We begin with prayer. Lord, as we come to Thee this morning, once again we have to say: the king invited Mephibosheth to his table. He wanted personally to take care of him.
Lord, we thank You this morning that all of us, in some way, can relate to this one who was wounded in his feet. But love lifted this man and his entire family. Love reached out. Mercy was made effective in his life.
Lord, I remember Your words this morning: “I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.” So, Lord, You have had mercy upon us. You have shown Your great love to us. Lord, we want to love You back. We want to hear You speak this morning. Lord, we want it to be You and not us, not man.
Lord, we ask for the anointing of the Holy Spirit, that Your words might have effect in our hearts. Lord, I pray for the covering of the blood of the Lamb over all these words that men would utter, that Your Holy Spirit might be effective in whatever is shared. So, Lord, have Your way this morning. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Well, as we come this morning, I think this will be the third message on this area of the mind: the helmet of salvation. We talked last time about the head covering. The helmet is a covering on the head and speaks of the significance of maintaining the headship of Christ, because that is what head covering means.
My head is covered so that the Lord’s head is the one that is preeminent. It is what the Lord’s will is that matters. It is what the Lord wants that matters.
And the Lord Jesus Himself submitted His head. He was covered under God as He came to do God’s work and to carry out God’s plan—not only His plan of salvation, but His plan to have a bride, His plan to have a house, and His plan to have a body.
The Lord Jesus submitted, even though He was equal with God. The position He did not cling to; rather, He said, “Lord, I want to serve Thee.” His head was covered under God, and we are all to be covered in some way by Jesus Christ.
When we are properly covered, the Lord’s authority can come into our lives. The Lord can really move in our lives. This matter of head covering is essential. Last week, I also shared that little Scripture about how it is a testimony to the angels as sisters have their heads covered.
All of this has to do with the Lord Jesus Christ being preeminent, and His authority being able to flow through His body into His house, that His bride might be built.
This morning, I want to talk a little more about the thing that is being covered, which is our mind. Our mind is being covered. The helmet of salvation covers our mind.
The mind, as I mentioned before, is the great battlefield for the enemy. It is the place where he attacks to get to our will. He cannot directly attack man’s will, because you have been given choice by God.
God has given you a choice. I do not know how precious that may be to us, but we tend to take this matter of choice much too lightly because it is God-given. It is a part of God’s eternal plan that man would have free choice.
I know when I grew up in the South, there were the Free Will Baptists, and that was one of the main themes they gathered around: this matter of man’s free will.
It is true: God is sovereign. But in His sovereignty, He has allowed man to have free will, to have choice. It is a precious, precious gift. He has not created robots. He is not interested in having man merely follow His orders without question. It is not that we should question God, but that we should have a willing heart for the Lord.
Now, through man’s fall, he has become defiled, and the choices that he makes are not the choices that God would have for our lives. That is very evident in the fall of man.
But God sent His only Son, Who was perfectly obedient, Who made the right choices to obey the Father. One of His choices was to save you and me. One of His choices was to die for your sins and mine.
One of His choices was this: yes, man has fallen. His state is such that it cannot be recovered. However, I will take his place in death. I will take the rightful judgment of God upon Myself—for you.
He made that choice freely and willingly. God did not make Him do it; He chose to do it. We have the same choice today. We can accept or reject Jesus Christ, not only as our Savior but as our Lord.
We make choices every day, brothers and sisters, and it is all within our mind. The area of choice is man’s will. Interestingly enough, the enemy cannot directly attack your will. He cannot force you to do something that you are unwilling to do. Neither will Jesus force you to do something that you are unwilling to do.
But the mind is a different matter. Our mind is constantly under attack. Let me read some Scriptures.
2 Corinthians 10:4-5:
For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh,
but mighty before God to the casting down of strongholds;
casting down imaginations, and every high thing that is exalted against the knowledge of God,
and bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.
