 The title of our sermon is depraved denials, depraved denials, and we are in John chapter 18 verses 13 through 27. And as we've been going through John, the gospel of John verse by verse by verse, we come now to this final evening in the Lord's life on this earth, the final hours of His earthly ministry. And we look here at the arrest of the Lord Jesus Christ in John chapter 18 in the Garden of Gethsemane followed here by His binding and Him being taken away to now stand before Annas called the high priest in this chapter and then before Caiaphas. And at the same time in John chapter 18 that we see this vitriol, this hostility, this hatred coming out of the world, coming out of the Jews. The Bible says that He went to His own, His own did not receive Him. We see that displayed here in John chapter 18 in the scribes, in the Pharisees, in the Sanhedrin. And that group, that vitriol, that hostility being a picture of the irrational and unreasonable rejection of this world of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we'll see that as we walk through this text today. And at the same time, simultaneously happening at the same time with this are the denials, these tragic denials of Peter. One of those closest to Him, a follower of Christ. Peter has put his faith in Christ. He's trusted Christ. And yet we see here Him here in a tragic failure. And we'll look at that more also as we work through this text. So today now, we've talked about last week, we laid the groundwork. If you weren't here with us last week, I exhort you to listen to that sermon and get the setting, the table set, so to speak, for what's going on in John chapter 18. And then we looked at the first part of Peter's denial in verses 13, really through 18. Now today, we come to this world's denial. And we see that clearly laid out for us in verses 19 through 24. John records in verse 19, the high priest then asked Jesus about his disciples and his doctrine. Jesus answered him, I spoke openly to the world. I always taught in the synagogues and in the temple where the Jews always meet. And in secret, I have said nothing. But why do you ask me? Ask those who heard me what I said to them. Indeed, they know what I said. And when he had said these things, one of the officers who stood by struck Jesus with a palm of his hand saying, do you answer the high priest like that? Jesus answered him, if I have spoken evil, bear witness of the evil. But if well, why do you strike me? And then Anna sent him bound to Caiaphas, the high priest. So again now as Peter is warming himself at the fire with the Lord's enemies outside in the courtyard, our scene now shifts to the trial, the interrogation underway inside the palace of the high priest where the Lord is being questioned now by Anna. And if you remember, Anna is the power broker of the Jews, so to speak. He's really the power behind the Sanhedrin, the power behind the high priesthood. It's Annas who is pulling the strings here. And if you remember from last week, Annas is the one obviously very offended by the Lord Jesus Christ clearing the temple both twice in John chapter two and Matthew chapter 21 and wrecking or clearing out Annas' attempt to milk the people, built the people, fleeced the people for his own gain there in the temple as he bought and sold animals for the sacrifice as money changers exchanged money for the temple tax. Annas was getting rich off the backs of poor people in his own country. Considering the intentions of the council to put Jesus to death, this hearing before Annas was really for one main purpose only. And that was to get the Lord Jesus Christ talking before Annas, the way that he had been teaching and preaching before the people publicly and then take the Lord's words, use those words against him and charge him with the death penalty offense of blasphemy. Now that being said, understand here, there are no charges yet. Lord Jesus Christ is being questioned here. He's being brought before Annas and there are no charges. It goes against their law. We'll talk about that in a moment. So verse 19, the high priest then asked Jesus two things. He asked him about his disciples and number two, he asked him about his doctrine. So first in verse 20, the Lord answers with respect to his doctrine. Jesus answered him, I spoke openly to the world. I always taught in synagogues and in the temple where the Jews always meet. And in secret, I've said nothing. Now the word openly there, it's a Greek word, paracia. It means plainly, boldly. He spoke without shrinking back. He spoke without holding anything back. In other words, these things that the Lord spoke were not unclear. They're not hidden. They were not spoken in secret. They were not whispered in the ear. People knew exactly what the Lord was teaching. This council, these scribes, these Pharisees knew exactly what the Lord Jesus Christ was preaching and teaching. And incidentally, that's the way we're to be. Does that describe you? Could the people around you in your life describe you as one who boldly, clearly, plainly, always, publicly preaching the Lord Jesus Christ? Could they say that about your words? Is it clear to them? Now, I would submit to you. This is an example we want to follow. If we stand before the courts of this world, we want to stand there with a testimony that I always spoke openly, plainly, boldly, clearly without holding back. I always spoke about the Lord Jesus Christ. That's a witness for Christ. And that's what you and I are called to do. That's the great commission. We're called as witnesses of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord here always in public. They know exactly what he stands for. It's not a mystery. He wasn't a masked Christian, a secret Christian, a silent Christian. He was bold. Now, first here in the Lord's answer in verse 20, the Lord's exposing here with Annas the hidden purpose behind his question. And that's obvious in the proceedings here himself, this hidden purpose of Annas, this hidden person behind this travesty of justice that's going on here. They want to trap the Lord Jesus Christ in his words, and they want to charge him, and they want to charge him with a death penalty offense. They have every intention to kill