ANOTHER CHANCE FOR YOU!
"They that stood by ... said to Peter, Surely thou also
art one of them? Then began he to curse and to swear,
saying, "I know not the Man" (Matthew xxvi. 73, 74).
"Jesus saith to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jones, lovest
thou Me more thou 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 the second time, Simon, son of Jonas,
lovest thou Me? 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, lovest thou
Me? 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. Jesus
saith unto him, Feed My sheep" (John xxi. 15-17).
Peter vowed before his comrades that he would die with Jesus
rather than deny Him. In a few hours the opportunity of doing so
presented itself but Peter's heart failed him. He forgot his vow and
threw away for ever this unparalleled chance of proving his love for
the Saviour.
When the cock crew, and Jesus turned and looked at him, Peter
remembered his broken vow, and went out and wept bitterly. The
tenderest sorrow for the way he had treated Jesus must have mingled
with the fiercest regret for the lost chance, to bring those bitter
tears. Oh, how his love must have reproached him, his conscience
stung him, and the devil taunted him! I doubt not he was tempted to
give up all hope, and say to himself: "It is of no use for me to try
to be a Christian; I have made a miserable failure, and I will not
try any longer." And over and over again, by day and by night, in
the company of others and when by himself, Peter must have been
reminded by the devil of his lost chance, and told it was no use for
him to try any longer to be a Christian. And I imagine Peter sighed
within himself, and would have given the world to have that chance
come back once more. But it was gone, and gone for ever!
Peter did love Jesus, however, and while he had lost that chance,
Jesus gave him another. A very simple, everyday, matter-of-fact
chance it was, nothing like the startling, splendid one of dying
with the Son of God on the cross, but probably of far more value to
the world and the cause of Christ. All over the country where Jesus
had been there were, doubtless, many who believed with a trembling
faith in Him. They needed to be faithfully fed with the truths about
Jesus, and with those which He had taught. So Jesus called Peter to
Him, and asked him three times the searching question: "Lovest thou
Me?" It must have most painfully recalled to Peter's mind the three
times he had denied Jesus. And in reply to Peter's positive
assertion that he did love Him, Jesus three times commanded him to
feed His lambs and sheep. And then Jesus assured him that at last he
should die on a cross -- as he probably would have died had he not
denied his Lord.
I suspect there are many Peters among the disciples of Jesus today;
many in our own ranks, who, somewhere in the past, since they began
to follow Jesus, vowed they would do the thing He by His Spirit
through their conscience asked them to do; vowed they would die for
Him, and meant it, too; who, when the testing time came, forgot
their vows, denied Jesus by word or act, and practically left Him to
be crucified afresh and alone.
I remember such a time in my own experience years ago, before I
joined The Salvation Army, but after I was sanctified. It was not a
sin of commission, but one of omission -- a failure to do what I
felt the Lord would have me do. It was an unusual thing, but not an
unreasonable one. The suggestion to act came suddenly, and it seemed
to me that all Heaven bent over me to bless me, if I obeyed; and
Hell yawned to swallow me, if I did not. I did not say I would not,
but it seemed to me I simply could not, and I did not. Oh, how I was
humbled, and how I wept bitter tears, and begged forgiveness, and
promised God I would be true! I felt God had given me a chance that
I had let slip by, and that would never, never come again, and that
I never could be the mighty man of faith and obedience that I might
have been had I been true. Then I promised God that I would do that
very same thing, and I did it again and again, but no real blessing
came to me, and so Satan took advantage of me and taunted me and
accused me through my conscience till life became an intolerable
burden to me; and at last I felt I had grieved the Holy Spirit for
ever and that I was lost, and so I threw away my shield of faith,
cast away my confidence in the love of Jesus for me, and for
twenty-eight days suffered, it seemed to me, the pains of Hell. I
still prayed, but the heavens were like brass to me. I read my
Bible, but the promises fled away from me, while the commandments
and threatenings were like flames of fire and two-edged swords to my
quivering conscience. When it was night I longed for day; when it
was day I longed for night.
I went to meetings, but no blessing came to me. The curse of God
seemed to follow me, and yet through it all I saw that God is love.
