_THE FASHIONING OF A DENIAL_
LUKE xxii. 54-62.
From Peter's denial I would learn the peril of the first cowardly
surrender to sin. Surely Peter must have "trimmed" many times in the days
which preceded his actual discipleship. Great crises do not make men, they
reveal them. The men have been made in the smaller issues which go before.
We march to our crises by a gradient, every step of which is a moral
decision. The interior of the tree is secretly eaten away by white ants;
the tempest reveals and completes the destruction.
And I would learn from Peter's denial the cumulative power of sins. One
sin widens the road for a bigger one to follow. The second denial will be
more vehement than the first. The third will add the element of blasphemy.
Yes, every sin is a miner and sapper for a larger army in the rear. It not
only does its own work, it prepares the way for its successor.
But I will connect this "dark betrayal night" with that sweet
after-morning when the Lord and His denier met face to face by the lake.
And that sweet morning of reconciliation is a possible experience for all
the deniers of the Lord, and it is therefore possible for thee and me.