68 But he denied it, saying, “I neither know nor understand what you are talking about.” And he went out onto the porch.
69 The servant-girl saw him, and began once more to say to the bystanders, “This is one of them!”
70 But again he denied it And after a little while the bystanders were again saying to Peter, “Surely you are one of them, for you are a Galilean too.”
71 But he began to curse and swear, “I do not know this man you are talking about!”
72 Immediately a rooster crowed a second time. And Peter remembered how Jesus had made the remark to him, “Before a rooster crows twice, you will deny Me three times.” And he began to weep.” Mark 14:66-72.
This is a hard passage to consider. At times, we do feel in times of strength like Peter and the other disciples who confidently said: “Even though all may fall away, yet I will not.” … “Even if I have to die with You, I will not deny You!” See Mark 14:29-31. But, we also do know that we experience times of weakness and sin in which we too may deny Christ by our words and our actions.
As I considered what to write, I am reminded of Jesus’ words in the same chapter: “… the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” Mark 14:38.
The lesson for us is to put no confidence in the flesh. However, we are not to just give up in resisting temptation. The first phrase of Mark 14:38, this very same verse, is “Keep watching and praying that you may not come into temptation …”.
The following Scriptures teach us that we should resist temptations and resist the devil.
“Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm.”
“You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood in your striving against sin;”
“Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.”
“But resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished by your brethren who are in the world.”
And rely on horses,
And trust in chariots because they are many
And in horsemen because they are very strong,
But they do not look to the Holy One of Israel, nor seek the LORD!
2 Yet He also is wise and will bring disaster
And does not retract His words,
But will arise against the house of evildoers
And against the help of the workers of iniquity.
3 Now the Egyptians are men and not God,
And their horses are flesh and not spirit;
So the LORD will stretch out His hand,
And he who helps will stumble
And he who is helped will fall,
And all of them will come to an end together.” Isaiah 31:1-3.
“for we are the true circumcision, who worship in the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh,”
“A god means that from which we are to expect all good and to which we are to take refuge in all distress, so that to have a God is nothing else than to trust and believe Him from the [whole] heart; as I have often said that the confidence and faith of the heart alone make both God and an idol.That upon which you set your heart and put your trust is properly your god.
Therefore I repeat that the chief explanation of this point is that to have a god is to have something in which the heart entirely trusts.
Ask and examine your heart diligently, and you will find whether it cleaves to God alone or not. If you have a heart that can expect of Him nothing but what is good, especially in want and distress, and that, moreover, renounces and forsakes everything that is not God, then you have the only true God.
If, on the contrary, it cleaves to anything else, of which it expects more good and help than of God, and does not take refuge in Him, but in adversity flees from Him, then you have an idol, another god.”
Reformed Doctrine Daily Devotions 