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TITLE:  And the cock crew
TEXT:  Mark 14:66-72
PROPOSITION:  There is more than one way to deny our faith.
QUESTION:  How?
KEY WORD:  Ways
READING:  Same

INTRODUCTION:

  1. Held a meeting in northern Arkansas

  2. Stayed with family, back bedroom, until about 5 AM

  3. Neighbors had a rooster, crowing on the fence, at our window

  4. “Roosters wake up the sun”

Background

  1. Jesus has been betrayed by Judas
  2. He is now arrested, in the middle of an illegal trial (1st of 6)
  3. Peter is near (outside) watching

What Happened

  1. Peter is at the fire keeping warm
  2. A maid recognized him, “You were with Jesus” (67)
  3. He denied – I know not, don’t understand what you are saying
  4. And the cock crew
  5. A maid said – This one of them
  6. He denied again
  7. Some stood by – You are Galilean, speech give you away
    Living in the south and raised in Michigan – I have heard this, myself
  8. Peter – curse, swear (take oaths) I know not the man you speak of
  9. Cock crows a second time
  10. Peter remembered the words of Jesus
  11. Before the cock shall crow twice, you will deny me thrice. (Mark 14:30)
  12. He thought about this
  13. He wept – The form of the Greek verb (imperfect) implies that he continued weeping. "It is a touching and beautiful tradition, true to the sincerity of his repentance, if not as a historical reality, that, all his life long, the remembrance of this night never left him, and that, morning by morning, he rose at the hour when the look of his Master had entered his soul, to pray once more for pardon."--Geikie.

Uses and Meanings of “Deny”

  1. "To say ... not, to contradict," – John 1:20 “confessed, did not deny”
  2. "To deny" by way of disowning a person, as, e.g., the Lord Jesus as master, e.g.,
    Matthew 10:33 – deny me, I will deny you
    2 Timothy 2:12 – we deny him, he will deny us
  3. To "deny" the Father and the Son, by apostatizing and by disseminating pernicious teachings
    Jude 1:4 denying the only Master, God, even our Lord Jesus Christ
  4. "To deny oneself," in a good sense, by disregarding one's own interests
    Luke 9:23 – to come after Christ, deny your self
  5. In bad sense, to prove false to oneself, to act quite unlike oneself,
    2 Timothy 2:13 – God remain faithful, he cannot deny himself
  6. To "abrogate, forsake, or renounce a thing,"
    Titus 2:12 – denying ungodliness and worldly lusts
    1 Timothy 5:8 – denied the faith, worse than an infidel
  7. "Not to accept, to reject" something offered,
    Hebrews 11:24 – Moses refused to be son of Pharaoh’s daughter



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