This sermon delves into the importance of valuing fellowship with the Father above all else, learning to hate sin by treasuring this relationship. It explores the example of Jesus' willingness to break fellowship with the Father to ensure our eternal connection. The sermon also highlights the significance of being silent in the face of false accusations, drawing lessons from Jesus' response during his trial. Additionally, it emphasizes the need for humility and dependence on God, as seen through Peter's denial and subsequent repentance.

We turn again today to continue our study in all that Jesus taught. We've been looking at the Gospel of Matthew and seeing what we can learn from Jesus' words, actions, circumstances that he took people through to understand how we are to live our life in obedience to all that he commanded. We saw the last time how he went through Gethsemane, his dreading break of fellowship with the Father. What do we learn from that? That fellowship with the Father is the most important thing that we can ever desire on earth. It's the thing that we must value more than anything else on the face of this earth, fellowship with the Father. Everything else is unimportant. We don't understand the value of that and that's why we sin so lightly. Every time we sin, our fellowship with the Father is broken. We must learn to value fellowship with the Father so intensely, that's what'll help us to hate sin and that's what we learn from that example of Jesus dreading to drink that cup. We must also come to the place where we dread any break of fellowship with the Father which can come through something wrong that we have done where we have violated our conscience and not listened to the Holy Spirit. That's how break of fellowship with the Father comes for us and that is sin. Sin results in a break of fellowship with the Father and that's what the Lord wants to, that's what he died to deliver us from. He died in order that our fellowship with the Father might never be broken. Look at sin like that. He died so that I might be free from sin means he died so that my fellowship with the Father might never be broken. He was willing to break fellowship with the Father which he valued so much so that my fellowship with the Father may never be broken. When you look at it like that, we value fellowship with the Father. While he was still speaking, Luke, Matthew 26, 47, behold, Judas, one of the 12, came up accompanied by a great multitude with swords and clubs and he was betraying him, gave them a sign saying, whoever I shall kiss, he's the one, seize him. It's really amazing how Judas could betray someone who was so kind to him. I think he was a bit disturbed that Jesus was not really taking over power as a ruler and destroying the Romans. He thought he could sort of be the prime minister under Jesus or something like that and he found Jesus was not at all interested in political power and Judas was disappointed. He was only interested in changing people's souls and Judas Iscariot was not interested in that and so he went up to Jesus and said, hail, rabbi. He never called him Lord. He would always call him rabbi and kissed him and Jesus said to him, friend. He called Peter Satan and rebuking him but when he spoke to Judas, he called him friend and said, do what you have come for. He had nothing in his heart. He wanted to let Judas know, I've got nothing against you. I know what you're gonna do. But you're my friend and even that did not melt the hard heart of Judas at that moment and then they came, laid hands on Jesus and seized him and one of those who were with Jesus reached out and drew out his sword and struck the slave of the high priest and cut off his ear. That was Peter who took out the sword and chopped off the ear and Jesus said to him, put your sword back into its place for all those who take up the sword shall perish by the sword. You know, in Luke 22, we read it was Jesus himself who told them to take swords before they get to Gethsemane and Peter could have said, Lord, what do you mean? Don't use the sword. You're the one who told us to take a sword and that's why we brought it, to defend you and Jesus said, that's not what I asked you to bring the sword for. You must never use the sword in attack. I asked you to bring the sword so that if the Roman soldiers took out their sword to slash your face, you could lift up your sword and protect your face. It was for defense, not for attack. So when we read the command in Luke 22 to take a sword with you and combine it with this word says, put your sword back for those who take up the sword will perish by the sword. To take the sword with you is for defense. To take up the sword is to attack people. He said, that's completely wrong. It's wrong for us to attack people but it's perfectly all right for us to defend ourselves when we are attacked. That is the message we get from putting those two verses together about having a sword but not taking it out to attack people and then Jesus said further, if you take up the sword, you'll perish with the sword so it's dangerous to go in this attacking way. Verse 53, don't you think that I could appeal to my father? You think I cannot appeal to my father right now and he will put at my disposal? 72,000 angels, 12 legions of angels. One legion is 6,000 angels. 