Importance of Strengthening One Another — James Jennings

Well, let me ask a few questions. What was the goal of Paul and Barnabas' return visit to Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch? In Acts 14, what did they return to go and do? Anyone? It goes on to say that Paul's next trip was to go see how they are.

That would fall under the heading, but in Acts 14, you don't have to turn there. We're going to go through multiple verses real fast to make an opening point. But they were strengthening the souls of the disciples.

Strengthening Believers Through Biblical Truth

Strengthening the souls, not the bodies. They weren't helping the physical health, but the spiritual health of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith. And what did they encourage them with?

What was their encouraging statement? What did they impart specifically to those people? What did they say? Through many tribulations, you've got to go through to enter that kingdom. You've got to go through many tribulations.

So Paul strengthened them how? Through truth. Right? Through truth. What was one of the reasons Paul wanted to visit Rome? In Romans 1, what does it say there? What was one of the reasons Paul wanted to go to Rome?

"...I long to see you.". For what reason? "...That I might impart to you some spiritual gift...". Why? To strengthen. That's the key word. Strengthen. Strengthen. "...To strengthen you, that is that we may be mutually encouraged by each other's faith, both yours and mine.".

Okay, what was the church at Sardis? In Revelation? They had a good reputation, but they were not really alive. That was all they had was a good reputation. What were they told to do? What did they need to do to themselves there?

Strengthen. Strengthen. "...What remains and is about to die, for I have not found your worth complete in the sight of God, remember then what you received and heard.". So how are they going to strengthen themselves?

They're going to remember what they have seen and heard. I go through my sermon, it's very similar to Bobby's. And I know Craig was teaching the kids, so he missed Bobby's message in the back. But Bobby talks about the importance we need to be reminded.

And in Craig and the Lord's Supper, near the end, he made the emphasis on that point that this is remembering what Christ has done. This is to be done in remembrance of Him. Why did Paul visit Galatia?

It was one of the reasons. To do what? To strengthen. Acts 18, after spending some time there, he departed and why did he go on to another region? Strengthening all the disciples. In Ezekiel, the false shepherds are condemned because it was one of the things the false shepherds did not do.

What did they not do to the weak? You should be able to guess it by now. That's what I'm going to hit on. The weak you have not strengthened. The sick you've not healed. The injured you've not bound up.

When David was in hiding, why did Jonathan visit him? To strengthen him. Right, very good. 1 Samuel 23, And Jonathan saw his son Rose and went to David at Horesh and strengthened his hand in God. Right, this is a spiritual strengthening that is taking place through truth being imparted.

In Revelation, they're being reminded of truth. Or in Acts 14, they're being told specific truth about suffering. What did Jesus tell Peter to do after he turned from denying Christ? After you turn again, what are you going to do?

What mission? What's one of the missions I'm going to give you, Peter? Strengthen your brothers. Strengthen your brothers. And that's what I want to look at. So turn to Luke 22. I could go on with many more references of the Bible talking about people being strengthened.

And you'll notice here, one of the primary goals behind many conversations in the Christian life is to strengthen believers. Strengthen. Not to hinder them. Not to do the opposite. But to strengthen them, and you strengthen them with the truth.

So back to Bobby's message, it's important that we know the truth, right? Or we can't strengthen. And you notice here, the reason behind many of these trips, whether it's a trip out into the field to talk to David or a trip across the sea, was to strengthen believers.

There's a massive emphasis in your Bible on strengthening other Christians with the words that you share or the things that you say. That's a primary activity for the Christian is to strengthen other Christians' faith and impart a spiritual gift by imparting biblical truth to them.

Peter's Preparation to Strengthen the Brothers

What I want to look at is Peter. Specifically, I want to consider Peter, because Peter is told by Christ to go and do this, but Peter, like us, in order to be in a place where he could go strengthen others, Peter had to go through certain things.

Training, so to speak. He had to get a certificate to be able to go and strengthen others. And Bobby pointed out, why did Peter write 1 and 2 Peter? He wrote these things as a reminder to them. He's writing these things to strengthen them.

There's multiple things in 1 and 2 Peter that he said to strengthen the church that if he didn't go through what he went through in Luke 22, he would not have been able to write and would not have been able to say.

