Let us turn into God's Word,
directing your attention for our text to Luke chapter 22 and
verses 61 and 62. Luke chapter 22 verses 61 and
62. 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. And Peter went out and wept bitterly. Earlier in the day we were considering
those words that we find in the former part of the chapter of
verses 31 and 32, where we see Peter in the sieve, in Satan's
sieve, the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold Satan hath desire
to have you that he may sift you as wheat, but I have prayed
for thee that thy faith fail not and when thou art converted
strengthen thy brethren. We observed amongst other things
how the Lord deals with this man, Simon Peter, in a very particular
fashion. The significance of the pronouns,
remember, we have both the plural, you, in verse 31, and the singular,
thee, in verse 32. Although the Lord is speaking
to Simon Peter, when he says, Simon hath desired to have you,
that he may shift you as weak, that reference is not just to
Simon Peter, it's to all the disciples. It's a plural pronoun. The devil would seek to assault
every child of God and yet although Satan is bent on the destruction
of all the people of God, here we see that this man Peter was
the one who was particularly vulnerable at this time and so
the Lord speaks of prayer in particular for this man I have
prayed for thee that's a singular pronoun that thy faith that is
the faith of Peter that thy faith fail not and when thou art converted
strengthen thy Brethren, all the pronouns there in verse 32
are in the singular. Why was it that Peter was so
vulnerable at this time? Well, we did recognize that the
sovereignty of God is, of course, in all of these things. The mystery
of that absolute sovereignty of God even. Satan is no free
agent. And Peter must be sifted. We
know that There is a sifting ministry, separating through
the preaching of the Gospel, a separating of one from another.
The Gospel comes to some the savour of life, to others it
comes the savour of death. There's a separation made in
a congregation, but there's also that sifting that takes place
in every individual believer's heart. And here is Peter needing
to be in the sift. that that that is precious in
his soul might be separated from that that is simply of himself
and there was much of himself. This man was full of vain self-confidence. As we see in verse 33 he says
to Christ Lord I am ready to go with thee both into prison
and to death. Elsewhere he says though all
should forsake them yet will not I. Here is a man looking
to himself, proud, we might say presumptuous, but how accursed
is that sin of pride. It's there of course in the garden
of Eden with our first parents, although it's unbelief that is
the root of all their sin, yet it's mixed up with pride when
the Devil comes to Eve, and what does he say? If she will but
hear his temptation and fall in with it and partake of the
forbidden fruit, he shall be as God. He shall be as God. There's pride there. It is pride,
accursed pride, that spirit by God hath whored. Do what we will.
It hoards us still and keeps us from the Lord, says the hymn
writer. Pride goeth before destruction.
and to haunt his spirit before the fall. And this was the case
with this man, Simon Peter. Christ tells him, Peter, the
cock shall not crow this day, before that thou shalt thrice
deny that thou knowest me. He would fall. He would not fall
from grace, but he would be humbled, he would be sifted in his very
soul. And this is the work that God
is pleased to do in the hearts of all His children. We all stand
in need of that sifting work, that winnowing that must take
place in our souls. God says, No, I will command
and I will sift the house of Israel among all nations like
as corn is sifted in a sieve, yet shall not the least grain
fall to the ground. All that precious grain. that
real thing, that root of the matter that must be in us, but
now we need everything else to be sifted out of us. And so the
Lord is in these things, though Satan
is there. Satan hath desire to have you,
that he may sift you as wheat, he would have all of them, he
would destroy all of them. But that tender ministry of the Lord
I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not And but for
Christ and the prayers of the Lord Jesus Christ, what hope
would there have been for Peter? How we need that intercession
of Christ, as our great High Priest, He's not only made the
great sacrifice, the great offering as our substitute if we're those
who are trusting in Him and have an interest in that blessed work
of Christ, what a mercy. to know that that precious blood
cleanseth us from all our sins but we also need Christ as that
one who is an interceding priest whoever lives to make intercession
for all that come to God by him or do we come to God and do we
seek to come only by and through the mediation of Christ if that
is the way of our coming we will be heard and answered Here is
Peter then, and he is preserved, and preserved by Christ's intercession. But I have prayed for thee, that
thy faith fail not, and when thou art converted, strengthen
thy brethren. And then in the words that I've
announced for our text tonight, do we not see the restoration
of this man, the restoration of Peter. 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. And Peter went out and wept bitterly. First of all though, let's consider
something of Peter's sin and the enormity of his sin. Here we have a vivid demonstration
of how sin multiplies itself and how sin aggravates itself. It has been observed that man
knows the beginning of sin, but who can vouch the issues thereof? Where will sin lead? We might
know something of the beginnings of sin, But sin, as I said, is
acts that grows and multiplies. And we have in the opening chapter
of James' general epistle something of what we might say is the history
of sin. And we find it in a very small
compass. We find it in just two verses.
