The Danger of Self Reliance (Archived)

I invite you to turn to the Gospel of Mark and to chapter 14 page 851 in our church Bibles page 8 5-1 and we read from verse 22 mark chapter 14 verse 22 and as they were eating he took bread and after blessing it broke it and gave it to them and said take this is my body and he took a cup and when he had given thanks he gave it to them and the old drank of it and he said to them this is my blood of the Covenant which is poured out for many truly I say to you I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God and when they'd sung a hymn they went out to the Mount of Olives and Jesus said to them you will all fall away for it is written I will strike the Shepherd and the sheep will be scattered but after I am raised up I will go before you to Galilee Peter said to him even though they all fall away I will not and Jesus said to him truly I tell you this very night before the rooster crows twice you will deny me three times but he said emphatically if I must die with you I will not deny you and they all said the same amen well we'll pray together and ask for God to help us as we study make the book live to me O Lord show me yourself within your word show me myself and show me my Savior and make the book live to me for Jesus sake amen well our title for this morning's study is the danger of self reliance the danger of self-reliance and in light of what we consider now and in light of what we have just looked at in relationship to the betrayal of Judas Iscariot I want as time allows this evening to address the question which inevitably emerges from studies such as these that question being can a true Christian goes so far from God as to become lost can a true Christian go so far from God has to become lost I was asked it this week in a Q&A I think every question and answer session I ever do somebody asked this question it is such an important one and it is raised when you consider the betrayal of Judas and the denial of Peter we're going to look at the section that begins at verse 26 with a phrase and when they had sung a hymn if we assume as I think we safely can that Judas is no longer with the rest of the disciples we might imagine that they are breathing a kind of collective sigh of relief after all the bad apple has now been removed and so the remainder of the disciple band is presumably free from contamination but if the events that had just transpired were not sufficient for them they clearly were unprepared to hear and then to accept what Jesus now tells them what is it that he tells them well verse 27 and Jesus said to them you will all fall away you will all fall away now the tone in Jesus voice here is surely not one of severity but one of sadness after all these are his friends these are his core group and his knowledge of what they are now about to do has not precluded them from the communion service or from the celebration of the Passover which has just taken place in the upper room that Passover celebration has ended according to verse 26 in the normal manner by the singing of a hymn singing from the Psalms from the Psalms of ascent from the songs that were sung by the pilgrims as they went up in anticipation of the celebration of the feasts and also during their participation in them phraseology like this buzzing around the room the Lord is on my side I will not fear what can man do to me perhaps those words on the lips and in the mind of the Lord Jesus the Lord is on my side what what what shall I fear I have nothing to fear because man can do nothing to me and yet he's looking out on these men these eleven men who are about all to depart from him now we looked at the previous section in the evening there for some of us missed it and so let me just remind you that in the in the upper room in a celebration of the Passover Jesus has quite dramatically departed from the routine script not in its entirety because it was the Passover celebration and all who celebrated the Passover and had done for hundreds and hundreds of years realized that this feast memorialized the way in which God had entered into the bondage of his people in Egypt and had brought them out in what we refer to as the Exodus and on that occasion their forefathers of the faithful had been saved by their faith in God's special provision and on that night when the avenging angel the Angel of Death passed over either a lamb died or the firstborn in the family died and the discriminating factor was whether those who were within the home had listened to what God had said concerning the sacrifice of a lamb and the painting of the lintels of the door with its blood whether they had attention to the fact that this lamb would serve as a substitute dying in the place of the firstborn or whether they had not and when Jesus now takes the bread he dramatically says this is my body which is broken for you when he takes the cup he says this cup is the new covenant in my blood what is he saying well he is making clear that he is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world he is not simply pointing back to the exodus that had taken place all those years before in Egypt but he is pointing forward to the reality of that which is going to be the experience of all who trust in the substitute that he is for the sins of men and women he began the gospel by