The same thing in you and I's life. There are things that we are going through that will teach us in order that we will be able to strengthen others in the future with the comfort and strength that we ourselves have received from the Lord.

So, Luke 22, we're going to find where Peter got enrolled in a class and we're going to find that after going through what he went through, he was in a place where he could go and strengthen the brothers.

And let's look at Luke 22. Luke 22, let's read v. 24 briefly just to get some of the context. A dispute arose among them as of which of them was to be regarded as the greatest. And so they have this whole dispute.

Then v. 28, Christ says to them, you are those who have stayed with Me in My trials. Now, that's not going to last for a lot longer there. Verse 31, Simon Simon, Behold, Satan demanded to have you. Why?

That he might sift you like wheat. But, I have prayed for you. Why? That your faith may not fail. What do I go do next? And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers. Verse 33, Peter said to Him, Lord, I'm ready.

I'm ready to go with You both to prison and to death. Jesus said, I tell you, Peter, the rooster will not crow this day until you deny Me three times. You deny three times that you know Me. And then just briefly, v. 54, this is where it happens, then they seized Jesus, the high priest's house, and Peter was following at a distance.

When they had kindled a fire in the middle of the courtyard and sat down together, Peter sat down among them. Then a servant girl, seeing him as he sat in the light, and looking closely at him, said, this man also was with him.

But he denied it, saying, woman, I do not know him. A little later, someone else saw him and said, you also are one of them. Peter said, man, I'm not. And after an interval of about an hour, an hour, still another insisted, saying, certainly this man also was with him, for he is too a Galilean.

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

And Peter went out and he wept bitterly. Let's pray. Father, we all know about Peter. Most of us at least, we've heard about him, we've thought about him, we've read this passage before, but as Bobby taught on in the first hour, Lord, I pray that as I give these reminders, You would make something very fresh and real to different brothers and sisters here that they could see it and apply it in their own life.

Lord, my hope of preaching on the importance of strengthening one another is to strengthen the saints to do that very thing, to remind them to do that very thing, Lord. And so I just ask for Your help, that You'd quicken this word by the power of Your Spirit.

Lord, help. In Jesus' name, Amen. So Jesus tells Peter, when you've turned again, go strengthen the brothers. That kind of implies something in Peter's life was preventing his usefulness in that specific area, at least in certain ways.

But after he went through this trial, this test, he'd be more useful. That's vitally important to remember in the trials that you're going through, believer. God is using them to all the more purify you and make you like gold.

So the first thing, I want to look at, I think, six things here. Six things. The first is this. The first step of achieving your certificate and being able to strengthen one another is you have to enroll in a class that purifies you more.

Trials as God's Purifying Assignment

You've got to get enrolled. You've got to get enrolled. Who enrolled Peter in this class? Who? Jesus? That's right, that's the right answer. Look at the text. Simon, Simon, verse 31, behold, Satan demanded to have you.

What does that remind you of? Satan asked to have you. What should that bring to mind? It should bring Job. The ironic thing is in Job, though the Lord is the one who mentioned Job to the devil. And then the Lord gave permission.

The Lord did not tempt Job, but He allowed the devil to do that very thing and there were purposes behind that. And in the same way here, the ultimate one who enrolls Peter in this test and allows it to come to pass and allows it to happen, it's the Lord.

The Lord, behold, Satan demanded to have you. Now Satan's purpose was that he might sift you like wheat. Ultimately, that he might violently shake you to the point where you deny Christ completely. Right?

As he goes on to say, Jesus says, I've prayed your faith may not fail. Ultimately, the devil wanted his faith to fail. His faith ultimately did not fail in the ultimate sense, it didn't. We're going to look at why it didn't fail.

But Satan demanded before the Lord, just like in Job, Job 1, the Lord said to Satan, behold, all that he has is in your hand, only against him do not stretch out your hand. So the Lord is the one who permitted Peter to enter into this trial, right?

This did not just happen. Your trials, my trials, they don't just happen. It might feel like it just happened, but there's someone intricately involved in that situation to bring it about and there are purposes and something for you to do after you've endured through that trial.

You don't want to lose sight of that. And amazingly here, you know, Jesus is telling Peter in advance about everything that's going to happen. We often don't get that privilege, do we? Peter gets it. Jesus is saying what's going to happen.

