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Good evening. We're in Matthew chapter 26, and we're going to begin at verse number 47. And the Bible reads, And while he had spake, lo Judas, one of the twelve, came, and with him a great multitude with swords and staves, from the chief priests and the elders of the people. Now he that betrayed him gave them a sign, saying, Whomsoever I shall kiss, that same as he, hold him fast. And forthwith he came to Jesus, and said, Hail, Master, and kissed him. And Jesus said unto him, Friend, wherefore art thou come? Then came they, and laid hands on Jesus, and took him. And behold, one of them which were with Jesus stretched out his hand, and drew his sword, and struck a servant of the high priest, and smote off his ear. Then said Jesus unto him, Put up again thy sword into his place. For all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword. Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father, and he shall presently give me more than twelve legions of angels? But how then shall the scriptures be fulfilled, that thus it must be? In that same hour said Jesus to the multitudes, Are ye come out as against a thief with swords and staves, for to take me? I said daily, With you teaching in the temple, and ye laid no hold on me. But all this was done, that the scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled. Then all the disciples first suck him and fled. And they that had laid hold on Jesus led him away to Caiaphas the high priest, where the scribes and the elders were assembled. But Peter followed them afar off unto the high priest's palace, and went in, and sat with the servants to see the end. Now the chief priests and elders and all the councils sought false witness against Jesus to put him to death, but found none, yea, though many false witnesses came, yet found they none. At the last came two false witnesses, and said, This fellow said, I am able to destroy the temple of God, and to build it in three days. And the high priest arose, and said unto him, Answerest thou nothing? What is it which thieves witness against thee? But Jesus held his peace. And the high priest answered and said unto him, I adjure thee by the living God, that thou tellest whether thou be the Christ, the Son of God. Jesus saith unto him, Thou hast said, Nevertheless I say unto you, hereafter shall ye see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven. Then the high priest rent his clothes, saying, He hath spoken blasphemy, what further need have we of witness? Behold now ye have heard his blasphemy. What think ye? They answered and said, He is guilty of death. Then they did spit in his face, and buffeted him. And others smote him with the palms of their hands, saying, Prophesy unto us thou Christ, who is ye that smote thee? Now Peter sat without him in the palace, and a damsel came unto him, saying, Thou also wast with Jesus of Galilee. But he denied before them all, saying, I know not what thou sayest, when he was gone out into the portion of their mate's psalm, and said unto them that were there, This fellow was also with Jesus of Nazareth. And again he denied with an oath, I do not know the man. And after a while came unto him, they that stood by, and said to Peter, Surely thou art also one of them, for thy speech berate thee. They began to curse and to swear, saying, I know not the man. And immediately the cock crew. And Peter remembered the words of Jesus, which said unto him before the cock crew, Thou shalt deny me thrice. And he went out, and wept bitterly. Let's pray. We thank you, Heavenly Father, for this wonderful church you have given us here, God. We thank you for all our brothers and sisters here, and we thank you for the Bible. We thank you for our pastor. Dear God, please bless him as he preaches your word unto us this evening. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Amen. Okay, we're continuing this evening with the book of Matthew here in chapter 26, and we covered the first half a couple weeks ago, and so I'm going to cover the second half tonight starting in verse number 47, and we're actually going to look at two particular people that this chapter is talking about. Of course, Judas Iscariot as well as Peter. And the reason I'm going to cover these two specifically is because we're going to talk about the betrayal of Judas Iscariot and the denial of the Apostle Peter. And the reason that's important is because of the fact that when you look at both of these guys, to a certain extent, both of them, to a certain extent, betrayed Jesus Christ, and both of them denied the Lord. But here's the difference is that the denial of Judas Iscariot was a denial of him being Christ, whereas the denial of Peter is essentially that he knows Jesus Christ personally. And the reason why Judas Iscariot essentially denied him as Christ is because of the fact that he was greedy, he wanted the money, which is why he turned him in for 30 pieces of silver, whereas the Apostle Peter is denying him for fear of persecution. And so we'll look at that more in depth in just a bit, but let's look at verse 47. It says, while he had spake low, Judas, one of the twelve, came and with him a great multitude with swords and staves from the chief priests and elders of the people. Now keep in mind that at this point, Satan has already entered into Judas Iscariot. And that essentially took place at the Lord's Supper, the Last Supper that he had with Jesus Christ, where Jesus gives him the sop and the Bible tells us in the book of John that Satan enters into him. It's at that point that he essentially agrees and wants to betray the Lord Jesus Christ. So he comes here to the garden with a multitude with swords, weapons, and such, and it says in verse 48, Now he that betrayed him gave them a sign, saying, Whomsoever I shall kiss, the same as he, hold him fast. Now let me make two specific comments regarding this verse here in verse 48. The fact that he's telling them, the man whom I kissed, this is basically him. There's two reasons for that. Number one is because of the fact that Jesus Christ essentially looked like every other Jew during that time. Because if you think about it, if Jesus Christ had distinctive features, and he was different from everyone else, as the portrayal of the Catholic Church would lead you to believe, then it would be no problem to just point him out in a crowd and say, you know, oh, this is the guy. Here's the thing is that obviously the chief priests, the soldiers, that great multitude that came to arrest him, couldn't just pick him out of a crowd, because of the fact that he probably looked like everyone else in that crowd. Now that's important because of the fact that today in 2023, thanks to the Catholic Church, you have this depiction of Jesus Christ as being some, you know, a six foot European with long hair, blue eyes, light skin wearing the dress. And pretty much any time you ask someone, you know, about what does Jesus look like, they will probably give you that description right there to a certain extent. But the funny thing is, is that that description or that depiction of Jesus, everything about that depiction of Jesus is just contrary