“How you feel about Christ, how you view Him will determine your heaven or your hell. Peter was a betrayer. And we could see how it happened. He boasted too much. He prayed too little. He acted too fast–drew out a sword and wanted to make a war. He followed too far; he stayed off in the shadows. So you can say, ‘Yeah, there were some factors in overconfidence and lack of prayer and impulsiveness and cowardice. But Peter was no final disaster.’ He was no final disaster. Grace was operating in Peter’s life. Grace was not operating in Judas’ life. Grace was operating in Peter’s life because Peter loved Jesus Christ. And John tells us in 1 John 4, ‘We love Him because He first loved us.’ Jesus had set His love on Peter and Peter loved Him in return. They had a relationship of love. That is the deep and compelling attitude of the true believer. It comes down to this: the true believer’s love for Christ is the evidence of salvation. In fact, in 1 Corinthians 16:22 Paul says, ‘If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be damned.’ It comes to that.
You look at Christianity, you look at the church, and you can get very complicated about what it means to be a Christian. It’s this simple. Look at your heart. Do you love Christ? Do you seek His honor? Seek His glory? Does your heart go out in affection toward Him? Do you desire to please Him, exalt Him, love Him, worship Him, commune with Him, hear Him? I’ll sum it up: ‘If you love Me,’ John 14, ‘you keep My’…What?… ‘commandments’–you love His Word. You love Him. That’s how love acts.”
Listen to the entire message below as John MacArthur explains from Matthew 26-27 the difference between Judas Iscariot’s betrayal of Christ and subsequent regret and that of the Apostle Peter. Two betrayals and two sorrows — producing true repentance in Peter alone — leading to two different eternal destinations.
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