The weapons of our warfare are not carnal. They are not of man; they are not fleshly. They are not the way man generally thinks. But they are mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds.
And listen to this: what is this great warfare? Casting down imaginations and every high thing—some versions say “high thought”—that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. It is a tremendous warfare over our thought life.
That is the way the enemy got even to Adam and Eve: through their thought life, through their minds. Then he took their wills.
Colossians 1:9:
For this cause we also, since the day we heard it,
do not cease to pray and make request for you,
that ye may be filled with the knowledge of His will
in all spiritual wisdom and understanding.
Philippians 4:8:
Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true,
whatsoever things are honorable,
whatsoever things are just,
whatsoever things are pure,
whatsoever things are lovely,
whatsoever things are of good report;
if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise,
think on these things.
Romans 12:1-2:
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God,
to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God,
which is your spiritual service.
And be not fashioned according to this world:
but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind,
that ye may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
God desires that our mind be full of light, full of wisdom, and full of understanding, with all its thoughts and imaginations being purified through His life and brought into perfect obedience to Jesus Christ.
Our minds are all the time being assaulted with many things. It says our thoughts need to be brought into obedience to Jesus Christ. To me, brothers and sisters, that says we have to watch our thought life. We cannot just let it go.
It is so accessible to the enemy, so filled with prejudices and preconceived ideas. Even after we become Christians, we need to remember that part of the covenant was that He would give us a heart of flesh.
Now, that is not a bad thing. We think of flesh and the self-life, but in that passage the word means a soft heart—a heart that is toward God. Praise the Lord, once we accept the Lord Jesus Christ, that happens. He fulfills His covenant.
Our hearts, instead of being hearts of stone, become soft toward God. They love God. Our heart wants God. It is natural for one who has been born again to want God, to want His love, and to share it with Him.
Yet we find that we may have a new heart, but we have an old mind. The old prejudices are still there so often. The old way of thinking is still there. The things we enjoyed before still linger. The lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes still seem to want to capture our heart.
That is why, when we get to Romans 12, it says we need a transformed mind. We need to go through a transformation in our mind.
We are new creations in Jesus Christ. What does that mean? It means that when we accept the Lord Jesus Christ, His Spirit dwells in our spirit. It also says that all the fullness of the Godhead dwells in Him, and we are complete in Him.
All of this new creation is like a seed. It is in seed form, dwelling in our spirit: the life of Christ. But we still have this old mind.
Eventually, as we go on in the Lord, as we think upon these good things, as we give our bodies as a living sacrifice, and as we consecrate our lives to the Lord Jesus Christ, He is able to begin a transforming work in our mind.
The life of Christ that dwells in our spirit begins to affect our thought life. It begins to affect our whole soul. Then we begin to see a transformation taking place in our soul, so that what Christ loves and what Christ feels is what we begin to sense in our hearts.
Christ’s mind, His thinking, and His ways begin to become our ways. The life of Christ planted in us at new birth begins to work its way into our soul life, particularly into this area of the mind.
Therefore, the mind becomes the key thing that the Bible points out needs transforming in our Lord Jesus Christ. That is why we need this helmet of salvation.
I am skipping around a bit, so bear with me. In Romans 12:1-2, the Lord begins to share with us what is needful for us to come into a place where our minds can be transformed. What is this process that the Lord can do?
We have already touched on being under the headship of Christ, being covered in the Lord. We have touched upon the mind being the battlefield. This morning, as we read Romans 12:1-2, He says, “I beseech you.” These are not light words; these are commanding words.
“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice.” That is consecration. “Which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”
In other words, our mind needs to be renewed. But the Lord cannot renew the mind of an unconsecrated Christian. Very difficult.
So, what is this meaning of consecration? Basically, it means to be set apart for the Lord—that your life is set apart for Him, not for yourself. You are no longer to live your life for yourself, but for Him and for His purpose. That is a consecrated Christian.
