live in troubled times and we have been far too afraid you see this is the comfort that we should have is as Caiaphas tears his robes and as he says we don't need any witnesses what an insane thing for a judge to say we don't need any witnesses you've heard it yourself blasphemy see they don't even examine the most important part of this trial do they was what

Jesus said true if it's true it's not blasphemy it's and and I will tell you it's the truest declaration there is in the

Bible all of the Old Testament leads to this moment all of the Old Testament is about the promise of this very

Messiah who Jesus claims in one verse verse 62 we should memorize mark 1462 it is a critical piece of scripture it's important for us to remember who it is that we worship and who he told the people around him that he was and who he told the world that he was but see

Caiaphas is caught fighting for the scraps from the devil's table this end result was pre -determined both by God righteously but also by his wicked wicked enemies these men did as they wanted with their little kingdoms and so the truth of this confession was not even examined was there evidence that Jesus is indeed the

Christ and the Son of God is there evidence was there evidence for Caiaphas could there been expert witnesses brought forth to examine the claim that Jesus made yeah he taught with authority in the temple people were amazed by his teaching with the

Son of God teach with authority in his house you'd best believe he would like a father teaches with authority to his children so much more would

Jesus teach with authority to his children did he have power over sin and Satan yeah as he healed diseases time and time again as he forgave people for their sins it's only the

Son of God could do as he healed people from their infirmaries and he rose Lazarus from the dead he showed his power over sin and death over and over again who could do that but the

Son of God but what Caiaphas does is he knows that these things are devastating to his case so there's no objection there's no witnesses in fact there's a bold declaration we don't need any witnesses because we have a kingdom here thank you very much and we don't need a king no matter how much our betters prophesied to his coming we don't want him we don't need him no thank you they sentenced him to death with no evidence and then they project their violence as the wicked often do as they come up to him and they spit on him you see it's not enough it's not enough to reject the

Son of God now you have to destroy and degrade and deface the

Son of God because he is still in your conscience and so our enemies behave today stirred up with hatred boiling over with rage against Christ why was

Charlie Kirk killed because there was not one person in this country more effective at winning the hearts of young people on college campuses because he proclaimed the gospel because he was bringing the truth of God to bear in the very camp of God's enemies and they can't take it and so we see the boilerplate right here

Israel killed the prophets in ages past but this prophet particularly he's the Son of God and the high priest himself kills this prophet because he can't handle this truthful claim so they spit on him they deface him they beat him with fists and they slap him these are officers doing this this is not a street mob these are the creme de la creme of Jewish society that are acting this way and then they mock him as they slap him in the face prophesy who did it prophesy what could

Jesus have said I created you to do it before the world was formed

I made you knowing you would do it

Christian he made you before the world was formed knowing that you would betray him knowing that you would sin against him knowing that you would fear knowing that you would run and he died for you anyway he has the power this is the power of this confession as Amos said why why would we these men long for the dust of the earth when they have

God in their midst as we saw last week you should cling to the confession and this is the confession we cling to that we don't serve a

God who is dead we serve a God who is alive we don't serve a God who is eternally in servitude we'd serve a

God who is the king sitting at the right hand of the ancient of days and let's end if we've been

Kyphus too often the church friends I don't speak out of nothing I hate this about myself but I do it anyway

I do it so you don't have to I go on X and I see the stuff and guys right now what is going on is that our brothers in the

Presbyterian Church of America the PCA the one that splintered off out of abject liberalism in the 70s and 80s these are the conservative guys even now they are reviling a man who is exposing the rise of female elders in the church every day he's finding a new church his name is

Michael Foster finds a new church to ask the sessions what's going on in this church and you know what these leaders the sessions do they don't tear the robes and go oh my how could this be happening such a thing we've not seen since the 70s when we ran away from this nonsense no they don't say that what they say is you're rabble -rousing we are in a sad state from the fear of man do

I need to talk about us Baptists now I'll stick with the Presbyterians today it makes me feel better today okay but if you've watched the

