Common Men

Providence Baptist Church

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months we have, when I've preached on Sunday night and some on Sunday morning, we have been going through the book of 2nd

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Timothy. Tonight we're going to kind of, as you said, when

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I say take a break, I don't preach all of that often, but we are, as far as me preaching, going to take a break from 2nd

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Timothy. A while back, I can't even remember what it was that Pastor Quatro said, but he had me think, he said something in a sermon that made me think of this text, of our text tonight in Acts chapter 4.

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You can go ahead and turn there. And ever since then, it's just, I've read it probably 15, 20 times since then, and tonight that is where we are going to take our text.

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It's from Acts chapter 4. I want to start, and I often do start with a quote, maybe

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I do that too often, but tonight I am going to start again, once again, with a quote. A quote that is often attributed to Abraham Lincoln that states,

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God must love the common man, he made so many of them. I'm not here this evening to get you to ascribe to the theology of Abraham Lincoln or even have you like the former

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US president, that's not my goal, but I do want us to think about that statement.

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God must love the common man, he made so many of them. I want us to think, does

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God love the common man or woman? Does God make common men or women?

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Does God use the common man? Who is the common man?

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Are there uncommon men or women? Hopefully these questions get your wheels turning before we examine our text tonight in Acts 4.

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I have a very simple message for you tonight found in these verses, but to give you some background on where we find, how we find

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Peter and John in our text, is this was after in Acts chapter 1

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Christ had ascended, and then the Holy Spirit in Acts chapter 2 had come in its fullness.

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Peter had already preached at Pentecost, and 3 ,000 it says were saved, and then the previous chapter before this one in Acts chapter 3, we find where Peter and John had healed a lame beggar who had been lame from birth, and then after that Peter begins calling the people to repent and turn from their sins, and that leads us to our text this evening in Acts chapter 4.

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I'm going to read verses 1 through 22, if you'd please stand as we reverence the reading of God's Holy Word.

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Acts chapter 4 beginning in verse 1, and as they were speaking to the people, the priests and the captain of the temple and the

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Sadducees came upon them greatly annoyed, because they were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection from the dead, and they arrested them and put them in custody until the next day, for it was already evening.

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But many of those who had heard the word believed, and the number of the men came to about 5 ,000.

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On the next day their rulers and elders and scribes gathered together in Jerusalem with Annas the high priest and Caiaphas and John and Alexander and all who were of the high priestly family, and when they had set them in the midst, they inquired, by what power or by what name did you do this?

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Then Peter filled with the Holy Spirit said to them, rulers of the people and elders, if we are to being examined today concerning a good deed done to a crippled man, by what means this man has been healed, let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom

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God raised from the dead, by Him this man is standing before you well. This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone, and there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.

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Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John and perceived that they were uneducated common men, they were astonished, and they recognized that they had been with Jesus.

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But seeing the man who was healed standing beside them, they had nothing to say in opposition.

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But when they had commanded them to leave the council, they conferred with one another, saying, what shall we do with these men?

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For that a notable sign has been performed through them as evident to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and we cannot deny it.

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But in order that it may spread no further among the people, let us warn them to speak no more to anyone in this name.

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So they called them and charged them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. But Peter and John answered them, whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge, for we cannot but speak what we have seen and heard.

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When they had further threatened them, they let them go, finding no way to punish them because of the people, for all were praising

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God for what had happened. For the man on whom this sign of healing was performed was more than 40 years old.

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Let us go to the Lord in prayer. Father God, we thank you for this evening that we can come and gather here and worship as a body of believers.

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We thank you for this Lord's Day that has been set aside. Lord, we pray that everything we do would be glorifying to you with the prayer, the time of prayer, the singing of songs,

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Lord, and as we come into the preaching of your word, I pray that it'd be glorifying to you. Pray that I would preach your word rightly,

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Father God, that I would be led by your Spirit. I pray, Lord, that through this sermon we might realize our need for Christ, that in and of ourselves we are nothing, that in and of myself

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I am nothing, that I need Christ, we need Christ. Father God, I pray for all those listening,

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Lord, that if nothing else, that our knowledge of our weakness, our knowledge of Christ, Lord, would strengthen, we would grow in that, and that you would be glorified in Christ's name.