It says, “By the mercies of God.” Obviously, brothers and sisters, on our own we are so drawn back to wanting to satisfy ourselves and please ourselves, even in our Christian life and walk. We kind of want to do it our way.
That is the old mind. That is the old thinking. And the Lord says, “No, consecrate. You must be consecrated.” If you want to have a transformed mind, the first issue is consecration.
You all remember the ram of consecration. I think it is in Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers. Let me just share the story with you.
They took a ram and killed it. They took the blood, and for Aaron and his sons—the priestly ones who carried out the priesthood in the inner sanctuary—the blood was placed on the tip of the ear, on the thumb, and on the right big toe.
It was a ram of consecration. So what did this mean? First of all, to be a consecrated one means the Lord has your ear.
It means you are listening to the Lord, that the primary thing in your life is that you are listening to the Lord. Yes, you have all these other things you are hearing, all these other things coming into your mind, but they are all taken in with reference to your relationship with Christ.
A consecrated ear simply means the Lord has your ear. How often, brothers and sisters, when we are going down our own road, we hear the voice back there, but we are not really listening.
Now, us men are great at this. We are really good at not listening. We seem to be experts. My wife will say, “Jerry, are you listening to me?” I say, “Of course.” That is the right thing to say. But when I am questioned, I am not always able to respond.
We are guilty of doing the same thing with the Lord. We are not really listening.
The Lord has your life, and He is intent on transforming you. That is His goal. What is His goal? To bring many sons into glory. That means to bring many sons into maturity, which means we have to have a transformed mind. Therefore, He has to have our ear. We have to be listening to Him.
In our Christian life, we can get into that mode where we listen to Him when the hammer comes down. When there is something serious in our life, all of a sudden we are awakened, and maybe the Lord is trying to say something to us.
But a consecrated Christian is always awake to the Lord. I do not care how busy they are or what their situations may be. They have always got an ear; they are listening for the Lord.
“What does this mean, Lord? What is this current struggle I am experiencing at work or in my family life? What is going on here? Lord, I am looking to You. What do You want? What are You trying to tell me, Lord?”
Then we have the thumb. The Christian’s service—what we do for the Lord—has to come under the blood. The blood was put on the thumb. You use your hands to do things, to serve. A consecrated Christian has a serving heart and has the blood on his thumb.
What does that mean? It means that you cannot serve the way you would want to serve. Often, particularly in our younger Christian life, we are anxious to serve the Lord, but often we are doing it our way. We are serving the way we think He should be served.
Later on, we find that we are not working with the Lord; we are working for the Lord. We should be working with the Lord. Now, that may confuse you, but there is a tremendous difference between working for the Lord and serving with Him. Oh, what a world of difference.
It takes the blood of the Lamb for consecrated service to the Lord.
Then there is the big toe. Have you ever had gout? When it hits your big toe, you can hardly walk. You certainly cannot put any pressure on that big toe.
It is amazing that the Lord used the big toe, because it is very difficult without your big toe. It limits us. But what does all that mean? It speaks of our walk with the Lord.
A consecrated Christian needs a walk with the Lord. He has to have a life with the Lord: a prayer life, a life in His Word, a life seeking Him. His life is the Lord. That is a consecrated Christian.
His life is not my work plus the Lord, or my family plus the Lord. His life is the Lord, and these other things work out of that.
If we get our priorities straight with the Lord, these other things work out. Yes, we will still experience problems, but they do work out. When we try to reverse it—when we try to work out our problems while not getting right with the Lord—the problems seem to get worse, we make a bigger mess of them, and we become hopeless.
So, our walk with the Lord: that is a consecrated life for the Lord.
We may say, “Well, I am not an Aaron.” But we are all called to be priests for the Lord in the New Testament.
There was another place of consecration in the Old Testament: those who would take the vow of a Nazarite. Any man or woman in the nation of Israel could be a Nazarite.
They could come to the Lord and say, “I want to consecrate myself to the Lord.” Most of the time it was for a period of time. They would say, “For the next three months,” or whatever it may have been, and they would consecrate their lives to the Lord by taking the vow of the Nazarite.
