In 'The Weakness of the Prayerless,' Scott Brown discusses the pivotal moment of Peter's denial of Jesus, illustrating the grave consequences of neglecting prayer and watchfulness. The sermon explores the narrative of Matthew 26, emphasizing the intersection between devotion and denial, as Peter fails to remain steadfast due to his lack of prayer. Despite his fall, the sermon highlights the mercy and forgiveness of Jesus, who continues to intercede for His disciples. Brown draws parallels to modern-day pressures to disassociate from Jesus, noting the dangers inherent in neglecting spiritual disciplines. Through Peter's story, the sermon underscores the escalating nature of sin and the necessity of repentance and reliance on God's mercy, ultimately pointing to the hope and redemption found in Christ's resurrection.

Now Peter sat outside on the courtyard, and a servant girl came to him saying, You also were with Jesus of Galilee. But he denied it before them all, saying, I do not know what you are saying. And when he had gone out to the gateway, Another girl saw him and said to those who were there, this fellow was also with Jesus of Nazareth. But again he denied with an oath, I do not know the man. And a little later those who stood by came up and said to Peter, surely you also are one of them, for your speech betrays you.

Then he began to curse and swear saying, I do not know the man. Immediately a rooster crowed, and Peter remembered the words of Jesus Who had said to him before the rooster crows you will deny me three times so we went out and wept bitterly Let's pray Well, we thank you for this scripture we thank you that it can speak into our lives We ask that you would help us to hear the words and be convicted of the teaching today. We ask that our sin would make us to weep bitterly, that we would be impacted when we realize that we've done wrong. Amen. Chapter 26 began with the Lord Jesus Christ declaring to His disciples that He would be delivered up and crucified.

And then the scene shifts where the scribes and the chief priests and the elders are assembled at the palace of the high priest, Caiaphas. Chapter 26 ends in the same place, in the palace of the high priest with Caiaphas. The plot has been successful, the Lord Jesus has been apprehended, and now he is entering into the final steps of his journey to the cross, the most significant event in all of history. This passage of scripture that we're in this morning has the blessing of being recorded by all the gospel writers. Every single one of them gives this account, which is a blessing because we get the various angles on the story that we need to piece it all together.

And what you see here with Peter is this intersection that exists in every Christian's life, and it's the intersection between devotion and denial. What we find here at the beginning of this narrative is that Peter is following and then he hangs back. He desires to be near Jesus, yet he ends up disassociating himself from the Lord Jesus Christ. In chapter 26, we see this whole spectrum of Peter's disposition toward the Lord Jesus. We see him boasting in his loyalty, saying, I'm not like these other disloyal disciples.

I, Lord, I am not like that at all. We see him then defending Jesus against the multitude. Don't you wish you could have seen him lop the ear of the servant of the high priest off in that scene of the Lord Jesus reaching out his hand in a moment of time, perhaps so that the crowd would not just lunge upon the disciples and kill them all as Lord Jesus heals the ear of the man who's been wounded. And then you see him following the Lord Jesus, And then you see Him denying, and then you see Him weeping. But there was one thing that Peter was not doing.

You know what that was? It was the one thing. It was that one thing that the Lord Jesus told him that he ought to do. And often it's just that one little thing that makes all the difference in the world. That one little thing.

And everything is different from now on. Did you hear that remarkable story of one of the most famous explorers alive today? He's in his 60s, and he spent five years planning a 2, 000 mile trek across Antarctica in the winter, meaning 2, 000 miles, six months, in the pitch dark, 90 degrees below zero. He spends five years and raises about $15 million for this one scene that perhaps may be his last greatest expedition in the world. This happened just about three weeks ago.

And he was there putting his skis, trying to put his skis into his bindings because they were getting ready to leave to launch out on their mission for six months and The money had been raised everything had it was it was in order and he couldn't get his ski into the binding And he was jamming it and trying to trying to get in he couldn't get it in and finally got so frustrated he pulled off his glove and put it in, his hand froze, and he had to be flown out of the area, not to be able to complete his mission. One little thing, just one little thing. And here what we find in this passage is one thing, one small thing, it seems so small to us. Do you know what it is? What was neglected?

