There is something about the very name of this impulsive, wayward, child-hearted man that awakens our interest at once. We know ourselves better when we know Peter thoroughly well. We study him in his failures and we grow discouraged, for we say, "If a man who could be so near Jesus Christ as Peter, with Him in the home of Jairus, on the transfiguration mountain and in Gethsemane, if he could deny Him, then it is not strange that we should fail in the midst of this sinful and adulterous generation. How carefully, therefore, we ought to walk." We study him in his successes and rejoice, for we say, "If a man like Peter, unlettered, uncultured fisherman as he was, if he could become the preacher at Pentecost and the writer of the epistles, then there is hope for every one of us."
There are many reasons why I like him, and I am sure that next to the Lord Jesus, of all the men whose names are mentioned in the New Testament I long to see Peter. I like him because of his enthusiasm. He had an ardor about him that radiated through everything he did. If he was right, he was enthusiastically right; if he was wrong, he was enthusiastically wrong; and I like such a man. Some will say that is what caused Peter much of his trouble, but I would say that the world does not owe much to its over-cautious people. If Luther had been such a man, we would have had no Reformation. It is generally true that it is a bad thing for one to be possessed of zeal without knowledge, but if we study the life of Peter we agree with Mr. Moody when he says, "If I had to choose between knowledge without zeal and zeal without knowledge, I would take the latter." I am sure that God can take a man's zeal, if he be honest and sincere, and make it redound to His honor and glory.
Peter was a brave man. I am sure some will say, "What, a brave man? Did he not deny the Lord in the presence of a little girl when he said, 'I know Him not,' and then the old habit of profanity came back upon him and 'he denied Him with an oath?'" Alas! this is all true, but then, you must remember that Peter had courage enough to follow Jesus down into the presence of His enemies, and Peter was the only One of the disciples who was near his Master in the court-room. There are so many reasons why I like him, and why I have longed to see him face to face.
"And Peter." These words, which form an angel's message to the broken-hearted disciples, present one of the sweetest pictures in the Old Testament scriptures or in the New. The crucifixion scene is over, the rocks have ceased their throbbing, and the crosses on the hillside are still, and the text is in the angel's message to the disciples who have gathered themselves together after the dark, dark day, and are seeking to comfort each the other. They had always imagined that the Master whom they had followed was to be the King of a temporal kingdom, that they were to have positions of power; but now He had been crucified and their hearts are well-nigh breaking within them. I can see them as they sit in that little upper room in Jerusalem. They say one to the other, "We trusted that it had been He which should have redeemed Israel; and besides all this, today is the third day since these things were done." But I am very sure that in this company of disciples, gathered together in that upper room in Jerusalem, there was one who was not of their number. That man's name was Peter. He must have felt that he was no longer a disciple, and that he no longer had a right to the communion and fellowship of the saints. I can see him out on the edge of the city of Jerusalem in some dark, lonely place, far away from any eye to look upon him. Poor, broken-hearted man! But if Peter was not of the company of the disciples, I am sure of one thing, and that is that the disciples must have been talking about him. Human nature has always been the same. We have a great way of remembering all about a person's failings and forgetting the strong points of their character; remembering only their weak places and forgetting entirely their virtues. And so I imagine these disciples were talking about Peter. I can hear one of them say, "Where's Peter?" And then another man with a smile upon his face, would say, "Peter? Why, you wouldn't expect him to be here, would you? Did you ever know Peter to be faithful to the end?" And they begin to point out the places of weakness, and one says, "Do you mind the time Peter stepped out on the water? How he began to walk toward Jesus; how he took a few steps very well, and then began to sink?" And another man would say, "That was just like Peter, always making a miserable failure in the end." And another would say, "Do you remember how the Master was bathing the disciples' feet and Peter sprang to his feet and said: 'Master, you shall never wash my feet'?" And another would say, "He was always grieving the Master." But just as we recall these words, I would call your attention to this fact -Peter was the best loved disciple. Jesus seemed to love him with the very tenderest affection.
But if they were gathered in the upper room and talking about Peter, there is another thing of which I am certain; he was the most utterly disconsolate man in all the city of the King, for, mark you this one thing, when once a man has been at the King's table and tasted of the King's meat, you can no more expect him to find pleasure in the world than you can expect the prodigal to go back and try to live on husks and satisfy himself with the company of the swine the second time.
And so I can see him in the outskirts of Jerusalem.