Some were called to be Nazarites from birth: Samson and John the Baptist. They think probably Hannah was a Nazarite. These were those who gave their whole lives to the Lord.
Of course, brothers and sisters, we are all called to be Nazarites. But that is a choice we have to make. They had to make that choice before God. It is still an act of consecration.
They could not eat or drink anything from the vine. We know that the fruit of the vine often speaks in the Old Testament of worldliness—partaking of the things of the world. The wine of this world blinds us to God.
They would not take any fruit of the vine. They would not even eat a fig. Nothing of the world.
Then they could not touch a dead body, or they would be defiled. Basically, that means death defiles. Wherever there is death, brothers and sisters, there is something that a consecrated Christian must recognize.
There is death all around us every day, is there not? Death comes at us from every aspect of life. By death, I mean anything that quenches the life of the Lord. Anything that restrains the life of the Lord in you, quenches it, or holds you back is death working.
The consecrated Christian is aware of this. We know we have been called to overcome. That is what resurrection life is all about, is it not? Overcoming death.
That is our testimony, brothers and sisters. Yes, death is outside of us, and death is in us, but we can overcome because of the resurrection life of the Lord. We have to experience that resurrection life.
The other thing is that the Nazarite could not cut his hair. That was the outward sign God gave them that they were consecrated to Him.
It was an outward sign, just like baptism today, which we are going to experience: an outward sign that they belong to the Lord, that they have gone into death with Him and are now coming out in life.
We remember the story of Samson. Delilah finally got him to tell her the secret of his great strength and power. He told her, “If you cut my hair, then I will lose my strength.”
She brought the men in, they cut his hair, they took out his eyes, and eventually he was put into prison. Eventually, he was able to push down the pillars of that temple, and many were destroyed in it, including Samson, because he requested that of the Lord.
The point is that Samson did not regain his strength until his hair grew back out. He lost his consecration. He lost that consecrated life before the Lord, and he lost power before the Lord and before man.
There was no power, no strength. Brothers and sisters, a consecrated life is what the Lord calls us to. May the Lord forgive us for failing in this, because it is essential to the transforming of our mind and to bringing in this bride that He is after.
It begins with consecration. If you read the Old Testament, you realize that right after they talk about the ram of consecration, they talk about offering a lamb in the morning and in the evening as a sweet-savor offering.
A consecrated Christian is a sweet savor to the Lord, morning and evening. Oh, how we need to go to the Lord in the morning and evening and offer ourselves to Him as a living sacrifice, a sweet-savor offering to the Lord.
You are not consecrating your old life to the Lord. You are consecrating the life of Christ in you to the Lord. That is what you are consecrating.
So do not leave here today thinking, “Boy, I am going to consecrate my life to the Lord,” while unwittingly meaning the old life. You are trying to gear it up, stir it up, and get back on the right track. No.
Brothers and sisters, we have to fall down on our knees and say, “Lord, by Your mercies, I consecrate myself to You. It is not my old life, but this new life that You have given to me—this seed that has been planted in my heart. It is all Christ.”
It needs to flow into my entire being, into all of my soul. “Lord, I want to live a consecrated life to You. I want to be a Nazarite.” That is a choice. It is a choice that we make.
More practically, brothers and sisters, when we accept the Lord Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit is in our spirit—that life of Christ. If we are consecrated to the Lord, the Holy Spirit can speak to us.
The Holy Spirit is the One Who can really speak to our minds. Eventually, it is our mind that interprets what the Spirit is saying. The Scripture says that the Spirit speaks with groanings that we cannot utter.
But for it to be practical to us, those groanings deep down in our spirit must eventually be interpreted by our mind. We need to have a transformed mind, or we often misinterpret what the Lord has to say.
The way I was going to begin this ministry this morning was to say that man is like a manhole. You all know what a manhole is. If you go out in the street, you will see a sewer manhole. Some of them can be a hundred feet deep.
