There was only one time, I am told, that Edinburgh Castle was ever taken by the enemy, and that was done by climbing on the back rocks. The rocks were so steep the besieged did not believe the enemy could get in that way, but that was just where they got in.
I used to think when I had been a Christian ten or twelve years I should be so strong that there would be no danger of my ever being tempted, but I find that I was blind. I have more temptations now than I ever had before, and it takes twenty times as much grace to keep me now as at first. Let every man take heed, lest he fall. We can not tell how quickly we may fall if we are not kept by the grace of God.
Peter had to learn this lesson before he went out to preach to others. He was kept by the grace of God, if he could not keep himself. Well, I have got right here two faults of the apostle. When the Lord told him he should deny Him thrice, he ought to have trembled and cried: “Lord, keep me from denying Thee!” But, no! He said: “Lord, I am not going to deny You, if the rest do.” Just see where he stands. He stands on a slippery place, and it will not be long before he will be down. Self-confidence leads many men to their fall.
We must keep very humble and keep our eyes on the Master, and see that we do not go to sleep. If we do get asleep, then it won’t be long before we deny Him. And so we find that when Christ was down in the garden, sweating great drops of blood, He knew He was hastening to death on the cross.
Peter went to sleep. And when Jesus came back He said: “Why sleep ye? Rise and pray, lest ye enter into temptation.” Peter had been with the Lord three years, but he had to sleep.
The next that happens, for that second step down, we find that Peter fights in the flesh. When they came to arrest Christ, Peter took out his sword and cut off the servant’s ear. That servant was the only person who had suffered through the followers of Christ up to that time. Peter cut the ear off, but it did not stay off long, for it got back in just about five minutes.
Jesus cried out: “Peter, put up your sword. If I wanted to defend Myself, I could call seventy thousand angels down; I could call legions of angels down; I could defend Myself if I wanted to.” But, no; He did not do that. He had to rebuke Peter, to put a thorn in his flesh.
The next thing Peter did was to follow Jesus afar off; that is the next step. When a man gets away from the Savior, then it won’t be long before he follows Him afar off. You know Peter said, at first, he would keep close to Him. “I will stand by You; I am willing to die with You,” he had said. But now Peter changed his mind, and he followed Jesus afar off.
Well, the next thing, we find that Peter is in bad company. That is another step down. He had got, by this time, down pretty low.
A young lady comes in, looks at Peter, and says: “This man is one of His disciples.”
“No, I am not; no, not I,” says Peter.
The maid cries out at him in perfect amazement--for perhaps she had heard him preach some time--and she says: “You _are_ one of His disciples.”
“Oh, no; no, not I.”
He did not know Jesus, who was right there inside, where he could see him; and yet this man, who was so bold, did not know Him.
Another man comes to Peter and says: “You are one of His disciples.”
“No, Sir--not I. I don’t know Him--no Sir.” You see, he had got a good ways off.
The man says: “You are.”
“No; I am not.”
About an hour after Peter has denied Him, another man came around and said: “You are one of His disciples.”
“No; I am not.”
“Oh, but you are. Your speech betrays you.”
Peter had been with the Master three years, and he talked a different language from those men; and you who have been with God two or three years know that you talk better than you did before.
This man said: “You are one of those.” And Peter began to curse and swear, and said he never knew Him.
How did the Lord call him back? Although Satan had been at work on him for hours and hours, yet the Lord did call him back. The Lord asked him: “Peter, is it true that you have forgotten Me so soon? Do you remember, when we walked together by the sea, how I saved you? Do you remember the time I called you again? Do you remember the wonderful sermon that I preached on the mount? Is it true, Peter, that you do not know me?”
He might have said these things to Peter, but He did not. He just gave him one look--and what a look that was! It was a look of love, a look of tenderness, a look of pity, a look of peace.
He flashed upon Peter.
Peter remembered what he had done to the Lord. Then the cock crew, and Peter went out and wept bitterly. No one on Earth knows how Peter suffered in those hours that Christ was laid in the tomb. What hours they must have been to him! I can imagine that he did not eat any thing; that he did not sleep; that he spent those hours praying that the Lord might be given back to him.