saying the time is fulfilled and now he is pointing out that the fulfillment is going to take place when he on the cross bears the punishment that sinners deserve thereby granting to sinners a forgiveness that they don't deserve now it's going to take some time for the disciples to to figure all of this out it's going to take the giving of the Holy Spirit the third person of the Trinity to bring their recollection to all these things that Jesus has said now they're seeing as it were through a glass darkly but eventually it's going to dawn on them and it is having sung to him that they have gone out from the upper room not back to Bethany to the home that was familiar to them but out onto the Mount of Olives and I think that we can imagine that they are encamped there on the Mount of Olives in prospect of all that is before them and it is in that context now that Jesus first of all makes a prediction then he gives a promise and then he has met by a protest and that outlines where we are in these few verses this morning first of all then the prediction that you find in verse 27 and Jesus said to them you will all fall away for it is written I will strike the Shepherd and the sheep will be scattered this is a reference to the prophecy of Zechariah you can look it up on your own you'll find it in the footnotes I'm sure in your Bible Zechariah 13 and verse 7 Jesus has already declared himself to be the Good Shepherd the one who is going to give his life for the Sheep and now he tells them that what is about to happen is that which has been prophesied in the Old Testament and all that is represented in anticipation there in Zechariah 13 is going to find its fulfillment in him and I want you to notice carefully that the I the personal pronoun that begins the phrase I will strike the Shepherd is the eye of God himself if you read that phrase I will strike the Shepherd and the sheep will be scattered you have to say to yourself who is the eye who does the striking or the smiting and the answer is it is God the Father himself now that ought to give us some cause to pause and wonder at it and and and as we do let me just reinforce it for us because it is actually a vital importance work backwards from Romans chapter 8 and in Romans chapter 8 Paul asks the question what then shall we say to these things if God is for us which he is he says who can be against us and then listen to what he says he who did not spare his own son but gave him up for us all he's referring there to God the Father he says God the Father did not spare his own son that's why you have the foreshadowing of it in the story of Abraham and Isaac Abram God says to Abram take your son your only son and offer him there on the mountain that I have told you about and you remember that dramatic moment where the son says we have the fire we have the wood we have everything we of a land and Abram says God Himself will provide the lamb interestingly in the Passover as it's recorded in the Gospels there's no mention of lamb is there and the eating of the lamb was and is a constituent part of the Passover yt absence because Jesus himself is the land he who did not spare his own son if you go to Isaiah and chapter 53 which is at the heart of the very story of the atonement you read these dramatic words Isaiah 53 and verse 10 it was the will of the Lord to crush him he has put him to grief it was the will of the Lord to crush him he has put him to grief you see what Jesus is saying here you're all going to fall away and I can tell you this categorically because the Bible has already pointed out the fact that the Shepherd will be will be struck and the sheep will be scattered and the one who is doing the striking is none other than God the Father so when you read your New Testament you realize that it makes it clear to us that the father gave the son he gave him up for us all but it is equally true that the son gave himself remember he said no one takes my life from me I have the power to lay it down and I have the power to take it up again he's not a pawn in some great cosmic scheme of things Allah Godspell or Jesus Christ Superstar no the father is not seen in the New Testament coercing the son into a sacrifice that he was unwilling to make nor do you find the son trying to secure from the father as salvation he was unwilling to provide neither the Sun nor the father are objects they are both subjects together providing an atonement for sin tis mystery all the immortal dies who can explore this strange design when we fast forward to the cross itself what do we find from the lips of Jesus on the cross of all the things that he says surely this is the most disturbing of all my God my God why have you forsaken me we have God forsaken by God God in our nature forsaken by God no one invents this stuff nobody puts this together in such a strange and beyond us dimension no you see when we read the Bible when we think about these things when we ponder them it's supposed to eventually bring us to the place that Paul finds himself as he works his way through this great theological Tom as he works his way through the gospel through through the story of the gospel and and then he eventually says who has known the mind of the Lord or who has been his counselor or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid for from him and