Peter’s Dire Condition

Then notice the third thing: Peter was in darkness. That is the condition of every one by nature: “Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart” (Eph. 4:18). You cannot see in the dark. How often you will hear this said, “I have heard of this salvation for years, but I cannot see how God can save a sinner through the death of His Son; I cannot see how the blood of Christ can wash away my guilt; I cannot understand how I can be sure that the Bible is the Word of God?” Of course you cannot! You are in darkness, and what you need is light. The great apostle to the Gentiles declares, “But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: in whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them” (2 Cor. 4:3, 4). If you make the confession, “I cannot see; I cannot understand how the blood of Jesus can wash away my sin,” that is all that is needed to tell the true condition of your soul. You are in the dark, away from God, and in dire need of a Saviour.
Then notice something else: Peter was not only in bondage, guarded, and in darkness, but he was sound asleep. That is the condition of men in their sins today. But the voice of God sounds forth: “Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light” (Eph. 5:14). The business of the evangelist is to go to men, asleep in their sins, and awaken them. Real hard sleepers do not like to be awakened. I have two boys, and both of them, when they were at a certain growing age, did like to stay up late at night; but oh, how hard it was to get them up in the morning! What a job it was to awaken them. Listen to the sleeper in Proverbs “Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep” (Prov. 6:10). My friend, a little more sleep and you will awaken in hell to sleep no more for all eternity! It is only the omnipotent power of God that can awaken poor sleeping sinners.
Then there is something else: Peter was bound with two chains. Are you bound with the chains of your sin? You may remember the story of the Grecian tyrant, who looked with suspicion upon a certain metal worker, who was able to make the finest chains of any man in his dominions. This tyrant had an idea that the man was a traitor against his government. One day he sent for him, and after flattering him, said, “I understand there is no one in my kingdom that can make as fine or as strong a chain as you can. Let me see you make one.” With the tyrant looking on, the smith made a magnificent chain. He finished it, and as he handed it over to the tyrant, he said, “If you were to take two elephants, and fasten one to each end of this chain, they could not tear it apart.”
The tyrant said, “Are you certain of that?”
“Absolutely,” the man replied.
Then, turning to two of his officers, the tyrant said, “Take him and bind him with it, and cast him into prison.” He was bound with the very chain he had made.
Sinner, you have been forging a chain, the chain of your sins, link by link throughout the years, and if you are not saved soon, you are going to be bound with that chain, and be cast into that awful place “prepared for the devil and his angels!’ You will have no one to blame but yourself. You will remember how you forged that chain, link by link; haw you fell into this or that particular sin, and then said to yourself, “Oh, well, I will not repeat it; I will do it just once.” Then in some way there was an unaccountable urge to commit the same sin again and again and again, and you found out at last that you were forging the links in the chain that has bound your soul. You have tried and tried to break it, but you are not able to do it.