The Truth

TITLE: The Truth
DATE:  October 12, 2019
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Christ is risen. He is risen, indeed.

TEXT: Matt 26:33 – ESV - 33 Peter answered him, “Though they all fall away because of you, I will never fall away.”
During the Gold Rush days in California, Charlie Parkhurst was a stagecoach driver.

Charlie showed great skill and bravery in taking passengers and gold shipments along the dangerous roads. Not the least of Charlie's accomplishments was the killing of not one, but two highwayman.

Charlie smoked cigars, chewed tobacco, played cards and drank.

Charlie eventually retired and went into the cattle business around Santa Cruz, California. On December 31, 1879, some neighbors found old Charlie dead at home. It was only when they got around to dressing the body for burial, they discovered that Charlie Parkhurst was a woman.

It's not my intention to go into the unfair stereotypes that women had to unfairly follow. It is my intention to say that Charlie wasn't what she seemed.

Nor was Peter when the Devil helped him boast he 'would never fall away, even if everybody else did.'  

Now remember, Peter's track record of faithfulness wasn't all that good. True, Peter had walked on the water, but Peter had also sunk. He had declined to have Jesus wash his feet and then he asked the Lord to ‘wash all of him.’

He would, figuratively speaking, sink again.

His boast of faithfulness, which had sounded so good at the supper table, would become hollow later on that evening It would be hollow when he went to the high priest’s courtyard and three times denied ever having known his Savior.

Peter, like many of us who think we're self-sufficient, wasn't what he seemed. Scripture is right when it says, "All have sinned and come short of the glory of God."

Give thanks that we have a Savior Who never forgot Who He was.

• When He said "I am THE Way, THE Truth, and THE Light", He meant it.
• When He said He had come to "seek and save the lost" He meant it.
• When Jesus said He would do something, He meant it.

He meant it, even if it meant dying a terrible and painful death on the cross to save a lying world. No, the only One Who could ever say: "Even if all fall away....I never will,." is Jesus. He says those words to us today, and He means them.

THE PRAYER:: Lord Jesus, people make all kinds of promises about what they will do. Some they keep, many they don't. I give thanks that Your promises are sure. Help me make my promises to You just as sure. In Your Name.  Amen.
 
The music which introduces and concludes our devotions was written by Guy Baumann. He along with three of his brothers perform on the album: The Baumann Brothers which may be ordered here: http://thebaumannbrothers.com/index.html