The history of sin. In James 1, verses 14 and 15,
every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust
and enticed. Then, when lust hath conceived,
it bringeth forth sin, and sin, when it is finished, bringeth
forth death. There we have sin in the totality
of its history from conception to its awful end, death. When loss has conceived it brings
forth sin and sin when it is finished brings forth death. There is the inevitability. What
does sin lead to? It leads to death. It's a frightful
thing, a fearful thing. And we're all sinners, without
any exception. Every one of us present here
tonight, everyone in this city, everyone throughout Islam, throughout
all the nations of the earth, all have sinned and come short
of the glory of God. and all therefore are deserving
of that eternal death. We all have in us that evil heart,
a wicked heart, from which every dreadful thing proceeds. Remember
the scribes and Pharisees and their
tradition and their formalism, how they would rebuke the disciples
of Christ because they didn't observed the ritual washings
when they went to the market. They were eating said those scribes
and pharisees with unwashed hands. It wasn't a matter of hygiene,
it was a matter simply of religious ritual. And the Lord speaks to
them sharply and reminds them it's not anything from without. Going into a man that defiles
a man, it's that that comes from within, out of his heart. all
the hearts in man it is a sink of iniquity full of all concupiscence
says Paul, the great apostle Paul in Romans 7 says of himself
he was full of all evil, all sinful desire loss when it has
conceived bringeth forth sin and sin when it is finished bringeth
forth death and we say, I say something of what sin is here
how it multiplies, how it is aggravated in the fall of Simon
Peter. Look then at the history that
follows. That word that the Lord spoke
was a true word. The cock shall not crow this
day before that thou shalt thrice deny that thou knowest me and
we have it at verse 54 following when they came to the garden
and took away Christ we read then took they him and led him
and brought him unto the high priest house and Peter followed
afar off and Peter followed far off. I like the simple observation
that Matthew Henry makes on that little sentence. That little
sentence at the end of verse 54. Matthew Henry simply says sin
begins in sneaking. Sin begins in sneaking. He follows. When he follows far
off he sneaks along. But he's on an awful course this
man. this is the cause of sin he keeps his distance in a certain
sense but what do we subsequently see? he sits down among those
who are really the enemies of Christ in verse 55 Peter sat down among them Now
these are the ones who were there in the Garden of Gethsemane. They were part of that great
crowd that came with Judas Iscariot, the one who was the betrayer
of the Lord Jesus Christ. We are told that in In John 18 and verse 26, one
of the servants of the high priest, being his kinsman, whose Peter
cut off, said, Did not I see thee in the garden with him?