72,000 angels can come down here right now if I just ask my father and we read in the Old Testament that in the time of Hezekiah, one angel killed about 180,000 of the enemies of the Lord. Can you imagine what 72,000 angels could have done? And the Lord said, no, I'm not gonna ask for that because then how will the scripture be fulfilled? If I ask God to protect me from all types of problems, how will the scripture be fulfilled? We need to apply that in our life also. If I ask God to protect me from every single problem in life, how will I fulfill my ministry? How then shall the scriptures be fulfilled? So prayer is not a means of asking God to save us from all problems and protect us from all calamities, no. God allows some things to happen in our lives so that we can have a ministry. I mean, if Jesus hadn't got the angels down to protect him at that time, he would not have fulfilled his ministry. And if God protects us from all types of problems in this world, we will not have a ministry to others. Sometimes we have to go through what other people go through in order for us to empathize with their problems. And that's why God does not protect his children from certain types of sufferings. We've got to go through in India crowded trains and standing in long queues to get things done and going to government offices and waiting hours on end and going back again and again to get a permit or something like that. Because that's what everybody else in our country is going through. And sometimes very often God doesn't shorten the process and make it easier for us by removing all the roadblocks. We face the same roadblocks that everybody in our country faces. And that's how we can empathize with them. We understand the struggles they're going through and we can say, we face the same thing, but we've learned to rejoice always. We've learned to trust God to help us. We've learned to be anxious for nothing. But if we are protected from all calamities and problems and trials by prayer, then we have no ministry to others. So he says, I'm not going to call 72,000 angels to come protect me, no. Let the scriptures be fulfilled. And Jesus said to the crowds of people who come to capture him, have you come out with swords and clubs to arrest me as if I'm a robber? As you go against robbers? Every day I used to sit in the temple teaching and you did not seize me then. What's the need for coming like this as if I'm trying to run away from you? But all this has taken place that the scriptures of the prophets may be fulfilled. And then all the disciples left him and fled. These folks who had said we will never leave you, when we face trouble, when we face a risk to our own life, they forsook Christ. And we will also, unless we are filled with the Holy Spirit, and have built up our love for Jesus Christ in our hearts. Those who are self-confident and say, even if all men leave you, I will not leave you, will usually be the first ones to leave. So let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall, the Bible says. It's good for us to have low thoughts about ourselves and to recognize that we could deny the Lord as well. And then those who had seized Jesus led him away to Caiaphas, the high priest, where the scribes and the elders were gathered together. And Peter also was following at a distance as far as the courtyard of the high priest and entered in and sat down with the officers to see the outcome. In another gospel it says, it was John who spoke to the gatekeeper to allow Peter to come in. Otherwise Peter would not have been able to come in. John was related to the high priest and so he could speak to the gatekeeper and let Peter come in. Otherwise Peter would have been outside. Now think of the result of his coming in. Because he came in, he was questioned by certain people and he denied the Lord three times. Once a servant girl asked him, said I know this man and he denied it and he let down the Lord. So it all began with John speaking to the gatekeeper and asking Peter to come in. And he must have thought later on, boy I wish John hadn't spoken to the gatekeeper. If he hadn't spoken I wouldn't have got in and I wouldn't have been tempted. But God allows us to be tempted. Maybe to show us our weakness if we are too proud or to help us to be strong if we are humble. You see we have two things that temptation accomplishes. If you are proud, God will allow us to fall in temptation. To break us and to show us you are so weak. It's impossible for you to overcome. If you're humble, God will give you grace in that temptation to be an overcomer and that'll make you stronger. So there's a purpose in temptation. To break us or to strengthen us. God gives grace to the humble but he opposes the proud. And so when Peter came in it says the chief priest and the whole council kept trying to obtain false testimony against Jesus in order to put him to death. You know they had some semblance of justice and so they tried to get some witnesses to tell some lies but even then they could not find any even though many false witnesses came forward to tell all types of lies. But finally two people came forward and said in verse 61 this man stated I'm able to destroy the temple of God and to rebuild it in three days. Now you know very well that Jesus never said anything of the sort. You know what did these witnesses say? This