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Amen. There is a lot in our text that we could spend a great deal of time on, so much of that what

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Peter says in verses 10 through 12, we're going to read that here in a second, but also 19 and 20 when

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Peter and John answered them whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God you must judge, for we cannot but speak what we have seen or heard.

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There's so much here that we don't have time to get into tonight, but we see in verse 3 of our text where Peter and John, they are arrested and they are examined.

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Something was going on and these priests, the captain of the temple and the

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Sadducees, they didn't like it. They didn't like what was going on, at least from the numbers we have in Acts chapter 2 and here in Acts chapter 4, at least 8 ,000 followers or Christians had been added in a short period of time.

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These had been added by the Holy Spirit working through Peter's proclamation of the gospel on two separate occasions, and these leaders they sought to stop it or at least they wanted to contain this spread of the gospel, this speaking in the name of Christ, and in their examination they asked them a question.

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Look at verse 7, and when they had set them in the midst, they inquired, by what power or by what name did you do this?

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Peter responded, it says, then Peter filled with the Holy Spirit said to them, rulers of the people and elders, if we are being examined today concerning a good deed done to a crippled man, and by what means this man has been healed, let it be known to all of you and all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom

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God raised from the dead, by him this man is standing before you well. This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone, and there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.

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Amen. Amen. Peter responded, and upon this response we have verse 13, and now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and were perceived that they were uneducated common men, they were astonished, and they recognized that they had been with Jesus.

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So upon this response there were a few observations that were made about Peter and John.

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The first one being that they were bold. Now when they saw their boldness, or saw the boldness of Peter and John, they were astonished.

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So the second, they were astonished when they perceived that they were uneducated.

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So bold, uneducated, common men. And the last one, and they recognized that they had been with Jesus.

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What do we make of these observations that these religious leaders made of Peter and John?

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Were they correct in what they perceived of these men? As we examine this,

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I want to look at Peter specifically. I want to examine Peter in this text. I briefly want to look at how

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Peter got here. So a few observations about Peter from this text. We've already named three or four.

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Bold, uneducated, common, been with Jesus. That was all in verse 13. If you look up at verse 8, then

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Peter filled with the Holy Spirit. So observations of Peter filled with the Holy Spirit.

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Bold, uneducated, common, and been with Jesus. In verse 13, these high priests, they saw their boldness and were astonished.

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Why? Because they were uneducated and common men. That's where I want to start this evening. That these people, these high priests, perceived that Peter and John were uneducated and common.

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Were these men right in their assessment of Peter and John? Absolutely, they were right.

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They were right. Let's look at Peter. Was Peter just a common and uneducated man? Well, to understand that, what did they mean by common and uneducated?

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What they meant was there was nothing about Peter that made Peter stand out as being above anyone else.

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There was nothing about Peter that would lead one to believe that he was smarter than the next guy.

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Peter was not a scholar. He was not a religious leader or teacher. He did not have formal training as other men, these themselves had.

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He had no religious credentials to be teaching and preaching in this way. Common here is synonymous with ordinary, as in the

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LSB. He was ordinary. He was a common fisherman.

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Luke chapter 5 highlights this. I'm going to read a few verses from Luke chapter 5. On one occasion while the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the

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Word of God, he was standing by the lake of Gennesaret, and he saw two boats by the lake.

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But the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. Getting into one of the boats, which was Simon's, he asked him to put out a little from the land.

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And he sat down and taught the people from the boat. And when he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.

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And Simon answered, Master, we toiled all night and took nothing, but at your word

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I will let down the nets. And when they had done this, they enclosed a large number of fish, and their nets were breaking.

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They signaled to their partners and the other boats to come and help. And they came and filled both the boats, and so that they began to seek.

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But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, Depart from me, for I am a sinful man,

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O Lord. For he and all who were with him were astonished at the catch of fish that they had taken.

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And so also were the James and John, the sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, Do not be afraid.

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From now on you will be catching men. And when they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed him."

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So in our examination of, was Peter just a common man?

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I don't want you to take my word for it. I want us to take the Word of God. And so we start with, he was a common man.

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He was a common fisherman. And there's nothing at all wrong with being a fisherman. There's nothing wrong with making your living by fishing.

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I wish I was good enough to make my living by fishing. It sounds like something I would like to try, but I'm not good enough to make my living.

