09.25.22 - Mark 14:66-72

Open your Bibles to Mark 14:66-72.  •We’re continuing our study of the Gospel of Mark.  •This morning we come to Mark’s account of Peter’s  denial of Christ.  Last week we saw our Lord Jesus on trial before the Sanhedrin.  •We saw how His trial was a great miscarriage of justice. We saw how Jesus was mistreated. And we saw how He suffered it all for our sake.  But now this week we turn to another trial that took place that night: The Trial of the Apostle Peter.  •Peter wasn’t tried before any formal court that night. He did not stand before religious and civil rulers.  •No, he stood before a servant girl and some bystanders in the courtyard of the high priest’s home.  •And there he was put on trial, so to speak, for being a disciple of Jesus.  •The accusation against him was this: “You also were with the Nazarene, Jesus.” •He was accused of being a follower of Christ.  •And Peter fought this accusation tooth and nail. He denied it. On three occasions, he denied it.  Peter was tempted that night. And he failed.  •He was tempted to distance himself from Christ before men. He was tempted to value himself more highly than Jesus. He was tempted to fear men more than God incarnate.  •And he fell into temptation. He failed. He failed miserably and was found unfaithful to the Lord.  Truly, this passage is a contrast between the Faithful and True Witness, Jesus Christ, and the faithless denial of His Apostle Peter.  •In the face of certain death, our Lord told the truth about Himself and refused to deny it.  •Peter, on the other hand, denied Christ instead of suffering for Him.  Brothers and sisters, our Lord gave us this record in Scripture for our benefit.  •He gave it to us so that we would see ourselves in Peter to some degree.  •He gave it to us as a warning that we too can fall.  •And He gave it to us as a reminder of the great love of Christ toward His straying sheep.  So, as I preach this text today, I hope be helpful. •I hope to help you search your hearts a bit and think on how and why we deny Christ at times (or at least are tempted to). •I hope to, by the truth of the Word of God, show you the shamefulness of denying Christ as a deterrent to future unfaithfulness.  •And I hope to teach you, from Peter’s failure, a couple of lessons about mercy. Mercy both from Christ and toward one another.  •May God help us this morning to profit from the preaching of the Word of God.  If you would, and are able, please stand with me now for the reading of the inspired, inerrant, and infallible Word of God.  Mark 14:66-72 [66] And as Peter was below in the courtyard, one of the servant girls of the high priest came,  [67] and seeing Peter warming himself, she looked at him and said, “You also were with the Nazarene, Jesus.”  [68] But he denied it, saying, “I neither know nor understand what you mean.” And he went out into the gateway and the rooster crowed.  [69] And the servant girl saw him and began again to say to the bystanders, “This man is one of them.”  [70] But again he denied it. And after a little while the bystanders again said to Peter, “Certainly you are one of them, for you are a Galilean.”  [71] But he began to invoke a curse on himself and to swear, “I do not know this man of whom you speak.”  [72] And immediately the rooster crowed a second time. And Peter remembered how Jesus had said to him, “Before the rooster crows twice, you will deny me three times.” And he broke down and wept. (PRAY) Our Heavenly Father,  We thank you for the privilege of sitting under the ministry of your Word.  Please, God, reveal yourself to us this morning through the preaching of your Word.  By your Spirit do great things in us: Reveal our sin, rebuke us, grant us repentance, exhort us, encourage us, and show us our Savior, your Son.  Let us leave here this morning saying, “Surely, God met with us today at His Word. God has been in this place.” Bless us, teach us, and sanctify us.  Glorify yourself in us by your Word and Spirit.  We ask these things in Jesus’ Name and for His sake.  Amen.  1.) CONTEXT: On this very same night, our Lord had given a prophecy about His disciples.  •In 14:26-31 Jesus had told them, “You will all fall away, for it is written, ‘I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered.’” •Peter denied that he would be unfaithful to Jesus. He said, “Even though they all fall away, I will not.” •And our Lord responded to him, “Truly, I tell you, this very night, before the rooster crows twice, you will deny me three times.” •But Peter again denied that it would happen. He said, “If I must die with you, I will not deny you.” Our Lord had foretold what Peter would do.  •Before the rooster crowed twice, Peter would deny Him on three separate occasions. Before the morning came, Peter would publicly disown Jesus.  •But Peter was so self-assured, that he didn’t take Jesus seriously. He believed he was strong in himself and would never deny Jesus.  We fast-forward to v54 and we read of how after Jesus was arrested, and all the disciples scattered, Peter followed the crowd to see what would become of Him.  •“And Peter had followed Him at a distance, right into the courtyard of the high priest. And he was sitting with the guards and warming himself at the fire.” •You’ve got to give Peter some credit. He followed Jesus to His trial. He did it at a distance, sure. But still, this is evidence that he loved Jesus.  So here Peter sits near a fire, the fire casting light on his face as he is warming himself in the cold night in the high priest’s courtyard.  •He is among the guards. Probably near some of the men who arrested Jesus. But he has gone unnoticed so far.  •But that doesn’t last for long.  •V66 picks up right where v54 left off. It seems that Mark wants us to see that Jesus’ trial and Peter’s denial were happening at the same time.  •While our Lord is inside, in an upper room, being tried before the Sanhedrin, Peter is below in the courtyard being tried by civilians.  Mark tells us that a servant girl of the high priest came up to Peter as he sat by the fire and said, “You also were with the Nazarene, Jesus.” •She recognized Peter. And she says, “You’re one of the men who was with Jesus. You’re one of His disciples.” •I doubt she was in the Garden of Gethsemane that evening. It’s more likely that she had seen Jesus and His disciples in the Temple that week.  •And wherever Jesus was, Peter was there too.  •She recognized Peter. And she called him out as a disciple.  But Peter denied it.  •V68 says, “But he denied it saying, ‘I neither know nor understand what you mean.’” •This is emphatic. He’s saying that He has no knowledge of Jesus in any way. To the point where her question is nonsensical to him.  •He’s saying, “I have no idea at all what you’re talking about. I don’t know that guy.” •At the first question, Peter denies knowing Christ.  •A lowly servant girl says that he is disciple, and he crumbles immediately. •Peter immediately tries to distance himself from Jesus. And then he kind of tries to run away: He went out into the gateway. He tried to get away from the girl.  •And the rooster crowed the first time.  •Apparently, Peter didn’t think anything of it. He was trying to get away and conceal himself and didn’t pause yet to remember the words of Jesus.  •But the girl finds him again. And begins to say to some bystanders in the gateway, “This man is one of them.” •But again, Peter denied it.  •He does not want to be associated with Jesus at all.  Mark then tells us that some time passes. Possibly an hour or so.  •And then the bystanders approach Peter and say, “Certainly you are one of them, for you are a Galilean.” •Apparently, Peter’s accent betrayed him. They could tell by the way that he talked that he was not from Jerusalem.  •This is kind of like when someone from Boston talks to you and you immediately know he’s not from Ohio.  •They could tell that Peter was a Galilean from the way he spoke. And everyone knew that Jesus and His disciples were from the region of Galilee.  •So it’s not hard for them to put it all together. Jesus is arrested and in the home of the high priest. And now a man from Galilee is the the courtyard. He must be a disciple.  But then Peter seems to become unhinged.  •V71 says, “But he began to invoke a curse on himself and to swear, ‘I do not know this man of whom you speak.’” •Peter says something like, “May God strike me down if I’m lying. I don’t know this man.” •Peter calls upon God to curse him if he is lying. And then he lies about his relationship to Jesus. This is madness. Peter wants out. Peter wants nothing to do with Jesus in this moment.  •And notice that Peter won’t even use the name of Jesus. He calls Him “this man.” •Peter is doing everything he can to distance himself from the Lord in this moment.  •He wants these people to leave him alone. He wants to be unaffiliated with Christ in this moment.  •And so, Peter disowns Christ before men. He denies Him in the strongest terms he can.  