Poor Peter! If there is one in the world I pity, it is the one that stands like Peter of old, out of all communion with his blessed Lord. But I hear him say, "Well, I will go to the company of disciples; possibly they might have a word of encouragement for me."
So he turns and goes along the streets and through the city and comes to the little room and sees the place in the distance. Some one has pointed it out to him. Then all his courage fails him, and turning back again he hurries along to his old retreat, and as he goes he says, "They wouldn't receive me. I am afraid to go to them." Just as he reaches the place of darkness the despair again comes back and he says, "If I stay here I will die, and so I will seek out the disciples." So he turns back again and reaches the stairway leading up to the room, and, as he ascends, he drags his feet after him wearily. Poor Peter! Finally he reaches the landing of the stairway and just as he puts out his hand to take hold of the latch, he hears his name and his heart gives a great bound. He hears them talking about him. Poor man! he doesn't realize they are speaking harsh words of criticism, but emboldened because of the sound of his name we find him pushing the door open and stepping across the threshold and standing in the little room. The disciples lift their heads to see who the new comer may be, but never a word is spoken. He stands looking and longing that there may be a word spoken to him and then he turns away to one of the couches in the room. Poor Peter! I have always imagined that when he entered that room, if some one of the disciples had gone toward him and taken his hand in his and said, "Poor Peter, we have heard all about your denial, but we know you too well to think you meant it, and we give you our sympathy and help," I have always imagined that Peter would have fallen upon his face in the little room, and there would have been given to us one of the tenderest pictures in all the New Testament scriptures. If there is ever a time when a man needs the word of sympathy, when he needs the warm clasp of the hand, it is when he has stepped the first time out of communion with his Lord. Speak the word to him then and many a Peter might be brought back into the fellowship of our God. But they did not speak to Peter, and so he turns away weary and almost brokenhearted. Poor man! But suddenly they hear a crowd of people approaching, and then some one with a great bound springs up the stairway, -- not like Peter a moment ago, dragging the feet wearily, but hardly seeming to touch the steps; and then the door is swung open, and it seems as if the sunlight has centered in the little room, for Mary is there. She has been over at His tomb, she has been talking with the angels, she has received the greatest message of all time, and as she springs into the company of the disciples she calls out, "He is risen, risen as He said, and He has gone over into Galilee and has sent word to His disciples to meet Him." Just the moment she speaks the words the disciples spring to their feet, rush toward the doors and out through the city toward Galilee. They want to see the Master; all save Peter. Poor broken-hearted man! He must have felt, "Oh, wretched man that I am; I am not included in the invitation; I am no longer a disciple."
Just as Mary reaches the door, she turns her face back over her shoulder to see if all the disciples are gone; and she sees Peter. And then for the first time she gives the invitation just as the angels had given it to her and as the Lord gave it to the angels. He is risen as He said, and He has gone over into Galilee, and He wants His disciples to meet Him; "go tell His disciples -- and Peter." "And Peter." The only man's name that was mentioned was the name of the man who felt that he wax no longer a disciple. The only one who had the special invitation was the poor fellow that felt himself out of communion and out of fellowship.
I wish to say to you that the Lord Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever, and He sends an invitation to every one of His children, but if there is one to receive a special message, it is the man or woman out of communion, or out of fellowship, with Jesus Christ, and so I speak the words "And Peter; and Peter."
Down in one of the southern churches a minister had been preaching with great power a sermon on the plan of redemption in Jesus Christ. When the people were passing out, an old colored woman was walking side by side with one of the elders of the church, when he turned to her and said, "Auntie, don't you think it is a wonderful thing that Jesus Christ should die for such poor sinners as you and me?" She listened a moment and then said, "No, Massa; it doesn't seem a wonderful thing at all to me, because it is just like Him." And so it is "just like Him." Just like the Lord Jesus Christ to love us all; but I am sure it is just like Him to love with a tender love, nay, with the tenderest love, the man or woman out of communion, out of fellowship with Him.
Out Of Communion
We have different names in different denominations to express or describe such a condition. Some call it "backsliding." That is a good name if you can't get a better. Sometimes we call it "falling from grace," and I am very sure there is a better expression than that. Sometimes we say they are "apostate," but that is unscriptural. To my mind the best expression is this -- "out of communion." You know it takes the look of joy from your face; it takes the peace from your heart; it takes the power from your life. In the "abiding chapter" of John, there is only one condition for fruit-bearing -- you must "abide in Him." There can be no real joy, or peace, or power, until the child of God is in close communion and sweet fellowship with the blessed Christ, and so, having the different words to describe the position, I would like to suggest some things that lead us to stand in the position of Peter.