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But that is how Peter made his living. There's nothing wrong with that. But there was nothing extraordinary about Peter.

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Peter was a man. He was right in his self -assessment in verse 8 of Luke.

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He says, not only a man, he says, but I am a sinful man. He was right.

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Peter had a reputation that we see throughout the Gospels of being a hothead, somewhat a loudmouth.

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He often spoke before he thought. He had several what we would call foot -and -mouth instances.

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And there are multiple instances of Peter showing his faults in his humanity.

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There's two in Matthew 26 alone. Matthew 26 beginning verse 36, then Jesus went with him to a place called

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Gethsemane. And he said to his disciples, sit here while I go over there and pray. And taking with him

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Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, he began to be sorrowful and troubled. And said to them, my soul is very sorrowful even to death.

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Remain here and watch with me. And going a little farther, he fell on his face and prayed, saying, my father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me.

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Nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will. And he came to the disciples and found them sleeping.

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And he said to Peter, so could you not watch with me one hour? Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation.

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The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. Later on in that chapter,

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Jesus said to them, friend, this is when they were coming to take Jesus, friend, do what you came to do.

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And they came up and laid hands on Jesus and seized him. And behold, one of those who were with Jesus, we find in another gospel that this was

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Peter, stretched out his hand, drew his sword, and struck the servant of the high priest and cut off his ear.

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Then Jesus said to him, put your sword back into its place, for all who take the sword will perish by the sword.

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Do you think that I cannot appeal to my father and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels?

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But how then should Scriptures be fulfilled that it must be so? To further make our case that they were right in their assessment that Peter was a common man.

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At times, Peter thought he was uncommon. At times, Peter thought he was extraordinary.

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I'll read two different accounts of the same instance. Matthew 26, then Jesus said to them, all will fall away because of me this night.

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For it is written, I will strike the shepherd and the sheep of the flock will be scattered. But after I am raised up,

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I will go before you to Galilee. Peter answered him, though all fall away because of you,

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I will never fall away. Jesus said to him, truly I tell you this very night before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times.

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Peter said to him, even if I must die with you, I will not deny you.

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And all the disciples said the same. Another account of this in Luke 22,

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Simon Simon, behold Satan demanded to have you that he might sift you as wheat, but I've prayed for you that you may not fail.

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And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers. Peter said to him, Lord I'm ready to go with you both to prison and to death.

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Jesus said, I tell you Peter, the rooster will not crow this day until you deny three times that you know me.

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Peter, who was so sure of himself, that he argued with Jesus. He argued with Christ, that all -knowing, all -seeing, all -powerful

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Son of the Living God, God in the flesh, Peter argued with him. He said, everyone else may reject you.

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Everyone else, every one of these other guys, they may reject you, but not me.

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Not the mighty Peter. I will not reject you. The problem is that Peter didn't realize just how weak he really was.

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Peter didn't understand that he was just a common man. He would very soon, however, and I've read a lot.

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I'm going to read one more and then we'll move on. Luke 22,

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Peter didn't understand how weak he really was. But Luke chapter 22, later on, after he had said,

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I'll not deny you, beginning in verse 54, and they seized him and led him away, bringing him into the high priest's house.

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And Peter was falling at a distance. When they had kindled a fire in the middle of the courtyard and sat down together,

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Peter sat down among them. Then a servant girl, seeing him as he sat in the light, looking closely at him, said, this man was also with him.

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But he did not deny it, saying, woman, I do not know him. And a little later, someone else said to him, you also are one of them.

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But Peter said, man, I am not. And after an interval of about an hour, still another insisted, saying, certainly this man was with him, for he, too, is a

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Galilean. But Peter said, man, I do not know what you're talking about. And immediately, while he was still speaking, the rooster crowed and the

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Lord turned and looked at Peter. And Peter remembered the saying of the Lord, how he had said to him before the rooster crows today, you will deny me three times.

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And he went out and wept bitterly. Here you have Peter, who had not long before argued with Christ that he would never deny him.

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I will never deny you. I'll never turn away. Everyone else might, but not Peter. I would never. Peter, being filled with pride, had made a guarantee that he couldn't see through.

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And we're quick, we're very quick to bash Peter for this, and he was wrong. And he was sinful, and we should recognize it, but we should also be humbled by it.

