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T H E K I N G ' S B U S I N E S S
December, 1938
61 And the Lord turned, and looked upon Peter. And Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how he had said unto him, Before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice. 62 And Peter went out, and wept bitterly. G olden Text: “Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall” {1 Cor. 10 : 12 ) . D evotion al R eading: Psa. 51:1-10. Outline and Exposition I . P eter ’ s W arning (L k . 22:31, 32) I N REGARD to Peter, the Lord Jesus knew what Satan was attempting to do, and He plainly told Peter about it. Satan knows hie never can wrest the soul of a born-again one from the hands of the Lord (cf. John 17:15; 10:29). But the enemy would do what he could to ruin Peter’s en joym en t of his security in Christ. With the warning concerning Satan’s ac tivity, the Lord Jesus gave Peter the assur ance that this disciple’s faith would not fail, for our Lord had defeated Satan’s ultimate purpose by means of His prayer on Peter’s behalf. Furthermore, the word to Peter was that he would be restored, and thereafter be greatly used by the Lord. The Revised Version translates the passage, “when once thou hast turned again” (v. 32). Peter would not be converted in the sense of be ing saved over again by accepting the Lord as his S aviour, but he would be converted when once again he would place the Lord as M aster upon the throne of his life. II. P eter ’ s P rofession (33, 34) In spite of the plain declaration of the Lord, Peter steadfastly maintained that he would never deny Him. How often do we ourselves sing “All to Jesus I Surrender,” and songs of similar meaning, and then go forth to live a lie concerning our declara tion! It should be observed that when Peter said he would choose to die before he would deny the Lord, he was saying in effect that the Lord was not telling the truth, or was mistaken, or that He was not aware of the depth of Peter’s devotion. There was much of self-confidence in Peter’s bold profession. He manifested the boastfulness and self-assurance that lurks in every human heart! It may be that this ex perience w ai given to Peter in order to teach him his own weakness, and thus ever afterwards to make him distrustful of his own sufficiency. Happy is the believer who realizes that it is not the human hand hold ing to the Lord that maintains unbroken fellowship with Christ, but it is the mighty hand of the Lord holding the feeble saint that enables the saint to stand triumphant against Satan's attacks. But the believer must keep himself constantly dependent up- BLACKBOARD LESSON
on that almighty power. It was at this point that Peter failed. III. P eter ' s D enial (54-62) The immediate cause of the denial might be found in the words, “Peter followed afar off" (v. 54). But behind this circumstance lay ignorance of the pride and weakness of -self (cf. Prov. 11:3; 29:23). In Peter's case, his denial of Christ was not a sudden thing, even though it had that appearance. Peter’s guard was not thrust down by the hand of thè enemy; it had been thrust down by Peter himself when he maintained, in proud self-sufficiency and against the word of the Lord, that he would not deny his Lord. The denial was cowardly; it was induced by the fear of man. It was complete, in three stages, as Jesus had said it would be. Peter was not forced to deny his Lord be cause Jesus had said he would deny Him, but the Lord Jesus made His declaration in the light of His perfect omniscience con cerning all things. Let us not, under a false sense of charity, lessen the heinousness of Peter’s guilt, but let us take the incident as a warning to ourselves, lest we, too, fall in similar manner (cf. 1 Cor. 10:12). W e can thank God that Peter’s recovery is also recorded for our encouragement and learning. The look that Jesus turned upon him entered into his very soul and brought memories that caused a grief which only a saved man could feel. Peter’s weeping in dicates there was godly sorrow in his heart. Remorse, alone, consumed Judas. Judas seems to have thought only of the co n se q u en ces of his sin, while Peter’s thought seems to have centered in the ch a ra cter of his sin. W’. H. Griffith Thomas once said: “Satan trapped Judas; he tripped Peter.” Peter was both publicly and privately re stored. He was restored to the Lord first, then to the Lord's disciples, and finally to the Lord’s apostles (cf. 1 Cor. 15:5; Lk. 24:34; John 21:15-17). Points and Problems 1. "Simon . . . Satan hath d esired to h a v e you " (Lk. 22:31). “Desired” is hard ly adequate as a translation of the Greek verb. The American Revision renders it “asked,” but at the same time places an al ternative translation in a footnote, “obtained you by asking." The devil secu red what he asked for. But the Lord had a most gracious purpose in granting the devil’s request, just as He had a gracious purpose in granting a similar request in the case of Job. Like Job, Peter needed to be “sifted.” There was much chaff in him to be removed. 2. "But 1 h a v e p ra yed fo r thee, that th y faith fa il not’f (v. 32). Here we have the saving antidote for all the devil’s sifting— the intercessory work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Were it not for that, we would all be lost before another day is past. But be cause He has prayed for us, no true be liever can be lost. The Lord prayed for Peter that his faith would not fail. And it did not fail. The Lord let him drop, a ter rible distance, that he might learn how utterly helpless he was in his own strength. Everything else in Peter failed, but his faith did not fail. And men are saved by faith. How blessed it is to know that we too have
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