I will not deny Thee in any wise.
Peter’s denial of Christ
I. We may learn from this transaction not to be too forward in our professions, or too confident in our own strength, lest confidence should at last increase the guilt and shame of failure; and in the event of nonperformance, our professions be turned to our reproach. The chief of the apostles mistook the firmness of his own spirit. In the day of peace it is easy to form good resolutions, and to be confident that we shall perform them. To resolve in private and act in public are very different things, requiring very different degrees of firmness, both in exerting the powers of the understanding and in regulating the affections of the heart. Rash resolutions are foolish, and rash vows cannot be innocent. Yet our weakness is itself the decisive proof that vows and resolutions ought to be made. But let them be made as reason and duty require-deliberately not ostentatiously; not so much to be heard as to be kept; not so much to man as to God.
II. To hope the best, and to depend the most upon those whose tempers are not so warm and forward, but mild, and cool, and firm. In St. John we find no forward professions, no hasty declarations of invincible spirit. He was firm and faithful, but meek and unoffending. His zeal united gentleness. Zeal should be with moderation. The passions must not rule the conduct. The feelings of a good man are ruled by his religion. “Every thought should be brought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.” Without such guidance feeling is bold, forward, and capricious, liable to error, and will involve us in sin; but conviction and principle are steady and permanent; truth and right are forever the same.
III. That if we be surprised into any failure in our duty we may be forgiven upon repentance and reformation. But this great privilege must not be allowed to relax our care, or encourage our presumption. St. Peter delayed his repentance only till he knew his fault. Hand-in-hand with conviction came contrition. (W. Barrow, LL. D.)
Peter and the rest
The text shows St. Peter exercising the supreme influence.
I. Here is Peter’s undoubted supremacy. History circles around great names. Men are not all original. The apostles could not do without Peter.
II. This supremacy was intellectual, moral, spiritual; not economical, legal, or merely official. His supremacy rose out of qualification. There are no spiritual leaderships which can be irrespective of character. A true man must always influence others powerfully.
III. The value of such characters as that of Peter in the Church. Each age needs men who can call onward and upward because they are beyond and above.
IV. Here is noble purpose and noble feeling coming short in action. The sequel is, “they all forsook Him and fled.” Not even the grandest human inspirations have staying virtues in them. These must be sought from the Holy Spirit. (The Preacher’s Monthly.)
Presumption
I stand on a mountain in Colorado six thousand feet high. There is a man standing beneath me who says: “I see a peculiar shelving to this rock,” and he bends towards it. I say: “Stop, you will fall.” He says: “No danger; I have a steady head and foot, and see a peculiar piece of moss.” I say: “Stand back”; but he says: “I am not afraid”; and he bends farther and farther, and after a while his head whirls and his feet slip-and the eagles know not that it is the macerated flesh of a man they are picking at, but it is. So I have seen men come to the very verge of New York life, and they look away down in it. They say: “Don’t be cowardly. Let us go down.” They look farther and farther. I warn them to stand back; but Satan comes behind them, and while they are swinging over the verge, pushes them off. People say they were naturally bad. They were not! They were only engaged in exploration. (Dr. Talmage.)
Fatal presumption
The present Eddystone Lighthouse stands very firmly, but that was not the character of the first structure that stood on that dangerous point. There was an eccentric man by the name of Henry Winstanly, who built a very fantastic lighthouse at that point in 1696, and when it was nearly done he felt so confident that it was strong, that he expressed the wish that he might be in it in the roughest hurricane that ever blew in the face of heaven. And he got his wish. One November night, in 1703, he and his workmen were in that light house when there came down the most raging tempest that has ever been known in that region. On the following morning the people came down to see about the lighthouse. Not a vestige of the wall, not a vestige of the men. Only two twisted iron bolts, showing where the lighthouse had stood. So there are men building up their fantastic hopes, and plans, and enterprises, and expectations, thinking they will stand forever, saying: “We don’t want any of the defences of the gospel. We can stand for ourselves. We are not afraid. We take all the risks and we defy everything;” and suddenly the Lord blows upon them and they are gone. Only two things left-a grave and a lost soul. (Dr. Talmage.)
Accumulated sin
Peter, instead of being humbled and made self-distrustful by our Lord’s warning, as he ought to have been, only heaps up more sin against himself by persisting in contradicting the Lord. Let us take note from this that the child of God, through strength of his corruption, may fall often into the same sin, notwithstanding good means against it.
1. It is a very hard thing to lead people out of themselves. Almost nothing but experience of former falls brings them to see their folly.
2. Till their mind is changed their action will be the same.
3. Weakness of grace causes even the best to fall over and over again into the same sins.
4. The same reason remains still which may move the Lord to leave His children to themselves; to try, excite, humble them, work more serious sorrow, make them more watchful, etc. (Dr. Thomas Taylor.)
Repetition strengthens
Every repetition of sin makes sin the stronger; for as the body, the more it is nourished and fed, the stronger it grows, so with sin in the soul; every new act is an addition of strength till it comes to a habit. Pluck up a twig, then, before it grows up into a plant. Dash out the brains of every sin in infancy. (Dr. Thomas Taylor.)