Satan tempted me to commit sin, to curse God and die, as Job's wife
bade him; but God's mercy and grace followed me, and enabled me to
say "No," and to tell the devil that I would not sin, and that
though I went to Hell, I would go there loving Jesus and seeking to
get others to trust and obey Him, and that in Hell I would declare
that the Blood of Jesus could cleanse from all sin. I thought I was
doomed. Those terrible passages of Scripture in Hebrews vi. and x.
seemed just to fit my case, and I said: "I have lost my chance for
ever." But God's love is
Higher than the highest heaven,
Deeper than the deepest sea.
In twenty-eight days He drew me up out of that horrible pit and that
miry clay with these words: "Hold it for certain that all such
thoughts as create disquiet proceed not from God, who is the Prince
of Peace, but proceed either from the devil, or from self-love, or
from the good opinion we hold of ourselves."
Quick as thought I saw it. God is the Prince of Peace. "His thoughts
are thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give us an expected end."
I saw I had no self-love, nor good opinion of myself, and longed to
be for ever rid of myself. Then I saw that the devil was deceiving
me, and instantly it was as though a devil-fish loosened his long
arms from about my spirit and fled away, leaving me free.
The next Saturday and Sunday I saw about fifty souls at the
Penitent-form for salvation and holiness, and from that hour God has
blessed me and given me souls everywhere. He has asked me, through
those words He spoke to Peter, "Lovest thou Me?" and when, out of
the fullness of my clean heart -- emptied of self, and made clean
through His precious Blood -- I have said, "Yea, Lord, Thou knowest
all things; Thou knowest that I love Thee," He has tenderly bidden
me feed His lambs and sheep; that is, to live the Gospel so fully in
my life, and preach it so fully in my words, that His people should
be blessed and comforted, and encouraged to love and serve and trust
Him with all their hearts.
This is my other chance; and it is yours, whoever you are who have
denied Him in the past.
Do not seek to do some great thing, but feed the lambs and sheep of
God, and pray and work for the salvation of all men. Study your
Bible, pray, talk often and much with God, and ask Him so to teach
you that, whenever you open your mouth, you may say something that
will bless somebody -- something that will encourage a discouraged
brother, strengthen a weak one, instruct an ignorant one, comfort a
feeble-minded one, warn an erring one, enlighten a darkened one, and
rebuke a sinning one.
Notice: Peter was not only to feed the lambs, but also the sheep. We
must seek to get sinners saved, and after they are saved, after they
are "born again," we must feed them. We must feed the young converts
on those promises and instructions in God's Word that will lead them
into entire sanctification. We must show them that this is God's
will for them, and that Jesus has opened a way for them into "the
most holy place" (Heb. x.). We must warn them not to turn back into
Egypt, not to be afraid of the giants in the promised land, nor to
make any unholy alliance with the Ammonites in the wilderness. They
are to come out and be separate. They are to be holy. This is their
high and happy privilege and their solemn duty, since they have been
redeemed, not with corruptible things such as silver and gold, but
with the precious Blood of Christ. They are not to faint when
chastened and corrected by the Lord, nor grow weary in well-doing.
They are to watch and pray, and give thanks, and rejoice always. And
they are not to get the blessing of a clean heart by hard work, and
just in the hour of death, but by simple faith in Jesus just now.
We must feed the sheep, the sanctified ones, on the strong meat of
the Gospel. Feed a strong man on white bread and tea, and he will
soon be unfit for work. But give him good brown bread, butter and
milk, and suitable fruits and vegetables, and the harder he works,
other things being equal, the better he is in health and strength.
Just so with Christians. Feed them on the chaff of stale jokes, and
old, last-year's Bible-readings that have lost their power on your
own heart, and you will starve the sheep. But feed them on the deep
things of God's Word, which reveal His everlasting love, His
faithfulness, His saving power, His tender, minute care, His shining
holiness, His exact justice, His hatred of sin, His pity for the
sinner, His sympathy for the weak and erring, His eternal judgments
upon the finally impenitent and ungodly, and His never-ending glory
and blessedness bestowed upon the righteous, and you will make them
so strong that "one shall chase a thousand, and two shall put ten
thousand to flight."
Know Jesus, and you will be able to feed His lambs and sheep. You
feed them by revealing Him to them as He is revealed by the Father
through the Spirit in the Bible.
Walk with Him. Talk with Him. Search the Bible on your knees, asking
Him to open your understanding as He did that of the disciples on
the way to Emmaus, teaching you what the scriptures say of Him, and
you will have another chance of showing your love for Him and of
blessing your fellow-men that the angels might well covet.
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