You go downtown and have these big manholes, with all these sewers coming into them. Some are storm sewers, which are basically rainwater. That is the good sewer. Then you have the sanitary sewer, which is totally unsanitary. They ought to call it the unsanitary sewer, but it carries the waste—the human waste.
Our mind is very similar. We have these sewer pipes coming in. On the one hand, through our prayer life, we have communion with the Lord, and that begins to transform our mind.
Our worship to the Lord is another pipe coming in, filling us with all the good things of the Lord. Our study in the Word, our being able to share the Word with one another, and our being able to live the Word—not only hear it and study it, but live it—are life-giving sources.
But we have all these unsanitary sewer pipes coming into our minds, do we not? We have television. We have the world’s ways, what the world calls truth, and all this political correctness that we have today.
We have all these imaginations that we see around us, all the negative things that raise the lust of our flesh. It stirs up the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the lust of the heart.
We are tempted continually, brothers and sisters, and it is in our minds. Is it not in our mind where we really conceive these things? Yes, we see something, and then our mind starts working, and the enemy has us.
Sometimes it is a half-truth. In a more spiritual sense, we can get a half-truth about a situation or something in the Word of God, and it is only a half-truth.
The enemy hit Eve with a half-truth, and she accepted it. That became a stronghold in her mind, and eventually she was taken down by the stronghold.
That is the problem with the things we receive in our minds and allow to come in unchecked. You used to be able to put a check valve in a sewer, so if it started backing up, it could not flood your house. They will not let you do that anymore.
But the point is, I think we need some check valves in these sewers we have. The check valve, really, brothers and sisters, is that consecrated life to the Lord.
When we are challenged with these things, we recognize that these are not just thoughts. These are arrows, darts, fiery darts from the enemy. We must awaken to this conflict in our mind.
Awaken to the fact that the enemy is constantly hitting your mind with wrong thoughts, half-truths, and all kinds of thoughts to bring us down.
Particularly if we sin before the Lord, the enemy likes to continually pound you and say, “Look, you will never amount to anything as a Christian. Why do you not just give up? You have been through this a thousand times. You have asked the Lord forgiveness for the same thing a thousand times. Do you not see? Why do you bother?”
These are the kinds of things we are hit with, and we are all subject to them. They become strongholds. That is why the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty to the pulling down of strongholds and imaginations.
If we accept something into our mind, even if it is not true, to us it is real. I want you to know that. We need to be aware of that.
When we accept something in our mind, even if it is not true, to us it is real. Because it is real to us, just as real as the truth would be, it is very difficult for that imagination or stronghold to be torn down.
We have to be so careful, brothers and sisters. Often, in my own life, as thoughts have come in, I have had to plead the blood of Jesus over those thoughts.
I say, “Lord, I do not accept these thoughts in the name of Jesus Christ.” These are very practical things, because the enemy cannot go where the blood is.
Remember the angel of death that came before they left Egypt? He could not go into any house where there was blood on the doorpost. I think this is true concerning the enemy’s thoughts and what the enemy wants to do to us in trying to bring us down.
We can plead the blood of the Lamb. It says, “Resist the devil, and he will flee.” But if we do not resist, he will not flee.
What does that mean? It means you have to actively use your will and say, “I do not agree with this. I do not agree with this thought.” May the Lord help us.
We might be thinking, “You know, Jerry, all this seems a bit impossible. I have been a Christian a long time, and it seems like my mind is more messed up than ever.” I know you can relate to that.
It is more difficult, and it is more intense. The Bible has promised that to us: in the last days, it would be extremely intense, that even the very elect would fail if the mercies of the Lord were not there and if He did not come back soon.
So it is getting more intense. But I remember Simon Peter. There is a word of encouragement this morning.
On one hand, I want to encourage us to be alert, to consecrate ourselves to the Lord, to activate our will, and to stand against our adversary. But sometimes we feel that with us it is impossible. “With me, it is impossible.”
