"And Peter went out and wept bitterly." --Luke 22:62.
These words indicate the turning point in the life of Peter,--a
crisis. There is often a question about the life of holiness.
Do you grow into it? or do you come into it be a crisis suddenly?
Peter has been growing for three years under the training of Christ,
but he had grown terribly downward, for the end of his growing
was, he denied Jesus. And then there came a crisis. After the
crisis he was a changed man, and then he began to grow aright.
We must indeed grow in grace, but before we can grow in grace
we must be put right.
You know what the two halves of
the life of Peter were. In God's Word we read very often about
the difference between the carnal and the spiritual Christian.
The word "carnal" comes from the Latin word for flesh.
In Romans viii, and in Gal. v., we are taught that the flesh and
the Spirit of God are the two opposing powers by which we are
dominated or ruled, and we are taught that a true believer may
allow himself to be ruled by the flesh. That is what Paul writes
to the Corinthians. In the 3rd chapter, the first four verses,
he says, four times to them, "You are carnal, and not spiritual."
And just so a believer can allow the flesh to have so much power
over him that becomes "carnal." Every object is named
according to its most prominent characteristic. If a man is a
babe in Christ and has a little of the Holy Spirit and a great
deal of the flesh, he is called carnal, for the flesh is
his chief mark. If he gives way, as the Corinthians did, to strife,
temper, division, and envy, he is a carnal Christian. He is a
Christian, but a carnal one. But if he gives himself over entirely
to the Holy Spirit so that He (the Holy Spirit) can deliver from
the temper, the envy, and the strife, by breathing a heavenly
disposition; and can mortify the deeds of the body; then God's
Word calls him a "spiritual" man, a true spiritual Christian.
Now, these two styles are remarkably
illustrated in the life of Peter. The text is the crisis and turning
point at which he begins to pass over from the one side to the
other.
The message that I want to bring
to you is this: That the great majority of Christians, alas, are
not spiritual men, and that they may become spiritual men by the
grace of God. I want to come to all who are perhaps hungering
and longing for the better life, and asking what is wrong that
you are without it, to point out that what is wrong is just one
thing,--allowing the flesh to rule in you, and trusting in
the power of the flesh to make you good.
There is a better life, a life in
the power of the Holy Spirit.
Then, I want to tell you a third
thing. The first thing is important, take care of the carnal life,
and confess if you are in it. The second truth is very blessed,
there is a spiritual life; believe that it is a possibility. But
the third truth is the most important,--You can be one step get
out of the carnal into the spiritual state. May God reveal it
to you now through the story of the Apostle Peter!
Look at him, first of all, in the
carnal state. What are the marks of the carnal state in him? Self-will,
self-pleasing, self-confidence. Just remember, when Christ said
to the disciples at Caesarea Philippi, "The Son of Man must
be crucified," Peter said to Him, "Lord, that can never
be!" And Christ had to say to him, "Get thee behind
Me, Satan!" Dear reader, what an awful thing for Peter! He
could not understand what a suffering Christ was. And Peter was
so self-willed and self-confident that he dared to contradict
and to rebuke Christ! Just think of it! Then, you remember, how
Peter and the other disciples, were more than once quarreling
as to who was to be the chief--self-exaltation, self-pleasing;--every
one wanted the chief seat in the Kingdom of God. Then again, remember
the last night, when Christ warned Peter that Satan had desired
to sift him and that he would deny Him; and Peter said twice over,
"Lord, if they all deny Thee, I am ready to go to prison
and to death." What self-confidence! He was sure that his
heart was right. He loved Jesus, but he trusted himself. "I
will never deny my Lord.! Don't you see the whole of that life
of Peter is carnal confidence in himself. In his carnal pride,
in his carnal unlovingness, in the carnal liberty he took in contradicting
Jesus, it was all just the life of the flesh. Peter loved Jesus.
God had by the Holy Spirit, taught him. Christ had said, "Flesh
and blood hath not revealed this unto thee, but My Father which
is in heaven." God had taught him that Christ was the Son
of God; but with all that, Peter was just under the power of the
flesh; and that is why Christ said at Gethsemane, "The spirit
is willing but the flesh is weak."--"You are under the
power of the flesh, you cannot watch with Me." Dear reader,
what did it all lead to? The flesh led not only to the sins I
have mentioned, but last of all to the saddest of things, to Peter's
actual denial of Jesus. Three times over he told the lie; and
once with an oath, "I know not the man." He denied his
blessed Lord. That is what it comes to with the life of the flesh.
That is Peter.