Temperament
It is sometimes due to one's natural temperament. There are people in the world with whom it is just as natural to be joyful as it is for the lark to sing as it mounts up into the sky. Mr. Moody tells about a man who was a member of his church, and you never could get him to say anything but "Praise the Lord." He might have darkness about him, but he would praise the Lord for darkness. Mr. Moody says that one day he came into the meeting and he had cut his thumb, almost cut it off, and so they wondered what he could have to say with such an affliction as that. He just stood on his feet and said, "I cut my thumb this morning, but praise the Lord, I didn't cut it off." It is just as natural for such people to be joyful as it is for the birds to sing.
There are other people in the world with whom it is just as natural to look on the dark side of things. They are always complaining and thinking everything in the world is wrong, and the fact is, they are wrong themselves. It is their natural temperament. If there is a sunbeam in the sky, they will take great pleasure in seeing the cloud, if it is not larger than a man's hand. Like the old college professor out west. He was a man who could see nothing right; no matter how sweetly the birds would sing, they might sing better. One morning one of the professors passed him on the campus and said, "Now, Professor, what is the matter with this day? You have never heard the birds sing sweeter, you have never seen the sky so bright, and just look at the sun, isn't it shining wonderfully?" The old professor looked round hoping he could find a fault somewhere, and when he had failed utterly, he turned and said with a sigh, "Young man," he said, "this weather can't last always, you know." Such people as that are always groaning, sighing and complaining. They say the ministers are wrong, the church people are wrong, and the world is going to destruction; and the fact is, they are wrong themselves. As Dr. Talmage says, they are looking at the world through the wrong kind of eye-glasses; they are looking through blue glasses, when they should be looking through clear white. It is just their temperament. If that is your position, you will get out of communion immediately; you will lose your grip on God and your power with men.
Disease
Then, again, sometimes we find people getting out of communion with Jesus Christ because of disease. The connection between the spiritual and physical is very close and intimate. Sometimes it is because the body is weak that we find the faith growing weak; yet, thanks be to God, it is possible to have a body very weak and have a faith triumphant. I am sure you know such people as that. But, my friend, if your body is weak, I am sure you will have to fight if you are going to win the victory. That was a beautiful myth given to us, that when God first made the birds He made them without wings. They were beautiful but they had no wings and they could not sing. And then the old myth tells us that God made them wings and bade them fly, and the little birds over all Paradise began to move their wings and mount up from the earth; and just as they mounted they began to sing, and the higher they rose the sweeter they sang, and they have been flying and singing ever since. Thanks be unto God, all Christian men and women have wings, wings of hope and wings of faith; and we are not obliged to live in this world, we may dwell in the heavenlies with the Lord Jesus Christ Himself.
One of my friends told me he stood one morning on one of the highest peaks of the Rocky Mountains, bathed in the perfect sunlight of a perfect day. He looked down at his feet and a storm was raging in the valley. He felt almost as if he could step. out and walk from peak to peak, so heavy were the clouds, and he could almost hear the roar of the thunder and see the flash of lightning, for there was a tremendous storm raging in the valley. As he was looking down, suddenly up from the dark clouds came a black body. He looked again, and still a third time, and the great black object was a Rocky Mountain eagle, measuring seven feet from tip to tip of its wings. "As I looked," he said, "the eagle mounted higher and higher, clear above the clouds, and fighting its way through the storm soared high above my head, every feather wet with the raindrops, and every raindrop sparkling like a jewel in the sunlight; and I stood watching it until it was lost in the very face of the sun." This is a picture of the Christian rising above the things of the world. I will give you a verse of scripture to prove it: "They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings as eagles, run and not be weary, walk and not faint." You may have a temperament ever so miserable, and you may have a body ever so weak, but you may dwell in the secret place and never get out of communion and fellowship.