through him and to him are all things to him be glory for ever and ever in other words he says I can't resolve this intellectually my I get all I can do is bow down and wonder before him amazing love how can it be that thou my god would die for me the prediction in verse 28 you then have his promise I promise I will go before you to Galilee after I am raised up I will go before you to Galilee now Jesus has been telling them this for some considerable time you remember after Peter made his declaration you are the Christ the Son of the Living God Jesus then begins to tell them that the Son of Man must go up to Jerusalem and suffer and die the hands of cruel man and on the third day be raised again and each time he makes that prediction he concludes it by a reference to the resurrection and so he comes back to it here after I am raised up I will go before you they would fall you will all fall but he must rise the sheep are all going to be scattered but he is going to proceed steadfastly resolutely on course his prediction as we're about to see is rejected by them and this promise is largely missed by them neglected by them because Jesus has made sure that they would understand these things and yet they don't understand these things he has taught them again and again and they don't get it but I hope we're not exercising immediate judgment on these fellows because we don't get it either do we we shouldn't this be enough for them jesus said to them you will all fall away for it is written I will strike the Shepherd and the sheep will be scattered it shouldn't be enough for them just to say okay that's you said it Jesus that's that's fine we get it and after I'm raised up I'm gonna have a meeting with you in Galilee just goes completely over their heads there is some measure of encouragement in this as a teacher as a preacher in the first service I had people leaving I don't know about every 15 minutes it was our lesson that every every seven or eight minutes another group just got up and left I don't know where they were all going i actually paused at one point it is this a worse sermon i ever preached or what is going on here i I really don't know but I was somewhat encouraged by the fact that Jesus is the greatest teacher who ever existed he has them 7:24 as it were and they still don't get it they've seen his miracles they've heard his sermons firsthand and he says to them you're all going to fall away and they're gonna come back at him on that one as we're about to see and he says and after I've been raised up I'll meet you in Galilee in scores missed it completely well don't you miss it as well don't we realize how possible it is for us to hear the truth and not heed the truth how it is possible to listen to read the Bible without ever being gripped by the Bible without ever being changed by the Bible how many sermons have we preached and responded to superficially listened heedlessly continue to live as if we never heard anything at all somebody might be forgiven for thinking that we have actually a planned a planned strategy for neglect that our heads are like corrugated tin roofs with rain on them completely impervious to all the things that are said and spoken and read and understood so he made a prediction he made a promise and he was met thirdly by a protest and quite a protest it was Peter verse 29 said to him even though they all fall away I will not now Peter has a pattern of this kind of thing it's sort of we might say true to his personality on the occasion when Jesus had for the first time explained to them and you have this actually back in chapter 8 when Jesus had begun to teach them that the Son of man must suffer many things mark 8:31 and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed and after three days rise again and mark says in a pithy little sentence in the beginning of verse 32 and he said this plainly in other words of another obscure about it there was no there was no way in which he was gilding the lily or me hard to understand no he said it absolutely plainly suffer rejected killed rise again suffer rejected killed rise again which part of that is hard to understand none of it now that he didn't understand it's what they didn't like and Peter were told took him aside and began to rebuke him Jesus if I could just have a word with you for a moment please you know I know you got this thing about you know suffer rejected killed rise again I don't think so I think I think we should probably go at it an entirely different way and here he is again I'm going to tell you that you will all fall away and he says well actually they might I won't they might I want I'm the exception to the rule that's what he's saying he displays an overestimation of himself doesn't he the danger of self-trust he runs the others down as he seeks to exalt himself I could see how they would fall away but I couldn't see how I possibly might and Jesus counters this by pointing out in verse 30 the very specific way in which he's going to deny him before the rooster crows twice he will deny all knowledge of the one he says he will never leave and it's amazing isn't it Jesus says I know you're telling me that you won't leave me I'm telling you that you will say you didn't even know me I'll never leave you even if everybody leaves you I'm with you right to the end Jesus