him. Jesus here is being asked to answer charges before charges have been filed. He's being arraigned before he's being indicted. Right? He's being brought to answer charges before any charges have been formally brought. Next, the Lord answers with respect to his disciples then in verse 21. Verse 21, why do you ask me? Ask those who've heard me what I said to them. Indeed, they know what I said. In Jewish law, Jesus Christ was under no obligation to testify against himself, and Annas was trying to get Jesus Christ to incriminate himself with his own words, and he was looking for grounds to charge him. This was a shameful injustice. He wants Jesus to incriminate himself. Now, the officer standing by in verse 22 felt the weight of the Lord's responses and the shame and the embarrassment that placed on Annas. This is a ridiculous trial, an absurd event going on here, and the Lord Jesus Christ in how he's answering, he's answering very directly, very boldly, very straightforwardly. He knows what Annas is up to. He knows what this is all about, and so the Lord is directing things here, and this is not the way that you would expect an accused person necessarily to respond to Annas the High Priest, but the Lord is directing events here, and this officer standing by probably felt the weight of that shame that was being heaped upon Annas. And so in verse 22, when he had said these things, one of the officers who stood by struck Jesus with a palm of his hand saying, do you answer the High Priest like that? Remember, Jesus is bound. He's got his hands behind his back, and this coward strikes him while he's bound there before the High Priest. That Jesus Christ, verse 23, remaining completely composed, answers him calmly, if I have spoken evil and bear witness of the evil, but if well, then why do you strike me? They certainly had no right to strike him. No right to do that. You know, we need to think about this legal system in 1st century Judaism as very similar to our own. Many of our own laws written based upon their laws, based upon Judeo-centric legal proceeding, legal tradition. Here they had no right to strike him. They had no right to hold him. They had no right to charge him. They had no right to question him, and they certainly had no right to try him and not getting anywhere here with the Lord Jesus Christ. And very likely shamed, by the way the Lord was answering these questions, in front of the people who stood around listening, the Lord being very bold, very direct, verse 24, Annas finally sent him bound to Caiaphas, the High Priest. And while Annas had been dealing with Jesus, Caiaphas had been assembling a night time meeting of the Sanhedrin. And what follows as recorded in the Synoptic Gospels, this so-called Jewish trial of the Lord Jesus Christ, is a travesty of justice from the very beginning. All right? It's important to understand that even by Jewish standards in the 1st century, this was an illegal trial, a lawless trial. The verdict, for one, has already been cast. Flip back to John chapter 11. John chapter 11, the verdict's already been determined. Sentencing really has already taken place before the arrest is even made. John chapter 11, look at verse 49. Let's remind ourselves of this. Mind you, this is the ruling council of the Sanhedrin meeting under the leadership of Annas and Caiaphas, and they've already determined to put him to death. Look at verse 49. One of them, Caiaphas, being High Priest that year, said to them, you know nothing at all, nor do you consider that it is expedient for us that one man should die for the people and not that the whole nation should perish. Now this he did not say on his own authority, but being High Priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation, and not for that nation only, but also that he would gather together and one the children of God who were scattered abroad. Then from that day on, they plotted. Who is this? These are the same people who are going to be hearing his case. This is the ruling council, the Sanhedrin. The chief priest describes the Pharisees. They plotted verse 53 to put him to death. Therefore Jesus no longer walked openly among the Jews, go figure, but went from there into the country near the wilderness to a city called Ephraim, and there he remained with his disciples. They were plotting to put him to death. They weren't plotting to put him through a fair trial. They weren't plotting to hear from witnesses to determine innocence or guilt. They were plotting to put him to death, and that plot has already been hatched back in John chapter 11, and the sentence was sealed with the betrayal of Judas. So this is no judicial proceeding. This was no proceeding for the purpose of determining innocence or guilt. This was merely a process, a fake sham process determined and decided to make their murder plot seem judicious or appear judicious in the eyes of the public. Now, to do this, to do this, to get away with it, the Jewish authorities were going to have to break their own rules. Rules that were grounded in Levitical law from Moses' time, they were going to have to break their own rules. One, Jewish law required that arrests were made on the basis of charges clearly established by two or three witnesses and clearly stated to the accused. Their law mandated that. Jesus was denied that right under their law and was arrested based solely on the witness of one who had been bribed by the very people who would be involved in hearing the case. In fact, false witness, after false witness, bribed came forward, brought to testify against him at the so-called trial. The Lord had instructed Moses in Deuteronomy chapter 16, verse 18. The Lord said, You shall appoint judges and officers in all your gates, which the Lord your God gives you according to your tribes, and they shall judge the people with a just judgment. You shall not pervert justice. You shall not show partiality nor take a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and twists the words of the righteous. You shall follow what is altogether just. So these nat strainers with the law, breaking these laws that were set up from them by Moses all the way back in Deuteronomy. They're ignoring these. Jewish law required that all