Now, look in the second place at
Peter after he became a spiritual man. Christ had taught Peter
a great deal. I think, if you count carefully, you will find some
seven or eight times, Christ had spoken to the disciples about
humility; He had taken a little child and set him in the midst
of them; He had said, "He that exalteth himself shall be
abased, and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted; He had
said that three or four times; He had at the last supper washed
their feet; but all had not taught Peter humility. All Christ's
instructions were in vain. Remember that now. A man who is not
spiritual, though he may read his Bible, though he may study God's
Word, cannot conquer sin, because he is not living the life of
the Holy Spirit. God has so ordered it, that man cannot live a
right Christian life unless he is full of the Holy Ghost. Do you
wonder at what I say? Have you been accustomed to think,--"Full
of the Holy Ghost, that is what the Apostles had to be on the
day of Pentecost; that is what the martyrs and the ministers had
to be; but for every man to be full of the Holy Ghost, that is
too high"? I tell you solemnly, unless you believe that,
you will never become thorough-going Christians. I must be full
of the Holy Spirit if I am to be a whole-hearted Christian.
Then, note what change took place
in Peter. The Lord Jesus led him up to Pentecost, the Holy Spirit
came from heaven upon him, and what took place? The old Peter
was gone, and he was a new Peter. Just read his epistle, and note
the keynote of the epistle. "Through suffering to glory."
Peter, who had said, "Of course, Lord, you never can suffer,
or be crucified;" Peter, who, to save himself suffering or
shame, had denied Christ,--Peter becomes so changed that when
he writes his epistle the chief thought is the very thought of
Christ, "Suffering is the way to glory." Do you not
see that the Holy Spirit had changed Peter?
And look at other aspects. Look
at Peter. He was so weak that a woman could frighten him into
denying Christ; but when the Holy Spirit came he was bold, bold,
bold to confess his Lord at any cost, was ready to go to prison
and to death, for Christ's sake. The Holy Spirit had changed the
man. Look at his views of Divine truth. He could not understand
what Christ taught him, he could not take it in. It was impossible
before the death of Christ; but on the day of Pentecost how he
is able to expound the word of God as a spiritual man! I tell
you, beloved, when the Holy Ghost comes upon a man he becomes
a spiritual man, and instead of denying his Lord he denies himself,
just remember that. In the sixteenth chapter of Matthew when Peter
had said, "Lord, be it far from Thee, this shall never happen
that Thou shalt be crucified," Christ said to Him: "Peter,
not only will I be crucified, but you will have to be crucified
too. If any man is to be My disciple, let him take up his cross
to die upon it, let him deny himself, and let him follow Me."
How did Peter obey that command? He went and denied Jesus! As
long as a man, a Christian, is under the power of the flesh, he
is continually denying Jesus. You always must do one of the two,
you must deny self or you must deny Jesus, and, alas, Peter denied
his Lord rather than deny himself. On the other hand, when the
Holy Spirit came upon him, he could not deny his Lord, but he
could deny himself, and he praised God for the privilege of suffering
for Christ.
Now, how did the change come about?
The words of my text tell us,--"And Peter went out and wept
bitterly." What does that mean? It means this, that the Lord
led Peter to come to the end of himself, to see what was in his
heart, and with his self-confidence to fall into the very deepest
sin that a child of God could be guilty of;--publicly, with an
oath, to deny his Lord Jesus! When Peter stood there in that great
sin, the loving Jesus looked upon him, and that look, full of
loving reproach, loving pity, pierced like an arrow through the
heart of Peter, and he went out and wept bitterly. Praise God,
that was the end of self-confident Peter! Praise God, that was
the turning point of his life! He went out with a shame that no
tongue can express. He woke up as out of a dream to the terrible
reality "I have helped to crucify the blessed Son of God."
No man can fathom what Peter must have passed through that Friday,
Saturday and Sunday morning. But, blessed be God, on that Sunday
Jesus revealed Himself to Peter, we know not how, but "He
was seen of Simon;" then in the evening He came to him with
the other disciples and breathed peace, and the Holy Spirit upon
him; and then, later on, you know how the Lord asked him, "Simon,
son of Jonas, lovest thou me?"--three times, until Peter
was sorrowful, and said, "Lord, thou knowest all things,
thou knowest that I love thee." What was it that wrought
the transition from the love of the flesh to the love of the Spirit?
I tell you, that was the beginning,--"Peter went out and
wept bitterly," with a broken heart, with a heart that would
give anything to show its love to Jesus. With a heart that had
learned to give up all self-confidence, Peter was prepared for
the blessing of the Holy Spirit.
And, now, you can easily see the
application of this story. Are there not many just living the
life of Peter, of the self-confident Peter as he was? Are there
not many who are mourning under the consciousness, "I am
so unfaithful to my Lord, I have no power against the flesh, I
cannot conquer my temper, I give way just like Peter to the fear
of man, of company, for people can influence me and make me do
things I do not want to do, and I have no power to resist them?