says you know what within 24 hours you'll be telling people that you don't you never met me in your life the danger of not knowing ourselves and verse 31 you would expect if you didn't know your Bible that it would say in verse 31 and Peter said you know what Jesus I'm sorry I've really got to stop doing this I've been doing it quite a lot lately and and I and I apologize and I should to forgive me no verse 31 but he said emphatically he came back at him vehemently he said Jesus no no no no Jesus no excuse me listen listen to what I'm telling you Jesus I know you're telling me something but I'm telling you something this is how it's going he said to environment ly if I must die with you I won't deny you Jesus says you're all going to fall away he says even if everybody falls away I'm not going to fall away Jesus says you're not only going to fall away you will say you never even knew me he comes back and says oh no you're wrong even if I have to die with you I won't fall away the danger of selfish presumption now let's say this about him his heart was in the right place wasn't I mean we can we can fault his devotion or his love for Jesus I mean the fact that he doesn't understand himself doesn't mean that he doesn't really love Jesus he loves Jesus passionately that's why he wants to save him from death wrongly Jesus this is not a good plan that's why he says what he says because from his heart he genuinely believes this but he fails to face up to his own frailty his expressions of devotion cancel out in his mind the prospect of his own desertion and if in this you say to yourself you know there seems to be something behind all of this it's almost as if Peter is pushed or he's prodded or he's aided and abetted in what he's saying now if you have any sense of that you're on the right track because when Luke records these events unfolding he actually tells us that it is the civet of seitan which is the driving force behind the actions and the words of Peter Luke chapter 22 in that context you see clearly that coming out of the communion service coming out of the Lord's Supper coming out of the Passover in verse 24 of Luke 22 we're told that they had been arguing as to which of them was regarded as the greatest so they come out of the Passover Feast remember Jesus as has has had occasion prior to this to wash their feet for them to take a towel and wrap it around his waist when they were two smarty pants to do anything for each other Jesus had shown them the way they come out of all that he has said concerning what awaits them and they're arguing about who is the greatest and presumably Peter thought he was the greatest he thought he was greater than the rest of them otherwise he wouldn't he wouldn't set himself up as the one exception to the rule Jesus says you will all fall away he says well not all because you've got me here so his pride leads the way to what happens and we have the explanation Simon Jesus system Simon that's his old name remember Jesus gave him a new name his name's Simon meant shaky his new name was rock rocky shaky became rocky as a result of God's grace to him but now Jesus addresses him by his previous name shaky hey shaky he says Satan demanded to have you incidentally that you is in the plural so he's not expressing himself simply to Peter but he desired to have you that is the whole the whole lot of you the whole disciple band he desired to have you that he might shake here I've prayed for you that your faith won't fail and when you've turned again strengthen your brothers in Peter system well you should know Lord that I'm ready to go with you both to prison and to death okay thank you Jesus said well let me just tell you Peter that the rooster will not crow this day until you deny three times that you know me now you see the evil one the evil one is behind all of these things it's a dramatic thought it is an understandable thought and it is absolutely clear so the protest emerges from Peter's lips it is in accord with what the rest of them say you will notice that Marcus is honest enough to let us know that Peter wasn't the only one who was saying this but he was at the at the forefront of the group that followed him if I must deny if he might die with you I will not deny you and notice the final phrase of verse 31 and they all said the same and they all said the same if if you if you actually just look at these three all's I'll just give you these three odds for you to consider verse 27 jesus said you will all fall away verse 31 and they all said we won't and in verse 50 and they all left him and fled you will all fall away 27 they all said we won't verse 50 and they all left him and fled as soon as the betrayal took place they were gone despite all their protests now let's just end by pointing some lessons out in this lesson number one is straightforward isn't it in the words of proverbs 16:18 pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall proverbs 28:26 he who trusts in himself is a fool he who trusts in himself is a fool you see how this is an diametrically opposed to a contemporary worldview where we're told constantly to trust in ourselves to believe in ourselves we are the answer we are the champions we are in charge of our destiny we just go with the flow go with what you feel go with your thing you know the Bible says no