capital cases, death penalty cases, be tried during the day. They were to be tried during the day. The accused was entitled to a public trial and the public trial was for the sake of oversight. Make sure that the trial was conducted fairly. The council, the Sanhedrin, required to fast a full day between the sentencing and the execution to further deliberate before someone was put to death. And the Lord here would be tried and sentenced to death before the sun even comes up the next morning and would be murdered before the sun goes down on the same day. Jewish law required the proceedings of a capital trial to last a minimum of two days and never during Passover, never before a feast, never during the week of the feast. And they broke all of those rules, all of those laws. And it was never to be on the Sabbath. The Sabbath was the very next day. And so they had to wrap this up quickly. Remember again, these are obsessively religious people who strain at gnats when it comes to the law, unless or until it isn't convenient for them to do so. And they take matters into their own hands. These are the same people who would rake you over the coals if you ate grain with unwashed hands, right? Jewish law required that the accused was to be considered innocent until proven guilty. That sounds familiar, doesn't it? Contrary to Jewish law, no testimony for the accused was permitted or even sought. Jesus didn't have a single witness. In fact, contrary to Jewish law, Jesus was directly questioned and essentially asked to testify against himself. No charges. Under Jewish law, no charges could be brought by any council member, any member of the Sanhedrin. They couldn't bring charges themselves. If a council member charged the accused, then it was determined that the entire council would be disqualified from hearing the case. The council by Jewish law wasn't allowed to bring the charges. According to the Jewish law, the trial of a capital case required overwhelming evidence of guilt and an overwhelming verdict. However, in thinking about an overwhelming testimony of guilt or an overwhelming verdict, Jewish legal rules looked suspiciously at unanimous verdicts. And they did that because they were considered evidence of a biased court or they were considered evidence of mob rule. And so if a verdict ever came back unanimous, they would go into further deliberation and further deliberation to make sure that it wasn't evidence of a biased court or mob rule. Jesus, by the way, was convicted and sentenced to death by a unanimous vote in a matter of hours. According to Jewish law, deliberations were to be exhaustive efforts to exonerate the accused and to show mercy, exhaustive efforts. They were to assume that new evidence might be brought at any time and they were to seek it out. They were even required to consider evidence between the verdict and the sentencing and between the sentencing and the execution. And they did none of this. Now get the picture with me, right? There's no trial here. There's no trial here. This is institutional murder is what this is. This is a farce. This is a mockery. This is a humiliation. There's no trial. This is murder. Jesus said in Matthew chapter 23 verse 27, whoa, to you scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. For you are like white washed tombs, which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness. Even so, you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. Don't we see that in this proceeding? Look back at Matthew chapter 26 with me. Matthew chapter 26. This is godlessness. This is lawlessness, rank injustice, institutional murder. Matthew chapter 26. And look at Matthew's account of this wicked trial. Now, as the Lord has taken from Anas to Caiaphas, verse 59, now the chief priests, the elders, and all the council, again, the Sanhedrin made up of 70 members, including the high priest, 71, all the council, the chief priests, the elders and all the council sought false testimony against Jesus. They were looking for false testimony. And that it says there in verse 59, in order to put him to death, they were doing this for the purpose of putting him to death. They had decided to die was cast. Verse 60, but they found none. This is no trial. This is no trial. It's interesting in verse 60, even though many false witnesses came forward, they found none. Now think about that with me. Matthew chapter 26. They were looking, they were seeking out false testimony. And in seeking out false testimony, they had many false witnesses that came forward, many. Now those false witnesses weren't confessing Jesus Christ as the Messiah. They were all saying that he was a false prophet, a false Christ, a false Messiah. But they found none with testimonies that would stick against him. None with truth. In fact, their testimonies were inconsistent, incongruous. They didn't line up. They didn't match up. They found no credible false witnesses, although there were many false witnesses that came forward. This is the injustice, the unreasonable-ness, the irrationality of this world against Christianity and against Christians, against the Lord's church. Though many false witnesses come, they don't come with any evidence, because evidence against God's people, those false witnesses, that false testimony doesn't stick, doesn't stick. Many today, many today professing Christians evil, even evil. Many today will evil contend, condemn one for far less or far below the standard even used here in this particular trial. They don't seek the truth. Many false witnesses came forward. They found none. But at last, two false witnesses came forward, verse 61, and said, this fellow said, I'm able to destroy the temple of God and to build it in three days. If you remember that when this happened, the Lord Jesus Christ said this, explained this in John chapter 2. So at Passover, in John chapter 2, three years to the day that this is going on, three years ago, Jesus had taught this, had said this in the temple, and these false witnesses remember. He taught publicly. He taught clearly, right? They knew what he taught. They knew what he was saying. And so these guys come forward three years after the Lord said this in John chapter 2 and said, I am able to destroy