What was rejected? What was it that was failed in the mission. Well, one thing that Peter was not doing is that he was not watching and praying. And that made all the difference in the world. And it made so much difference that it actually brought Peter to what quite likely was the lowest point in his whole life.

We don't know if this was the lowest point. This was definitely the lowest point of his life that was recorded in Scripture. Have you ever thought about what might happen if the lowest point of your life was recorded for all to see. And this is exactly what happens with Peter in Matthew chapter 26. And in this scene that's before us, the reality of this great neglect, this one significant lapse, the reality of his sinful frailties as a result of it, the bitterness of his shame, the weeping that came from it.

But also, it's a narrative where we see the hope of pardon, the mercy of God to make good, even in the midst of a man's failures, the kindness of God, to embrace a man, even in such an imperfect state of his reformation. I'm going to say that again. It's a story of God's mercy to embrace a man even in such an imperfect state of his reformation. There's so much here. John Calvin sums up the whole scene like this, Peter's fall is a bright mirror of our weakness.

In his repentance also a striking instance of the goodness and mercy of God held out to us. So that's the basic scene that's here. I want to give a couple of coordinates before we dive into the text. First of all, just some geographical location matters to set aside so that we can see this more clearly. In this passage, Jesus is now in the apartment of Annas, the high priest, and then he is in the courtyard of Caiaphas where two days earlier the plot was formed and now the religious establishment has Jesus in their net and now the Lord is in the belly of their own house of plotting and collaboration.

And there's a timeline here, I think that it's helpful, at least the way I understand it, is that now Jesus is in the apartment of Annas upstairs with his collaborators, and they're abusing the Lord Jesus Christ there. And at some point, most likely just before or after the third denial, they move Jesus down into the courtyard, where the final scene of this story is shown. And so there's a passage of time. There are a number of markers in time in this passage of Scripture that it's helpful to see. First of all, the rooster crows after the first denial.

And then in Luke chapter 22 verse 58 it says, a little while, then there was a little while had passed after the first denial and then and then after that is the third denial and there's about an hour there is an there is an hour that separates that time. In Luke 22, 59, we read, Then after about an hour had passed, another confidently affirmed, saying, Surely this fellow was with him, for he is a Galilean." So there's an hour that passes between the second and the third denial. So that's the basic scene here. Now let's look at verses 69 and 70, And as we just consider both the high cost of neglecting, watching, and praying, and yet remembering what a small thing it might seem to us when someone would call us to watch and pray. It just seems so small.

Just watch and pray, is that all? God, don't you want me to do something gigantic for you? Don't you want me to do something dramatic? I want a vision. I want a big vision for my life.

And Jesus says, watch and pray. And we can't even do that. It would be preferable for us to do something so dramatic. But not all that preferable, not all that important for us to watch and pray. It's just such a small thing in our own minds.

So Peter's first denial, 69 and 70, now Peter sat outside in the courtyard and a servant girl came to him saying, you also were with Jesus of Galilee, But he denied it before them all, saying, I do not know what you are saying. So this horrible scene in the courtyard, he's outside in the courtyard and he has been following the Lord from afar off. You know, there's such a danger to be registered when you find that you're following the Lord Jesus from afar off. That you're on the periphery, not in the middle. And Peter had pulled back now.

He's still near, but he's not right there in his heart or with his body, with anything really. He has some glimmer of desire, but it's small. Jesus is at this point upstairs on the second floor in the house of Annas, who is Caiaphas's father-in-law, and they're in a room and they blindfolded the Lord Jesus. And Mark 14, 65 says, they spat on him, they beat him, and they say to him, prophesy, and the officers are striking him with the palms of their hands." In Luke 22 verse 65 it says, "...and with many other things they blasphemously spoke against him." So they're spitting on him, they're blaspheming the name of God and His name, and He's blindfolded. But we know what their intention was.

Their intention was not really to just hurt him. Their intention was to kill him. In John 18, 14, we read, Now it was Caiaphas who advised the Jews that it was expedient that one man should die for the people. That was the intent, to kill him. This was a time of expediency.

The intention was very, very clear. Psalm 35 verse 15 is being fulfilled. Attackers gathered against me and I did not know it. They tore at me and did not cease." So it is in Psalm 22 verses 16 and 17 being fulfilled here in this scene. "'For dogs have surrounded me, the congregation of the wicked has enclosed me.