That was the third time when Peter denied the Lord, as we
see in verse 27, Peter denied again, and immediately the cock
crewed. But this man, you see, who speaks
to him, was a relation of the one whose Peter had been cut
off, he was there in the garden. These were those who were the
enemies of Christ. And here is Peter in verse 55
in the midst of them, sitting amongst them. Or do we not, in
that Psalm that we sang, Psalm 1, do we not there see something
of the dreadful progression of sin? Blessed is the man, says
the psalmist, that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly,
nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the
scornful. You see the progression. He begins
by walking. The blessed man doesn't go this
way. The blessed man avoids such a course of life. He doesn't
walk in the counsel of the ungodly. that's the beginning but then
we see the wicked man standing standing in the way of sinners
no more is he simply passing through he now begins to loiter
with the sinner and then finally he feels all together at home
with them he sits he sits there amongst them he sits in the seat
of the scornful isn't this where Peter is? Isn't Peter seeking
to identify himself with such characters as these? He denies
the Lord. He disowns Christ. All the dreadful
progressions. It all begins with his sneaking.
He simply follows. He's following afar off. Is there
not a lesson for us to learn, friends? We have to avoid the
way of the sinner. We're not even to imagine for
a moment that we would be safe if we go in their way. Here along we'll find ourselves
where Peter was, sitting quite secure amongst them. And so we
come then to his first denial of Christ. In verse 56, a certain
maid beheld him as he sat by the fire and earnestly looked
upon him and said, this man was also with him and he denied him. Sane woman, I know him not. Previously, he's at a distance when he first begins to go, but
now what does he do? He openly denies Christ. He denies any knowledge of the
Lord Jesus Christ. and then it follows we have another
denial the second denial in verse 58 after a little while another
saw him and said thou art also of them and Peter said man I
am not now we are told a little more detail when we consult the
other Gospels, remember we said before how God in his goodness
and mercy has not just given us a single Gospel, he's given
us a fourfold Gospel and it is profitable to compare the readings
in the different Gospels so we get the full picture concerning
all that transpired in the life of the Lord Jesus Christ, all
the detail of his birth and his ministry and his sufferings and
his death and his rising again, they are a fourfold gospel. And
if we compare verses with verses, what do we discover? Well, the
second denial recorded in Matthew chapter 26 and verse 72, we read
again, he denied with an oath. He denied the second time with
an oath. I do not know the man," he said,
hearing Luke's account. Man, I am not. I'm not one of them. I don't
know anything about this man. But we're told by Matthew that
he actually swore at this time. He's angry. He's angry because
He feels that they have identified him, they know who he is, they
know he is one of Christ's disciples. There is the second denial, and
then we have the third denial. Verse 59, about the space of
one hour after, another confidently affirmed saying of a truth, his
fellow also was with him, for he is a Galilean. And Peter said,
Man, I know not what they sayest. And immediately while he did
speak, the cock crowed. Now, that's the same, you see,
as that verse that we referred to just now in John John's account. Now we need to compare these
verses one to another, but this is the last. of his denials. But now we have to observe that
there's some while before he makes the third denial, we're
told it was about the space of one hour after. One hour after. Here we see quite clearly that Peter is setting this course.
it's not just rash words that he's saying only to immediately
regret what he said he's set in this course it's about an
hour after he made those first two denials and then in Matthew's account
we see that again he swears and he curses in Matthew chapter
26 and there at verse 74 then began he to
curse and to swear to curse and to swear saying I know not the
man and immediately the cock crowed he doesn't only curse,
he also swears now. In fact, the word that's used
there is that from which we have the word anathematized. He anathematizes himself. Now what does that mean? Well
look at 1 Corinthians and the end of chapter 16, the end of
that epistle, 1 Corinthians chapter 16, if any man love not the Lord
Jesus Christ Let him be anathema, it says. It's that word. Let
him be accursed. Maranatha. Our Lord is come. That's what we have at the end
of that epistle, that first letter to the Corinthians. If any man
love not the Lord Jesus Christ, Let him be anathema, let him
be a curse. And what is Peter doing? He is
pronouncing a curse upon himself. He is anathematising himself
as he denies Christ for the third time. There is a dreadful progression
here in the language which Peter is using. He is sinking deeper
and deeper into his sin. or that God would show us how
sin is a dreadful thing. We might know the beginning of
it, but one thing leads to another.