this temple of God and build it in three days. The high priest rose and said to him, verse 62, do you answer nothing? What is it these men testify against you? Verse 63, but Jesus kept silent. And the high priest answered and said to him, I put you under oath by the living God. Tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God. And Jesus said to him, verse 64, you said it. You said it, right? Nevertheless, I say to you, hereafter, you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the power and coming on the clouds of heaven. Then the high priest, verse 65, the high priest tore his clothes. By the way, it was illegal for the high priest to tear his clothes. This was an absurd, you know, notion of indignance at what Jesus Christ said. It was a big act. It was a big act. It was unlawful. Leviticus chapter 2110 and unlawful for the high priest to tear his clothes. For the high priest here tore his clothes saying, he's spoken blasphemy. What further need do we have of witnesses? In other words, we're just going to take care of this thing right now. No witnesses are necessary. Never considered that what the Lord Jesus Christ was saying was true. Never considered the overwhelming evidence that he is the Christ, the Son of God. Didn't consider any of that. Look now, you've heard his blasphemy. What do you think? Verse 66, they answered the chief priest, the elders, all the council answered and said, he is deserving of death. No one there to speak in his defense. Overwhelming evidence of his claim was rejected, wasn't even considered. No reasonable voice raised in the council, no caution taken, no call for mercy, no call just to simply follow their own rules. Instead, verse 67, they spat in his face and they beat him. And others struck him with the palms of their hands saying, prophesy to us Christ, who is the one who struck you? Mocking him. That mocking, that humiliation, the cruelty involved, certainly a violation of their law. This is institutional hate. Jesus is struck back in John 18. He is spat upon, beaten, and struck in Matthew chapter 26. The Lord is bound. And again, these prideful posturing cowards strike him. So what's the Lord's response? What's the Lord's response? Isaiah 53, 7, incidentally written 600 years before these things took place. Isaiah described him as he was oppressed and he was afflicted. Yet he opened not his mouth. He was led as a lamb to the slaughter. And as a sheet before its shears is silent. So he opened not his mouth. And what the Lord told Peter in Matthew chapter 26 verse 53 still holds true here. He could call, if he wanted to, more than 12 legions of angels to his aid. He could call fire down from heaven and consume them with a word of his power. But the Lord here instead, he humbles himself. He submits himself to this absurd treatment by wicked, godless people. And the captain of our salvation is made perfect through sufferings, right? Our merciful and faithful high priests and things pertaining to God. Look with me at Mark chapter 14. Mark chapter 14. We're just getting our bearings straight with respect to this trial, so-called trial. And considering, based on the evidence, what is really going on here, Mark chapter 14 and look down at verse 55. Again, we see a lot of similarities here. In verse 55, the chief priests and all the counsel, they sought testimony against Jesus in order to put him to death, but they found none. Verse 56, for many, although the ranks of false witnesses may swell, where is the evidence? Right? Where is the evidence? They swell their ranks. Many bore false witnesses against him, but their testimonies did not agree. They all agreed he was not the Messiah. They all agreed that they would bear false witness against him, but their testimonies against him didn't agree. There was no factual evidence to back up their claims. They just bore false witness against him. Verse 57, then some rose up and bore false witness against him saying, we heard him say, I'll destroy this temple made with hands and within three days I will build another made without hands. But not even then did their testimony agree, right? Because it's not based on facts. There is no evidence. And so the high priest, verse 60, stood up in the midst and asked Jesus saying, do you answer nothing? What is it these men testify against you? But he kept silent and answered nothing. Again, the high priest asked him, and we know from Matthew that he asked him under oath, right? Saying to him, are you the Christ, the Son of the blessed? And Jesus said, I am. And we've seen that term, that title, that phrase used before, and we've explained that before. Jesus said, I am, verse 62, and you will see the Son of man sitting at the right hand of the power and coming with the clouds of heaven. And then the high priest sanctimoniously, he tore his clothes and he said, what further need do we have of witnesses? You've heard the blasphemy. What do you think? He asked the counsel to render a verdict and they all condemned him to be deserving of death. And then some began to spit on him and to blindfold him and to beat him and to say to him, prophesy, and the officers struck him with the palms of their hands. Luke adds in chapter 22, verse 70 that they all said, are you then the Son of God? So he said to them, you rightly say that I am. And they said, what further testimony do we need for we've heard it ourselves from his own mouth? This is no trial. This is no trial. This is murder. They simply want him dead. They want him dead. They want him gone. This is not an impartial court. This farce is conducted for the sole purpose of condemning and killing an innocent man, a brazenly depraved denial of the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, unless we fail to understand this from God's perspective, all this is going exactly according to plan, exactly according to purpose. The Lord is humbling himself, humbly submitting himself to that plan. And all the while, all the while these wicked Jewish leaders are filling up their measure of their guilt. Jesus again from Matthew chapter 23, verse 29. Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the righteous. And you say to yourselves, right? If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets. And what are they here doing? They're calling for the blood of the very Son of God. Verse 31. Therefore, Jesus says, you are witnesses against yourself. Who's on trial here? Right? Who's on trial here? Who is the high priest? It's the Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, you are witnesses against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. Fill up then the measure of your father's guilt, serpents, brood of vipers. How can you escape the condemnation of hell? We think about this trial. We think about what's being communicated here. This trial, these people represent, it depicts, it emphasizes the irrational and unreasonable hatred of this world toward Christ and toward Christianity. It pictures that in microcosm here, the hatred and hostility, the vitriol of this world against Christ. And listen, this is not just the world here. These are religious people, obsessively religious people who despise, hate and want to kill the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the unvarnished, unmasked, unmitigated truth. This is the depravity of man unveiled. If it comes down to it between having my life and ruling myself, I'll oppose Jesus Christ and his right to rule and reign at all costs. If you're outside of Christ, if you are in your flesh, if you're a natural man, you've never bowed in it, you've never been born again, you've never repented and put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ, this is the extent to which your wicked heart will go to offload any accountability, any guilt, any right or rule of Jesus Christ over your life. At all costs, you and your heart will want him dead. Now, how does that manifest itself, right? When you share the gospel with people, when you're talking to people, this comes out, right? John said, Jesus said in John 16, 4, remember that I told you of these things. John 15, 19, if you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of this world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you, hates you. Remember the word that I said to you, Jesus said, a servant is not greater than his master. If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. This world fundamentally is not rational and is not reasonable when it comes to Jesus Christ. And that may display itself or manifest itself on a spectrum, right? From superficiality niceties, while inside they're full of dead men's bones, to outright hatred and vitriol, if they could get their hands around your neck and get away with it, they would kill you. This world is not rational. It's not reasonable. It will not be rational. It will not be reasonable. And one day the Lord Jesus Christ will come back in judgment and set it all straight. But in the meantime, you and I must acknowledge and accept the reality of this truth. This is where we live as Christians. We are not of this world, but we are certainly in this world. Count the cost this morning. Count the cost of following Christ. In John 18, we're at the very end of the earthly public preaching and teaching ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ. But listen, it was no different at the very beginning. Look with me at Luke chapter four. No different at the very beginning. I know many of you, like me, have taken a turn, spent some time in the Bible Belt, or around quote, unquote, Christian people that just want to flame up their barbecue pits on Sunday afternoon and watch the game and just enjoy life. And there's some of the sweetest people that you'll meet. But the natural man is at enmity with God. There is carnal enmity between the unsaved person and the Lord Jesus Christ. You have to expect that, understand that a servant is not greater than his master. In Luke chapter four, look at verse 20. In the Lord's first sermon in his hometown of Nazareth, he goes into the synagogue on the Sabbath to read from Isaiah 49. He reads from Isaiah, gives this prophecy. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me. He's anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. Then in verse 20, he closes the book, he gives it back to the attendant and he sits down. The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed upon him and he began to say to them. In other words, he said many things. He began to say to them today, this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing. So all bore witness to him. They marveled at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth and they said, is this not Joseph's son? Now a compromising coward is going to stop right there, right? You hit pay dirt, stop digging. But the Lord is not a compromising coward. He's going to say what must be said, what needs to be said. The Lord with all knowledge continues in verse 23. He said to them, you'll surely say this proverb to me, physician, heal yourself. Whatever we've heard done in Capernaum, do also here in your country. And then he said, assuredly I say to you, no prophet is accepted in his own country. And then he gives them just a couple of examples of God's sovereign grace toward Gentiles rather than the Jews. And look at their response in verse 28. So all those that were just moments ago, professing the gracious words that he was speaking, marveling at the preaching of the Lord here, when they heard these things, they were filled with wrath. He knew exactly where to press. Verse 29, they rose up, they thrust him out of the city, they led him to the brow of the hill on which their city was built, they might throw him down over the cliff. And then passing through the midst of them, he went his way. These are quote unquote religious people, religious people. They would have professed to love God. Quote unquote, God fearing people supposedly. Christ perfectly knowing hearts and minds, perfectly and intentionally preached this sermon in Luke chapter four. And there were probably visitors there that day. You know, between Luke four at the beginning of his earthly ministry and John 18 at the very end of his earthly ministry, we have a murderous Inclusio to the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ. Today, you are considered wrong or at the very least unloving if you don't carefully tailor your presentation of the gospel in such a way that you