man said I'm able to destroy the temple of God and to rebuild it in three days. Now compare that with the actual statement of Jesus what he said which is described in John's gospel chapter two where he said to the people in verse 19 destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up. Destroy this temple and in three days I'll raise it up. This man stated I'm able to destroy the temple of God. That's not what he said. He never said I'm going to destroy the temple of God. You know it's just a little addition but if you don't remember exactly what he said three and a half years ago because this statement was made at the beginning of Jesus' ministry people would say yeah I remember him saying something like that. Well that's not exactly what he said. There's a lot of difference between saying if you destroy the temple I will raise it up in three days and saying I will destroy this temple and then I will raise it up. I will rebuild it in three days. So very often you find this type of very subtle either deliberate addition of a word or the removing of a word or sometimes unknowingly. There's a lot of false witnessing going on like accusation based on false quotations of the statements of others in Christendom. He said, he said, he said, he said back and forth and so often we don't remember. In some cases people are not deliberately telling lies. They have just forgotten what exactly was said. And so we see here they're called false witnesses. You add one word to it and you're a false witness. It says here finally two false witnesses came forward. They said what sounded like the truth but it was not the truth. And the high priest stood up and said to him don't you make an answer to what is it that these men are testifying against you? Jesus could have said hey listen I did not say I am able to destroy the temple of God. I said if you destroy it I will rebuild it but he kept silent. What an example Matthew 26 verse 63 Jesus kept silent. You see that later on also when he stood before Pilate that he wouldn't answer a word. He kept silent because he knew that whatever he said they were going to tear it to pieces and they say well he's telling a lie or something like that. So he just kept silent. And the high priest said to him I adjure you by the living God that you tell us whether you're the Christ, the son of God. Are you the Messiah, the son of God? And Jesus said you have said it yourself. Or in other words yes I am. But I tell you hereafter you will see the son of man sitting in the right hand of power and coming in the clouds of heaven. He's talking about his own second coming. He says you're gonna see it. And the high priest tore his robes which is the way of showing disgust with a witness or a criminal. He tore his clothes and said he has blasphemed. What further need do we have of witnesses? You have heard him blaspheme yourself. I mean he asked a question and Jesus replied and he was just taunting him to say something so that he'd have some excuse to get all the crowd to turn against him. And what do you think he asked? And they answered saying he's deserving of death. I mean they had already been worked up to ask for his death. They'd been taught to ask for his death and they were just stooges of the high priest and the other Pharisees. They said yeah we want his death. I'm amazed at that you know because I can't believe that in that crowd there was nobody whom Jesus had healed. I can't believe that in that crowd there was nobody who had a relative whom Jesus had healed. There must have been and they completely forgot about all that. It's amazing man's ingratitude how quickly he forgets what God has done for him, what other people have done for him. They forgot what Jesus did. They spat on his face and beat him with their fists and others slapped him and said prophesy to us you Christ who is the one who hit you? Taunting him, troubling him, spitting on him and he never said a word. Like it says in Isaiah 53, they led him like a sheep to the slaughter and like a sheep before her shearers is dumb. He did not open his mouth. Isaiah 53 verse seven. He was oppressed and he was afflicted but he didn't open his mouth. Like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, like a sheep that is silent before shearers, he did not open his mouth. Three times in that verse it says did not open his mouth, did not open his mouth, was silent. And you know a sheep looks very beautiful with wool on it but when it's sheared, when all the wool is taken away, it looks so skinny and ugly. And when people took away the beauty of Jesus, spat on him and hit his face and disfigured it and despised him and taunted him, he was silent, he was silent, he was silent. It requires tremendous grace to be silent under such provocation but that's where we need to be silent. Dear brothers and sisters, in the house of God when we are singing his praise, we need to raise our voice and shout with our lungs from the bottom of our heart, raise our voice as much as we can. On the other hand, when we are falsely accused, abused and insulted, we need to keep quiet. We need to know when to raise our voice and when to keep quiet. But alas, what do we see among many believers? Many believers, what we see is in the time of praise, they're usually silent or sort of whispering but when somebody insults