There is a sinking in this, there is a multiplying in this, or
that God would show us how terrible it is, or that hideous, monstrous
sin, or the curse that thou brought in, All creation groaned through
the pregnant cause of misery, all the misery that comes. Does he not come as the consequence
of sin, the sin of our first parents? There were Adam and
Eve set in the Garden of Eden. It was paradise. It was paradise
upon earth. But they sinned, and their sin
has come down through the centuries. How it ruined man, how it ruined
wretched man. Ever since the world began, there
was God afflicted too. Nothing less than that would
do. All the sufferings of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Did he not suffer as the great
sin bearer? But the sin, or that we might
be shown what sin is. That person is sacred, a sinner
is a sacred thing, says Joseph Hart. the Holy Ghost has made
him so when our eyes are opened and we see what's in his and
we want to shun all the ways of seeing we will not walk that
way lest we find ourselves being established in that course of
living but let us having said something with regards to this
man's theme turn in the second place to notice two things with
regards to the sight of this man See how his accusers saw
him, they certainly saw him, they beheld him. As we see there at verse 36,
a certain maid beheld him as he sat by the fire and earnestly
looked upon him. He could be seen by the light
of the fire but she looks at this man. and she takes some
account of him. She is persuaded that this man
had been with the Lord Jesus. She was persuaded, as she looked
at him, that he was one of those who was a disciple, a follower
of the Lord Jesus. And then again with the second
one, verse 58, after a little while, another saw him, another
saw him, another looked upon him and observed him. and was persuaded that he was
a follower of the Lord Jesus. So, out of all of them, said
the man, how they see him, but it's not only as they see him,
but it's also the way in which he speaks that betrays him. You don't know whether The reference
in verse 59 to him being a Galilean is indicative that it was anything
to do with his appearance. It seems more likely it was the
manner of his speaking. Because what we have in verse
59 is explained somewhat more fully when we turn to the account
in Mark. In Mark chapter 14 and verse
70, Surely thou art one of them, for thou art a Galilean. and
thy speech agreeeth thereto. It's not just as they look at
him and recognise him as one who had been with the Lord Jesus,
but it's the manner of his speaking. All friends, do people take account
of us? Do they take note of us? And
of our speech? When they look at us, do people
see anything, anything of Christ, anything of the Spirit of Christ
in us? Does our speech betray us? Does our speech savour of the
Lord Jesus Christ? Remember after Christ's death
and resurrection how emboldened the disciples were and we see
it so clearly in the opening chapters of the Acts after the
blessed coming of the Holy Spirit, after that anointing that comes
upon them. How these men are so bold in
preaching Christ, in proclaiming the Gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ in Acts chapter 4 for example. Remember how There was that man
who was begging alms at the beautiful gate of the temple. Now he had been healed by Peter
and John and then we have the consequences in the following
verses and chapters. In chapter 4 of Acts and verse
13 we are told this, When they saw the boldness of Peter and
John, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men,
they marveled. And they took knowledge of them
that they had been with Jesus. And beholding the man which was
healed, standing with them, they could say nothing against it.
Oh, they saw these men. This is a very different Peter.
This is Peter restored. and his restoration owes everything
to Christ. It's all of Christ. And now the
Spirit of Christ has come upon Peter and the other apostles. And they were so more though
themselves such unlearned, ignorant men. And they marveled and they
took knowledge that they had been with Jesus. All the people
take account of us are we those who know what it is to be with
Jesus. And to know the ministry of that blessed Spirit, the Spirit
of Christ, all that self-effacing ministry of God the Holy Ghost,
how He comes to bear testimony to Christ. He doesn't speak of
Himself, He takes of the things of Christ and He reveals them
to us. Do we know anything of that gracious
ministry of the Spirit making Christ real to us and making
us those who are willing to walk in the footsteps of the Lord
Jesus Christ? We want to conform to His image.
We want people to take account of us, to take knowledge of us,
that we have been with Jesus. We want our speech to betray
us in that sense. Let your speech be always with
grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer
every man, says the Apostle. Is our speech like that? Is it
with grace? Is it seasoned? Seasoned with
the salt of the covenant savouring of the things of the Lord Jesus
Christ. We want to speak well of Him.