And then the rooster crowed a second time.  •And Peter remembered that our Lord had said, “Before the rooster crows twice, you will deny me three times.” •Peter had done it. He did exactly what Jesus said he would do. He publicly disowned Christ. He proved himself a coward. He proved to be unfaithful in the moment of truth.  •And Peter began to weep. He began to weep bitterly. Sobbing and crying at what he had done.  •One way to render v72 is to say, “And when he had thought about it, he wept.” •When he had a moment to consider that he had denied the precious Lord Jesus, he broke down and wept.  •He wept tears of repentance and sorrow for his sin.  Our brother Peter denied Christ.  •But let’s be clear: He denied Jesus in a moment of weakness.  •It was not premeditated. It was not born from malice toward the Lord. He is not like Judas in this betrayal.  •This was human weakness and unpreparedness for the trial at hand.  •Peter loved the Lord. We’ll see that more later.  •He was facing almost certain arrest and death if he would’ve admitted to loving Christ and being His disciple.  •Don’t be too hard on Peter. We’ve often denied Jesus in much less dire circumstances.  •But, there is no getting around it, what Peter did was detestable and shameful.  •He denied our Lord before men. He was ashamed of the Son of God in this moment.  Brothers and sisters, God did not have this passage recorded for us so we could simply say, “Yep. Peter sure did deny Jesus,” and then move on.  •This text is here to teach us something. It’s here for our benefit.  •I believe it’s here to cause us to meditate upon our own temptations to deny Jesus. •And I also think it’s here to teach us a couple of lessons about mercy as well.  2.) So let’s first think on what it means to deny Christ, the ways we do it, and the reasons we are tempted to do it.  What does it mean to deny Jesus? •First, let me say that we shouldn’t be so narrow in our thinking as to believe that denying Jesus is ONLY verbally saying, “I don’t know Him. I’m not a disciple.” •It’s bigger than that. That’s just the most blatant, explicit, and grievous example of it.  •We can take some principles from Peter’s denial and apply them broadly.  First, I think it’s quite clear that denying Jesus means to disown Him. That’s what Peter did.  •It’s to reject or disavow Him. To attempt to cut ties with Him in some way.  •And not just His Person, but anything about Him or anything that He has said. (We don’ separate His example or Word from His Person.) We also see that Peter was ashamed of Christ.  •Or, to put it another way, he was embarrassed by Christ.  •He was reluctant and unwilling to affiliate Himself with Christ because Christ was in chains and on trial before men.  •And nobody, in his flesh, wants to be affiliated or associated with someone who is despised by the majority.  •In that moment, Peter was ashamed to be affiliated with Jesus.  The deny Christ is to shrink back from owning Him as your Lord.  •It’s to cower back from being known as one of His People.  •It’s to shrink back from agreeing with Him on what He has said.  •It’s to walk away from obeying Him as the Lord.  •It’s to refuse to declare His majesty to others.  To sum it up in the most simple and short way possible, I think it’s fair to say this: •TO DENY JESUS IS TO DISTANCE YOURSELF FROM HIM IN SOME WAY.  •And though this can be done privately (in your own heart, behind closed doors when you sin), I’m primarily thinking about this being a PUBLIC denial of Christ since that’s what we see from Peter in our text. •And remember this: Just one other person present makes it a public denial. (Peter first began with denying Christ in front of just ONE servant girl.) 3.) So what are some of the ways that we deny Jesus? •What are some of the ways that we attempt to distance ourselves from Him? •NOTE: I’m just going to give some examples. This is by no means exhaustive.  1. One of the ways that we try to distance ourselves from Christ is by being silent when we should speak.  •When those around us are speaking about moral issues and ethics and we know what the Word of God says about the issue, and we keep silent when it’s our turn to speak, we’re distancing ourselves from the Teacher.  •When people are giving their religious opinions and you know that they’re wrong, but you refuse to open your mouth about the Faith, you’re distancing yourself from the Savior of sinners.  •When everyone around you is talking about how great and fun and pleasurable some sin is, and when it’s your turn to speak you say nothing about it being a hateful thing in the eyes of God, you’re distancing yourself from the Holy One.  •When you’re around unbelievers day in and day out and never open your mouth to tell them the way of salvation through faith in Jesus, you’re distancing yourself from the crucified Christ.  Now, I’m saying that these are ways we distance ourselves from Christ because I KNOW WHY we generally don’t open our mouths.  •It’s because we don’t want the confrontation.  •We don’t want to be labeled a religious extremist, or zealot, or fundie, or bigot, or whatever the slur of the day may be.  •We don’t want to suffer ridicule or ostracism. And that’s why, the vast majority of the time, we say NOTHING.  •Brothers and sisters, when you will open your mouth to talk about anything EXCEPT the Faith, you’re denying Christ.  •When you’ll talk about sports, politics, the news, local situations, family issues, work, and everything else, but then the opportunity to talk about eternal things arises and you remain silent, you’re doing it because you don’t want to be associated with Christ for some reason or another.  •There are very few exceptions to this.  •You’re afraid to be counted as one of His disciples. You’re afraid to be ridiculed. You’re afraid to suffer for His sake. And so you distance yourself from Him by remaining silent.  NOTE: I’m not telling you to go around and be an insufferable Christian. I’m not telling you to be obnoxious about the Faith.  •I’m not telling you to daily force people into conversations that they flatly don’t want to have.  •But when it’s naturally your turn to speak and you remain silent, it’s a silent denial of Christ.  2. Another way that we try to distance ourselves from Christ is by “winking at sin.” •When we’re around unbelievers who are talking and making joke about the sin they love to commit, how often do we laugh and joke with them and make sin out to be a light thing? •And we know it’s wrong. We know we shouldn’t do it.  •After all, this sin that we’re making light of is the sin that will damn them for all eternity.  •And yet, we wink at it and play it off as not a big deal.  •And, in doing so, we make ourselves indistinct from the world and distance ourselves from the Lord.  3. A third way that we distance ourselves from Christ is by disobeying Him (sinning) in order to make others comfortable and keep ourselves from standing out.  •We do as they do and “go with the flow” even if that means that we must sin to do so.  •You sit down and watch a movie with a group that YOU KNOW will be trash instead of saying, “I can’t watch that, guys. There is nothing there for me.” •You go out and break the Sabbath instead of saying, “It’s the Lord’s Day and I can’t go. Maybe some other time.” •You joke and speak as they do in order to fit in instead of drawing lines against perverse speech.  •You so much don’t want to “rock the boat” that you will violate the laws of our Lord to do so.  4. A final example of ways we distance ourselves from Christ is by being embarrassed of a single word of the Bible. •The Bible is the Word of Christ. He is God. And it is God’s Word.  •And yet, how often are we sheepish when questioned about the teachings of Scripture? •And we wish certain things weren’t in the Bible. And so, when asked, we hem-and-haw around talking about those things.  •This is being ashamed of our Lord because we are ashamed of what He has said.  4.) Now, having considered some of the ways we are tempted to deny Christ, let’s consider WHY we are tempted to do so? •Why do we distance ourselves from Christ before men? •NOTE: Again, this is not an exhaustive list. Just some things to think on. 1. First, and this may be the biggest one at root, we love ourselves more than we love Christ.  •We love our comfort, our ease, our reputation, our lives more than we love Jesus.  •And we prove that because we don’t want those things disrupted. We don’t want to risk anything in our lives for Christ’s sake.  When we remain silent and refuse to live openly in every way as a disciple, we are not loving Jesus the way we should.  •We are saying that something is greater than He is. We are saying that something has our affection more than He does: Namely, our ease of life.  •Brothers and sisters, we love ourselves too much and we love Christ too little.  •And that’s why we try to downplay our religion before men: We are not consumed with love for Christ.  