Jeff Schreve - Disqualified?
Have you ever had an epic fail in life? You know, most of us have. Those epic failures make us think that we are despicable and disqualified and discarded. But those thoughts are fake news. Peter denied Christ three times and he thought God was done with him yet he found forgiveness and restoration in the Lord Jesus. Today, we’ll learn that what God did for Peter, He can do for you too.
Hey, I wanna talk to you in our series, «Fake News: Exposing the Lies of the Devil». We wanna talk today about an epic failure. I mean a failure that stands out from all the other failures. You know, you have failures in life. I have failures in life. But as we look at our lives, there are certain failures that rise above the other failures. There are certain failures, your life and my life, that we would say that’s an epic failure, epic failure. And what do we do when we have an epic failure? You know, the devil likes to move in when we have an epic failure and beat us to death with guilt and shame and condemnation, to get us to quit, to get us to throw in the towel.
See, the thief comes only to steal and to kill and to destroy. You know, the poster child for epic failures in the Christian life is the apostle Peter. The number one name in apostles, the leader of the apostles, Peter, and Peter had an epic failure. And we can learn so much from his story. On Thursday night, Jesus had met with the disciples, He had shared with them the last supper. And at the supper, He says this in Luke chapter 22 begin, I’ll begin reading in verse 31. He says to Peter: «'Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has demanded permission to sift you like wheat; but I have prayed for you, that your faith may not fail; and you, when once you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.' And he said to Him, 'Lord, with You I am ready to go both to prison and to death! ' And He said, 'I say to you, Peter, the cock will not crow today until you have denied three times that you know Me.'» Then we fast forward a few hours.
And the scripture says in verse 54 of Luke 22: «And having arrested Jesus, they led Him away, and brought Him to the house of the high priest; but Peter was following at a distance. And after they had kindled a fire in the middle of the courtyard and had sat down together, Peter was sitting among them. And a certain servant-girl, seeing him as he sat in the firelight, and looking intently at him, said, 'This man was with Him too.' But he denied it, saying, 'Woman, I do not know Him.' And a little later, another saw him and said, 'You are one of them too! ' But Peter said, 'Man, I am not! ' And after about an hour had passed, another man began to insist, saying, 'Certainly this man also was with Him, for he is a Galilean too.' But Peter said, 'Man, I do not know what you are talking about.' And immediately, while he was speaking, a cock crowed. And the Lord turned and looked at Peter. And Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how He had told him, 'Before a cock crows today, you will deny Me three times.' And he went out and wept bitterly».
Epic failure. What do we learn from the epic failure of Simon Peter? Four lessons. Four lessons that serve as a great encouragement to your heart, to my heart, to our hearts. Lesson number one: epic failures can easily sneak up on us. They can easily sneak up on us. Now, when Jesus told the disciples they were all, «Hey, you’re all gonna fall away because of Me». And they were all saying, «No, Lord, no». But Peter was the most vehement in his denial: «No, I will not fall away. All these others may fall away, Lord, but I will not fall away. I’m ready to go with You, Lord, to prison and to death». And he kept insisting. Jesus told him at the last supper and then on the way to the Garden of Gethsemane, the place where Jesus was gonna be arrested. They were still talking about that. And Peter kept saying, «No, You don’t understand. I’m not gonna fall away».
Peter thought there was no way no how that that could possibly happen to him, but it did happen just as the Lord said it was going to. Hey, those epic failures can sneak up on us. Peter didn’t think it was going to happen to him, but it did. So what do we learn about that? First of all, we need to be careful of our boasts. Peter was boasting, «Hey Lord, these other guys might fall away, but I will never fall away». And Peter had a problem as he always had a problem with a tendency to put too much confidence in the flesh because Peter was a take charge guy. Peter was a leader. Peter was a person who thought he could do it. And so he had confidence in the flesh. He had confidence in his commitment, he had confidence in his resolve, and his confidence melted like a snow cone in Phoenix when he was put to the test. Be careful of your boasts.