to the Bible. You say, why is that? Well, let's talk about the hair. Let me just say this before I get into that, is that there is no description of Jesus in the Bible other than post resurrection in the book of Revelation. And even then, the details that are given to us regarding his appearance, a lot of it is just figurative. You know, the hair of wool, he has the eyes, the flame of fire, his feet burn as though they burn in a furnace. And obviously there's a lot of underlying principles that we can learn from that. But that's obviously in his glorified state. Whereas when he was here on this earth, there wasn't any details given about what he looked like in his appearance. And he for sure wasn't this six foot European long haired dude. You know, the Bible tells us in Isaiah that he had no comeliness, okay, he had no beauty about him. And the Bible says that when they were to look upon him, they wouldn't desire him. You know, he didn't have any comeliness, he wasn't a good looking person. He looked like every average Jew of the time because of the fact that, you know, he came in a humble manner. And that's exactly what the Bible tells us there. But even then, it doesn't give us a description of exactly what he looks like. And you know, you have these people today, these archaeologists, and AI, and it's just like, I think we can put a face together of what Jesus Christ might have looked like based upon how the Jews look like, you know, in the first century AD, wrong, you don't know. And they create this image. And the reality is, this is that God is completely against that, right? Because he doesn't want us to worship some image. He wants us to worship the Bible. And if you want to worship an image of Jesus Christ, just go to your Bible. Okay, that's the only image you're going to get. But this depiction of Jesus Christ is put forth by the Catholic Church is unscriptural, because virtually everything that he is depicted as is an abomination. You know, depicts him having long hair, even though the Bible clearly says, doth not nature teach you that if a man have long hair, it is a shame unto him. But you're trying to get me to believe that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Creator is just going to go completely against that and create nature, but yet he's the exception to the rule, that he can have long hair. And people will argue this, Catholics will argue, well, he was a Nazarite, you know, he took the Nazarite vow. There's no depiction of that, nowhere in the Bible does it say that. But let's just say, for example, that this were true regarding the Nazarite vow, because they'll point to that. And they will point to Samson having long hair as a justification why men can have long hair. How many have ever heard that before? Men can have long hair because in the Nazarite vow, you know, for example, Samson, he had long hair because he took that Nazarite vow, therefore, it's permissible in the Bible. So folks, the fact that the Nazarites, people who took a Nazarite vow, had long hair was still considered shameful. You say why? Well, because of the fact that once the vow was completed by that person, they're supposed to take it off. So if you saw someone walking around with long hair, what does that tell you about that person? They have not yet fulfilled their vow, which means that it would be a shame unto them because they have not completed their oath to God, their vow unto God. But even then, Jesus Christ, he did not have long hair. And when you read 1 Corinthians chapter 11, for example, it's important to understand the fact that the Bible says that the head of every man is Christ. The head of every woman is the man, the head of the woman is the man. And it says that the head of Christ is God. And the Bible tells us that every man praying or prophesying having his head covered dishonoreth his head. And the head covering is not referring to the doily that the apostolics wear, the little cloth that they put over their heads. The covering is referring to hair. Because later on in the chapter, it describes women as having that covering, which is the long hair, the fact that it's a glory unto her, and it says that it calls her covering. So when the Bible refers to 1 Corinthians 11 to a covering, it's referring to the actual length of hair. So if a woman cuts her hair short, the Bible says that that's a shame unto her because essentially she is ashamed of her head, she's dishonoring her authority. Well in like manner, if a man has long hair, he's dishonoring his head because God did not intend for men to have long hair. Obviously there's a gender distinction there, but there's also the principle of being under authority. So if you're trying to tell me that Jesus Christ had long hair, then essentially you're saying that he dishonored God, the Father. But we know that the Bible tells us that Jesus Christ did always those things which pleased God, his Father, and God the Father specifically said, you know, my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. Jesus Christ constantly pleased the Father because he's God himself. He kept all of God's commandments, and so therefore by process of scriptural elimination, we know that Jesus Christ did not have long hair because if he did, he would be contradicting the Word of God itself. So Jesus did not have long hair no matter what the Catholics say. You say, well why did they depict him with long hair? Well because of the fact that during that time when that depiction was created by the Catholic Church, a lot of Europe just despised Jews. And so they didn't want to depict Jesus Christ as being ethnically a Jew because of the fact that that left a bad taste in the mouth of the Europeans, so they wanted to make him more palatable to the Europeans, and that's why they made him with white skin and long hair and a dress, which by the way also violates Deuteronomy that tells us that if a man wears that which pertains unto a woman, they're an abomination. So the point that I'm trying to make here is that when Judas comes with the men, the multitude to arrest Jesus, he had to specifically do something to point him out, which is why he said, whomsoever I shall kiss, the same as he. It's not like the soldiers came and they knew exactly who Jesus Christ was, even though he was teaching in the temple, even though he had a very public ministry, they saw him various times throughout that three and a half year ministry, yet during this time when they're going to arrest him and apprehend him, they still needed someone to point him out because he looked like every other Jew during that time. Now what's the other significance of verse 48, the fact that Judas kissed Jesus in order to point him out? Well, you know, the Bible tells us in the book of Proverbs, faithful are the wounds of a friend, but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful. And really, there's two principles in that regard regarding that verse. The first one being the fact that, you know, someone who's your friend is willing to wound you to help you. Right? What does that mean? You know, a true friend will tell you the truth, even if it hurts you, right? They're willing to correct you, they're