They pierce my hands and my feet. I can count all my bones. They look and stare at me. They divide my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots. But you, O Lord, do not be far from me.

O my strength, hasten to help me. Deliver me from the sword, my precious life from the power of the dog. Save me from the lion's mouth and from the horns of the wild oxen. You have answered me." This is a prophetic statement that speaks of this whole scene of the dogs gathering around and from the beginning of his abuse until the time of his crucifixion on the cross. And in the midst of all of that, Peter just wants to blend in, but that's not what's going to happen.

Peter's being tested. And who is he tested by? A soldier? A priest? A commander?

A Levite? A Pharisee? No. It was a servant girl. And the word that Matthew uses is for a girl who is 12 to 15 years old, and she's a slave girl.

Now Peter was valiant. He'd sprung into action to defend his Lord just hours earlier. And now he's before a servant girl, and he absolutely wilts. And then she makes her accusation, you also were with Jesus of Galilee. It was guilt by association.

He was with Jesus. And Peter denies it. But what was he denying? He was denying knowledge of association. He was pleading ignorance.

He was denying the subject that the girl was raising. And he was proclaiming that whatever she was saying was just ridiculous. It was when we were, a Bible study on Tuesday, one of the men said, it's kind of like when your children, when you call to your children And you say, what are you doing over there? And your child says, huh? It's kind of like that, huh?

I don't know what you're talking about. It's all a lie, though. And so he was afraid of association with Jesus. Now we have to recognize that this matter of association is the matter upon which all the martyrs died. They all died on the question of association.

Who did they associate with and what principles did they associate with? What commands did they believe? What propositions did they embrace and attempt to put to practice in their lives? And So we come here across the sin of disassociation. And we all recognize the pressure of that because we live in a world where association with Jesus is dangerous.

It can be really dangerous to your career if you work in any one of the major corporations in America because the human resources departments actually hate those who mention the name of Jesus in the workplace. And it has been explicitly made illegal to do so in the largest corporations in our land. And of course the trickle-down continues and continues and it's just so unpopular, it's just so untimely, it's just so offensive to be associated with Jesus or the things that Jesus says. Really the most harmful thing you can do for yourself really is to associate yourself with Jesus. All you have to do is repeat the things that he has said from Genesis to Revelation And you'll feel the twinge of the desire to be disassociated with Him because people view the things that Jesus has said as hate speech.

And so we are faced with this matter of association, and the different ways that we practice disassociation with the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, there are reasons why The impulse of our hearts would be to disassociation. I'll give you four reasons, and they really are the most common reasons anyway, that we want to disassociate with Jesus. The first reason is the exclusivity of the Gospel. The Gospel, the good news, at least part of it, is that there are only two ways, that there is the broad road and the narrow road.

The good news is that there is only one name in heaven and earth by which men might be saved. The good news is that if you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ from the heart and repent and turn from your idols, then you'll be saved. But if you don't believe in the Lord Jesus Christ alone, and if you do not repent and believe in His name and turn from your idols, you will not be saved. There are only two kinds of people in the world. There aren't five religions that lead to God.

There's only one. And the exclusivity of the Gospel is a force in the world that puts pressure on Christians to disassociate. Because after all, aren't there just so many nice people who believe in all kinds of different religions? It's true. Some of the nicest people you'll ever meet believe in a different way to God.

Secondly, the doctrine of heaven. The doctrine of heaven will cause the pangs of disassociation to enter into your heart. Because the Bible says that the way is broad and there are many who go in by it, but the way is narrow and there are few who go in by it. There are few. Thirdly, the doctrine of the wrath of God, the doctrine of hell, being rejected all over the place for various reasons, mainly because of the shame the belief in eternal punishment brings.

Do you believe in eternal punishment? Do you believe that God will put those who have rejected Him in eternal perdition, where they'll be weeping and gnashing of teeth, where their worm does not die? Do you believe that that is true, that God does exercise wrath against the ungodly? If you believe that, you will be thought to having hate speech in your heart toward mankind, And you'll be sort of declared as an enemy of society. Or how about matters of morality?