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For we all too often find ourselves in the same situation as Peter. Believing in our own strength, that our own strength, our own status, our own power that we think that we have will see us through.

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Thinking that we have something to boast about. Listening to the lies of our godless culture and believing that we are somebody, that we are not common, or we are not ordinary, not trusting in what

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God has written about us. We, like Peter, will say, no Christ, I would never.

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All the world might do that, but I would never. I am strong enough. I can resist.

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I have the power not to fail. That is us.

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All too often, and all too often, friends, we think too highly of ourselves. We think too highly of ourselves.

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As Pastor Quatre has noted many times, the lie our society is spreading to us and our children is how wonderful and how strong that we are in and of ourselves.

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You hear things like find your inner strength, trust in yourselves. Friends, do not believe these destructive lies.

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They are destructive lies, for that is what they are. These lies have created a society where people have been told so often how great they are.

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And when they fail, and they will fail, they crumble and lose all hope. For they have placed their hope in a flawed being.

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They have placed their hope in themselves. Peter was made to see how common and weak that he really is.

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We must see the same in ourselves. This instance of, this is a very familiar instance, we've talked about it many times, we covered it recently in family worship, this instance of denying

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Christ. We talked about it actually this week as we're going through John.

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It had to have been the lowest, one of the lowest and weakest points of Peter's life.

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He had just denied his master. After arguing that he never would, this was a low point.

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But I would argue that this was one of the greatest points of Peter's life. You may wonder how could you say that?

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At this moment, Peter was made to see just how common that he really was.

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Just how ordinary. Just how weak that he was. And by the grace of God, in the life of Peter, he was being refined.

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Peter writes of refinement in the life of the Christian. 1st Peter chapter 1 verse 6, he says, in this you rejoice.

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Though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials. So that the tested genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold that perishes though is it tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

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Not only was Peter made to realize how weak that he was, he realized how much he needed

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Christ. The low points in the times in our life, where we are at our lowest, where we have failed, those are not meaningless.

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Those are not meaningless. As hard as these times may be, even in times when we have failed miserably,

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God will often, in the lives of believers, use these times. Through these times, a refining takes place in the life of a believer.

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And there are many ways that, in Scripture, that God uses our failures. I want to look at four.

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Four actions that God brings about when we fail, due to our being common and weak.

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And we will go back to our text, I promise. Number one is he, through our failures and through our shortcomings, he makes us to realize just how common and just how weak that we really are.

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One of the passages where Paul addresses weakness in 1st Corinthians 2 says, and I, when

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I came to you brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom.

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For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling.

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And my speech and my message were not implausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the

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Spirit and of power, so that your faith may not rest in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.

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God understands our weakness better than we do. Christ knew

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Peter would fail. He predicted it. He knew that Peter's flesh was weak in the garden when he couldn't stay awake.

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He knows us better than we do. He knows we are weak and he knows that we will fail.

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And oftentimes he uses our failures to make that weakness even more clear to us.

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We are weak. We are wretched. We have no righteousness in and of ourselves.

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And because of that, we are not only made to see our weakness, but we are made to realize strength comes from God alone through Christ alone.

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Paul in another passage on his weakness writes, but he said to me, my grace is sufficient for you.

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My power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore I will boast all more gladly in my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

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For the sake of Christ, then, I'm content with weakness, insult, hardships, persecutions, and calamities.

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For when I am weak, then I'm strong. We need to understand that what Paul is boasting about here is not sin.

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Rather, Paul is saying that even in his weakness, even in times when he does fail, but even in times when he is insulted, even in times when he faces hard times, when he is persecuted, he understands that in the face of all these things, he is weak.

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He can do nothing but that God works through these things for his own glory.

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His weaknesses are an opportunity for Christ to show his power. He can boast in that.

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Paul wrote in his letter to the Corinthians that we read a minute ago, 1st Corinthians 2 .5, so that your faith may not rest in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.

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The gospel in our text was being proclaimed by common and unlearned men, boldly calling others to repent.

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Boldly, he says, he tells them, he says, let it be known to all of you and all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom

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God raised from the dead, by Him, this man is standing before you. This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone, and there is no salvation.

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He tells them, He's rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone, and there is salvation in no one else.