willing to even rebuke you if it's for your benefit. That is a good friend. And the Bible says that faithful are the wounds of a friend, meaning that when your friend wounds you with his words, with his criticisms, with his rebuke or with his correction, just know this, it stems from a heart of love. They're faithful. He's doing it because they love you and they care for you and they don't want you to make bad decisions. And so those of you with thin skin out there, don't get offended when your friend corrects you. Don't get offended when I correct you. Don't shrivel and get offended and you get mad and you become bitter. Faithful are the wounds of your pastor, faithful are the wounds of a friend. And I'm not saying that the wounds feel good. Nowhere in this sermon am I saying it's going to feel good when you're wounded by your friend because no wound feels good. It's described as a wound. But the Bible tells us that the blueness of a wound cleanses it the way evil, so do stripes of the inward parts of the belly. So it's referring to the fact that wounds are necessary in order to correct behavior, character flaws. Let me say this, in the 16 years that I have served the Lord and been in ministry, I've noticed that Christians just are not very good at receiving correction. They're just not. Now they'll take correction sometimes from the pulpit, but one on one, they just can't. They just get easily offended, they don't see the value in rebuke, they don't see the value in correction and they often think that it's just a personal attack on them or something. And so, you know, let's be Christians who welcome the wounds. Let's be Christians who welcome the correction. Let's be Christians who don't shrivel and get offended and leave church just because someone corrected them on their character or lack thereof. But it goes on to say, faithful are the wounds of a friend, but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful. You would think it's the other way around, but the reason it says that is because of the fact that a person who doesn't correct you, a person who doesn't rebuke you, a person who is kissing your behind, is someone who has ill intentions toward you. They have some sort of underlying motive, underlying intention, they're spreading a net before your feet, and they don't have your best interest in mind. And when it says the kisses of an enemy are deceitful, it's referring to flattery. It's over-excessive, over-the-top flattery where people essentially, they do that in order to deter attention from their actual intention. And so beware of the flatterer, beware of the person who's always kissing butt, who's a brown-noser, right? That's what we would call them. Someone who has dissimulated love. And I'm not saying that you should just be a jerk 100% of the time either, like, cool, I'm just going to wound everyone I see. You're wrong, you're wrong, you're wrong, you're right sometimes, you're wrong. Just be a balanced Christian. And obviously, this is not a free-for-all where you can just go wound anybody you want just because it's right to do. Obviously even then, principles that are attached to that, that if you want to correct someone, first of all, they should have your respect, you should respect them, they should know that, you should have discretion, because at the end of the day, although people should not be offended, sometimes they do get offended, and the Bible says that a brother offended is harder to be won than a strong city, and his contentions are like the bars of a castle. So it's important that when we correct people, we're correcting the people that we know we have influence over. People who are reasonable, people who, you know, are not just going to fall apart just because we correct them. You say, well yeah, but it's true though, what I'm going to tell this person. It's true. Yeah, but we want them to know that it's true, and we want them to change based upon that truth, right? But you know, I digress. The kisses of an enemy are deceitful because of the fact that they obviously have some sort of underlying motive behind it. Now, how can we apply this to the story that we're reading in Matthew 26? Well think about this, faithful are the wounds of Jesus Christ. The crucifixion of Jesus Christ, his death pays for all of our sins. He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And the kisses of Judas Iscariot are deceitful. Because even though he's going there, kissing him on the cheek, saying hail master, he just turned him over for 30 pieces of silver. He does not love the Lord Jesus Christ. He is anathema. He is the son of perdition, and in fact he's possessed by Satan at this time. And so two things that we needed to point out there is the fact that what Jesus Christ looked like, like every other Israelite during that time, and two, what's the purpose of that kiss? The purpose of it is to essentially deceive and to deter attention from his true intention. Because obviously it looks really bad when he's rolling up with a bunch of people who are about to arrest Jesus. But obviously Jesus Christ already knew of these things. Now hold your place there and go to the book of Psalms if you would. Go to Psalm 55, Psalm 55 if you would. Because a lot of the Psalms if you think about it obviously are depicting or symbolizing Jesus Christ. And many of them are written by David who is a picture of Jesus Christ. And so reason would have it that if David is representing Jesus Christ in these Psalms, then a lot of the prophetic statements that are made about Jesus could also have depictions of Judas Iscariot as well. Because David also suffered at the hands of enemies who essentially gave him deceitful kisses and did not have his best interest in mind. Look at verse number 12 of Psalm 55. This is David speaking here. For it was not an enemy that reproached me, then I could have borne it, neither was it he that hated me that did magnify himself against me, then would I have hid myself from him. But it was thou, a man mine equal, my guide and my acquaintance. We took sweet counsel together and walked unto the house of God and company. So who's David talking about? He's talking about Ahithophel. And Ahithophel was David's chief counselor. He was his friend. He went to the house of God with David, but Ahithophel ended up backstabbing David, siding with David's son Absalom against David. And so to a certain extent, as we read this, we know that it's referring to Ahithophel, but it also pictures Judas Iscariot. Because when you look at the story of Ahithophel, what happens to him? He ends up hanging himself, which by the way, Judas Iscariot also hung himself. And obviously, Judas Iscariot was not an equal to Jesus Christ, but he was one of his apostles. He was a man who he went with into the house of God. So you see a lot of those parallels there. And he says in verse 15, let death seize upon them and let them go down quick into hell, for wickedness is in their dwelling and among them. Now go to Psalm 109, if you would, Psalm 109, we're going to look at another prophetic statement about Judas Iscariot and his betrayal of Jesus Christ. Keep in mind that Jesus said of Judas, it were better that