Number four, matters of morality. It's very, very unpopular today to believe that certain sexual sins are actually sins, particularly homosexuality. It's very unpopular, very, very, very unpopular to believe that and to say it. And people are punished today as a result of it. The punishments are escalating in the culture.

My view is that this is probably going to be the mechanism by which the pastors in America who preach the Word of God will be imprisoned for hate speech when they just preach the simple texts of Scripture that speak of biblical morality. It probably won't be the gospel that the first martyrs in America will suffer under. It'll probably be on some other matter that Jesus Christ has spoken on clearly. And we'll want to disassociate. There's so many people disassociating with the plain teaching of Scripture today on this matter of homosexuality.

And so here we're witnessing a desire for some kind of acceptance. You might want to distance yourself from Jesus Christ because of it. But then the rooster will crow. The rooster crows. He always crows.

The rooster crows and reminds you of what's really true and you keep on running. That's exactly what Peter did. He was at a distance, he denied the Lord, the rooster crowed and he kept on plunging ahead. He heard it, but not in his heart. It wasn't enough for him.

And there was a little while longer. Peter is unfazed. He's not stopping. His bold claim, you know, I will never be made to stumble. Now falls to the ground.

The rock crumbles before a little girl with no real authority. And again, you see the high cost of neglecting such a small thing. That one little thing, that one little thing called watching and praying, the removal of the glove that changes absolutely everything as it did for that great explorer. And some of the greatest men and women are brought down because of this one little thing, because they're not ready. They haven't prepared their hearts in watching and praying.

And so much is at stake as a result. And then we see Peter's second denial in verses 71 and 72. And when he had gone out to the gateway, another girl saw him and said to those who were there, this fellow was with Jesus of Nazareth. But again he denied within oath, I do not know the man." Now in the second denial, we find some differences. Peter does not deny knowledge of the topic she's speaking about, as he did in the previous, because he was just sort of denying the topic now he's denying the man he says I do not know the man I don't know the man The man who held out his hand when he was on the water, the man who spoke to him three years before and walked with him, the man who took him up on the Mount of Transfiguration, He says, I don't know the man.

And her accusation was, this fellow was also with Jesus of Nazareth. And this girl is kind of, she's a servant, I'm going to call her the servant girl with an attitude. Because she's actually deriding him, She's lumping him with these Nazarenes. It was a note of contempt. Can anything good come from Nazareth?

No, absolutely not. The Nazarenes are the hillbillies of the day. I mean, Imagine if a group of just hillbillies, you've seen them in the parades, haven't you? They drive up in these hilarious looking cars and they're dressed like the proverbial hillbillies. You know, if the hillbillies were to walk in here today, you would know who they were.

And that's what this slave girl with an attitude was saying. Here come the Nazarenes. There they are. You're with them. We can tell.

So it was a note of contempt. It was not a compliment to be called a Nazarene. And lots of people heard it. There were many who were there who heard it, those who were there, it says in this text. In John chapter 18 we read that it was a multitude that were questioning him, but he denied it again with an oath.

Again you see this escalating intensity of the denial. In the first now, he's just denying the subject, the topic. Now he's denying the man, but even more than that, he's denying with an oath. In an oath there are three elements. First of all, there's calling God a witness to the truth of the statement.

Secondly, there's a calling on God to validate the statement. And thirdly, there is a calling on God to punish it if it is not true. That's what an oath is and was. And that's what Jesus was referring to here in his word. This is the kind of denial it was.

And for Peter it was as if to say, God kill me if this is not true. And he knew it was true. And he knew it was not true. You know how oaths work, you know, when you're little you use them. You know, when I was a boy we would say, cross my heart and hope to die, stick a needle in my eye." That's an oath.

This one was very serious, though. But here you see the high cost of neglecting such a little thing, The terrible consequence of neglecting, watching and praying. And then in the third denial, verse 73, and a little later, those who stood by came up and said to Peter, surely you also are one of them, for your speech betrays you. Then he began to curse and swear, saying, I do not know the man. Immediately a rooster crowed." So in this scene, more people are coming to the theater.

The crowd is now addressing him, and his accent is betraying. He's talking a lot, and they can see his Galilean accent. It's a fascinating story, we won't run down, but if you know anything about the term shibboleth or sibboleth, you'll understand the issue of the accent here. That's a matter of study for later. And there was a relative of the guy who had his ear removed said, hey, I saw you.