I mean, you'd think you wouldn't fail the test if you knew what was going to happen. But Peter was, as we'll see, he was proud. This was intentional. It was God's assignment to Peter. Right? Maybe God's giving you an assignment right now.

As I mentioned weeks ago in the sermon on are you content in your local church, don't drop the class. God's given us all tests. Don't just move that to the side. If He's given it to you, take it. Take it.

Learn from it. The Lord is directly involved in your trials. He's allowing you to be tested. That's why He can say in 1 Corinthians 10 -13, that's why Paul can say, brother, sister, no temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man.

But God is faithful, and He will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with temptation, with the test, it's the same Greek word for trial, with the test, He will give you a way of escape that you might endure it.

Why can we have such a promise like that? That there's always a way of escape out of the trial where you don't have to sin? It's because God's involved in the trials and the tests that come about in your life.

It's not accidental. It is intentional. Don't forget that. Now look, it's also true, not only is God involved, but we do have an enemy seeking to destroy us. Satan's intention was for Peter's faith to fail.

We have a real enemy. He wants you dead. He is seeking someone to devour. I mean, of all people, who would write that in 1 Peter 5? Peter. Peter knew. Jesus had told him. Someone's out to get him. Someone's demanding to have you.

And he goes on later to say the devil is seeking someone to devour. We have an adversary who's like a lion. Now, I mentioned that, but just to balance it out, are there people who will often attribute happenings to Satan that have no connection?

Sure, that's a problem. It can frustrate us shepherds when we hear someone say, oh, it was the devil who made me do it, or it was Satan, or it was that. It might just have been you sinning and you need to take ownership for that.

Do not attribute that to the devil. At the same time, you don't want to forget the spiritual war that you and I are in. There's a devil and he's got demons, even legions of them, and we wrestle against not flesh and blood.

Don't forget that. Just because someone might abuse that language, you think about Satan towards the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, he was out to get Christ, wasn't he? Luke 4, verse 13, after the temptations in the wilderness had ended, it says this of Satan, he departed from Christ until what?

He departed from Christ until an opportune time. Satan is an opportunist. He's looking for an opportunity. He's not looking for an opportunity to make it big with money and the financial and the stock market.

Satan is looking for an opportunity to find a crack in the midst of your faith and get you to fall away from the living God, get you to have an evil, unbelieving heart and deny the Lord Jesus Christ. He's looking for that.

He's an active enemy. So that's point number one, is that you've got to get enrolled. And the good thing is you don't have to go sign up. God's going to sign you up. He's going to. He's going to. Right?

If you're His child, He will sign you up for discipline at some point and that will prove you are a legitimate child when you're having that rod on your back. I remember years ago, people said when do you have the greatest assurance of your salvation?

And Brother Tim said when God is disciplining him, it's one of the times he has the most assurance he's a Christian. And there's truth to that. You see, God loves you enough to take off that sharp edge and hone you more to make you like His Son.

Peter's Pride and the Need for Humility

So second thing, what was Peter's attitude when he heard about the assignment? Right, and that matters. Because you and I, we've got an attitude. We've got a perspective. We've got a way that we look at something when we hear about an assignment.

Again, we're thinking about this because we want to get to the point to see how did the Lord refine Peter to get him to a point where he can strengthen the brethren? Right, because that's what I'm calling you and I to do.

To strengthen one another, whether it's in this fellowship meal to come, during the grace group, during the week, things happen in your life to get you to that point to more effectively strengthen people.

So what was Peter's attitude when he heard about the assignment? Verse 33, in Luke's account, look at just after hearing this, what's Peter's response? I'm ready. I'm ready. I'm ready. You know, your statement somewhat implied that I'm not ready, but I want to let you know that I am ready.

And what am I ready for? I'll make it clear. I'm ready to go to prison and to death. What an attitude. And he said this shortly after what had just been happening among the disciples. A dispute arose among them as to which of them was to be regarded as the greatest.

And Peter's wanted to be very clearly known that he's the greatest. And if that doesn't convince you, listen to Matthew's account of this. Matthew 26, 33, Peter answered him, though they all fall away, because of you, I will never fall away.

Look, all these disciples, they're going to fall away. Not me. I'm better than them. I'm more godly than they are. I'm more superior than them. I mean, Peter's having that type of mindset. Though they all fall away, I will never.