that man had not been born. That's a very strong statement, right? It would have been better for that guy if he just never existed, considering what's going to happen to him. Look at Psalm 109, and look at verse number four, it says, For my love, they are my adversaries, but I give myself unto prayer. And they have rewarded me evil for good and hatred for my love. Set thou a wicked man over him and let Satan stand at his right hand. Now that can definitely be said of Judas Iscariot, because Satan did stand at his right hand and ended up possessing him. He says, When he shall be judged, let him be condemned, let his prayer become sin. And verse number eight is how we know this Psalm is prophetic about Judas Iscariot. It says in verse number eight, Let his days be few, and let another take his office. You say, how is that proof that it's referring to Judas Iscariot? Well when you read the book of Acts chapter one, when they're selecting a new apostle to replace Judas Iscariot, because he hung himself, the Apostle Peter quotes this Psalm, and he says, as David said in the Psalms, and he said, his bishopric, let another man take. Bishopric is just another way of saying office. So Peter understood that Psalm 109 was talking about Judas Iscariot, Judas Iscariot fulfilled that prophecy by his betrayal of Jesus Christ. Verse nine says, Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow. Let his children be continually vagabonds and beg. Let them seek their bread also out of their desolate places. Let the extortioner catch all that he hath, and let the stranger spoil his labor. You're like, man, this sounds kind of harsh. Yeah, because you're Judas. You deserve this and worse. Let there, verse 12, let there be none to extend mercy unto him, neither let there be any to favor his fatherless children. Let his posterity be cut off, and in the generation following, let their name be blotted out. Let the iniquity of his fathers be remembered with the Lord, and let not the sin of his mother be blotted out. Let them be before the Lord continually, that he may cut off the memory of them from the earth. Now you say, why is he saying about his parents? Why is he saying that? Well, they raised Judas. Talk about a failure of a parent to raise Judas Iscariot. One of the worst human beings the world has ever known. So this is very justifiable here. Verse 16, because that he remembered not to show mercy, but persecuted the poor and needy man, that he might even slay the broken in heart. How did he do that? By stealing from some of the women, some of the widows. He was greedy of gain. Verse 17, as he loved cursing. So it doesn't sound like Judas Iscariot started off good. Bible says he loved cursing. And it says, so let it come unto him, as he delighted not in blessing, so let it be far from him. What does that mean? It means that he didn't delight in the fact that he gets to be an apostle and that he has God in the flesh right before him for three and a half years and he still didn't get saved. And God says, okay, then let it be far from you. As he clothed himself with cursing, like as with his garment, so let it come into his bowels like water and like oil into his bones. Let it be unto him as a garment which covereth him and for a girdle wherewith he is girded continually. Let this be the reward of mine adversaries from the Lord and of them that speak evil against my soul. Now I'm sure when David is writing this, he did not know that it was going to be prophetic about the person who would betray Jesus Christ. But obviously the Holy Ghost knew and it was very much similar to what Judas Iscariot did and this is why Jesus said it would be better if that man had never been born because of all these cursings that were going to come upon him for betraying the Son of God. Now go back to Matthew 26, Matthew 26, and he betrayed him for 30 pieces of silver. This is how greedy Judas Iscariot was. You think of people who will murder someone for like a hundred bucks or something, willing to take a life for $50, for a hundred dollars, like how wicked do you have to be to take someone's life for that amount of money? You really need that bad? You're willing to take someone's life? Well Judas Iscariot did worse. He betrayed God in the flesh for 30 pieces of silver. Look at verse 49, it says, Forwith he came to Jesus and said, Hail, master, and kissed him. And Jesus said unto him, Friend, wherefore art thou come? Then came they and laid hands on Jesus and took him. And behold, one of them which were with Jesus stretched out his hand and drew his sword and struck a servant of the high priests and smote off his ear. Then said Jesus unto him, Put up again thy sword into his place, for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword. Let me make a couple comments about this particular passage right here. First and foremost, the person who is pulling out the sword is Peter, based upon the other accounts in the Gospels. The ear that he cut off belonged to a man by the name of Malchus. And another thing that we see here is that Jesus Christ is telling Peter to put up his sword into his sheath. He's not saying get rid of your sword, period. This is important to note because people, a lot of these passive Christians out there, these no weapon type Christians, always want to point to this verse as a justification why Christians should not have weapons, but they want to completely ignore the fact that Jesus Christ literally told his disciples, you know, if you have a sword, sell your garment and get, or if you don't have a sword, sell your garment and get one. And one of the disciples was like, here's two, and he's like, alright, it's enough. Why is it enough to have two swords? Because you only have two hands. Okay, so pretty understandable there, right? He says, so is the Bible teaching Christians to be aggressive? No, obviously the reason he's telling his disciples to have a sword or have a weapon is for the defense of the innocent. Because the Bible actually condemns people who do not deliver the innocent when they are in danger, you understand? Now I have a gun. I don't have a sword. I mean, I got something like a sword that Israel gave me a while back and that's basically like a sword, but I also have a gun at home and, you know, I pray to God that I never have to use it. And in fact, I'm just going to go out on a limb and say I probably will never have to use it. Because of the fact that, you know, I know God's protecting me, he's protecting my family and I'm not a violent person, therefore I'll never put myself in a situation where a gun needs to be used, okay? So there needs to be a balanced view of owning weapons. Don't become so obsessed with weapons that your dependency comes upon, you're dependent upon weapons for your safety. Nothing wrong with having guns, nothing wrong with having weapons, but you better depend on the Lord, right? Not trusting your chariots, not trusting your horses, and in fact if you think, you know, well I'm not trusting in those things, it's just a hobby, then great. I think that's a great hobby to have. It's an expensive hobby to have, but it's a great hobby to have. You know, if you like making bullets, which