So now, you know, it's closing in. The anonymity, The invisibility that Peter was looking for is now gone. And so, it says he does two things. He curses and he swears. And What does that mean?

What does it mean to curse and swear? The ESV renders it more clearly. He began to invoke a curse upon himself. So a curse is something that comes from God. A curse is to call the wrath of God upon yourself if you do not tell the truth in this case.

He was making a solemn oath that he was telling the truth when in fact he was lying. That's what the curse is. It wasn't a curse word. It was a curse pronounced upon himself if indeed this was found not to be true. It was like when people say, when they say to you like this, hey, I'll be honest with you.

You know, when people say that, usually not, you might not find honesty after that, just like with Peter. Honestly. It's sort of, it's a bolstering. It's trying to fortify the truth when actually there's no truth there. That's what Peter was doing.

And then swearing, he would all, he swore. Now these, Now these were not profane words. This was not mindless profanity. He wasn't using a swear word. He's anathematizing.

He's saying, let me be accursed. Let me be anathematized. He's calling God's wrath upon him, just like he did earlier in the oath. So, when Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount, do not swear by heaven and earth, he's using the same word. And he's talking about swearing falsely, he's talking about saying one thing, but meaning another in your heart.

He was just using words. The kind of person who was swearing in the Sermon on the Mount. And that's exactly what Peter was doing. He was swearing falsely. And then the rooster crowed.

This is such a remarkable part of this narrative. The gospel writers say a number of things about this moment that I want us to recognize. In Luke chapter 22, Peter said, man, I don't know what you're saying. And immediately when he spoke the Rooster Crowed. And then the Lord turned and looked at him, and he remembered.

But here's, there are four things that happened all at once. And all these things working together, the Lord used to bring him to his senses and to bring him to repentance. As I go through these things, just consider what does it take to bring you to repentance? What does it take to bring me to repentance? How many inputs do there have to be before you finally admit what you've done and who you are and what you're like?

How many times does your wife have to appeal to you on a matter? How many times have you gotten that twinge that, yes, I did speak wrongly to my children? How many times have you stolen and yet you kept on stealing? How many times have you lied but you've maintained a lie? How many times has evil existed in your heart and you just continued on?

But then there were things that just seemed to come to bear all at one time. And there was a breaking. And you came to your senses and you repented. And times of refreshing came in. That's what happened here.

Four things happened at once. The rooster, the crowing of a rooster, the look of a shepherd, the remembrance of Jesus' words, and a thoughtful meditation on his sin. All the Gospel writers record the rooster crowing. In Luke, we learn that Jesus looked at him. From Matthew, we learn that he remembered.

He remembered what Jesus said to him. And in Mark, we read that he thought about it. In other words, he had a thoughtful meditation upon his sin. Those four things happened. The rooster crowed, the shepherd looked, the words were remembered, and the meditation began.

Those four things. Those are the things that brought him to his knees. Now I don't know what the rooster crowing for you was in that time where you turned, because the roosters seem to come in different packages, don't they? You know, something is, you've continued with and you knew it was wrong and you're reminded maybe even daily. And then, and that rooster is just crowing and crowing and crowing all the time.

I remember several years ago there was something that I had done. And there was something in my house that reminded me of it. And unfortunately, that thing in my house that reminded me of it was something that I had to deal with every day, because it was in my bathroom. And every day, for about three years I saw it. And it reminded me every day.

And finally I came to my senses, and I repented of my sin. It took me longer than an hour. A lot longer than an hour. How about you? Have you waited longer than an hour from the last time that it was?

Hey, this is such a great opportunity for us just to consider, what have I been letting go on in my life? Has it been an hour or two hours or ten days or ten years or twenty years? Whatever it is. There's a lapse of time, but these four things all came together. Pray that God would give you these things here, that he would give you the reminder and the look of your shepherd and the memory of it and then a meditation upon it so that the wound can be lanced.

The high cost of neglecting such a small thing as watching and praying. And then Peter weeps at the end of verse 75. So he went out and wept bitterly. So he went out, he left, he left the whole area. He got out of there.

And he had his tears there by himself in the privacy of his own heart. There he was playing his game and the Lord Jesus sees him. He looks at him. Now how do you think Jesus looked at him? Do you think he scowled at him?