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For there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.

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And when they were pressed to be quiet, be quiet, just quit talking about Him, how did they respond?

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Verse 19, whether it is right in the sight of you, of God, to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge, for we cannot speak, for we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard.

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How could these men who were proclaiming the gospel, these men that were calm and unlearned, how could they boldly proclaim the gospel?

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How could they boldly, in chapter 3, call others to repent? They asked them in verse 7 of our text, by what power or by what name did you do this?

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What does he say? What power? By the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth.

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That power. By the name and the power of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. We'll have more on that in a few minutes.

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Our being common, and our being weak, and by God's grace and spirit being made to see our weakness, and made to see that our power comes from Christ.

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We are driven to seek God. Proverbs 8, 17,

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I love those who love me and those who seek me diligently will find me. Earlier on in Acts, chapter 1,

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Christ, He had ascended. What did the disciples do when Christ had ascended? He had ascended, the

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Son of God, who had walked with them, who had taught them, their master, their teacher, had now ascended back to heaven.

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What did they do? Acts 1, 14, all these with one accord were devoting themselves to prayer, together with the women and Mary, the mother of Jesus and his brothers.

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They sought God. God had just ascended. What were they doing? They were seeking

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God. As weak, God -reliant creatures, we must seek

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God. We must seek Him through His Word. God has written a word to His people.

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The believer needs the Word of God. We need the Word of God. It is a sword for the weak and the defenseless, a lamp unto the feet of those who have a tendency to stray.

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We need the Word, and we seek God through His Word. We seek Him through prayer. Through our weak words to an

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Almighty God, we humbly bow before Him. In our seeking

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God, it drives away our pride. Through our seeking of God, through Him showing us how weak we are, showing us our need for Him, and through our being driven to seek

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Him, He humbles us. He humbles us by His grace.

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We realize, we are made to realize that we are weak and have no power outside of Christ.

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We must seek the Lord. We must humble ourselves. Seek the Lord tonight, Christian.

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Humble yourself. Be used by God. Peter was being used by God. Acts 2, 14 and Peter, but Peter standing with the eleven, lifted up his voice and addressed them, men of Judea, and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and give ear to my words.

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He was loudly proclaiming. He would go on to proclaim the gospel. Even though he was weak, he proclaimed the gospel.

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God has a habit of only using weak people to accomplish

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His will. That's outside of Christ, of course, who is God in the flesh. God wants to use weak people.

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Charles Spurgeon once said in a sermon, God does not need your strength. He has more than enough power of His own.

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He asks your weakness. He has none of that Himself, and He is longing therefore to take your weakness and use it as an instrument in His own mighty hand.

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Will you not yield your weakness to Him and receive His strength? God uses common men and women.

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There aren't any other kind. Jesus wanted to use Peter. We find in our text where He was using

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Peter. We also find in John 21 where when they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?

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And he said to him, yes, Lord, you know I love you. And he said to him, feed my lambs.

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He said to him a second time, Simon, son of John, do you love me? He said to him, yes,

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Lord, you know that I love you. And he said to him, tend my sheep. And he said to him the third time,

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Simon, son of John, do you love me? And Peter was grieved because he had said to him a third time, do you love me?

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And Jesus said to him, Lord, you know everything, you know that I love you. And Jesus said to him, feed my sheep.

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Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were young, you used to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted, but when you were old, you will stretch out your hands and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go.

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And He said to show, this He said to show by what kind of death He was to glorify God. And after saying this,

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He said to him, follow me. These are very, very significant things right there in John.

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Verse 15, Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these? Just before this text, we find where the disciples,

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Peter had said, I'm going fishing. And the disciples, they went and they go fishing, feeling hopeless. And then

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Christ, He appears on the shoreline. And once John realized that it was the

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Lord, what did Peter do? What did he do? He jumped in the water and he swam to Jesus.

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He couldn't wait until the boat got to the shore. And now Jesus is asking Peter, if Peter loves

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Him, Jesus, more than the other disciples love Him, love Jesus.

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He asked Him, He said, do you love me more than they do? It's a reminder back to Peter's claim that even if all turned away from Christ, He would never.

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And then He presses Peter further. He asked him the question, asked him three times. And I don't know if in the text, many will argue,

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He addressed him three times because He denied him three times. I can't say that definitely.