The scripture says in 1 Corinthians chapter 10, verse 12: «Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall». «Pride goes before destruction,» the Bible tells us in Proverbs, «and a haughty spirit before stumbling». When we think we have it, «I got this whipped, Lord,» that’s when we’re on thin ice. «If you think you stand, take heed lest you fall». Hey, we all have feet of clay and no one is immune to sin. No one is immune to temptation. Be careful of your boasts. There was a man in the Old Testament. Elisha the prophet was talking to this man and he stared intently at this man. He was an Arab man and he looked at this man and then Elisha the prophet began to weep and the man said to him, «Why are you weeping»? He said, «Because the Lord has shown me what you’re going to do to the people of Israel, how you’re going to bring such destruction and you’re gonna crush the heads of babies and you’re gonna rip up pregnant women».
And this man, Haziel, said to Elisha, «Am I a dog that I would do such terrible things»? And then he went out and did it. He went out and did it. Lord, no way would I ever deny you. Yeah, «Before,» as Mark’s Gospel says, «Jesus said before a cock crows twice, you will deny Me thrice». Be careful of your boast. Secondly, be careful of following from a distance. See, verse 54 is kind of a poetic verse. Says: «And having arrested Jesus, they led Him away, and brought Him to the house of the high priest; but Peter was following at a distance». Any time you and I start following the Lord at a distance, we’re in trouble. We need to be close to the Lord. The Bible says in Psalms, Asaph the psalmist said, «But as for me, the nearness of God is my good».
If we get to the place where we start following from a distance, we start getting further and further away from the Lord, and our daily quiet time turns into a weekly quiet time and there’s just more distance and prayer time gets more distant and shorter and more hurried. And we’re just kind of going through the motions. We’re in trouble, we’re in serious trouble. As one commentator said, If you follow from a distance, it won’t be long before you’re not following at all. But as for me, the nearness of God is my good. When Jesus went to the Garden of Gethsemane, do you remember what He told the disciples? «Remain here with Me, watch and pray. The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak».
And what was Peter doing? He was sleeping. Should have been praying, but he was sleeping. He had, even though the Lord told him that «you’re gonna deny Me three times before the cock crows twice». The cock crowed twice at 3 a.m. «Before 3 a.m. this is what’s going to happen». Peter didn’t believe it and he wasn’t praying against that temptation that was going to be coming his way. Be careful of following from a distance. Epic failures can sneak up on us. Second lesson: epic failures do not surprise the Lord, but they definitely hurt the Lord. They don’t surprise Him, but they do hurt Him.
Now, this wasn’t a surprise that Peter was gonna do this to Jesus. It was a surprise to Peter, but it wasn’t a surprise to Jesus. He told him he was gonna do it. He told him at the last supper, then He told him on the way to Gethsemane. There’s more than one opportunity for them to talk about this because Peter kept insisting, «I’m not gonna do this. Those other guys might do it, but I’m not gonna do it. I’m not gonna fall away».
Now, remember this about the Lord. «He knows the end from the beginning,» as it says in the book of Isaiah. He knows the end from the beginning. He declares the end from the beginning. God sees your whole life. God knows what you’re gonna do. Now, don’t get the idea because the Lord told him he was gonna do that, that the Lord made him do that. The Lord didn’t make him do that. The Lord didn’t want him to do that. He just knew he was gonna do it. You know, foreknowledge doesn’t mean that God makes you do things. Predestination doesn’t mean that, well, this is just the way it is and it’s not gonna change. It means that God knows.
Predestination is always linked together with God’s foreknowledge. God knows what you’re gonna do. Before God ever create you, He can predestine you for heaven and hell not because He chooses. It’s because He knows what you’re going to choose. He declares the end from the beginning and He knows what’s gonna happen. And He knew Peter was gonna do that. But listen, just because He knew he was gonna do that, that didn’t take the pain away. That didn’t take the tremendous sting away. Lesson number three: epic failures usher in the lies of the devil.
Now, this is all something that the devil orchestrated because Jesus told him at the last supper, «Simon, Simon, the devil, Satan, has demanded permission to sift you as wheat, to shake you up, to shake you at your core». Now, I like what John McCarthur says about this. When Jesus said to him, «Simon, Simon,» not good. It’s never good when they say your name twice. And so, Simon Simon, uh-oh, here it comes. «Simon Simon, Satan has demanded permission to sift you as wheat». And so the devil moved in and when Peter saw the Lord and remembered what He said and went out and wept bitterly. The devil always moves in. And the devil moves in with his lies and the devil is trying to cut Peter’s legs out from under him. He’s trying to take out the number one disciple.