don't do that why not well this is the second lesson our hearts are far more wicked than we ever know our hearts are far more wicked than we ever know again you're not going to get that in public school you're not very good that is an explanation as to why it is that you have rebellion and chaos and disruption and animosity and children opposing their parents and husbands and wives at war with one another and so on all through the whole social climate that the Bible makes it very very clear that our hearts are desperately wicked that were turned in upon ourselves we live our lives upside down we live our lives in rebellion against God we are desperately wicked people saved in Christ but wicked nevertheless if you're not skeptical about yourself you're in more danger than you realize if you're not saying yourself routinely hey I better watch myself here if you're walking around going I can stand take heed lest you fall if you're going around the place going I think I'll just go with my heart on this one be careful because your heart is desperately wicked Jeremiah 17:9 there is no degree of sin into which the greatest saint may not fall if not upheld by the grace of God did you hear me there is no sin there is no degree of sin into which the strongest stalwart of the disciple band may not fall if he is not if she is not upheld by the sustaining grace of God that's why McShane who died at 29 said the seeds of every sin known to man reside in my heart he was in his 20s for goodness sake and he got it figured out he was a minister of the gospel he was peculiarly effective as a minister of the gospel all these years later he is still held up as an exemplar of gospel preaching but he understood himself he knew the danger of presumption thirdly we need to learn to take Christ at his word and to submit our lives to what he has said essentially that we need to live our lives in relationship to the Bible instead of waiting to get esoteric little words as it where from God by some channel that I know nothing of myself we're supposed to actually just take the plain meaning of Scripture and obey it we're supposed to take the plain word of Scripture and Trust it and to do so in the awareness of a fight that God has given us his word as a lamp for our feet and a light for our path to keep us to keep us from error to keep us from evil to keep us on track to save us from ourselves fourthly there's a lesson here in being alert to the way in which we may influence others either for good or for ill in this case Peter was a bad influence on the rest of them his boldness his affirmations his zeal was undeniable that's what made him who I was his personality he says no even if even if I have to die I'll never leave you and they all said we agree with that yeah we're in on that one as well after the crucifixion remember he says I'm just gonna go fishing and the gospel writer says and they all said the same thing yeah we're going fishing too so we have an influence if we're in a position of leadership leading according to the dictates of Scripture or leading according to the whims and fancies of our own preoccupations fifthly there is a reminder in this little drama for us to be gracious in our dealings with each other to be gracious in our dealings with each other where were saved sinners were Saints but were not angels if you didn't know that you might as well know it now so somebody Falls somebody collapses well what's our response to be a spirit of sensoria sness and judgment you can't believe that do you believe this yeah I believe every part of it jaesi Rao says let that man condemn Peter who never broke a promise let that man condemn Peter who never broke a promise who was never disloyal you ever broken a promise have you ever been disloyal so what then about the spirit of judgment that we bring to bear upon those who have broken promises and been disloyal are we going to be harsher with them than Jesus was with us and the sixth and final observation is that we learn as the story unfolds that with God failure is never final with God failure is never final we're familiar with the terminology three strikes and you're out the story of Peter is dramatic in the fact that the way that he had three strikes and he wasn't out there he wasn't he wasn't thrown off a team they didn't take the uniform back and send him send him down to the minors he wasn't strong enough to get out even if he wanted to Jesus didn't reject him on account of his failure he loved him he loved him loved him to the end Jesus knows all about our troubles Jesus knows all about our struggles Jesus knew all about these fellows and yet he still had them at the Passover meal with him that's remarkable isn't it that he knew that every last one of them would do a bunk and yes and yet he said is let's get the Passover put together here what kind of wonderful friend is this after I've been raised I'll meet you in Galilee is it great this is a great meeting about to come and gallery I think it's probably in in chapter 16 yeah somewhere in there oh yeah the angel that's it and since 16 when the angel they saw a young man the ladies go to the tomb and they see a young man of white robe they're alarmed they say to him don't be alarmed he says don't be alarmed you see Jesus Nazareth who was crucified he has risen he's not here see the