Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 2735
“And when he thought about it, he wept.” Mark 14:72.
TRUE repentance is always the gift of God and the work of the Holy Spirit in the soul. Man, left to himself, continues in sin. If he turns from his iniquity, it is because God turns him. By nature, his mind is set on mischief and if that mind is changed, as it is in genuine repentance, it must be because the Lord Himself has changed it. That repentance which a man works in himself, without the Spirit of God, will turn out to be a repentance that needs to be repented of! But that godly sorrow for sin which the Spirit of God produces in the heart is a sure indication of spiritual life and the constant attendant of saving faith. Whoever truly repents of sin and believes in the Lord Jesus Christ, is a saved man—he shall be among the blessed ones in that day when Christ comes to judge the quick and the dead—and he shall be forever among the glorified!
Yet, while repentance is worked in men by the Spirit of God, He generally makes use of means to produce that result. In the case of Peter, the agency employed was thought—thought about his sin—“When he thought about it, he wept.” There is no doubt that multitudes of sinners have been led to repentance in this way and, in some respects, this must be the universal way by which the Spirit of God conducts men to the goal of true penitence. As long as they live carelessly and thoughtlessly, they go on in their evil ways, but if they are stopped in their mad career, if they are made to consider, if they begin to think over their sin—if God, the Holy Spirit, convinces them of the guilt of it—He uses that thought and conviction to lead them to trust in Jesus Christ. The remembrance of sin committed is the Holy Spirit’s frequent, if not constant method of bringing men to weep over their wrong-doing and to turn from it.
I find that the Greek word, which is here rendered, “he thought about it,” is rather difficult to translate in order to give the full meaning of the original. There is, in the expression used by Mark, some idea of throwing or casting, so that some have even read the passage, “When he muffled up his face,” as though they thought it was implied that he cast something over himself so as to hide his face for shame at his great transgression. But others, and I believe much more correctly, think that our translation comes near enough to the idea of the writer, who wanted to convey the impression that Peter cast his thoughts concerning what he had done, one upon another—brought before his mind the circumstances in which he stood and heaped them up, one upon another and, as he did this, and considered his sin in detail, and brought out its true and gross guiltiness—then it was that he began to weep. Without, however, insisting upon the absolute accuracy of this particular translation, we take the text as it stands—“When he thought about it, he wept.”
I. First, LET US STUDY PETER’S CASE AND USE IT FOR OUR OWN INSTRUCTION. The details of this sad story are familiar to you, yet I may remind you of them in order that we may see in how many points we have been like Peter was.
As Peter heard the cock crow, he thought, first, that he had actually done what Christ had said he would do—he remembered that he had denied his Lord. That which had seemed impossible to him had, nevertheless, been done three times! He would not believe even his dear Lord and Master when He told him that it would be so, but now it was literally the fact that Peter, one of the first to follow Christ, one who had even walked on water to go to Jesus, one who had seen Christ’s miracles—Peter, the most earnest and enthusiastic of Christ’s followers, always to the front, ready to brave any-
thing for his Lord—Peter, who, with his sword, cut off the ear of the servant of the high priest—he realizes that he is the very same man and that he has actually denied his Master, declaring positively that he was not one of Christ’s disciples. “When he thought about it, he wept,” as well he might! Ah, what castles in the air had vanished! What self-confidence had passed away!
Then, as he looked to the end of the hall where he could see his Master, he reflected upon the excellence of the Master whom he had denied. Ah, Peter! You have denied the best, the most loving, the most lovely, the most tender, the most generous, the most compassionate, the most self-denying, the most pure, the most heavenly of leaders! If there had been some fault in Him, if He had played you false, if He had been unkind to you, if He had promised you a wage and had not paid you, or if He had lied to you, and you had found Him out, or if you had seen some infirmity or imperfection about Him when you watched Him privately, you might be excused. But to deny such a Master—well may you weep and cover your face for very shame! He is perfection, yet He permitted you to follow Him—you who are such a poor untrustworthy creature! How could you say, “I am not His disciple”—and say it three times over, so positively and so plainly, when, but a little while ago, it was your joy, your glory, your delight to humbly follow in His footsteps and to call Him Master and Lord?