Incredible. Incredible. And what happened to Peter? Luke 22, 56, then a servant girl. And I realized he wasn't just alone, it was just her. There were a bunch of troops around there as well. Sure, it wasn't a guard asking him the question, it was a servant girl.

And he denied Christ. He denied Christ. So why did the Lord enroll him? I think it's safe to say, the Lord enrolled Peter to crush him of his pride. To give him humility. And he writes about humility in 1 Peter.

It's very interesting what he says there. He says, God opposes the proud. That's what just happened in Luke 22. God will oppose the proud, but He will give grace to the humble. Peter saw that happening in his very life.

Peter was not prepared for this trial. He wasn't. But Christ was preparing him through the trial for future tests. He was being made ready. Peter said, I'm ready. He was being made ready. And there's another point, you know what happens later on in Peter's life?

James gets killed by the sword. And then what happens to Peter? He gets arrested. And if James just got killed, what's probably Peter's fate going to be? Peter's about to get killed. But you know what happened?

The Lord delivered him with an angel supernaturally and took him out of that place. But Peter was ready. He was ready to go and die. James had just died. Peter looked like he was about to die. So he grew through this.

So what was Peter's attitude here? Yeah, he wasn't prepared. He was proud. You know what Peter lacked? He lacked a fear of the Lord. How do you see that there? He took Christ's words in a light way. To indicate you fear God is you take God's Word seriously.

Look what Christ had just told him there. Satan demanded to have you that he might sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your faith not fail. When you turn again and strengthen your brothers, and Peter's saying, Lord, I'm ready to go with You, it would have been much better to say, oh Lord, please help me in the midst of this.

I'm not ready. I need Your grace. Lord, I'm going to hold on to that promise that You've given me. Peter lacked fear of God in this place. He didn't take the Word as serious as it should. And who is the one to whom the Lord looks?

What does Isaiah 60 -60 say? This is the one to whom I will look. He who is humble. Is it a humble man who says I will never deny You and he's boasting in himself and saying all those others are going to deny You and I'm not going to deny You?

That's not a humble man. He who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at My Word. Peter did not tremble at Christ's words. Peter did not manifest humility here. The Lord pulled the carpet out from under his feet.

Let him fall flat on his head. But he grew. He grew to the point where listen to what he says in 1 Peter 5. Look, one of the things God brought about in his life that he's able to remind and strengthen the believers with.

He says in 1 Peter 5, clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another. Why? For God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Peter learned that through experience. God opposed him.

Testing Faith Through Suffering

Third thing. Third observation here. The purpose of the assignment was meant to test Peter's faith. It was meant to test Peter's faith. Now, the enemy's purpose was for Peter's faith to fail and for him to be destroyed.

But in the end, it only strengthened his faith. Why? Pride is the opposite of faith. Pride and faith don't mix and go together. Pride is opposed to a life of faith. What is faith? Faith is trust and commitment in the Lord Jesus Christ.

You're committed, you're trusting, you're looking to Christ. It's confidence in the Lord. What's pride? Is pride confidence in the Lord or is it confidence in what? Confidence in yourself. That's exactly Peter's statements reveal, a confidence in himself.

And through this trial, he comes out of it with what? More confidence in self? No. More confidence in the Lord. More recognizing his absolute inability to deliver himself by his own power and his total essential need to rely upon the Lord for a part from whom he can do absolutely nothing.

Now, he says here, Jesus says, I pray for you that your faith may not fail. Can your faith fail? Can your faith die out completely? I mean, momentarily, did he trust Christ? In that moment, he didn't.

He didn't. He sinned. He had lacked faith because of his pride. Did he abandon the faith? No, he did not abandon the faith. But can you abandon the faith? Can you have faith for a little while? And then at a time of testing, you fall away?

Yeah, absolutely. Trials test what's true of you. It tests how you've actually received the Word of God. Luke 8 .13,. "...And the ones on the rock are those who when they hear the Word, they receive it with joy.

But these have no root, they believe for a while, and in a time of testing, they believe for a while. In a time of testing, they fall away.". There are people who hear the Word, it's not truly planted in the heart.