them or hurts them, they raise their voice in defense. They're upside down. That's the place you should be silent. It's in the house of God and they're praising him that we should raise our voice. That's why Jesus raised his voice when he was sheared like a sheep. He just was silent. And it says in verse 69, Peter was sitting outside in the courtyard and a certain servant girl came to him and said, you too were with Jesus the Galilean. He denied it before them all saying, I don't even know what you're talking about. Imagine saying that. We're all scared for our lives and Peter was scared for his and he completely forgot about, ignored the matter of being faithful to Christ and said, no, no, I don't know what you're talking about. Now don't judge him and compare yourself with him. Remember, we are living after the coming of the Holy Spirit and the Spirit of God has come into us. We have a certain strength there which Peter did not have. He was still under the old covenant and when you're under the old covenant, you don't have that strength and power that we can have when we have the Spirit of God dwelling in us. Every true believer, every true born again believer has got the Spirit of Christ within him and that gives us strength and if you are filled with the Holy Spirit, we're strong to stand true to the Lord in the time of temptation. Otherwise, we will deny him. Let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall. And when he had gone out to the gateway, where 71, another servant girl saw him and said to those who were there, this man was with Jesus of Nazareth. He says, I'm sure this man was Jesus of Nazareth. I've seen him with Jesus. And again, he denied it saying, I don't know who you're talking about. I don't know the man. And a little later, the bystanders came up and said to Peter, surely you also are one of them and Peter said, for the way you talk gives you away. And then he began to curse and swear and said, I don't know the man and immediately a cock crowed. And Peter remembered the word which Jesus had said, behold, a cock, before a cock crows, you will deny me three times and he went out and wept bitterly. So there we see that the self-confident Peter's strength in himself is shattered. His self-confidence is shattered. He was being circumcised inwardly, brought to the place where there's no self-confidence at all, the wonderful place of no self-confidence but total dependence upon God alone. We see here that a little expression, which it's good to think of. Before that, I want you to look at verse 74. Through the crowing of a cock, the Lord reminded Peter and he went out and wept bitterly. God can use simple things and make us remember promises we made that we have broken. Has he ever done some little thing in nature or somewhere, some little unexpected thing to remind you of a promise that you broke to the Lord or to somebody else? Yes, God does that and God speaks through animals, a cock crowing, a donkey speaking to Balaam. Yes, he can use animals too. But the other thing I wanna show you is in verse 73 where one of the bystanders came up, said to Peter, the way you talk gives you away. Apply that to yourself. I thought of it like this. Lord, I wanna be such a wholehearted Christian, the opposite of what is there. I wanna be such a wholehearted Christian that the way I talk gives me away. That means people say, hey, this is a Christian. The way he talks gives him away. This guy's a disciple of Jesus. The way he talks seems to give him away. He's obviously a believer. That's a wonderful thing to have that testimony that the way we live and the way we talk gives us away. People say, this person is different. I believe it should be like that. And I believe that can come only if we are, first of all, totally circumcised. All confidence in the self shattered and given up. Peter had three chances. If after the first denial, he said, hey, what happened to me? I denied the Lord. And the Lord warned me that I would deny him three times. He doesn't take it seriously. And a second time, he denies again. He says, hey, I've denied the Lord a second time. What's happening? And the Lord said, I would deny him three times. You know, the Lord gives us warnings along the way. And if we don't heed them, we'll finally fall over the cliff. That's exactly what happened to Peter. Every time we fall and slip, we should judge ourselves and go to God. I believe that judging ourselves should be a way of life for us. All the time, to go to God and say, Lord, what are you trying to tell me? I want to hear what you're trying to say to me. If I fail once, if I listen to God, I may not fall a second time. But I don't know, Peter was self-confident even after that. And then a second time, and he's still self-confident instead of recognizing, hey, I'm pretty close now to falling away. But we can say this to his credit, that when Peter denied the Lord three times, he remembered the word which Jesus had said. When we fall into sin, it's good to remember. What Jesus says, and he went out and wept bitterly. He was thoroughly broken there. That was the beginning of his turning around. And when we learn, my brothers and sisters, to weep bitterly over our failure and our sin, then we have begun the way back to rise up to the ministry that God has for us. We'll continue in our next episode.