«Simon Simon, Satan has demanded permission to sift you as wheat,» not just to deny the Lord, but to get Peter to follow in the footsteps of Judas, who betrayed the Lord and then went out and hanged himself. And so here’s what the devil will say to you and me when we have an epic failure in the Christian life. He’ll say, first of all, you can never truly be forgiven. «Look at what you did. Do you think you could ever be forgiven for this? Look how huge that is. Denying Christ in His time of need, that’s gigantic». That’s probably the worst sin that a Christian has ever committed right there, denying Christ in His time of need, three times.
«You can never be forgiven,» the devil will say, but he is a liar and the father of lies. The blood of Jesus, God’s Son, can cleanse from all sin. I don’t care what the sin is, even the sin of denying Christ in His hour of need. That can be forgiven. The Lord says in Isaiah 118, «Come now and let us reason together,» says the Lord, «though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow, though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool». And He can wash the vilest offender who truly believes, that moment from Jesus, a pardon receives, and even in the Christian life, you can be cleansed and set free.
Now, see, the devil says you can’t be truly forgiven. You’re just gonna be partially forgiven because it’s never gonna be the same between you and the Lord now, after you did what you did. When I had a friend of mine and he had a failed marriage. This was some years ago and we were spending time together and playing sports together. And I could tell that the Lord was working on his heart and he told me, he said, «Jeff, I get up every morning and I ask God to forgive me for how terrible I was to my first wife». He said, «I was just terrible to her. And so every day, I just say, 'Oh God, would You forgive me for being so terrible to my first wife? '»
And he would name the things that he did. And I said, «You do that every morning»? He said, «Yeah». I said, «Why don’t you do this»? I said to him, I said, «Well, I guess God doesn’t answer that prayer because you have to pray it every single morning». I said, «How about you do this? Why don’t you ask the Lord one time to cleanse you and forgive you for that sin? And thank Him 1000 times for doing it. Wouldn’t that be a lot better»? «Oh,» the devil says, «you can never be truly forgiven».
And then the devil says, «You can never be used again. I mean, it’s not gonna be the same. You’re done. You need to follow in the footsteps of Judas and go hang yourself, because God’s never gonna use you again. I mean, you were the top dog disciple and you lied like a dog, swore to God, and lied like a dog. You asked God to curse you if you were lying and so the curses should come on your head, Peter. But you can rest assured of this. You’re never gonna be truly forgiven and you’re never gonna be used again». But that’s a lie. That’s a lie.
You know, the Bible says in Proverbs 16, verse 24, that «a righteous man falls seven times and he rises again». He falls seven times and he rises again. A righteous man. Not a bum, not a scum, not a loser, not a lost guy, a righteous man. He falls seven times, but he doesn’t stay down; he rises again. Jerry Falwell’s famous statement: It’s always too early to quit. It’s always too early to quit. Say it with me. It’s always too early to quit. Say it now like you mean it. It’s always too early to quit. Oh, that’s what the devil wants you to do, to get you to quit so that your faith would fail so that you would say, «I can’t do it. I’m just gonna go kill myself or I’m never going to church again. Or I just fail, fail, fail, fail. I have epic failure. And there’s nothing that can be done».
That’s a lie. Peter, the Lord will never use you again. But in 50 days, Peter stood on the day of Pentecost and preached a sermon and 3000 people were saved. The Lord used him again. Jonah, the Word of the Lord comes to Jonah the prophet: «Arise and go to Nineveh, that great city, and preach against it». And Jonah said, «No, I’m gonna go the other way. I’m not gonna go east, I’m gonna go west. I’m gonna get out of here». And the big storm came on the ship as Jonah had gone down to Joppa to get on a ship and the storm came and they threw Jonah overboard and the great fish, the Lord appointed a great fish to swallow Jonah and in the belly of the fish, Jonah got right with God, and God commanded that fish and it vomited Jonah up on dry land.