There's no birth. There's no true salvation. And a test comes in their life. And they don't turn again. They turn away and abandon Christ. Hebrews 3,. "...For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end.".

Now how is he going to be tested here? The text says that he may sift you like wheat. And this refers to the last step in producing usable wheat that could be ground into flour. And so Satan wants Peter to not be usable.

He wants to violently shake him where he is separated completely away from the Lord in that sift as he's being shaken violently that he will get away from that which is the wheat, that which is the good, and be removed.

But the Lord actually uses all that violent shaking to purify him all the more and all the more prove that he is of the wheat. That he is not a tare. That he is not a pebble that is caught in the midst of it.

So Satan is wanting to shake his faith to the verge of an overthrow. That's what the devil wants to happen in your life. He wants to shake you violently to get you to the point where your faith is overthrown, where you stop believing in God, where you start doubting the faithfulness of God.

Now how did he do on the assignment? How did he do? What happened? Well, the man who boldly declared his commitment to Christ denied him. You know one of the phrases that Peter had heard prior to this encounter?

He heard Matthew 10 .28. He went into this knowing Matthew 10 .28. And do not fear those who kill the body, but cannot kill the soul. Rather, fear Him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. And Peter did the opposite.

He did fear Him who can kill the body. He didn't fear God who can kill the soul. He feared man. This is a man who heard about the test ahead of time. Hours later, he takes it. This is all in the same day.

Verse 34, the rooster will not crow this day until you deny Me three times that you know Me. I mean, this happens hours later. He faces the very test that Christ has told him about in advance. Look at v. 59.

He's already denied Christ two times. Look what v. 59 says. How's Peter doing here on this assignment? V. 59, after an interval of about an hour. What was going on in Peter's mind for that hour? You already denied Him two times.

I mean, this is not like a back-to-back denial. It's not like I walk across the room and by the time I get to the back wall, three of you have asked me if I know someone and I deny all three of you.

An hour. I mean, that must have been some of the longest 60 minutes of Peter's life. What was going on in his mind? Whatever was going on in his mind, it wasn't enough to convince him when this third question came up to finally tell the truth.

And even yet still, Christ restores this man and uses him. The Lord is very merciful. And you know what he said the third time in the last denial? Really captures it. In Matthew's account, v. 26 -74, it says, then he began.

This is Peter. The third time, he has the most serious renouncing of Christ compared to the other two times. Then he began to invoke a curse on himself and to swear, I do not know the man. Immediately, the rooster crowed.

Isn't this incredible? Third time. An hour of thinking about it. And it's not like Christ is just over there, nothing's happening. Christ has just been tortured and all sorts of things have happened. He's not over there sitting in a nice way.

He's in suffering and pain and agony. You see your Lord there. You have an hour to think about it. And he denies him a third time. The very thing he promised he would never do, I'll never deny you, he does three times.

Just massive humility being brought about in this man who tells us to clothe our mind with humility because God opposed him because he was proud. God dealt with Peter here in this passage. Invoke a curse to anathemize on himself and to swear, I don't know the man.

And then what happens? Then the Lord turned to look at Peter. You see that in v. 61. The Lord turned to look at Peter. And Peter remembered the saying of the Lord how He said to him, before the rooster crows today, you've denied Me three times.

And he went out and wept bitterly. You know how it is. You're kind of in a conversation. Sometimes you're talking about someone and you don't realize they're about to walk by. They kind of look at you and you all of a sudden feel like I shouldn't have said that.

Peter had just said all of this. And there Christ is in the midst of his suffering. And he sees Him. I mean, there's eye contact. Look, I've been in meetings where a husband and a wife, one of them's confessing very serious sin.

And it's the first time the spouse is finding out about it. And you just see when they meet their eyes right there just the brokenness, the hurt of what has happened and gone on in their marriage. But here, this is Peter sinning against Him who had perfect love.

Who did no wrong to Him. Who told Him in advance what was going to happen. Incredible. I mean, that's a class. You want to learn? You want to grow? Peter grew from this. He saw the graciousness of the Lord.

He saw his own pride and arrogance. As Bobby pointed out in the first hour, at that point, Peter remembered. Peter remembered the saying. Meaning, he had forgotten it. I mean, this is hours later. You would think if you heard about what was about to happen when you're in the midst of it, and this is after he had waited for an hour.

