John 18:27

How painful the contrast — the Lord before the high priest, and the disciple warming himself with the slaves! More than one attacked him with the crucial question: "You also are not one of His disciples, are you?" Again the fear of man won: the one who truly believed in Him did not confess, but denied it and said, "I am not." And that was not all. A servant of the high priest spoke up, a relative of the man whose ear Peter had cut off. He said, "Did I not see you in the garden with Him?" Peter again denied it, and at once a rooster crowed. What blinding power the enemy has, to draw a saint into direct and daring falsehood, and this to shame Him who was his life and salvation!

It is very dangerous for a Christian to sit down among the enemies of Christ. The fact that he does it proves that decline has set in and has gone a long way. In Peter's case the stages of decline are clear. First, boasting in his own strength. Second, sleeping when he should have been praying. Third, drawing his sword when he should have been bowing his head in meekness. Fourth, following at a distance. Fifth, making himself comfortable among the open enemies of Christ.

Success in the Lord's work guarantees no security at all. If the Lord is using you in His service, you can be sure Satan is set on sifting you. So the only safe path is to keep as near to the Lord as we can. We must stay as far as possible from all that smells of the world, and from the heat given off at its "fire of coals."

God does not take pleasure in recording the sins of His saints. So we may be sure there is warning and instruction here, much needed by saints in every age. Self-confidence is one of the commonest and deepest tendencies of the flesh. If it is not judged and refused, it always leads to disaster.

Like Peter, we have the flesh in us and the devil against us. And we have to learn this. No love for the Lord, however real, no knowledge of Scripture, however great, no good intentions, however honest, no experiences, however deep, no gift, however great, no divine life that we have, will keep us from denying the Lord under the pressure of fear — unless we are kept near to the Lord, and strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.

It is always the word of the Lord that produces real repentance, whether in a saint or a sinner. It is not human feeling, nor shame, nor the fear of being found out — it is the word that Jesus spoke, working within. The word of the Lord does two things: it convicts and it heals.

At the darkest hour, the crowing of the rooster announces the coming of morning. Peter's tears are the first signs of a new day for him.

Notice what this Gospel leaves out. It does not give the Lord's earlier prayer for Peter, or His assurance that Peter would be restored. It does not give His turning and looking at Peter after that last denial, when Peter remembered the word of the Lord, went out and wept bitterly. Those are set down plainly in the one Gospel whose character they suit and sustain. Here everything turns on the Person of Christ as the one central object, not on the discovery of what man's heart is, or on the grace of the Lord.

Peter fell while he was warming himself at the world's fire. He was in the company of the servants of the high priest, a man completely hostile to his Master. Now he finds himself at a fire his Lord had kindled, where the Lord both warms and feeds him. Three times Peter had been tested, and each time he denied his Lord more strongly. Three times now the Lord probes Peter's conscience and heart.