We want to bear testimony to Him. We don't want to speak of
ourselves. I've known some professed believers and one trusts that
they were truly the children of God and yet sometimes in conversation
they spoke more of themselves than they spoke of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Oh friends, what are we? We are
as nothing. That was what the Apostle considered
himself to be a nothing. A zero. Though I be nothing,
he said. less than the least of all saints.
The least are of saints. If there's such a word, he coins
the word in a sense. You can't get below the least
and yet Paul says he was less than the least of all saints
and he was the chief of sinners. What does Paul do in his writings? I know he writes under the inspiration
of the Holy Spirit But you see where the Spirit of the Lord
is, there is the exalting of Christ. That's what Paul does
all the time. Who are we those who want to speak one of Christ?
We want our speech then to be with grace. We want our speech
to betray us. Simon Peter's speech betrayed
him. He's accused us all of something
here. I know he's denying Christ, he's sinking into sin. But this
man is a saved man, he does not lose sight of that. And so we
come to this now. How does the Lord see him? How
the Lord is pleased to look upon him? The Lord turned, it says,
and looked upon Peter. Or could it please the Lord to
turn and to look upon you? And to look upon me? And you see what happens when
the Lord thus looks. There's a connection there with
the Word. Peter remembered the Word of
the Lord. We have the Word of the Lord, and we read the Word
of the Lord, and we try to preach the Word of the Lord, but sometimes
it goes no further than that. It's just words. How we knew
that the Lord would look. And when the Lord looks, you
see, there's an application. There's something happening here
with Peter. Peter remembers the word of the
Lord. And we had said unto him before
the cock crow, Thou shalt deny me thrice. And Peter went out
and wept bitterly. Now what sort of a look then
is this that Christ gives to Simon Peter? It is certainly
a convincing and a convicting look. What does Peter see? Peter sees something in the face
of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord turned and looked upon
Peter, and Peter sees his sin in the face of Christ. That's
what Peter sees. He sees that he's sinned, and
he sees it because the Lord is looking upon him. We often quote
those lines of Joseph Hart, Law and terrors do but harden, all
the while they work alone, but a sense of blood-bored pardon
soon dissolves the heart of stone. There is that conviction of sin
that comes by the ministry of the law, that is the point and
purpose of the law, that's the lawful use of the law. Whatsoever
things the law says, it says to them who are under the law,
that every mouth may be stopped and all the world become guilty
before God. Therefore by the deeds of the
law shall no flesh be justified in his sight, for by the law
is the knowledge of sin. Oh, there is a ministry of the
law, you see, to convince, to slay the sinner, to bring the
sinner to the end of himself, It's that ministry of condemnation. That's what the Lord is about.
But we need something more than to see our sin in the light of
God's holy law. Isn't that a tremendous verse
that we sang in our opening hymn? Thy dying love, thy mercy felt,
makes godly sorrow rise and tears of penitential grief gush from
the sinner's eyes. That's Peter. That's Peter. He has some understanding now.
I know Christ has not yet gone the way of the cross, but he's
spoken much of his suffering to the Lord. He has been preaching
that to Peter and the other disciples. Thy dying love, thy mercy found,
makes godly sorrow rise and tears of penitential grief gush from
the sinner's eyes. What does Peter do? Peter went
out and wept. Oh, they were bitter tears. He
had denied his Lord. He denied Christ. He denied Christ
swearing and cursing. Oh, what a look this is in that
Christ gives to him. It's a convicting look. He brings
conviction, real conviction, into his soul. There's a difference,
you see. We have to recognize there's a difference between
a repentance that might be said to be just natural and a true
spiritual evangelical repentance. Godly sorrow worketh repentance
to salvation, not to be repented of. The sorrow of the world worketh
death. The sorrow of the world. It might
be a grieving, you see. We sometimes are guilty, are
we not, of grieving over the consequence of our sins. The troubles that sin brings
into our lives. But ought to grieve over sin.