we have some people in our church who do, I think that's a great thing, but don't be the type of person that your dependence is only on the weapons for your safety and your deliverance, okay? You know, the Bible says that the man who is dependent upon the arm of the flesh is actually cursed because your dependency is not upon God and we derive our safety and deliverance from God himself. And don't, yeah, but he delivers me through this, you know, through my 45 or whatever. Well obviously, you know, there's a lot of principles in the Bible that teaches us not to be an angry person, not to be a violent individual, and the Bible also teaches us to diffuse some sort of conflict that may escalate into violence. The Bible says that to agree with thine adversary quickly, you know, and if someone smites you on the cheek, then give them the other one, okay? And someone who's smiting you on the cheek is obviously someone who's trying to provoke you, right? And when he says give them the other cheek, it's not permission to do a spinning back fist or a spinning back elbow. It's just saying don't be a person who's slow to anger, right? But I'll be honest with you, and this could change tomorrow obviously, and so I've got to be careful here, you know, I have not been provoked into a fight in a very long time, okay? And you know, I'm not in situations where I'm being provoked into a fight, and again, that might change tomorrow, someone might really make me angry or something and push my buttons, and I don't know what will happen, you know, I would hope that I would be slow to anger at that point, but I'm a sinner, you know, and let me just make a public service announcement. If you ever hear that I knock someone out or get into a fight, it does not disqualify me as a pastor. Let me explain to you why, because this is important to know. Because the Bible says that a pastor should not be a brawler, meaning they should not be characterized by that, okay? Now this is not permission for all pastors to just go get in fights, right? And I don't think it's going to happen to me, but I will say this, there's been situations in the past as when I was a pastor that my family was in danger, and I had to threaten the person who was threatening my family that I was going to do something very bad to them, okay, because I have to defend my family. And luckily it didn't escalate more than that, and I didn't say I'm going to do something very bad to you, I said something else, okay, because saying I'm going to do something very bad to you doesn't scare anyone away. That's for you parents who say that to your kids, amen? Something bad is going to happen to you if you don't stop, okay? My words were a lot more aggressive, and just put it this way, the statement that I made was enough for that person to just kind of click out of it and say, you know what, I'm not going to pursue this fight anymore. And so, you know, but that doesn't happen very often. And one of the reasons that I did that is because I was defending my family, I was defending my kids, okay? And so I do believe, because the reason I think it's important to make this point here regarding weapons is because, you know, there's Christians out there, part of fundamental Baptist churches, they feel like they just have to take this passive stance that all guns are bad and Christians shouldn't own guns and shouldn't own weapons, but, you know, you can't ignore what Jesus said about the swords, though. And I've heard a lot of people try to explain away the passage regarding swords to no avail. They always tell me what it doesn't mean. Okay, then what does it mean, then? You've gone through the five things of what it doesn't mean, now go ahead and explain to me what it does mean. Is it a back scratcher? Are they for, you know, coyotes or wolves? What is it for? Well, in context, he's talking about persecution. Now I think it's up to the individual to be fully persuaded in their own mind as to whether they're going to defend themselves in a time of persecution. In my personal opinion, if I was personally attacked, I would hope that I would not defend myself because I want to suffer for Christ's sake. But if they attack my family, then I have the responsibility from God to defend my family. Okay, well that's why we got to go and, you know, go get a bazooka and, you know, get all these weapons. Hey, if that's your thing, then if that's what you feel you need to do, I don't think bazookas are legal, but, you know, if you feel like you need to have an entire arsenal of weapons, then have at it, okay, if that's your forte. I'm not against you, I think it's great to, I think weapons are awesome, okay. But I do think that Christians have a tendency, and I know Christians in our church don't like to hear me say this, and I always get mad when I do, but too bad, okay. I'm not going to just side with people just because they go to our church, okay. The reality is this, you need to put your faith in God and don't put yourself in a situation where violence may arise, but that's not to say you can't have weapons because obviously the disciples had weapons, and in fact, in this particular passage, the parallel passage in the gospels, they asked Jesus, like, shall we strike, and he didn't say anything, which they took as, all right, and then they cut off Malchus' ear, and then Jesus said, okay, suffer ye thus far. So it was like, all right, that's enough. So he could have easily said don't strike or whatever, we don't know why he did that, but it could have been because he wanted him to cut off the ear of Malchus so that he can heal Malchus because he ended up healing him and putting his ear back, right. We don't know, but what verse 52 is referring to is violence. So number one, we have to recognize that verse 52, he's telling Peter to not, don't live by the sword, okay. Don't always resort to violence to resolve a situation, you understand? Just because you have a gun doesn't mean you have to use it, right. And secondly, he's interfering with scripture because Jesus Christ is supposed to be arrested, he's supposed to be crucified to die for the sins of the whole world, and this is something that Peter's just always doing, right. Far be it from thee, and he's just like, get thee back from me, get away from me, Satan. He's like rebuking him for trying to stop him from dying, and it's just like, this is what the Bible says he's supposed to do. And so we need to compare scripture with scripture, don't be the Christian who, well we'll just go with this passage and be passive Christians and just ignore everything else that Jesus said. We've got to reconcile both, okay. Obviously when he tells the disciples that they can have a sword, it's permission for us to have weapons, okay. And when he's telling them here that he's going to perish by the sword, if he takes up the sword, he's obviously telling them, don't resort to violence to resolve a situation. You should want to talk things out. A soft answer turneth away wrath, and I think it's always a good idea that if someone gets aggressive with you, you try to talk it out. And if they start trying to attack you, then just run away. I know that bruises your ego a