Trial
And yet again I imagine there are more people out of communion with Christ because of trial than for any other cause. I never could understand how Christians could step out of fellowship with Christ because of their afflictions. Listen, friends: "Whom the Lord loveth, He chasteneth." I am very sure we were never in our lives nearer heaven than one evening just as we reached our new home in Philadelphia, when we were in one of the hotels and my wife held in her arms our first-born boy, and he was dead. Just a little fellow, not yet a year old, and yet, without an hour's warning, he had left us. We thought him perfectly well, but God took him. I remember how we stood there before his little lifeless form, and we thought our hearts were breaking; but as the tears fell down our cheeks, they became like telescopes and heaven was never nearer, or God nearer, than with His hand upon us in the weight of affliction. How could you stay out of fellowship with God when He has just put His hand upon you in love? I ask you if that is the reason, step back again into the light.
I had the pleasure of laboring with Mr. Moody in the campaign in Chicago, and one of the greatest pleasures besides the fellowship with him was the meeting of such great leaders as John McNeill and Dr. A. C. Dixon. Dr. Wharton especially made his way into my heart. He is one of the great evangelists of the Baptist church, and one of the most successful pastors as well. He was telling me about a friend of his in Baltimore, Todd Hall. He is a detective. For years he was a very sinful man. Once, when Mr. Moody was conducting meetings, Todd Hall was detailed to arrest a certain man, and as he was looking for him some one said, "Todd, the man's gone down into the Moody meeting." So Mr. Hall went to where the meetings were held, and as he entered, the usher said, "Yes, he is in the building, but he is 'way down near the front." So they ushered Todd Hall down the center aisle, and just as he walked down the aisle something the preacher said went like an arrow to his heart. He sat down and listened. When the service was over the people passed out, the man whom he was to arrest went with them, but Todd Hall never saw him. He had been arrested by the power of God, and as he sat in the hall one of the ushers came up to him and said, "What do you think of Moody?" "Oh," he said, "I wish I could be a Christian." The usher said, "Kneel down, and I will pray with you"; and they prayed right there in the great building when it was almost deserted. And he became a Christian. He went home and told his wife, and she said, "Todd, I will go with you into the church," and their little daughter said she would go, too, and the three went into the church, and Todd became a preacher as well as being a detective. "When I went back to Baltimore some time ago," said Dr. Wharton, "one of the first friends to meet me said, 'Todd Hall's little girl is dead.' And I said, 'Has it hurt Todd any, has it affected his power?' And he said, 'Oh, you ought to see him and hear him now! When the doctor said, "Mr. Hall, your little girl is dying," he just knelt down and said this, "Dear, blessed God, you gave her to me, and you have loved her, and you have saved her, now I give her back to Thee." And the doctor said, "Mr. Hall, she is dying," and he, holding her hand and looking up, began to sing, "Bear her away on your snowy wings to her eternal home," and she was gone; and Todd Hall never knew what it was to preach before, he never knew what it was to work before.'" He just rose from his knees and came out from his affliction transfigured by the power of God, and I wish to say to any who are out of communion with God because of trials, you don't know God, that is all. He is speaking in the tenderest words, "And Peter, and Peter."
Two Men
There are two men I would like to present to you as giving perfect illustration of the text. The first man is Elijah. You know he was one time up on a mountain top, and he prayed to God, and God sent the fire from heaven; and another time he locked up the heavens, and held the key, and when he got ready to unlock them, they came down in great showers of blessing; and another picture is Elijah under the juniper tree when he said, "It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life; let me die." Suppose God had said, "Well, Elijah, you can die if you want to." They would have buried him in the desert, and the moaning winds would have been his only requiem. You know God had something better for Elijah. You have been saying sometimes, "My prayer has not been answered." Yes, it has. God said, "No," and "no" was better. What was Elijah's difficulty? The first thing was that he had had a mountain-top experience and now he has come to the valley, and some say, "I am so glad to have you say that." A woman wrote me a letter from Lafayette the other day and said: "Nothing ever gave me more encouragement than to have you say that Elijah was up and down," and, some say, "That is the way I live." You needn't live that way.
There was a man that went up on the mountain-top; He was transfigured; His face shone as the sun; His garments were bright with light; and He came down into the valley and brought the mountain-top experience with Him. This is what you may do; just bring the mountain-top experience down with you and you may rejoice, even though it be darkness about you.
The second trouble with Elijah was that he looked away from God to his surroundings, and that is fatal. You hear a great deal about the world getting better. I would like to have you travel about the country a little bit and see if the world is getting better. Study your own city, if you please, and I imagine that you will find that there are things going on today that your fathers twenty-five years ago would not have permitted.