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But He reminded him three times that Peter was grieved. Christ was asking,

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He was reminding him of his weakness. Why would Christ remind him of this?

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Because He had a job for Peter. He was going to use Peter. What was His job for Peter from that text?

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To feed His sheep. To do what we find Him doing in Acts chapter 4, to boldly spread the gospel to the world.

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And through that, Christ would call His sheep. Peter was about to have a part in establishing

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Christ's church, where he would feed Christ's sheep. He would feed his bride. He would feed the church.

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He didn't need Peter relying on Peter or Peter doing it Peter's way. That would lead to a lot of trouble.

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Peter needed to know that he was weak and in need of Christ. He said, follow me.

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Not follow after your own power, Peter. Follow me. Listen to me. Learn from me.

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Do what I've commanded. Going back to our text, it says that they perceived that they were uneducated and common men.

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And they were right in that assessment. They also said that these men were bold.

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It said now they saw their boldness. They were also right in that assessment.

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How can that be? How can these men, how can Peter who was uneducated, common, and weak be bold?

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Well, because of the two other observations made in our text. Because, what did they say?

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They had recognized that they had been with Jesus. How were these weak men able to proclaim the gospel boldly?

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Because they had been with Jesus. They had been taught by Christ. They were following Christ.

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In verse 8, they were filled and led by the Holy Spirit of God. Our failures serve as a reminder to us of our weakness.

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A reminder to us to not rely on ourselves or to do it our way.

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They are a reminder to follow Christ. That we can be bold because we have been with Him.

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Christ is our only hope. We have no hope in our might. We have nothing to boast. Whereas, we are common.

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Christ is uncommon. Whereas, we are ordinary. Christ is extraordinary.

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We have been filled with the Holy Spirit of God. We have communion with God in spite of our weakness.

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We can read His Word. We can go to Him in prayer. And God says He will build up the weak.

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Isaiah 40, 29. He gives power to the faint and to him that has no might. He increases strength.

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Even you shall fain and be weary and the young men shall fall exhausted but they who wait for the

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Lord shall renew their strength. And they shall mount up with wings like eagles. They shall run and not be weary.

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They shall walk and not faint. God will build up the weak. God will work through the weak.

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Paul writes, in 2 Corinthians 13, for he was crucified in weakness but lives by the power of God.

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For we also are weak in Him. But in dealing with you, we live with Him by the power of God.

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Peter was not perfect from that point on. And I know we can get a little crazy with Bible comparisons.

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You're not Peter. You're not an apostle. But you do share something with Peter.

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And that is his humanity, his sin, his weakness, his being common.

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Peter still sinned and was called out for it. Paul calls Peter out for it. But he had a boldness that he didn't have before and that came from Christ.

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Listen to the end of their prayer. Go down in Acts chapter 4. Go down to verse 29.

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Listen to the end of their prayer here in Acts 4. And I'm gonna leave you with this.

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Acts 4, 29. And now Lord, look upon their threats and grant your servants to continue to speak your

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Word with all boldness while you stretch out your hand to heal. And the signs and wonders are performed through the name of your

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Holy Servant Jesus. And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken and they were all filled with the

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Holy Spirit and they continued to speak the Word of God with boldness. Friend, trust in Christ.

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May every failure and every weakness be a reminder to you of your need for Christ.

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Every time you fail, and you will fail, you will fail tonight, you will fail tomorrow, when you fail, let it be a reminder of your need for Christ.

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And may in our failure, may we run to Christ. May we rely on Christ.

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And may he grant us boldness in the proclamation of his gospel.

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Let us go to the Lord in prayer. Father God, tonight may we be thankful for Christ.

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Lord, we are weak. We are weak.

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There are no righteous men and women as far as in and of themselves.

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There is nothing we have to offer but weakness. We are common in that weakness.

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We are common in that sin, Father. We have failed and we will fail some more.

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Father God, may we run to you. May each weakness be a reminder that we need.

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May we run to Christ. May you strengthen us. And may, Father God, in spite of our weakness, in spite of our...that

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we are a weak people, that we are unlearned, that we are in many ways ignorant. Lord, in spite of that, we pray,

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Father God, that you would humble our hearts and that we might be used by you and that we might proclaim your word.