little bit, but that's better than taking your life or you having to take theirs, okay. Now obviously that does go out the window if your children or your wife are in danger. You have the responsibility to protect your family, no matter the consequence, in my opinion. So he says there, and then he kind of knocks some sense into him in verse 53. He says, Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my father, and he shall presently give me more than twelve legions of angels? He's like, you really think like I need your sword? He's God. He can just literally pray at that moment and just strike everyone dead if you wanted to. He's not helpless, okay. He says verse 54, But how then shall the scriptures be fulfilled, that thus it must be. In the same hour said Jesus to the multitudes, Are you come out as against a thief with swords and staves for to take me? I sat daily with you, teaching in the temple, and you laid no hold on me. But all this was done, that the scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled, then all the disciples forsook him and fled. Now in the parallel accounts in the other gospels, there's other things that are taking place here. For example, when they come to Jesus and they're looking for him, they're looking for Jesus, he says, I am. I am him, okay. I am he. And what happens is they fall backward, okay, because obviously he is the I am that I am. He has power in his words, and he causes them to fall backwards because, you know, his statement of who he is, is very much powerful. But obviously that's not recorded in this particular account, but it is in the book of John. And so they arrest him, and the result of this is that the disciples forsake him. All of them forsake him. They all book it, okay. Why? Because they're afraid of persecution. They don't really know what to do. And it's of my personal opinion that the Apostle Peter was willing to die for Jesus Christ, but because he went about it through carnal means, he didn't really know what else to do, and that's why he ran. Because he didn't want to be persecuted, okay. I look at verse 57. And they that had laid hold on Jesus led him away to Caiaphas the high priest, where the scribes and the elders were assembled. But Peter followed him afar off into the high priest's place, palace, excuse me, and went in and sat with the servants to see the end. Now let me make a couple comments about this. First and foremost, when you look at the other parallel passages in the gospels regarding this particular verse right here, about Peter going into the palace, for example, the book of John states that another disciple also went into the palace, right? Does anyone remember that? It says that he goes into the palace and he talks to the damsel and basically permits Peter to come in. Now what I'm about to tell you right now doesn't affect any doctrine, and if you have a difference of opinion, it doesn't really change what's going to take place. But in general, people have stated that the other disciple who the book of John is referring to is referring to John, okay. And I believed that for a while, and you can see why that could be true, because many times in the book of John, the writer John doesn't refer to himself as John. He's always referring to himself as the disciple whom Jesus loved, the other disciple. But the only problem is, with that interpretation, is that the book of John says that that other disciple was known unto the high priest. In other words, the high priest knew who John was, which is why he let him in. And the only problem with that is, nor in the gospels does it ever talk about that. You can make that assertion, and if you believe that, nothing wrong with it, the only thing is that it doesn't really fit the narrative of what we see in the gospels. All of a sudden it's just John, even though all the disciples fled, but yet why would he flee, why would he run, if he's cool with the high priest? If the high priest knows him, why would John have to flee from the Garden of Gethsemane when they were arresting Jesus if he's cool with the high priest and they're letting him in the palace, if he could order the damsel to let Peter in, why is that? Well I personally believe that it's actually referring to Judas Iscariot. He is that other disciple. Now arguments can be made, well it's calling him the other disciple, and therefore it could be referring to John, I get that, but here's a stronger argument to prove that it's Judas Iscariot, is that he's known of the high priest. Why is he known of the high priest? Because he just made a covenant with him to turn Jesus in. Plain and simple. And the wording in the other gospels is that he is known of the high priest, and I don't think it's on accident that it's stated that way, because Judas Iscariot is not saved. So he's known of the high priest, but the high priest, which is Jesus, doesn't know Judas, because Judas isn't saved, you understand? And I think it also makes sense because of the fact that in this particular chapter, as we're going to see in just a little bit, all of a sudden Judas shows up and he's throwing the 30 pieces of silver at the feet of the scribes and the Pharisees and the high priests. He's been there the whole time. And so what we see here is an example of someone who claimed to be a Christian, claimed to be a disciple, but was not, and in fact was favored of wicked people. Whereas the disciples are not in favor with wicked people, they're on the run from wicked people, and if you were to compare this with end times prophecy, that would make a lot of sense. Because in the end times, the antichrist is going to be making war with the saints, and he will be overcoming them, we're going to be persecuted, but mainstream Christians, should we say apostate Christianity, they'll have it in, they'll have favor with the high priests, where they can go through palaces and whatnot and they have access because they took the mark of the beast or whatever. They took their 30 pieces of silver, you understand? And so I just want to make that little statement, and if you have another conjecture, I welcome it, but I think that that's correct. But I want you to notice that in verse 55 that Peter is following a far off, isn't that interesting? And you know what? This can be said of a lot of Christians when they backslide. Christians often when they backslide, they know the truth, so what will they do? They follow a far off. You say, how? Well, how about the fact that they don't come to church, they just watch online. They're as backslidden as the day is long, they're not living a good Christian life, they're not living a life that's pleasing unto the Lord, but they still are willing to tune in to the preaching online, what is that called? Following a far off. And what is Peter doing? He's warming himself by the fire with everyone else. That's exactly what Christians do who are backslidden, okay? And so, you know, to the Christian that's out there following a far off, get your butt in the palace and go say that you know Jesus. Stop being ashamed of coming to church, stop being, you know, as we're gonna see with Peter, he's over here denying the Lord, not denying that Jesus is