When the Lord went to Peter, it says that He looked upon Peter. Brothers and sisters, when you come to the Lord Jesus Christ, He looks upon you. He has that piercing look.
He knows the beginning from the end. He knows the number of hairs on your head. He knows you as you were formed in your mother’s womb. He knows you well. He looks, and He accepts you.
But He knows what He has accepted, brothers and sisters. What did He say to Peter? “Simon, I am going to call you Cephas.”
Simon was so impetuous—so “my way,” so here and there. The Lord said, “Peter, I am going to turn you into a stone, a rock. I am going to transform your life. You will no longer be called Simon, but Cephas, or Peter—a rock.”
My goodness. Brothers and sisters, have you considered that the Lord has looked upon you and said, “You are no longer whatever—Jerry, Jane, James. You are going to be…”? I do not know what it is, but He has a specific plan for your life.
I do not know if He names each one of us differently; I have no indication of that in the Word. But He was going to transform Peter, and He told him right from the beginning: “Peter, I am going to transform you into the rock.”
It did not happen immediately, did it? Peter struggled. Let me give you a few incidents.
From the point when the Lord said, “I am going to make you a stone,” Peter followed the Lord, but it was kind of an on-and-off relationship. Sometimes you found him with the Lord, and sometimes you found him away from the Lord.
Then one day the Lord came to Peter, his brother, and the sons of Zebedee, and He said, “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.” That is what these young people are doing this morning: “I will follow the Lord.”
It says they left their nets. They left their nets to follow the Lord. Peter was a natural-born leader. Peter is always mentioned first when you start talking about the disciples.
But the Lord was going to transform Peter into a follower. “Follow Me,” He said. Peter had to become a follower. There had to be a transformation in Peter’s life.
Thank the Lord, they dropped their nets and followed the Lord. The more Peter was around the Lord, the more he heard what the Lord had to say, the more he realized that he was unworthy and unfit.
This man who had always been so able began to feel unable. I remember when the Lord told Peter, “Upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.”
Peter was surely elated. The Lord had shared this tremendous revelation with him of the Lord’s heart to have a bride for Himself—a church, a body. And it was going to be from him, the rock, that He would build His church.
Then the Lord said something Peter was not ready for: “I am going to the cross.” He began to open up that He would have to go to the cross.
Peter said, “No, Lord.” He rebuked the Lord and said, “This cannot be.” Then the Lord rebuked Peter: “Get behind Me, Satan.”
What a necessary lesson for the transformation of Peter. You see, that leader in Peter was coming out: “I will take care of You, Lord. I am not going to let this happen to You.” He was struggling with being a follower.
The Lord was so different from him. The Christian life did not seem quite so glorious; it was more difficult. It was like, “I cannot live this life.”
Finally, Peter did what we all do: he went fishing. He could not take it anymore. He did not understand the Lord. He wanted to follow the Lord, but he did not understand, and finally he gave up and said, “I am going fishing.”
He was not going fishing in the relaxing mode we think of. That was his natural occupation. In other words, he was saying, “I thought my occupation was to follow the Lord, but I believe my real occupation is fishing. I am going back to where I belong.”
“I have been a fisherman all my life. I understand fishing. I know how to fish. I do not understand the Lord. I do not understand His ways. I do not know what He is doing. All I know is that my life is extremely difficult at this point. I do not understand. I am going fishing. I am going back.”
“I am not going to follow the Lord anymore.” Peter had reached that point in his life.
Then remember, the Lord appeared to him. I will try to wrap this up quickly. The Lord appeared to Peter and said, “Push the boat out a little ways.” The Lord gave His sermon.
Then He told Peter, “Take the boat out, Peter, and cast the net on this side of the boat.” Peter said, in effect, “Look, Lord, I am the fisherman. I know how to fish. We have been fishing all day and night and have not caught anything. This is useless.”