don't provoke anything but a favorable response. Now the problem with that is this, that when you tailor your presentation in such a way to avoid unfavorable responses, you are no longer preaching the gospel. Don't fall into that trap, that deception, that is of the enemy, that thinking, that philosophy is worldly, sensual and demonic. Like our Lord, you must be willing to say and to do what must be said and done for the glory of God and for the salvation of souls. You are called upon to do that. We're called upon to preach the gospel, to take a stand, to be fervent, to be zealous in our preaching of the gospel. For his sake, we're not called upon to make changes. We're not called upon to stop short of a faithful message. We're not called upon to be silent. This world wants to shove your Christianity underground. It wants to put you in a closet. It wants to stop your mouth. They may do it with niceties. They may do it saying that there's a more loving way to do that. And maybe you should just, you know, listen, believe in God but don't preach him. Believe the gospel, don't preach it. Go to church but don't bring that stuff to work. Jesus said in John chapter 7 verse 7 that this world hates him because he testifies of it that its works are evil. So what does this world want you to stop doing then? This world wants you to stop testifying of it that its works are evil. What must you do to preach the gospel? You must testify of it that its works are evil. We live in a wicked and perverse generation. When we use the word world, mind you, right, know that that also includes a vast innumerable mass of professing so-called Christians that side with the world, quote-unquote religious people. And some of the worst of those are professing Christians who will side with the wicked all day long to silence your preaching the gospel. If they profess to be a Christian, right, they want a nominal Christianity that is compatible with the way that they live their life, which is un-Christian. And they get that, they get that in part by silencing you, by silencing me. They'll attempt to do that with what they believe are well-reasoned arguments. One, they'll criticize the method, they'll criticize the method, right? That doesn't work. You're cramming it down people's throats. Why do you go door to door to talk to strangers? That doesn't work. Really? This church is full of people who have been evangelized, who came to faith in Christ by God's grace. People are going to take it the wrong way. All you can do is pray for them. Just pray for them. Saw an advertisement the other day for a prayer walk. Okay, pray while you're walking but then knock on a door and talk to somebody. It's absurd, right? You can't do that in this culture. You can't do that in that neighborhood. You can't do that with those people. You're not going to win anybody to Christ by doing it that way. Oh, I'm sorry, that's the way the Lord Jesus Christ did it. They'll silence you, attempt to silence you by criticizing the method. They'll attempt to silence you by criticizing the messenger. Well, she was just mean. You know? She was unloving. He was judgmental. You know, couldn't have given it more time. Couldn't have even said it a nicer way, right? Family member comes. Somebody shares the gospel with him. That hard-hearted rebel gets offended with someone who lovingly shares the gospel with them. All of a sudden they don't want to come back and it's that Christian's fault. It's their fault. No, it's that hard-hearted, unrepentant rebel. That's this world. That's the way that this world responds to the gospel. Now, he doesn't know me and he had this conversation with me about my soul. Yes, that's right because your soul is in peril and you're going to go to hell unless you turn from your sin and trust Christ. That church is a cult. I'll never go back. They'll criticize the messenger. They'll criticize the message. Listen, you need to stick to grace and love, grace and love. Don't talk about sin. Don't talk about judgment. Don't talk about obedience. Don't talk about wrath. I don't believe that's what the Bible teaches at all. My God would never do that, would never say that. That's just your interpretation. Besides nobody's perfect, right? They'll criticize the message. This world, this world is and will and will continue to rail against your faithfulness to the Lord. That's this world. Remember, we must be fervent and faithful and zealous in our obedience to God and these things because not only do you have the world that will rail against your faithfulness to the Lord, you have the accuser of the brethren whispering in your ear. That Christian will, was I as kind as I could have been? Was I as loving as I could have been? Could I have said that any differently? Those are all good thoughts. To be faithful, we need to be thinking that way. How can I most faithfully, most accurately, most lovingly represent my Lord with the gospel to lost people? You have the accuser of the brethren whispering in your ear. Listen, those things don't work. When's the last time you've seen somebody come to faith through your preaching, through your teaching, through your door-to-door evangelism? When have you even run across a soft-hearted person? When was the last time? Maybe it is the way. Maybe you don't need to say anything at all. Listen, you're in sin. You've got your own sin to deal with. How can you stand there and preach this? Right? Right? The accuser of the brethren. But then on top of this world, the accuser of the brethren, you've got so-called Christians who will shame you into silence, attempt to shame you into silence. And then you have an enemy in your own breast that would deceive you with a fear of man, deceive you with your own pride, would seek to silence your witness for Christ. You sense the pressure, don't you? Sometimes the temptation to shrink back is great. There's so much temptation, so much pressure. You know, besides, besides, besides, like I've got work to do. I've got a family to take care of. I've got so much to do on a Saturday. There's no way I can take a couple of hours and do that. I just, I just don't have the time. I just don't have the strength. I'm tired. I need time to rest. The temptation is to