Christ, he's just denying that he knows him. Why? Because he's afraid of being persecuted. You know what? There's plenty of people who watch online, they're watching the services, and they agree with everything that we say, but you're too busy warming yourself by the fire with the unsaved. You're following a far off. You need to be in the palace with Jesus suffering with the Lord, amen? Stop following a far off, get in church, go soul winning, be a part of a local New Testament church and start telling your buddies that you are a Christian who goes to church and that you think drinking and fornicating is wrong and wicked, that you believe what the Bible says and that you no longer want to partake of those deeds, they might think it's strange that you run out with them, but who cares? And it's sad to see Peter like this. At a time where he was following the Lord and denying himself and taking up his cross and following him, now he's only following a far off. Now he's just like away from the Lord, even though he's in close proximity to God, because he's right there, in his heart he's far away. It's the worst place to be in. He says, but Peter followed him a far off unto the high priest's palace and went in and sat with the servants to see the end. Isn't that interesting? Well, let's just see what might become of this. People are freaking out over everything that's taking place in the Middle East with the Jews and the Palestinians. Everyone who's not in church is just losing their minds. They're losing their minds. He said, what about you? I don't, no I'm not, I have my mind intact, I have a sound mind. Because God did not give me a spirit of fear but of power and love and of a sound mind. He said, what happens if World War III breaks out? I'm still going soul winning. I'm still here in church. He said, aren't you worried about the conflict over there? No, I was in Belize this week. I was too busy serving God and eating Belizean food and baptizing people and preaching. You should know what's going on out there. No, I don't need to know what's going on. I need to know what's going on in here. That's what I need to know because I'm in close proximity to Jesus because I'm serving God and wherever I am, that's where He is, wherever He is, that's where I am because I'm serving God. Yeah, you should really educate yourself in all the news that's going on here. You mean all the propaganda and lies that people are throwing out there? I don't care that Shapiro is beefing with Candace Owens. Who gives a crap about what's going on? And some of you are like, what's going on? Good for you. Yeah, but you need to be awake and you need to know what's going on. No, I need to know the Bible. I need to concern myself with teaching my wife and my children, preaching to my church, leading my church. You know, you say, what's the next thing on your mind? The Thanksgiving banquet. That's an important spiritual activity we got going on there. We just got back from a trip waiting two hours for dinner to come in Belize. Now I need the real deal when I come here. And you know what, if that's World War III, then so be it. It doesn't affect me one bit. Why? Because I know that when I serve God, no matter where I'm at geographically, spiritually, I'm always in the right place. Whereas people who know what's going on, they're constantly afraid and fearful, that should be an indicator to you that you're not in God's will. Warming yourself by the conservative fire, warning yourself with the podcast fire of all this nonsense that's going on. You're acting like this has never happened before in the past. Jews and Palestinians are always fighting. Jews are always doing stuff like that. They fund the wars, they're probably funding the Palestinians. Why are you shocked? After a while it's just like, okay, I guess in another five years it's going to happen again. But here's Peter following afar off, instead of doing what he said he was going to do, which is be with Jesus Christ and to death. He's afraid, he's scared. It says in verse 59, now the chief priests and elders and all the council sought false witness against Jesus to put him to death, but found none. Yea, though many false witnesses came, yea found they none. At the last came two false witnesses and said, this fellow said, I am able to destroy the temple of God and to build it in three days. Wrong. Never said that. He said that he would destroy, he said he would destroy the temple in three days, raise it up. And he said this, he said concerning his body. But they're trying to bring up these railing accusations against him because they've already covenanted that they were going to kill him. They just got to find a reason to convince everyone that it's justifiable. It says the high priest arose and said unto him, answerest thou nothing? What is it which these witness against thee? But Jesus held his peace and the high priest answered and said unto him, I adjure thee by the living God that thou tellest whether thou be the Christ, the son of God. Jesus saith unto him, thou hast said, nevertheless, I say unto you, hereafter shall you see the son of man sitting on the right hand of power and coming in the clouds of heaven. And of course, that's exactly what they wanted to hear because they wanted reason to crucify him. But he was bearing witness to the truth. Now let's skip down here, look at verse number 69 because the point that I'm trying to make tonight regarding Judas and Peter was the fact that Judas Iscariot betrayed Jesus under the basis that he denied that Jesus was the Christ. So how do you know that? Because Jesus said in John chapter 6 that there are those who believe not from the beginning, that there are devils from the beginning. His betrayal is because of the fact that he denied that Jesus was the Christ. Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ, he is anti-Christ. Whereas Peter's denial, he's not denying that Jesus is the Christ, he's just denying Jesus, knowing Jesus because of the fact that he's afraid of being persecuted, he's afraid to suffer for Christ's sake. That's why he's doing it. Look at verse 69, Now Peter sat without in the palace, and a damsel came unto him, saying, Thou also was with Jesus of Galilee, but he denied before them all, saying, I know not what thou sayest. And when he was gone out into the porch, another maid saw him, and said unto them that were there. This fellow was also with Jesus of Nazareth, and again he denied with an oath, I do not know the man. Let me make a real quick comment regarding verse 71 and 72, because when you look at the parallel passages, it actually says that a man accuses him, the second accusation comes from a man. But what's taking place is that the maid that's in verse 71 says unto them that were there, that this fellow also was with Jesus of Nazareth. The other parallel passages essentially record the men who were there telling him, oh you were with him. You've got to keep in mind that these are different accounts from different eyewitnesses, and obviously even if the people who were writing the gospels weren't specifically there at the moment, this is inspired by the Holy Ghost, and so he's given us different facets of what