2. Second, we fear men more than we fear God.  •We respect the opinion of the sinners around us more than the opinion of Almighty God.  •We care more what men think of us than what God thinks of us.  •We desire the smile of men more than the smile of God.  •We want acceptance with men more than the “well done” of our Lord Jesus Christ.  •Or, we fear what they might do or say to us or our reputations more than that the God who can cast both body and soul into Hell.  3. A third reason we’re tempted to deny Christ is that we’re addicted to this world.  •We’re too focused on RIGHT NOW and we’ve lost an eternal perspective.  •We live too much for today and not enough for 10,000 years from now.  •We don’t give enough thought to the glories of heaven for the faithful and the horrors of Hell for those who die apart from Christ. •We focus on the applause of men rather than the eternal glory that awaits the faithful.  •We focus on the temporary cost of public discipleship more than the eternal rewards that Christ promises to faithful stewards.  •Brothers and sisters, we so often are so focused on earth that we forget the unspeakable joy and reward, the weight of eternal glory, that makes everything in this world look like dust on a scale.  •And so we deny Christ publicly and trade treasure for trinkets.  4. Lastly, we try to distance ourselves from Christ because of unbelief.  •In the moment when we try to downplay our relationship to Christ, we are showing that, at root, we don’t believe that He is better than whatever the world is offering.  •We aren’t prizing Him the way we should because we don’t view Him as our greatest treasure.  •When we deny Christ, we are showing that in that moment we don’t believe He is better. We don’t believe that He is worthy of whatever we may suffer for His sake.  •We’re showing that we don’t believe His is beautiful and glorious beyond all things in this world.  •We’re showing that we’ve become temporarily blind to His worth.  5.) Now, brothers and sisters, allow me to pour shame and contempt upon all of this.  •Let me try to show you how foolish and shameful it is to deny our Lord before men.  •NOTE: What I’m about to say isn’t meant to be a guilt session. Rather, meditating on these things are great deterrents to unfaithfulness.  •If we take these things to heart, we will be guarded against unfaithfulness in the future.  1. Consider His love for you.  •HE DIED FOR YOU! He loved you and gave Himself up for you! •He lowered Himself and took on flesh, He humbled Himself beyond all imagination and came to earth for the express purpose of suffering the wrath of God on a cross for your sake.  •He took your sin on Himself and offered Himself as a substitutionary sacrifice for your sin. And He gave His life as a ransom for you! So that you would go free and have acceptance with God! So that you would be pardoned! •He died so that you might live eternally! And would you prize something over Him?  •Would you love yourself more than the One who died to save your eternal soul? •Would you love yourself more than the the Great Lover of sinners? •Would you value and love your comfort and your friendships and ease and social standing more than you love Him? •Perish the thought! •There is only Person who died to save you. LOVE HIM! ABOVE ALL THINGS LOVE HIM! •And make yourself known as His disciple! 2. Consider His authority over you and those you are trying to gain favor with by denying Him.  •Does that make sense? Does it make sense to try to gain favor with those who will stand before Jesus in judgment?  •Does it make sense to sacrifice faithfulness to the One before whom all men will give an account in order to gain approval from those very men who will stand before the One you are denying?  •THAT DOESN’T MAKE ANY SENSE! •To distance yourself from the King in order to gain favor with peasants who will one day answer to that King is absolute madness! It’s foolish! •You are trying to gain favor with them as if they were above Christ, while knowing they will be judged by Him. That is shameful and stupid and foolish.  •And you yourself are acting as if you have authority to obey or disobey, confess or not confess, the One who will judge you as well.  •Such things are madness! And we need to recognize them as such.  3. Consider the goodness and truthfulness of His Word that you are ashamed of.  •This Book is the book that told you of your glorious Savior. It’s the Book that revealed the way of salvation to you.  •It’s the Book that instructs you in godly living. It’s the Book that reveals the God whom you love.  •It’s the very Word of God. God’s Word to you about Himself, man, sin, salvation, and righteousness.  •It’s the faithful guide that daily you look to for comfort, correction, encouragement, and hope.  And would you deny it? •Do you have better ideas? Are your standards more pure? Are you wiser than God? •Are you more righteous than God? Are you more gracious than God? •And yet, by denying His Word, and attempting to distance yourself from it publicly, you are implying such in some way.  •Why else would you distance yourself from it? •It’s foolishness.  4. Consider the reality of eternity.  •Dear Christian, Jesus has much glory and bliss in store for you at the end of this hard life.  •He has an eternity of splendor and perfection awaiting you. He has an eternity of joy and pleasure forevermore awaiting those who are faithful to Him.  •He hasn’t just saved you and now you don’t have to go to Hell. But He has saved you for an eternity with Him.  •He has given us above and beyond anything you would’ve ever even thought to ask from the God we’ve sinned against.  His kindness and His grace toward you is unimaginable.  •The things He promises you are beyond words.  •And would you deny such a kind and rich Lord? •Would you deny such a freely giving Savior? Brothers and sisters, it is a great and terrible sin to deny Christ in any way.  •It’s a shameful and detestable thing that we all ought to recognize as such.  •To distance ourselves from so great, kind, loving, wise, and sovereign a Savior as Jesus is madness.  •And yet, we do it. I think we’re all guilty of this on some level at some time or another.  •We are often unfaithful. We often prize things above Jesus. And we are often foolish and stupid and lack love for Christ.  6.) We are failures, yes. No denying it.  •But let me tell you now about the mercy of Christ.  Our Lord never cast off Peter.  •Peter sinned horribly. He denied even knowing Jesus. He denied Christ in a more literal and grievous way than any of the lesser ways I’ve mentioned that we are tempted to.  •And yet, our Lord did not finish with Peter that night. For our Lord is full of mercy for His sinful sheep.  Look at v72: “And he broke down and wept.” •Peter wept tears of sorrow. And tears of repentance.  •When he had thought about what he had done, how he had denied the Master, how he had rejected the One who loved him, how he had been a coward and sold out the Son of God to keep himself from suffering, he wept bitter tears.  •Brothers and sisters, these were tears of repentance.  •Peter was, from the heart, sorry for his sin and turned back to our Lord. And this is shown in Gospel accounts after the resurrection of Jesus.  Peter did not hide from Jesus. But he ran to Jesus.  •He went to the tomb to see it empty.  •He was there when Jesus appeared to His disciples. •He went to Galilee and waited for Jesus.  •He leapt from the boat when he saw Jesus on the seashore.  •Peter loved Jesus. He failed miserably. But He owned His sin and failure, hated it, repented of it, and ran back to the Lord Jesus Christ.  •Peter disowned his sin of disowning the Savior.  •And Jesus received Him back.  But it wasn’t Peter’s repentance that restored Him.  •Hear me: No one’s repentance is ever good enough. No one is ever sorry enough. No one is ever sincere enough to merit forgiveness.  •No, Peter was received back by Christ because CHRIST LOVES TO RECEIVE THE REPENTANT SINNER.  •Jesus loved Peter. And Jesus was glad to receive His wandering sheep back into the fold.  Look at the famous account in John 21:15-17: [15] When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” He said to him, “Feed my lambs.” [16] He said to him a second time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” He said to him, “Tend my sheep.” [17] He said to him the third time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, “Do you love me?” and he said to him, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep. •What we just read is the account of Jesus restoring Peter to Apostleship.  •Jesus forgave Peter above and beyond what anyone could’ve expected.  •Jesus spoke peace to Peter and forgave him for it all.  •And did you notice how many times that Jesus allowed Peter to affirm his love for Him? THREE TIMES.  •It’s as if here Jesus is saying, “I know what you did. I know it better than you. And I forgive you for it all.” Do you hear that? JESUS FORGIVES! •Take heart! There is always mercy with Christ toward the sinner who repents! Even the one who formerly denied Him is forgiven for it all! •My dear friends, He is merciful toward us! He will receive us back! We need only repent and come back to Him! •He has never turned anyone away yet. And He never will! •It is His joy to save the repentant sinner! And I love this. It’s something tucked away toward the end of Mark’s Gospel: •In Mark 16:7 the angel tells something to the women who came to the tomb: “But go, tell His disciples AND PETER that He is going before you to Galilee. There you will see Him, just as He told you.” •Did you catch that? The angel singles out PETER. “Tell the disciples AND PETER…” •Angels are messengers of God who only say what they’re told to say. And who do you think told the angel to single out Peter and remind him to go with the other disciples? •JESUS, OF COURSE! •Jesus wanted Peter to know that there was mercy for him! Jesus wanted Peter to know that, though he had failed miserably, that Jesus was still His Savior and Master and Friend.  •Jesus hadn’t given up on Peter. Jesus had more grace than Peter could’ve ever realized. And so, Jesus told the angel, “Make sure Peter knows to come, too.” It is my great joy to tell you this morning that Jesus wants you to know that there is mercy for you! •Have you failed? There is mercy for you.  •Have you denied Him? There is mercy for you.  •Have you sinned grievously? There is mercy for you.  •Repent and return to the Lord! •He has more grace and mercy than you have sin. I promise you that.  •He died to save sinners. And it is His joy to receive all who come to Him in repentance and faith.  See that the mercy of Christ toward Peter is but an example of His mercy toward you! •He forgives! He restores! •He is glorious! •This is our God! Behold your God! 7.) And it’s in light of the mercy of Christ toward Peter that we learn another lesson about the mercy we should show toward one another.  •Brothers and sisters, don’t be too harsh with your fellow Christians when they are unfaithful.  •They may have fallen in a way that you wouldn’t. They may be tempted in ways that don’t tempt you.  •But you can and do fall, too. And you need restored often by Christ. And you need loved by your fellow Christian.  Peter reminds us that even a great saint can fall.  •So we really shouldn’t be too surprised when we see lesser men fall into sin.  •I’m not making excuses. This is just the reality of it. We all fall. We are all unfaithful at times.  •Great saints can fall and need restored.  •And so we need to be gentle and gracious toward one another and seek to help one another return to Christ.  Hear me: Peter really loved Jesus. And Peter really, horribly sinned.  •But consider how Jesus greets the disciples when He first sees them: He says “Peace.”  •He doesn’t grill them. He doesn’t chastise them. He doesn’t grind their face into the dirt.  •He speaks peace to them. Peace to the ones who had sinned against Him personally and abandoned Him.  •How much more should we be gracious and patient and kind toward our brothers and sisters when they fall? Please hear me: Don’t assume somebody isn’t a Christian just because they fall into sin.  •Peter was an Apostle.  •Those who sincerely love the Lord can lapse into sin.  •Don’t be unmerciful. Love one another. Show grace to one another.  •Correct one another, yes. But do so in a spirit of gentleness and love. Like Christ showed Peter. Like He shows you each day.  8.) For application, I will be very brief and leave it to the Lord to show you more than I can say: 1. Pray. •Pray that the Lord would help you to love yourself less, fear men less, and love Him more.  •Pray that the Lord would help you to focus on eternal things more than this world.  •Pray for eyes to see more clearly the glories and worth of Christ. That He is better. That He is worth our faithfulness, no matter what it costs us here.  And then pray some more.  •Pray that God would prick your conscience when you deny Him and bring you quickly to repentance.  •Pray that God would teach you to be merciful toward others.  •Pray that God would help you to see the riches of mercy in Christ Jesus.  2. And rest.  •Know that Jesus has more grace than you have sin.  •Know that He loves to receive the repentant sinner.  •Know that He will never cast you off, for He loves you.  May God help us.  •And may God help us all to run to our merciful Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.  •Amen.