stop short of a faithful message. The temptation is to change the message. The temptation is to keep the message to yourself. You're like one who hoards treasure to yourself. Go to church, but don't talk about it. Believe the gospel. Don't preach it. Be a Christian. Leave your Christianity at home. And when those efforts, listen, when those efforts don't work or when you cross some self-justifying, self-righteous boundary that they've erected around their heart, they will persecute you. A servant is not greater than his master. If the world hated him, it's going to hate you also. They will mock you. They will attempt to shame you. They will attack your reputation. They will tear you down in the eyes of others, right? They will fire you from your job. They'll take you to court. They will change laws to work against you. They will legislate their own ideas of how they think things ought to be. And if they thought they could get away with it, they would have you arrested or even killed. There have been times in history when they could get away with it and they did. And those men, those women that took a stand for the Lord, many of them went to the stake for their faith in Christ. We cannot be silent. We cannot be faithless. We cannot be disobedient. At this time in our history where we still have the ability in this country to preach Christ for the Lord's sake, preach Christ. And if you're here today and you profess to be a Christian, then make sure you're fighting on the right side of that battle and not fighting other Christians who are trying to preach the gospel and be faithful and love the Lord and love souls and want to see people saved in heaven. Get off your couch. Get off that padding that's on your rear end and serve the Lord. Be faithful. Blessed are you when they revile you and persecute you and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for my sake. This is from one who was crucified and raised. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad for great is your reward in heaven. For so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. When you're tempted to retreat, when you're tempted to, you're tired, you're worn out, you're worn down, you're weakened. Consider him who endured such hostility from sinners against himself lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls. You have not yet resisted to bloodshed striving against sin. That very pressure, that very temptation, that very temptation took its toll on Peter. Took its toll on Peter. Peter's example serves as a warning to all of us. If Peter can fall, we all can fall. You must rely upon the Lord Jesus Christ by faith. For apart from him you can do nothing. Back in John chapter 18. John chapter 18. While Jesus was inside the palace of the high priest facing a death sentence, John records in verse 25 that Simon Peter stood and warmed himself. Now Peter was facing his own trial out in the courtyard. At the very same time the Lord Jesus Christ was making mention of faithful disciples in verse 21 that would testify of his teaching one of his closest disciples had already denied him once and was now warming himself by the fire with the Lord's enemies. In Luke chapter 22, Satan had asked for Peter that he might sift him his wheat. When you sifted wheat you would take a tray, right? They had a tray that would fill the tray with grain and they would toss the wheat, the grain into the air, right? And as the heavy kernels of grain would fall back into the tray, that light wispy chaff that was worthless would be blown away in the wind. That was sifting. That applied here to Peter, that tossing, that repeatedly, that was painful to Peter. He was tossed into the wind being stripped of his prideful chaff, exceedingly painful to Peter, exceedingly necessary. God allows Peter to be tried like this. Lord Jesus Christ prays that his faith will remain and it's the Lord Jesus Christ who preserves him. But God allows Peter to be tried like this. He goes on in verse 25, Simon Peter stood and warmed himself. Therefore, they said to him, you're not also one of his disciples are you? So Peter denied it and said, I am not. Matthew 26 adds that Peter denied it with an oath. In other words, he called down God, so to speak as testimony or to testify of the truthfulness of his statement when he denies the Lord Jesus Christ denied it with an oath. So in verse 26, one of the servants of the high priest, a relative of him whose ear Peter cut off said, did I not see you in the garden with him? So at this ramping up of incriminating evidence against him, Peter ramps up his defense. Matthew says that he begins to curse and to swear. And then in verse 27, Peter then denied again and immediately a rooster crowed. Complete failure on the part of Peter when he was put to the test. We get a little more insight from Luke's account in Luke 22. Turn with me to Luke 22 quickly. Complete failure here. Complete fall. Peter giving, given three opportunities to testify for the Lord Jesus Christ and his insolence, his rebellion only gets more deep rooted, hard hearted to the point where he eventually curses and swears and denies him again. In Luke chapter 22, look at verse 54. Having arrested him, that's the Lord Jesus Christ, they led him and brought him into the high priest's house. Peter followed at a distance. When they kindled the fire in the midst of the courtyard and sat down together, Peter sat among them. And a certain servant girl seeing him as he sat by the fire, looked intently at him and said, this man was also with him. But he denied him saying, woman, I do not know him. And after a little while, another saw him and said, you're also one of them. Peter said, man, I am not. And after about an hour had passed, another confidently affirmed saying, surely this fellow also was with him for he is a Galilean. Peter said, man, I do not know what you are saying immediately while he was still speaking, the rooster crowed and the Lord turned and looked at Peter. And Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how he had said to him, before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times. In verse 62, Peter went out and wept bitterly. Now you can imagine the scene, can't you? The Lord face already