took place. And so even though the maid saw him and made that accusation, she's telling the fellows who are there, because again he's warming himself by the fire with everyone else who's around. Verse 73 says, and after a while came unto him they that stood by and said to Peter, Surely thou also are one of them, for thy speech be reathy. Then began he to curse and to swear, saying, I know not the man, and immediately the cock crew. So another thing that we can pull from this is the fact that this kind of parallels end times as well, because of the fact that somehow, even though Peter is in the most backslidden state and denying the Lord, somehow the enemy still knows who he is. Now in this particular case, it's because his speech, it says be rayeth him, meaning that it exposes him for who he really is. Someone had conjectured, oh it's because he's a Galilean, maybe Galileans speak a certain way, we don't know exactly, but something about what he's saying is exposing him from being a disciple of Jesus Christ. And the application that we can make regarding end times is that even saved people who want to take the mark of the beast or whatever, are not going to be able to because of the fact that something's just going to give them away. And it's not like he just had a moment of spirituality and was just like, I'm a Christian, I'm really a disciple or something, but something did give him away. And we haven't necessarily found the missing piece of the puzzle when it comes to how is it that they're going to know in the end times who believers are, but we do know this, somehow every single Christian will be exposed. There's no closet Christian in the end times, because it's either one or the other. Now the one that they're receiving into the palace, gladly, is the apostate disciple, which is Judas Iscariot. The one who wants to go into the palace under the radar is Peter, but even then he's exposed. So anybody who comes to the antichrist under the guise of worshiping the antichrist or whatever, somehow is going to be exposed no matter what. And then he says that he began to curse and swear. So he's just like really caking it on that he's just not a believer. He's being a little weenie right here. I know not the man and immediately the cock crew and Peter remembered the word of Jesus, which said unto him before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice and he went out and wept bitterly. So obviously Peter is in a very vulnerable state right here because he realizes how much damage he's done to himself really. And I think verse 75 really shows us that Peter really did love the Lord a lot. I think he really just loved the Lord. I think he was very zealous for God, he was zealous for Jesus Christ. And I think he meant what he was saying. But I think he just didn't take heed to the fact that a lot of that was pride. But I think the proof of the fact that he really loved the Lord is the fact that when it was all said and done he wept bitterly because he loved the Lord. And what happens to Peter here, he just regresses even further and he goes a fishing and he's just like not serving God. But obviously he ends up bouncing back. I think the takeaway from this is the fact that the proof that Peter really loves God is the fact that he knows that when he disobeys the Lord, or when he betrayed the Lord by denying him, it actually hurt him more. And so it kind of shows us that Peter has a tender heart for the Lord. And this is the type of heart that we need to have. That when we disobey God, maybe when we follow a far off, it should break our hearts a little bit. And we should never become so hardened through sin or we're so backslidden that sin no longer bothers us and it's no longer the love of Christ that's constraining us. It should hurt us a little bit. And I know there's Christians out there that probably doesn't hurt them anymore, but at one point it did. And then they become callous, they become hardened, and then they just remain in the world. And it's definitely something that happens. And you say, yeah, but I know someone and it just doesn't seem as though they're really sad about being backslidden. Yeah, but you don't know what their mind is going through when they put their heads on their pillow at night. Because they have the Holy Spirit of God dwelling within them. And you know, it's painful to be away from God for too long knowing full well that you should be serving God. It's a painful thing. I say, why? Because you're grieving the Holy Spirit. I've had instances in my Christian life and thank God I never got out of church. I never got out of the ministry. I just kind of plowed through it. But I've had my seasons. I've had my seasons where I was backslidden in here. And maybe I didn't love the Lord as much as I should. I wasn't reading the Bible as much as I should. And I could feel my love waning for the Lord. And it was not where I needed to be. You know, it broke my heart because I know. I know where I need to be. Thankfully, you know, just keeping the disciplines. Keep going to church. Keep reading the Bible. Keep praying. You know, that zeal for the Lord returned. I repented of my ways and my heart. And I got back on track. And it happens to every Christian. But you know, it's sad that it got to this point. But you know what? Every Christian to a certain extent experiences this to a certain extent. And the solution is just stay in church. Keep reading the Bible. You know, one way to just subject your flesh is that even though you feel backslidden, you feel away from the Lord, you keep doing what you're doing. Because you will get back on track again as long as you keep obeying the Lord. Even in a season of apathy, even in a season of laziness, you will get back on track if you continue in that discipline of those essentials of the Christian life. And so we'll finish with that. Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for this chapter, Lord, and the distinction between Judas and Peter. And Lord, I think all of us, even though we look at Peter, and I know myself, I criticize him in this chapter. But at the end of the day, we're all susceptible to falling into the same pride that maybe he may have had. I pray that you'd help us, Lord, that we continue to follow you closely through our walk with you, Lord, through our spiritual responsibilities, and that we would never get to a point where we would deny you, Lord. And I pray to God that you'd help us to remain in the will of God by reading the Word of God, by winning others to Christ, and in time of persecution, that we would not falter. We know that you said to Peter that you prayed for him, that his faith failed not, and you already knew that he would be converted and that in turn he would strengthen his brethren. And so, Lord, help us as your people that even when we do falter and maybe we backslide in our hearts, that through the Holy Spirit, the preaching of God's Word and the reading of the Bible, that our minds would be converted and transformed. We would learn from our mistakes and help others along the way when they experience the same. We love you, Lord, and we thank you. We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.