Southern Baptist Convention over the last few years you know that their problems are probably pale in comparison to ours because of scale okay so we see a sad series of confessions too many

Kyphuses out there who tear the robes at any expression of the truth of Christ's authority over man but then we have these we have this sad confession of Peter see

Peter is on the outskirts we see him in verses 53 and 54 that he's close he can't leave entirely but he's warming himself by the fire and he's following at a distance that word distance is very important he's at a distance how many of us in the church follow

Christ at a distance Lord I confess I'm gonna come on Sundays but yeah you know it gets pretty rough when people start getting hostile and I have to be wise by the way

I'm gonna have to be wise I want to get along Jesus is nice love your enemies understand that what

Peter is doing is he's showing us the partial blindness he's far away right and he's letting his fear keep him from drawing closer and this is what we know even though our hearts don't know it this is just like when the

Lord called him out on the water is it not what was the safest place on the sea that night as it raged and the

Son of God was walking on the water what was the safest place to be in the boat or with Jesus with Jesus and Peter needs to learn this lesson time and time again the safest place is the closest place to God if we want safety which man

Americans do we want safety who we worship it right behind comfort we saw all of our idols exposed in 2020 we're all afraid of dying

I can't even talk to my grandma because we might all die can't get close to you we might die if we want safety there's only one place to be safe and that is holding tightly to the confession and I mean this confession verse 62 if he's the king of everything then he holds your life in his hand we see with Peter's example here that place matters where you are matters he's on the outskirts while all the actions happening inside and it's just like at Gethsemane do you remember

Jesus is on the inside and he has them keeping watching what are they doing sleeping while he's praying they're on the outskirts

Jesus is on the inside and he's fighting for his life here even though he knows he's going to give it away and Peter is warming himself at the fire because he's cold and he's outside place matters bad things happen when you're not where you're supposed to be men remember women remember the scourge and the temptations that cling to our heart they happen when we are where we're not supposed to be not thinking about what we're supposed to be doing and thinking oh

I got a spare minute here I can do whatever I want that is a dangerous place so where are we supposed to be we're supposed to burn the boats commit and hold tight to the confession don't be drifting around trying to figure out where we're supposed to go you know where you're supposed to go go there and fight with all your heart but then we see this series don't we and it's so funny the

Lord writes the best stories as we look at 66 to 72 notice who it is that God brings to highlight the fear of death that Peter has it's a girl it's a girl aren't you one of those who are with the

Nazarene Jesus I don't even understand what you're saying appears huh me no habla

English that's what he does and then again no it wasn't me the second time now the third time there's a crowd and so Peter breaks the law just like the court did and he swears an oath and he blasphemes

God and takes the Lord's name in vain to say something along the lines of by God may

God damn me if I am one of them that's what he does and because the

Lord tells the best stories a cock crows and Peter throws himself to the ground like he should have been doing this whole time and I think that he understands everything he doesn't know what to do yet but he does know like David knew when that bony finger of Nathan was pointing at him that he had taken that lamb from the poor man that he had taken your what your eyes wife that was the most precious thing to his most loyal man and he falls on his face and he tears his clothes see this is the right kind of tearing of garments kyphos does it in his self -righteous indignity but Peter falls down into the dust understanding that he is nothing that he said he was even though everyone else would deny you

I won't not only does Peter deny Christ he breaks the law in denying he bears false witness by breaking an oath he takes the

Lord's name in vain by invoking God's power to authorize his words see the truth of God breaks hearts or it hardens hearts and this is where we are today there have been many in the church who have been kyphos there have been many in the church who have been

Peter and friends as I said last week we know that Peter is far greater than any of us will ever be so don't give yourself airs

I try not to give myself airs because I will say in my heart of hearts and I will pray Lord though everyone would fall away in this country

I will stand up for you Peter didn't but he will he will why because he is going to see the risen

Lord and all of these prophecies and all of these things that Jesus said they burst onto the scene and it's like the