Do you think it was a scowl? Does anybody think it was a scal? I don't think, it would just be hard to imagine. I mean, Jesus and John, and this whole scene coming up to this, it says Jesus loved him to the end. Jesus says that he's praying, he's going to be praying for them that they might not fall into temptation, that their faith might not fail.

He's praying that their faith will not fail, meaning eclipsed. And Peter's faith didn't eclipse, or it wasn't eclipsed. But the Lord Jesus was praying for him at this time. And when Jesus looked at him, It could not have been a scowl. At least I don't see how it could have been.

The Scripture doesn't tell us. And so we see not only his denial, but also his brokenness. You know, John Newton wrote a hymn, sort of picturing The Lord Jesus looking at him from the cross. You know, Jesus sees everything. He knows everything.

You cannot hide anything from Him. And so he sees through you. He knows every part of your heart. And that's what happened when he looked at Peter. John Newton in his Song says this, In evil long I took delight, Unawed by shame or fear, Till a new object struck my sight and stopped my wild career.

I saw one hanging on a tree in agonies and blood who fixed his languid eyes on me. As near his cross I stood. Sure, never till my last breath can I forget that look? It seemed to charge me with his death, though not a word he spoke. My conscience felt and owned the guilt and plunged me in despair.

I saw my sins, his blood had spilt and helped to nail him there. Alas, I knew not what I did, but now my tears are vain. Where shall my trembling soul be hid? For I the Lord have slain. A second look he gave which said, I freely all forgive, Tis blood is for thy ransom paid, I die, that thou mayest live.

Thus while his death my sin displays In all its blackest hue, such is the mystery of grace it seals my pardon to. With pleasing grief and mournful joy. My spirit now is filled, that I should such a life destroy, yet live by Him I killed." The look of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's the best look you can ever have. And I suggest it's what brought Peter to his knees.

You know, I can't stop thinking about the time spent without repentance in this story, that long hour before he finally repented and wept. And he wept bitterly, it says. Mark uses a word that speaks of mental agony. His tears were about thinking about what has happened to him. And so he withdrew to be alone with God.

Are tears necessary for repentance? No, they're not. But in many cases they're unstoppable, as it was in this case here. And what we find here, I think, is an expression of Matthew 5.3, blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted okay I want to give you some applications now I'm going to give you nine of them. And they're all framed in the form of questions.

So I would just like for us to consider these questions. Question number one, Do you see the awful potential for sin? Now these are genuine sins of God's children. Where the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak. But do you see the awful possibilities that there are in sin?

And such a high cost of neglecting the sin of ignoring a simple command of Jesus Christ to watch and pray. The awful result of the sin of neglecting prayerful Watchfulness. Now it's so easy to take lightly something like that, like watchfulness and prayerfulness. It just doesn't seem like such a big ticket item, but it is a big, big ticket item for us. So do you see the awful potential for that sin of lack of watchfulness and prayerfulness?

Question number two. Do you see how the littleness of a temptation can lead to a great fall? You know, it was a great fall at such a small thing, such a little temptation from a 12 to 15 year old servant girl. And yet it led to a great fall. How susceptible we are even to small things when we set aside such important things.

You see how susceptible it makes us? How it made Peter for sure. Do you remember the story of the man who had the demonized boy? And he brought his boy to the disciples, nine of them, and they couldn't cast the demon out of them. And then Jesus was with Peter, James, and John on the Mount of Transfiguration.

And they came down, and there's this huge crowd gathering, and there's a big argument with the Pharisees. And this boy was in a terrible state of hurting himself and even at one point like a dead boy. And the man in desperation, he says, your disciples couldn't cast out this demon, why? And Jesus says, this kind doesn't come out but by prayer and fasting. When were the disciples supposed to pray and fast?

Right there? No. The prayer and fasting would have had to happen earlier. The disciples weren't ready by the prayer and the fasting that would have made them ready. But do you see how without the proper preparations, the littlest temptation can make you fall?

See how the littleness of a temptation can cause such a great fall. Have you asked yourself that question? Hey, my guess is Some of you are falling at the smallest things right now, it's because of this. And you pick yourself back up every day and you feel bad and, you know, you might ask people to help pray for you but you don't you don't watch and pray yourself. So do you see how the littleness of a temptation can lead to a great fault?

