God Can Forgive The Sin You Can’t Forget

The rooster crowed, and Peter’s confidence collapsed. That single sound marks one of the rawest moments in the Gospel of Mark, and we slow down long enough to feel the truth of it: you can love Jesus, know better, and still fail under pressure. We walk through Mark 14 and Peter’s denial, not to pile on guilt, but to confront the question so many of us carry in silence: what if God can’t forgive what I did?

From there, we bring the Bible into everyday life and relationships. We talk about the temptation to “throw people away,” especially the ones closest to us, and why healthy marriage and family life require more than expectations. We lean into Proverbs 5 and the call to rejoice in your spouse, and we push ourselves to reciprocate love with real effort, time, and attention. Forgiveness, repentance, and loyalty aren’t abstract ideas, they’re daily choices.

We also zoom out to history and public life, touching the Munich 1972 tragedy, a Medal of Honor story of courage under fire, and John Quincy Adams on Christianity and America’s foundations. Whether you’re wrestling with personal sin, trying to protect your marriage, or wondering what faithful duty looks like in a fractured culture, we come back to a line worth remembering: duty is ours, results are God’s.

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#JohnQuincyAdams

#BlackSeptember

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Transcript

Peter’s Denial And Regret

SPEAKER_00 0:03

Mark fourteen verses seventy one seventy two Peter swore A curse on me if I'm lying I don't know this man you're talking about And immediately the rooster crowed the second time suddenly Jesus' words flashed through Peter's mind Before the rooster crows twice you will deny three times that you even know me and he broke down and wept. December 8, 2013, Bristol, UK. Fourteen-year-old girl with mental issues was dragged from the street and raped in his home by Hamadullah Hamidi, an illegal immigrant from Afghanistan. Hey folks, this is Jesse Coke back with another episode of the American Soul Podcast. Hope y'all are doing well wherever y'all are, whatever part of the day you're in. Sure do appreciate you joining me, giving me a little bit of your time and attention, a little piece of your day. I will try and use it wisely. For those of y'all who continue to share the podcast with others, tell others about it, thank you. For those of y'all who continue to pray for me for the podcast, thank you. Very, very grateful for your prayers. Father, thank you for today. Thank you for you, Father, and your Son Jesus Christ, and your Holy Spirit. Thank you for your love and your mercy, your grace and your forgiveness of sins. Forgive us, Lord, when we fail. Our pride, our greed, arrogance, judgment of others, hypocrisy, lust, sexual immorality, covetousness, gossip, slander. When we refuse to forgive others as you have forgiven us, our cowardice and our unbelief help us to overcome them all. We do believe. Thank you for all your many blessings. Food to eat, water to drink, clothes to wear, cars that run, AC and heat. The freedoms and liberties that we enjoy. Be with those who don't have those things, Father. Be with our leaders in the pulpit and in the state. Give them wisdom and courage, help them to rule in fear of you. Be with our military, our law enforcement, firefighters, EMS, those overseas, and those at home. Protect them, surround them with your angels, protect their families. Bless our marriages, Father, please. Guide our steps, help us to do your will, to love you with our whole heart, mind, soul, and strength, to love our neighbors as ourselves. And guide my words, sir, Father, please. Your son's name we pray. Amen. One quick note, folks, uh, before we move on. My mother used to tell me you can't throw people away. And I was having a conversation with an acquaintance of mine recently. I think perhaps the people we treat the worst often, sadly, are those closest to us, uh closest members of our family. And this acquaintance that I was talking with, we we made note of the fact that so often we expect others to put their full effort into loving us, caring for us, whatever it is, their responsibilities that they have toward us. But we don't want to do the same in return. We don't reciprocate that effort, affection. Folks, if you have somebody in your life that really cares about you, you need to make sure that you do whatever you are supposed to do from God to fulfill that relationship and make sure that those people know how much you care about them. Reciprocate their energy, their effort, their affection, their time. You can't just throw people away. Marriage verses for today, Proverbs 5, 18 and 19. May your spring be blessed, rejoice in the wife of your youth. She