Chapter 23

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.