Question number three. Do you see the worsening nature of sin? Yielding to temptation makes it worse. Did you see the escalating nature of the denials? Sin doesn't get better once you commit it.

It gets worse. It opens more doors. It sears the conscience. And so there's an escalating until finally you're so entrapped. Again, the high cost of neglecting such a small thing is praying and watching.

Question number four. We've seen Peter at his most vulnerable moment. How about you? Are you in a vulnerable moment right now? Here's how you can discern whether you are.

Have you been watching and praying? If you've not been watching and praying, consider yourself vulnerable. Consider yourself ready for a fall. Be careful. He who thinks he stands lest he should fall and how do you know that you're ready for a fall when you've not been watching and praying are you at your most vulnerable moment right now?

Are you? Your most vulnerable moment is when you have not watched and prayed. And it's the weakness of the prayerless life that is exposed here. Now we can ask a question that comes to all of our minds. Why did Peter do this?

Why did he do this after all that he had seen? It just doesn't make sense, does it? He saw so much, he experienced so much. He was one of the preferred disciples, one of the three that were with Jesus at some of the most pivotal moments in Jesus' three-year ministry. Why did He do this?

And you could say, well, He was walking in the flesh. There are times in our lives when we walk in the flesh, not in the Spirit. But I will tell you, the scripture here gives us the exact reason why He did it. And I think we should be really clear about why He did it, because this text tells us. Jesus says it happened because they were not watching and praying.

He said, watch and pray that you may not fall in the temptation. Satan has a desire to sift you, but I prayed for you. And Peter only survives on the prayers of Jesus through this situation. If it hadn't been for his Savior, he would not have survived it. He would have continued to have denied, and the world would have been different.

Question number five. Are you heeding the warnings of Jesus? And I mean in this passage as well as the other warnings because there are many warnings in Scripture. And one of the great questions that we should be asking ourselves is, am I listening to the warnings? Do I take them seriously?

Jesus issued a warning, it was not taken seriously. They were sleeping. And Jesus is saying, are you still sleeping and resting? Are you still sleeping and resting? He asked that question because they did not heed the warning to watch and pray that they might not fall into temptation.

So are you heeding the warnings of Jesus and His Word? Peter was warned. There are so many warnings in Scripture. I brought with me into my notes several warnings. But there are warnings throughout Scripture that we should pay attention to.

And This was a critical warning for Peter and for us as well. And then number six, are you at your worst moment? It may be possible that somebody here is at their worst moment, as Peter was? You're at the low point of your life. And what will you do?

You know, God's people do reach low points in their lives. And this was probably Peter's. Think about Noah's low point in his life, at least the lowest low point recorded in Scripture, drunken and naked and his sons had to cover for his sin. Or Lot's wife. Or Lot's fearful daughters in their singleness.

Sometimes the most defining things happen in a person's lowest point in their lives. Are you at the lowest point in your life? It really matters what you do now. Abraham lying to them like Sarah laughing at God. Jacob lying and stealing to get whatever he wanted, Moses anger at the people striking the rock, Miriam getting leprosy because of her slander.

Gehazi getting leprosy because of his greed for money. Low points happen for different reasons, don't they? For drunkenness, for nakedness, for lying, for slandering, for greed. Low points happen on particular issues that have to do with real sin. Peter was at a low point.

Are you at your low point now? Because it really matters what you do now. Maybe the rooster is crowing, and you're recognizing where you really are. Number seven, are you ignoring your sin? Are you ignoring your sin?

How many times has the rooster crowed? How many times has Jesus looked at you and you knew it? How many times have you remembered? How many times have you meditated but you've not repented? Are you ignoring your sin?

You're just shining it on, like Peter did when he was there in the courtyard, and he heard the rooster crow. But he just pushed it aside. He just pushed aside the guilt. He just pushed aside what was going on in his heart. Don't push it aside any longer.

You don't have to push it aside any longer. Repent, recognize that sin. Don't ignore it any longer. Don't act like it doesn't exist for another day. Today is the day to come clean.