is a lovely deer, a graceful doe, let her breasts intoxicate you all the time, always be drunk on her love. Bible verses for today. Mark 14, 53 through 72. Then Jesus, then they took Jesus to the high priest's home where the leading priests, the elders, and the teachers of religious law had gathered. Meanwhile, Peter followed him at a distance and went right into the high priest's courtyard. There he sat with the guards warming himself by the fire. Inside the leading priests and the entire high council were trying to find evidence against Jesus so they could put him to death, but they couldn't find any. Many false witnesses spoke against him, but they contradicted each other. Finally, some men stood up and gave this false testimony. We heard him say, I will destroy this temple made with human hands, and in three days I will build another made without human hands. But even then they didn't get their story straight. Then the high priest stood up before the others and asked Jesus, Well, aren't you going to answer these charges? What do you have to say for yourself? But Jesus was silent and made no reply. Then the high priest asked him, Are you the Messiah, the Son of the Blessed One? Jesus said, I am, and you will see the Son of Man seated in the place of power at God's right hand, and coming on the clouds of heaven. Then the high priest tore his clothing to show his horror and said, Why do we need other witnesses? You have all heard his blasphemy. What is your verdict? Guilty, they all cried. He deserves to die. Then some of them began to spit at him, and they blindfolded him and beat him with their fists. Prophesy to us, they jeered. And the guards slapped him as they took him away. Meanwhile, Peter was in the courtyard below. One of the servant girls who worked for the high priest came by and noticed Peter warming himself at the fire. She looked at him closely and said, You were one of those with Jesus the Nazareth of Nazareth. But Peter denied it. I don't know what you're talking about, he said, and he went out into the entryway. Just then a rooster crowed. When the servant girl saw him standing there, she began telling the others, This man is definitely one of them. But Peter denied it again. A little later, some of the other bystanders confronted Peter and said, You must be one of them because you are a Galilean. Peter swore, A curse on me if I'm lying. I don't know this man you're talking about, and immediately the rooster crowed the second time. Suddenly Jesus' words flashed through Peter's mind. Before the rooster crows twice, you will deny three times that you even know me. And he broke down and wept. When you think God can't forgive you, folks, for whatever your sin is, remember this story. Peter knew Jesus, knew he was the Son of God, had correctly identified him, and still abandoned him. And yet Christ forgave him. Whatever your sin is, it doesn't mean that there won't be earthly consequences for your actions, folks. It doesn't mean that we can wipe away whatever we've done on this earth here, but in eternity we can through Jesus Christ alone. Not any church, pope, pastor, priest, bishop. It doesn't matter, no denomination through Jesus Christ alone. Psalm 53, one and six one through six. Only fools say in their hearts there is no God. They are corrupt and their actions are evil, not one of them does good. God looks down from heaven on the entire human race. He looks to see if anyone is truly wise, if anyone seeks God. But no, all have turned away, all have become corrupt. No one does good, not a single one. Will those who do evil never learn? They eat up my people like bread and wouldn't think of praying to God. Terror will grip them, terror like they have never known before. God will scatter the bones of your enemies. You will put them to shame, for God has rejected them. Who will come from Mount Zion to rescue Israel? When God restores his people, Jacob will shout with joy and Israel will rejoice. Proverbs eleven four. Riches won't help on the day of judgment, but right living can save you from death. Right? Eternal death, right living, trusting in God and in Jesus Christ. Countryside, if you're looking for a family-friendly little grade read, and I have the books here somewhere. Uh if you would check out Countryside, I would appreciate it. These are the first two books in the series. First one, second one, and if you enjoy them, if you leave a review somewhere online, I would appreciate it very much. And if you feel like you're getting a little something out of the podcast, if you have five or ten dollars a month you can donate, I would be very grateful for that. Those donations help uh quite a bit. So thank you very much. September 5th to the 6th, 1972, Munich, West Germany. Some of y'all know where I'm going already. Eight