There isn't a man in the world who could preach and keep his faith if he looked down. There is only one thing to do, and that is to keep your eyes turned upward. Like the man who was teaching his little boy to climb up the mast of a ship for the first time. He was half way up when he looked down and was losing his balance, and in a moment would have fallen, but the father took his speaking trumpet and shouted, "Keep your eyes upward," and he climbed to the top of the mast and came down in safety. We have to keep our eyes turned upward. Oh, that we might center our eyes and faith on Him who is our only hope! Keep your eyes up, and you won't get out of communion.
The other man's name was Peter. There were several reasons why he got out of communion. He became self-confident. I can just imagine Peter as he stepped out of the boat, trying to walk along. He thinks, "Don't you wish you could walk on the water?" And then, just as he took his eyes away from Jesus Christ and began to think he was some. body, he went down.
Only just get your mind made up that you are somebody, and God will prove to you that you don't amount to very much. In my experience I have found that to be so. I never made up my mind over any effort of mine and said, "Wasn't that splendid?" that God didn't bring me down with a dreadful thud. Paul had it right when he said, "When I am weak, then I am strong." Why? Because when he was weak, he just leaned hard on God; and I believe there is nothing today that God could not do with you and me, if we just realized we were nothing and then let Him use us.
The second trouble with Peter was that he followed Jesus Christ afar off"; and that is often the trouble with us too.
You never had much trouble when you were faithful to the church, when you were going twice on Sunday and to the prayer meeting; then you didn't get out of communion. It was when you began to stay away from the mid-week service, when one service on Sunday would do you, and when you stayed at home and read the Sunday newspaper and sometimes worse, then you got out of communion, and you said, "The minister isn't as interesting as he used to be, and somehow we need another evangelist." The trouble isn't with the minister, and you don't need another evangelist; you need your own heart right and you need to get back where you were five years ago. John McNeill says we never ought to sing this hymn except in a grave yard, in a kind of mournful tune,
"Where is the joy that once I knew When first I loved the Lord"
and McNeill says, "It's right where you left it, and if you want it again, go back where you left it and pick it up." Live right and live as near to Jesus Christ as when you first knew him, and you will have no trouble in getting in close communion with Him, and you won't care whether the minister is right or wrong, you will be right. You won't be bothered about the church; you are all right yourself because you are in Christ. God help you to live there.
And then there is another thing, too, Peter got into bad company.
That is the reason I am opposed to the church being mixed up with the world. We have not only the name but the reputation of Jesus Christ at stake. We have no business to be with bad company. An old Scotch woman had it about right when she said, "Peter had nae business among the 'flunkies.'" And we haven't; if we are, we will find ourselves denying Jesus Christ. You didn't mean to do it, you just struck a level with your company. God help us to keep in close touch with Jesus Christ.
Just a word in closing. If you look the Bible through, you will not find a harsh word for the backslider. You turn over to the prophets and the Lamentations of Jeremiah, it is "Return, return, return." You turn over to the New Testament and read the story of the prodigal son; you may use it as an illustration for the unsaved man, but I have an idea the story of the prodigal son was written in part for the man who has once known God and has once been in the Father's house and then gone off to live with swine, and the father of the prodigal is God, looking through the telescope of His love, waiting for his boy to come home.
There are just two words in all the Bible for a mart who is a backslider, and the two words are these, "Come back, come back." One of the last Sundays I spent at the Bethany Sunday School in Philadelphia, an Englishman was there and spoke to the scholars. He sat down and told me this story: A young girl had run away from home and was living a life of sin, and her mother wanted my friend to help, her find her daughter. And he said, "Go home and bring me every picture you have, and I will find her." She brought them to him, and he just dipped his pen in the ink and wrote down beneath the sweet face these words, "Come back." Then he took those pictures down into the haunts of sin, and the mission stations, and left them there. Not long after, this daughter was going into a place of sin and there she saw the face of her mother. The tears ran down her face so that at first she could not see the words beneath, but she brushed away the tears and looked and there they were, "Come back," She went out to her old home at the edge of London and when she put her hand on the latch the door was open, and when she stepped in her mother, with her arms about her, said, "My dear child, the door has never been fastened since you went away." And that is true for you with God; the door has never been closed since you went away, it is wide open.
I lift up before you this morning a face sweeter than any mother's face. The prophets tried to tell you about it and they said, "Fairer than the sons of men and altogether lovely," and just below that face I write the words, "Come back." "Go tell his disciples, and Peter." Will you come? God grant it.