And Jonah chapter 3, verse 1, one of the greatest verses in all of the Bible. And it says, «And then the Word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time». He wasn’t done with Jonah and He’s not done with you. Epic failures usher in the lies of the devil. And fourthly, epic failures require genuine repentance and true faith. Genuine repentance and true faith. The scripture says that «Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how He had told him before a cock crows today, you will deny Me three times, and he went out and he wept bitterly».
There was tremendous pain in his heart for what he did. And he got right with God. How did he get right with God? Through repentance and faith. Listen, if you have had an epic failure in your life, you can get right with God. A lost person can come to Jesus, get right with Him. A saved person can get right with Him. How does that happen? Well, you must have godly sorrow, not just worldly regret. Big difference between godly sorrow and worldly regret. 2 Corinthians chapter 7, verse 10: «For the sorrow that is according to the will of God produces a repentance without regret, leading to salvation; but the sorrow of the world produces death». You might want to make a note of that verse, 2 Corinthians 7:10, and write down, «Peter versus Judas: Peter had godly sorrow that produced repentance. Judas had worldly regret that produced death».
Judas was sorry for what he did. He regretted what he did, but he didn’t repent. He didn’t have true faith. Jesus said, «Did I not choose you, the 12, yet one of you is the devil». That was Judas. And so Judas in his overwhelmed with remorse, as Adrian Rogers says, wanting to escape the hell within him, he hung himself and stepped into the hell before him. Peter didn’t do that. Peter had godly sorrow. Man, it hurt Peter’s heart that he hurt the heart of God. And he was crying out for God’s mercy and he was turning from that sin and turning to the Savior and turning to the Lord for forgiveness, and the Lord forgave him. But then not only did he have godly sorrow and repentance, he had true faith, and you must cling to the word of hope.
There’s a word of hope. «Simon, Simon, Satan has demanded permission to sift you like wheat; but I have prayed for you, that your faith does not fail; and after you have turned again, you strengthen the brothers». That was a word from the Lord before he ever did it. This is what’s gonna happen, but the Lord prayed for you that your faith wouldn’t fail. His faith couldn’t fail. You know why? Because his faith was founded on the rock. It was founded on the Lord Jesus. You’re not saved by your good works. You’re saved by faith in Christ, and faith in Christ is solid. And the Bible says we’re kept by the power of God. And why did the Lord let the devil come in to try and destroy Simon Peter? Is to show him that true faith never fails. He’s not done with you. You cling to His word of hope.
I have a friend of mine, Dennis Rainey who is president of Family Life Ministries. And he just wrote a really cool little book called «Choosing a Life That Matters». And in the last chapter, he talks about serve God; don’t serve self. And he says this: «So what have you done that disqualifies you from being used by God? Answer: If you have repented, nothing».
Nothing. God can still use you. And you’re not a second class citizen, you’re not a hired hand in, like the prodigal said, «Make me as one of your hired men». No, you are a beloved son, a beloved daughter. And the Father is thrilled with you coming to Him, repenting, turning from your sin and He’ll cleanse you and He’ll wash you and the Word of the Lord can come to you the second time just like He came to Jonah and God can use you like He used Peter. It’s time for us to stand up in the truth, to believe the truth.
Listen, we all struggle with stuff. Everyone in this room struggles with stuff. I struggle with stuff. There are certain sins that are just, they’re difficult sins, they’re Goliath sins in our lives. Other things we don’t have trouble with, but certain things are Goliath things and when you lose the battle, you can feel like you’ve lost the war, but that’s not true. A righteous man falls seven times and rises again. And so God is looking today to see who’s gonna rise up, who’s gonna come to Me. «Come to Me,» Jesus said, «all who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me for I am gentle and humble in heart and you shall find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My load is light. My burden is light».
Who will come to the Lord? Listen, the altar is open to come and to just weep before the Lord. Perhaps you need to do that. Peter wept, the prostitute in Luke 7, she wept at Jesus’s feet. And Martin Luther called those tears heart water. It’s just the water of her heart because she wanted to be right with God. Do you wanna be right with God? You can be, no matter what you’ve done, you’re not disqualified. God still has a plan for you.