members of the Muslim group Black September infiltrated the Olympic village during the Summer Olympics, killed two members of the Israeli Olympic team immediately, took nine other hostages. They were trying to release, get 200 Palestinian prisoners released. Standoff ended at I don't even know how to say that air base, during a botched rescue attempt. All nine remaining hostages were killed amid a gun battle, a total of 17 deaths, 11 Israelis, six coaches, five athletes, one West German police officer, and five perpetrators, uh, and several injuries. Again, Black September uh offshoot of the Fatah Fatah organization and Muslim. Again, folks, Muslim. And and all you've got to do is look. I wish I had this little statistic, but over the last week, there have been a number of attacks in different places uh across America, Europe, Britain committed by Muslims. There's no far extreme or fringe Muslim, just like with leftism, folks, communism, socialism, Nazism, fascism. It's mainstream. The people that support it support that outcome, whether it's openly and explicitly or whether it's covertly, whether they're just complicit in their support. They're going down the same path. You cannot coexist with followers of leftism and Islam and have peace. It's not gonna happen. Medal of Honor winner for today, Henry Lee Fervor Brown, Sergeant, Civil War, Bravo Company, 72nd New York Infantry, U.S. Army, May 6, 1864, Wilderness Campaign, Virginia. Voluntarily and under a heavy fire from the enemy, Brown three times crossed the field of battle with a load of ammunition and a blanket on his back, thus supplying the Federal forces whose ammunition had nearly all been expended, and enabled them to hold their position until reinforcements arrived, when the enemy were driven from their position. Credited to Ellicott, Erie County, New York, not awarded posthumously, presented June 23, 1896, born May 30th, 1842, Jamestown, New York, died April 29th, 1910, Jamestown, New York. Buried Lakeview Cemetery, 4 section 60, Jamestown, New York. Henry Lee Fervor Fervry Brown. I'm going to read another quote or two from John Quincy Adams today. This is a great little book, by the way. One of the sources that I use every once in a while. If you haven't, I would highly recommend a copy. America's God and Country Encyclopedia of Quotations by William J. Fetter. You can tell I've used this book pretty extensively. July 4th, 1837. Celebrating the 61st anniversary of the signing of the Declaration, John Quincy Adams was given a speech to the town of Newberry Port. Why is it that next to the birthday of the Savior of the world, your most joyous and most venerated festivals return on this day? Is it not that in the chain of human events the birthday of the nation is indissolubly linked with the birthday of the Savior? That it forms a leading event in the progress of the gospel dispensation. Is it not that the Declaration of Independence first organized the social compact on the foundation of the Redeemer's mission upon the earth? That it laid the cornerstone of human government upon the first precepts of Christianity, and gave to the world the first irrevocable pledge of the fulfillment of the prophecies announced directly from heaven at the birth of the Savior and predicted by the greatest of the Hebrew prophets 600 years before. Folks, America is directly linked to the principles of Christ, to Jesus Christ. We cannot have a melting pot nation in the sense of different values, different ideologies. You can have different denominations of Christianity, and our founders intended that. That was the whole separation of church and state. But they did not want God separated from the state, the one true God, the Father of Jesus Christ, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Our nation is directly tied to Jesus Christ. And we will rise and fall based on our relationship as a people with Him. One more from John Quincy Adams. It's a quote we've used often, and it is he was asked why he kept fighting against slavery for so many years when people attacked him so much, and he said, Duty is ours, results are God's. We need to remember that in our individual lives, in our marriages, in our country. We don't know what God's end result is going to be. But we do know or we can know and strive to do what he tells us to do, right? And let God worry about the results. Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us, and lead us not to temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory forever and ever.

unknown 16:04

Amen.

SPEAKER_00 16:05

God bless y'all. God bless your families. God bless your marriages if you're married. God bless your nation, wherever you are around the world listening. God bless America. We'll talk to y'all again real soon, folks. Looking forward to it.