Lord has been laying these groundwork for these partially blind men see they're learning over and over again and God is patient he is the best teacher that you've ever imagined because he is patient with you

I must tell this I'm sorry this week I was I was teaching a lesson and I pointed at a it's a surveying rod and I said look if you're above this number it's a one if you're above this line if you're below this number it's less than one what's less than one and a kid says two and I said no try again twos more less than one and a kid asked me a kid said hey mr.

rice how much longer are you gonna teach and I said what do you mean by that he goes how do you do this and I very look it was an interesting it's funny but it was an interesting situation where I got to say

I was like look the the model of my life is a fruit of the Spirit is patience and I can't take credit for that it's not just the way

I'm wired it's not just the way I'm wired if you knew me when I was a teenager if you knew me when

I was in my 20s patience would not be the word that would come to mind rash soldier who use words to disembowel people would be the words that would come to mind so what credit can

I take and I told this young man I said look I follow the Lord and he's given me patience because I am as stupid as every one of you guys and he's given me eyes to see and that's a true story see

God God teaches Peter even in blindness God has ordained this partial blindness that these men have so that they would remember the lessons better they would remember the lessons better the best way to never grab a pot off of the stove that's boiling is to grab the hot metal and burn yourself and you will remember don't do that again see the best way to not deny the

Lord is to have this stone this Ebeneezer where you remember this is where I denied the

Lord and this is what it took and I pray that I will never do that again even though in my flesh

I know that I will Lord give me the strength to not do this again the truth of Jesus leads to things right the truth of Jesus in winding up today the truth of Jesus and this confession in verse 62 in verse 62

I want to read it again Jesus said I am and you shall see the

Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the power and coming with the clouds of heaven the truth of that confession does things it assures one thing it assures the death of his enemies although they seem to triumph for a day it assures life through the priceless gift of repentance for his people see the posture of Peter is the posture that is required to live the

Christian life in the power of the Holy Spirit you want to do bold things for Christ and we do church do we not church we rise and fall not based on our survival not based on how much money comes in we rise and fall based on our ability to get down on our knees and down on our face and cry out to the living

God that he would give us the power and the faith knowing that our knees will wobble that we will fail that we will deny him knowing we pray that he will give us patience to follow this path that he's put us on to give us courage to give us wisdom to give us faith and friends don't miss this this is so crucial critical it's crucial give us repentance repentance is not a natural thing that you conjure up out of willpower either it's just like courage it's just like faith it's a gift of God pray for repentance have you prayed for it lately you should because when we're a repentant church that has turned toward God as the end of Amos said turn right turn that's what

Ezekiel 18 said this morning turn if you will turn then there will be not one stain of sin on your conscience and you will be an unmanageable force not you but the

Spirit who is in you that's the decision that we have today follow or die knowing that you can't follow without him leading you let's pray for Jesus we are thankful for your word thankful for this amazing story

Lord a story of the the false trial the confession that you are the

Son of Man you are God and then the denial of your best friend

Lord and we we learn from all of these we learn our hard -heartedness in the face of your confession

Lord I pray that you would soften our hearts that if there's any here who sets himself up as being against you either through self -righteous delusions or through enmity with you

Lord I pray that you would break that heart that you would remove this the the heart of stone and put in the heart of flesh

Lord if we are cowards I pray that you would give us courage that you would forgive us for our sinful cowardice and that you would change us or that we would turn away from that Lord above all

I pray that we would be your faithful people and that you would be our God that we would confess you with our mouths or but we would also follow you with our actions faith without works is dead

Lord you've given us the faith give us the faithfulness to prove that faith by walking it out in works you have prepared those before the dawn of time we are your workmanship

Lord help us to walk in the works that you've given us both individually and as a church and Lord we will sing your praises and we long for that day where we see you come on the clouds and you open the books not because of our swagger but because we know what's in those books for us that you will say paid in full there is no accusation against us not because we are holy but because you are and you have given us your life what an amazing exchange and Lord we cling to that that truth and that hope and that confession it's in your name