Today is the day, maybe even of salvation, to quit resisting the voice of the Holy Spirit, which has been speaking to you earnestly, lovingly, patiently, graciously, year after year, person after person, and there's got to be an end of the ignoring, as it was with Peter. Number eight, are you broken in your sin? The brokenness of Peter is the key to his usefulness. Peter's great bravado seems now to have finally been broken. You don't see it anymore, really.

I don't think. On the way to church today we were reading Psalm 34. The Lord is near to those who have a broken heart, and he saves such as have a contrite spirit. The Lord is near to those who have a broken heart, and He saves such as have a contrite spirit. The Lord is near to those who have a broken heart.

You know, are you broken for your sin? This is the beginning of wisdom, it's the beginning of healing, it's the beginning of happiness. You know, the Lord Jesus called His disciples for a purpose. He said that it was so that they might be with him. So that they might be with him.

And when one is broken, then he can fully be with Jesus in that way. Number nine, last question. Are you ignoring His mercies? Are you ignoring His mercies? His mercies are new every morning.

Here is a man who sat in the seat of the scornful. Here is a man who tried to be invisible before the world and not associate himself with his Savior, the one that reached out his hand and took him and rescued him out of the water. Peter sinned greatly. Peter took an oath. What was his punishment for breaking of the oath?

Well what you find here is in this whole theme that runs in a significant portion of Matthew chapter 26 is the theme of prayer where the Lord says watch and pray that you might not enter temptation but I have prayed for you so that your faith may not fail." The mercies of God in the midst of our temptation need to be recognized. As you've considered your sins, as you've considered the things that you've ignored, and you are a child of God, and you have turned to Him for salvation, and He is your only hope, and you know it, and your heart is turned toward Him. Then recognize who Jesus Christ is in the midst of your sin to you. Who is He? He is praying for you.

He is looking at you. And He's looking at you to catch your eye. He loved them to the end. He who began the good work will complete it. He loves his own.

He prays for his sheep. He dies for his sheep. He extends his hand to his sheep and he brings them to himself again when they fall. And Peter's threefold denial is met with the threefold declaration of His love that His Savior draws out of Him. And so what you find here is a beautiful declaration of a merciful and faithful and compassionate High priest who prays for his children in the midst of their sin, who sees to it that their faith won't be extinguished in the time of their lapse.

He knows their frame. He knows that they are weak and they are but dust. He knows that they sin and He carries them. As Moses says, as a father carries his son. This is your Savior.

And I want us to so deeply consider His mercies, and that we've not ignored the great mercies of such a good shepherd, such a kind shepherd, who takes those even who would deny Him so explicitly. Here's my guess. There's a large number of you who've never denied Jesus as explicitly as Peter did. You've probably denied him in different ways, but not as explicitly and demonstrably. Not to swear an oath that you never knew the man.

I bet there are very few who have actually done that and taken it to that degree. And somehow, we have to see the enormity of this sin is met with the enormity of the mercy of Jesus Christ. He did come to save sinners. He did come to save the chief of sinners. And His mercies are new every morning.

And as we gather here on what is thankfully, you know, for almost the whole world, Resurrection Day, We have to recognize the power of the resurrection to cleanse of sin. That it's a perfect cleansing. That He removes your iniquities as far as the east is from the west. That He makes them white as snow. That He puts them in the bottom of the ocean and He holds your tears in a bottle and He loves you to the end.

And He who began a good work in you will perfect it into the day of Christ Jesus because of the power of the resurrected Jesus Christ who intercedes for His children night and day incessantly. And here he is now interceding for us, many of us who have named our sins in our hearts as we've considered these matters of sin that Peter was susceptible to. But we have to recognize, so great a salvation, so great a Savior, such a kind one that would complete the work in the hearts of sinners. What a blessing it is. In just a few minutes we'll be engaging in this grand celebration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ from His shed blood on the cross, the Lord's Supper.

And I pray it'll be such a great celebration that He'll turn your mourning into dancing, that He will bring you beauty for ashes as you consider His name today. We'll spend quite a bit of time together today as we eat together and fellowship. Let's remember His great mercies. Let's not be a people who have ignored His mercies toward His people. Let's pray.

Oh Lord, we thank You for parading before us not just Peter's sins, but our sins, so that we might see them in the light of so great a sacrifice, so great a Savior. Amen.