beaten and battered, swollen from the being beaten, being struck with the palms of their hands with his battered face. He turns to look at Peter just crushing conviction, difficult to imagine if you've not experienced that kind of crushing conviction. The Lord often allows us to be sifted, doesn't he? We need, we need our chaff to be stripped away. We need it to be blown. If it doesn't get blown away in the wind, it'll be burned up in fire. We need the chaff of self reliance stripped away. We must entrust ourselves completely to him, rely upon him, trust in him. We need our faith to be matured. We need our faith to be refined in the fire. We deny him in many ways, deny him through sins of omission, things that we should do that we don't do, sins of commission, things that we do we shouldn't do. We're denying the Lord when we sin that way. Now the true nature of Peter's faith was evident in two primary ways. The first way that Peter's genuine faith was evident was in his repentance. In his repentance, he immediately, upon the Lord making eye contact with him and remembering what the Lord had said, he immediately went out and wept bitterly. He didn't try to justify himself. Lord, you don't understand. I'm standing out here by the fire with these men. What am I supposed to? He didn't do any of that. He wept bitterly. His conscience was devastated. He experienced the shame of his sin. In genuine repentance, there is sorrow over having offended the Lord. There is great grief in your heart over having sinned against God in that way. There is shame associated with your sin. There is conviction. There is guilt and your conscience devastated. Genuine godly sorrow over sin is evidence of a changed heart, a changed mind. Judas evidenced sorrow and remorse, didn't he? And Judas went out and hung himself. Worldly sorrow produces death. Genuine godly sorrow is evidence of a changed heart, a changed mind. The sorrow and shame likely plagued Peter for a long time after this, even after the joy of seeing the Lord having been resurrected. We know that after the Lord's resurrection, after the Lord had already appeared to the disciples, Peter took several of the disciples with him and went back to fishing, went back to their life before the Lord until the Lord restored them. Look at John 21, John 21. In John 21, Peter knows as the Lord, standing on the on the beach so he leaps out of the boat. He swims to shore. The Lord and the disciples have breakfast together. And then in verse 15, when they had eaten breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonah. 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. So he said to him again a second time. Simon, son of Jonah, do you love me? He said to him, Yes Lord, you know that I love you. So he said to him, ten my sheep. He said to him the third time. Simon, son of Jonah, do you love me? Peter was grieved because he had said to him the third time. Do you love me? And he said to him, Lord, you know all things. You know that I love you. Three denials from Peter, three times the Lord questions Peter and Peter's love for the Lord. Making a statement with that, right? Jesus said to him, feed my sheep. Most assuredly, I say to you, when you were younger, you girded yourself and walked where you wished. When you are old, you will stretch out your hands and another will gird you and carry you where you do not wish. This he spoke signifying by what death he would glorify God. When he'd spoken this, he said to him, follow me. The other evidence of Peter's genuine faith was Peter's faithfulness to the Lord, his faithfulness. If Peter can fall, certainly we all can fall. If Peter was tested like this, certainly we will all be tested. But this account is much less about the failure and the weakness of Peter and much more about the grace and mercy and forgiveness and persevering power of the Lord Jesus Christ. Peter would be restored. He is restored here. His faith would be strengthened. That worthless shaft blown away in the wind of that tempest and Peter would eventually die for Christ. Faithfulness to his Lord, preserved in faithfulness. Incidentally, Peter learns that lesson, right? And when we take instruction from Peter's own words in 1 Peter chapter one, verse three, we're to remember the Lord. We're to remember the hostility of this world. We're to remember our call. We're to remember our commitment. We're to remember his worth and his value. We're to remember God's glory. We're to remember what Christ has done. We're to remember all these things and we're to be faithful. We're to serve the Lord. Peter says, blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his abundant mercy, has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this Peter says, you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you've been grieved by various trials, so that the genuineness of your faith being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor and glory at the revelation of Lord Jesus Christ. All God's people said, amen. All praise, honor and glory be to the one who authors, matures, refines, sustains, finishes our faith for his glory for our good, amen. Let's pray. Father in heaven, or thank you for this time in John 18, this text. Thank you, Lord, for your faithful example. Thank you, Lord, for preparing us for the difficulties that we face in this world. Thank you for the example of Peter. Thank you for your loving, gracious, merciful forgiveness and restoration. Thank you, Lord, that by virtue of Christ's sacrifice on our behalf, by virtue of the Spirit having indwelled those who are his own, that we can live lives of faithfulness and usefulness to you, even despite often our many failings. And we pray, Lord, that in your grace and mercy to us that you would humble us, Lord, that you would blow away that worthless chaff, that you would preserve us, Lord, in faithfulness, preserve us in fervency, preserve us in zeal for your word, for your gospel, for the Lord Jesus Christ. Or preserve us as faithful witnesses in this wicked and perverse generation and make Christ receive the full reward of his sufferings. May he be worshiped in praise. May you be honored and glorified in all things in your church. We love you in Jesus' name, amen.