When
the Lord gathered His disciples together in the upper room for the breaking of
bread, after supper was over, “the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has
desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat; but I have prayed for you,
that your faith fail not; and when you are converted, strengthen your brethren”
(Luke 22:31,32). The way the Lord warned Peter is very striking. He referred to
Satan sifting him as wheat. If Peter had not been wheat, he would not
have been sifted. If he had been mere chaff, the devil would have left him
alone. He never worries his own subjects; he keeps them in peace. Saints he
always attacks.

      What
is the next word? “But I have prayed for you, that your faith fail not.” That
is beautiful. We should pray for God’s servants too. Pray for those who are in
the forefront of the battle. The devil is ever ready to trip them up.

      Now
look at Peter’s answer and his fall:“Lord, I am ready to go with Thee, both
into prison and to death.” What an answer! Beloved, that man had fallen! His
fall did not occur when he really denied the Lord. Here is where he fell. He
was occupied with his own affection. Later that evening the Lord was betrayed
by Judas, following which they took Him, “and led Him, and brought Him into the
high priest’s house. And Peter followed afar off” (verse 54). Shortly
thereafter, Peter denied his Lord three times over as forewarned by Him.

      Notice
how the process of restoration follows immediately upon the heels of Peter’s
denial:“And the Lord turned, and looked upon Peter, and Peter
remembered the word of the Lord…. And Peter went out and wept bitterly”
(verses 61,62). How does the Lord recover our hearts? By a look sometimes. He
turned and looked on Peter. What kind of a look was it? Was it a look of anger
and reproach? No, I think it was a look of brokenhearted, disappointed love. It
said, “You do not know Me, but I know and love you. Nothing has changed My love
to you.” That look broke poor Peter’s heart and he ”went out, and wept
bitterly.”

      If
Peter had not had the word, “I have prayed for you,” and the look, I believe he
would have gone and hanged himself as Judas did. Remorse puts you into Satan’s
hands, but repentance leads to real breaking down before God. There never will
be recovery without repentance.

      You
will find that Peter has a private restoration and a public one. The private
restoration is referred to in Luke 24:34 and the public restoration in John 21.
The evidence of his restoration is manifest in Acts 2. The Lord met Peter
privately. What took place at the meeting nobody knows. The Spirit of God has
thrown a veil over it. Why? Because He deals with souls individually. It would
not do me any good to know how the Lord dealt with you when your soul had
backslided. But we do know that Peter was beautifully restored to the Lord.
This we find in John 21. His brethren were slower than Peter in reaching the
Lord on that occasion. He did not wait till the boat got to the shore; he cast
himself into the sea in his hurry to get near the Lord. He says in effect, “You
can have the fish, let me get to the blessed Lord.” It is clear from this
action that Simon Peter was restored to the Lord.

      Then
the Lord gave him a public restoration. I think, beloved friends, you will
never find a saint doing any real good until he is completely rid of
self-confidence and broken down before the Lord, and hence really right with
the Lord. He is then in a condition for the Lord to use him. We see Peter
restored to the fellowship and company of the apostles in John 21, and then we
see him in Acts 2 preaching the Word and mightily used of the Lord. When the
devil saw Peter preaching in Acts 2 he may have wished he had left him alone in
the high priest’s palace. Why? Because the breaking of him was the making of
him, and in the Acts of the Apostles we hear much more about Peter than any
other of the Lord’s disciples. He was picked up and restored. There is nothing
like grace! Grace saved us as sinners, and grace has kept us as saints. And
when we get to glory what shall we say? It was grace all along the way.
Therefore the deeper the sense of the Lord’s grace in our souls, the more our
hearts will rejoice in Him.

      (From
Backsliding and Restoration.)