because it's such an offence to God, and because it costs
God's dear son his lifeblood. This is a godly sorrow. There
was real conviction in the soul of this man. But this look is
not only convincing and convicting, this is also a comforting look,
a converting look. The Lord turns and looked upon
Peter and Peter remembered the word of the Lord he remembered
what the Lord had said he discovered the truth of that word before
the cock crowed thou shalt deny me thrice and Peter went out
and wept bitterly the Lord had wounded him with
that look but the Lord also healed him with that look That's the
wonder of the gospel, is it not? That's the wonder of the gospel.
Why does the Lord wound us in this day of grace? Why does he
bring conviction into our souls in order that we might really
understand what the gospel is and the comforts of the gospel?
The whole they have no need of a physician, but the sick, Christ
says, I came not to call the righteous but sinners. To repentance
we need to know what sin is, we need to know that we are sinners.
We need to be convinced of our sins. We need to be slain, as
it were, that we might see the only place where we can find
that new life, that spiritual life, it's in Christ. See now
that I, even I am hurt. And beside me there is none other. I kill and I make alive. I wound
and I heal, and none can deliver out of my hands. Deuteronomy
32, 39. That's the Lord, you see. He
kills, but He makes alive. He wounds, but He also heals. And there we need that He should
come and minister to us in that fashion. Or to cast a look upon
us, to look upon us, to behold us. We do not need to be those
who would pray to him. We see how the Psalmist does
this many times. The Psalms are a book of praises,
yes, but the Psalms are also a book of prayers. There be many
who say, who will show us any good? Lord, lift thou up the
light of thy countenance upon us, says the Psalms. All he wants
the Lord to lift up his countenance, he wants the Lord to look upon
him. To behold Him. Again, Psalm 67
begins, God be merciful unto us and bless us and cause His
face to shine upon us. There was a shining, you see,
of the face of the Lord Jesus Christ when He looked upon this
man. Because Peter, he was restored. He was restored. When thou art
converted, strengthen thy brethren, the Lord hath said. The Lord
had prayed for him, there was a purpose in all of this. Oh,
Satan, Satan is the one who is active there, he's in Satan's
ship, but oh, Satan time and again overshoots himself. Oh, Satan is so frustrated in
all his wicked designs. This man is restored and this
man is able then to minister to his brethren as we see it
and we refer to these things this morning. Remember how he
writes there in his first epistle of the trying of faith. how the believer is one who has
to endure that dreadful trial the trial of your faith says
Peter being much more precious than of gold that perisheth though
it be tried with fire might be found unto praise and honor and
glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ and then again later he
says Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial that
is to try you as though some strange thing happened unto you. He was able to minister you,
sir. He was truly restored, and how the Lord ultimately restores
him there at the end of John's Gospel. Three times, three times,
He denied Christ. And three times the Lord comes
to him with those searching words by the Sea of Tiberias, by the
Sea of Galilee. In John 21 verse 15, So when
they had died, Jesus said to Simon Peter, Simon son of Jonas,
love to sell me more than these. He saith unto him, Yea, Lord,
thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my lambs.
He saith to him again a second time, Simon, son of Jonas, love
us, O Mary. He saith unto him, Yea, Lord,
thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my sheep.
He saith unto him the third time, Simon, son of Jonas, love us,
O Mary. Peter was grieved Because he
said unto him the third time, Lovest thou me? And he said unto
him, Lord, thou knowest all things. Thou knowest that I love thee.
Or can we say that with the man Peter? Lord, thou knowest all
things. Thou knowest that I love thee. Jesus saith unto him, Feed my
sheep. Or this man truly was restored. Now that doesn't give us excuse
for sin. Sin is a fearful thing. I trust
we've sought in some way to make that plain. It's an awful labyrinth
to fall into. How one sin leads to another. How sin is compounded. And yet
here is this man so graciously restored by Christ. 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 and Peter went out and wept bitterly. Amen.