So apparently, it never came to his mind in the whole hour he was sitting there. It's after he denies Christ. He remembers what the Lord said. He didn't remember it after his two times of denying Christ.

It took a third time for what Christ said to come and hit him? Incredible. All that you thought you would do for Christ, and you failed. You failed. Your spiritual plans were smashed. It's amazing. Fifth thing, what was the ultimate reason why he did not flunk the class like so many others have?

Christ's Intercession Preserves Peter's Faith

What was the reason? What was the reason? Why did Peter's faith not ultimately fail? Why? Yeah, Jesus had in the past prayed for him. In the past, Christ had prayed. He knew this was going to happen. He says right there, He says, but I have...

I have. I've prayed for you that your faith may not fail. The Lord knew what was coming. The Lord knew what was going to happen and He already was supplying the strain to make sure Peter made it. When did Christ pray?

Christ had yet to pray in the garden here. What is this referring to? What do you think it's referring to? What prayer of Christ might this be alluding to? John 17. You know, in the Gospel of John, chapter 18 is Peter's denial.

The very next chapter deals with it. Listen to this text. John 17. I'm praying for them. I'm not praying for the world, but for them whom You've given Me. And again, all the disciples, they were all fleeing at this point.

Yes, Christ focuses in on Peter. I'm praying for those You've given Me for they are Yours. Verse 12, while I was with them, I kept them in Your name, which You have given Me. I have guarded them. Not one of them has been lost except the Son of Destruction, Judas, that the Scripture might be fulfilled.

Is that where that prayer is happening? I'll tell you, that's for you. That's for you and I. The sign of Christ praying for our faith, that's for you and I too. This isn't just something that is specific towards Peter.

This is something that is happening in Peter's life because Peter has a great high priest whose name is Love. Whoever lives to intercede for Him. And if you're in Christ, if you've put your trust in Him alone for your righteousness, you have a great high priest who's seated in the heavenlies who's interceding for you, who's keeping you.

You're kept by the power of God. I kept them in Your name. I've guarded them. Not one of them has been lost. Peter wasn't going to be lost in the midst of the trial. The Lord was guaranteeing that. Christ is guarding to us.

Guarding, that's the word of a watchman. Christ is your watchman. He's watching over you. He doesn't sleep. He doesn't slumber. He's protecting you. He's on the lookout for you. He's allowing things to come into your life.

He's preventing things to come into your life. He's not giving you a test that's too difficult for whatever your grade level is in the spiritual realm, He's not going to let you be tempted beyond that.

And as you grow, the test might get harder because you're going to be more mature. You're able to take more heat by the same grace, the grace of God. Christ is praying for us. You know what that word pray?

It says, I've prayed for you. A lot of places that word is rendered begged. I've begged. I've cried out for you. I've asked urgently for you. Jesus didn't say, I will pray for you and not go do it. He was telling Peter he already had.

He already had prayed for him that his faith wouldn't fail. This is no flippant prayer. This is an urgent begging before God the Father by the one Person you want praying for you, and it's the Lord Jesus Christ.

And He is praying for you. John 17, Luke 22, we've got promises here for the Christian. He's the one who's going to sustain you. He's the one who's going to help you. Those whom you have given Me... You think about some, they frame a personal letter from someone on their wall and they put their degree on their wall.

But say you get a letter from the President and you put it on the wall. People come in and they see that President, assuming there's a President you like, that President, he wrote you a letter. I've got a personal letter from the President.

And they frame it. Brethren, you take these verses and you go frame them on your wall. You've got a personal letter from the Lord Jesus Christ, the one who ever rules and reigns, and He's praying for you that your faith may not fail.

He is your Great High Priest. He will sustain you. He will keep you. He will guard you. There's great reason to have confidence in Him. This is what we want to remember. So, why did He not flunk? The ultimate reason is the Lord.

It's the Lord. But there's a second thing here. He turned again. Peter had to turn again. It says there, when you've turned again, Peter had to turn again. And where do we see him turning again? John 1, verse 62, he went out and wept bitterly.

Right there, he didn't go out and hate himself like Judas did and take the money back with a world of grief. He went out and he wept bitterly. He was truly ashamed of his action that he had committed against the One who had loved him in such a way.