But the Lord said, “Take the boat out. Drop your net.” So he did. Of course, the net filled with fish—so much so that it almost sank the boat they were in.
Peter fell down at the Lord’s knees and said, “Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” What happened to Peter in that instant, brothers and sisters?
He saw God. He saw the Lord Jesus Christ as God. He saw the glory of the Lord. I do not know how to explain this; I wish I had words for it. But he had seen the glory of God in this.
When that happened, he knew he was no longer just dealing with a man or a prophet. Even though he had confessed Christ as the Messiah, he still did not quite understand that this Messiah was God, that this Messiah was God’s Son.
He recognized that. It was glory. He saw the Lord’s glory that day, and it changed Peter.
He recognized Who the Lord was and who he was. He realized, “Lord, I cannot do this. But, Lord, I cannot leave You any longer.”
Peter followed the Lord from that day on. He never went back fishing. He never turned back. He failed after that, but he followed the Lord because he had seen the Lord’s glory that day.
The Lord was transforming Peter. He was transforming his mind.
Remember in John 6, soon after that, the Lord was sharing with the crowd. He said, “I am the bread of life,” and, “Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink His blood, ye have not life in yourselves.”
It says many who were supposedly His disciples—not the twelve—left Him at that time. The Lord looked to the others and offered them another choice. He said, “Will ye also go away?”
Peter said, “Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life.” You see, Peter was hooked. He had seen the glory of the Lord. There was no alternative for Peter.
He did not understand. I doubt that Peter understood that the Lord was talking about the cross of Calvary. These were strange words: “Except ye eat My flesh and drink My blood.”
He was probably saying, “I do not understand, but, Lord, it makes no difference. I know You are the Lord. I know You are God. I have no alternative but to follow You. You have the words of eternal life. Your words are life.”
“I may not understand them, but Your words are life, and I will follow You.” Consecrated man. Transformation.
We know Peter’s great mistake. Peter said, “Lord, I will die for You.” The Lord said, “Before the cock crow, thou shalt deny Me thrice.”
Peter was still self-confident, was he not? The Lord was transforming Peter. He was following the Lord. He had given up everything. He had seen the glory of the Lord. But there were still things the Lord was getting at in his life.
Peter was a natural leader, and the Lord had to transform him. He denied the Lord three times. We know his fall. The enemy had ground in Peter’s life because of his self-confidence.
The Lord destroyed that self-confidence that night in Peter. I am sure Peter later was very thankful, but also deeply distressed over all the dishonor he had brought the Lord in his actions.
But the Lord restored Peter, did He not? After His resurrection, the Lord said, “Go, tell His disciples and Peter.” He wanted to speak to Peter. He met Peter alone, though we do not know what the Lord said to him.
When He met him again at the Sea of Galilee, the Lord was preparing fish on the fire. He challenged Peter: if he loved Him, he was to feed His sheep.
The Lord was working in Peter. He told Peter that in his latter days he would go where he did not want to go. Basically, He was saying, “You are going to be martyred, Peter.”
Peter died a martyr’s death and accepted that. If you read 2 Peter, you see that Peter was ready. He knew he was going to be martyred, and he was ready to be martyred. What a transformation occurred in Peter’s life.
Brothers and sisters, the Lord has singled you out to transform you into what He is after: to be conformed to His image. And He will not give up.
He is committed to you. Our question today is: are we committed to Him? Are we consecrated to Him, that our minds might be transformed and renewed?
Lord, we just come to Thee this morning. We ask that You would touch our hearts in whatever way You have designed for each one of us.
Lord, we pray in particular for this baptism that is coming up. These young ones are so young; they also do not understand at this point all that this is about.
But, Lord, in their hearts, they just want to follow You. I know You take that up, Lord, and You will give them understanding. You will transform their minds.
Lord, we pray Your blessing upon this baptism. We pray for Your Holy Spirit to come down and anoint these young ones. In Jesus’ name, amen.