place where they laid him okay all right you can see he's no longer here look at where he was verse 7 but go tell his disciples and Peter that he is going before you to Galilee there you will see him just as he told you just as he told you he don't go back on his word after I'm raised I'll see you in Galilee you see the tremendous encouragement that it wasn't that you will fall away after I am raised I'll see you in Galilee this is a reality you did fall I am raised I'll meet you here it's fantastic was the Reverend love like this was there ever a friend like this there's not a friend like the lowly Jesus no not one there isn't earthly friends may fail as leave as Grievous abusers whatever it is but this friend loves like no other friend and having loved his own he loved them to the very end he loved Peter and he loved you when you were in rebellion against him he loved you when you were wicked and when you were disobedient and when you no interest in him and he loves you today even though you are a weak faltering sinner sure don't call me a weak faltering sinner okay he loved you today Alistair even though you are a weak faltering miserable sinner he loves you otherwise we're done we are not strong enough to fall away if he is committed to keep us we are not strong enough to make a run for the border if he is determined to complete the work which his goodness began this is the fantastic thing about it and he says to Peter he says you know Satan has desired to shake you fellows and I have prayed for you that your faith will not fail the mist that the intercession of Christ in order that those who are his own may be sustained in the deepest darkest night and after you have been after you have been set back up on your feet again he says strengthen the Brethren strengthen the Brethren shaky is going to strengthen the Brethren how can mr. shakey strengthen the Brethren well he's going to be able to tell them listen close yourselves with humility every one of you for God resists the proud but he gives grace to the humble cheating that cost him to write that at first Peter chapter 5 is he took his pan up and he wrote down I need to remind these people about being humble why because that's exactly what I wasn't I was the guy with a big mouth and the fat head I was the guy that said even if everybody goes and leaves you Jesus I'll never leave you you don't realize who you've got in me humble yourselves that he may exalt you cast all your anxiety on him the very thing he didn't do when the lady began to prod him and probe him you sound like Jesus of Nazareth you've got an accent like the Galilean I don't will you both Jesus with them never even knew him never heard of him all of the anxiety that came by way of the pressure of a servant lady at a fireplace had overwhelmed him and he writes to the folks strengthening the bread and cast all your anxieties on him because he cares for you and that he says and be aware of the fact that the devil is a roaring lion he's going around seeking someone to devour he took a big chunk out of me he says but glory to God I'm still here I'm still in the game and I'm writing to you my brothers and sisters to encourage you to strengthen you to rest in the fact that there is a security and God propping you up by His grace so you won't fall over surrounding you by his love taking you into the security of the shelter about which we have been singing all of this all of this and more besides is the story of redemption it is that it is the timeline it is this it is the biographical line of those who have eaten of Christ remember I am the bread of life he who eats of me will never hunger and who believes in Me will never thirst the Scriptures are there calling us to repentance and to faith calling us back again to repentance and faith and assuring us that because of the immensity of God's love the work which His goodness began the arm of his strength will complete his promise is yes and amen and never was forfeited yet you say well I think you just answered this evening's question well you're a very perceptive let us pray O God our Father what a love is this O Lord what love is this that pays so deeply that I the guilty one may go free we realize that as those people took shelter in the substitution of that land all those years ago in Egypt so your word calls us to take shelter in the Lord Jesus Christ the one who died for sins once for all the righteous for the unrighteous to bring us to God and so we thank you this morning that even though we are guilty of presumption guilty of self-assertion tempted to believe the best about ourselves and the worst about everybody else still you love us with an everlasting love still we know that you will stay with us and keep us help us to stay true to the truth of your word so that our teaching and our doctrine may be in line with what your word says help us to love in the way that you have loved so that those who are unloved and unlovable from a human perspective may be overwhelmed by the love of Christ help us Lord we are just we're just so much in need of your grace and we pray in your son's name

Channel: Alistair Begg

Views: 80,414

Rating: 4.8179979 out of 5

Keywords: dependence on God, thanksgiving, grace

Id: q927QjK4Yoc

Length: 44min 2sec (2642 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 20 2012