Circumstances get the mastery over me, and I then say and do things
that I am ashamed of."? Is there not more than one, who,
in answer to the question, "Are you living as a man filled
with the Spirit, devoted to Jesus, following Him, fully giving
up all for Him?"--must say with sorrow, "God knows I
am not. Alas, my heart knows it."? You say it, and I come,
and I press you with the question, Is not your position, and your
character, and your conduct, just like that of Peter? Like Peter,
you love Jesus, like Peter you know He is the Christ of God, like
Peter you are very zealous in working for Him. Peter had cast
out devils in His name, and had preached the gospel, and had healed
the sick. Like Peter you have tried to work for Jesus; but, oh!
under it all, isn't there something that comes up continually?
Oh, Christian, what is it? I pray, and I try, and I do long to
live a holy life, but the flesh is too strong, and sin gets the
better of me, and continually I am pleasing self instead of denying
it, and denying Jesus instead of pleasing Him. Come, all who are
willing to make that confession, and let me ask you to look quietly
at the other life that is possible for you.
Just as the Lord Jesus gave the
Holy Spirit to Peter, He is willing to give the Holy Spirit to
you. Are you willing to receive Him? Are you willing to give up
yourself entirely as an empty, helpless vessel, to receive the
power of the Holy Spirit, to live, to dwell, and to work in you
every day? Dear believer, God has prepared such a beautiful and
such a blessed life for every one of us, and God as a Father is
waiting to see why you will not come to Him and let Him fill you
with the Holy Ghost. Are you willing for it? I am sure some are.
There are some who have said often, "O God, why can't I live
that life?--Why can't I live every hour of unbroken fellowship
with God?--Why can't I enjoy what my Father has given me, all
the riches of His grace? It is for me He gave it, and why can't
I enjoy it?" There are those who say, "Why can't I abide
in Christ every day, and every hour, and every moment?--why can't
I have the light of my Father's love filling my heart all the
day long? Tell me, servant of God, what can help me?"
I can tell you one thing that will
help you. What helped Peter? "Peter went out and wept bitterly."
It must come with us to a conviction of sin; it must come with
us to a real downright earnest repentance, or we never can get
into the better life. We must stop complaining and confessing,
"Yes, my life is not what it should be, and I will try to
do better." That won't help you. What will help you? This,--that
you go down in despair to lie at the feet of Jesus, and that you
begin with a very real and bitter shame to make confession, "Lord
Jesus, have compassion upon me! For these many years I have been
a Christian, but there are so many sins from which I have not
cleansed myself,--temper, pride, jealousy, envy, sharp words,
unkind judgments, unforgiving thoughts." One must say, "There
is a friend whom I never have forgiven for what he has said."
Another must say, "There is an enemy whom I dislike, I cannot
say that I can love him." Another must say, "There are
things in my business that I would not like brought out into the
light of man." Another must say, "I am led captive by
the law of sin and death." Oh, Christians, come and make
confession with shame and say, "I have been bought with the
Blood, I have been washed with the Blood, but just think of what
a life I have been living! I am ashamed of it." Bow before
God and ask Him by the Holy Spirit to make you more deeply ashamed,
and to work in you that Divine contrition. I pray you take the
step at once. "Peter went out and wept bitterly," and
that was his salvation; yes, that was the turning point of his
life. And shall we not fall upon our faces before God, and make
confession, and get down on our knees under the burden of the
terrible load, and say, "I know I am a believer, but I am
not living as I should to the glory of my God. I am under the
power of the flesh and all the self-confidence, and self-will,
and self-pleasing that marks my life."
Dear Christians, do you not long
to be brought nigh unto God? Would you not give anything to walk
in close fellowship with Jesus every day? Would you not count
it a pearl of great price to have the light and love of God shining
in you all the day? Oh, come and fall down and make confession
of sin; and, if you will do it, Jesus will come and meet you and
He will ask you, "Lovest thou Me?" And, if you say,
"Yes, Lord," very quickly He will ask again, "Lovest
thou Me?"--and if you say, "Yes, Lord," again,
He will ask a third time, "Lovest thou Me?"--and your
heart will be filled with an unutterable sadness, and your heart
will get still more broken down and bruised by the question, and
you will say, "Lord, I have not lived as I should, but still
I love Thee and I give myself to Thee." Oh, beloved may God
give us grace now, that, with Peter, we may go out, and, if need
be, weep bitterly. If we do not weep bitterly,--we are not going
to force tears--shall we not sigh very deeply, and bow very humbly,
and cry very earnestly, "O God, reveal to me the carnal life
in which I have been living: reveal to me what has been hindering
me from having my life full of the Holy Ghost"? Shall we
not cry, "Lord, break my heart into utter self-despair, and,
oh! bring me in helplessness to wait for the Divine power, for
the power of the Holy Ghost, to take possession and to fill me
with a new life given all to Jesus?"
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