Matthew chapter 16. We'll be looking at verse 21
through verse 28. And the title of the message
this evening is, The Great Necessity. The Great Necessity. Our Lord says in verse 21, from
that time forth Jesus began to show unto his disciples how that
he must go unto Jerusalem and suffer many things of the elders
and chief priests and scribes and be killed and be raised again
the third day. And Peter took him and began
to rebuke him, saying, Be it far from thee, Lord. This shall
not be unto thee. But he turned and said unto Peter,
Get thee behind me, Satan. Thou art an offense unto me. For thou savorest not the things
that be of God, but those that be of men. Then Jesus said unto his disciples,
If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, take up
his cross, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life
shall lose it, and whosoever will lose his life for my sake
shall find it. For what is a man profited if
he gain the whole world and lose his own soul? And what shall
a man give in exchange for his soul? For the Son of Man shall come
in the glory of His Father with His angels, and then shall He
reward every man according to his works. Verily I say unto
you, There be some standing here which shall not taste of death
till they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom." Now tonight,
it is my purpose, it is the purpose of my heart's desire that God
show us again how Christ the Son of the Living God, the Rock
upon whom which all the church is built, how He must suffer."
That's what He said. The Scripture says, "...He showed
unto them," He began to testify, "...how He must suffer, He must
be killed, and He must be raised again the third day." Listen,
when you say God has got to do something, that He must do something,
you better be very careful what you say. God is not obligated
to any man. But listen, He must do it because
He is obligated to Himself, only to His Word, to His decree. And so then I have four things
concerning this great necessity. The first thing I want us to
see is the great necessity of the death and resurrection of
Christ. The death and the resurrection
of Christ. The second is that I want us
to deal with this great error of Peter. Peter made a great
error in which the Lord rebuked him. The third is a great necessity
of consecration. The great necessity of consecration. If a man will follow me, he must
lose his life. He must take up his cross. He
must be consecrated to me. And the third thing is the great
necessity of Christ's return. He said, for the Son of Man shall
come. and reward every man according
to his work. So let's look at this first thing.
The great necessity of Christ's death and resurrection. Now notice
Jesus said he must suffer, he must die, and he must be raised
again from the dead. Now, several things come to mind
when I read this. The first thing is it must take
place. These things must happen because
they are of the eternal purpose of God. The eternal purpose of
God. Why must Christ die? Why must
He be raised again? Because God, from eternity, has
purposed it. Now, we know this, that God alone
cannot and will not be obligated to man to do anything. God is not obligated to do this.
He was never obligated by us to do this. How many times do
you read this when he reads of the New Covenant, when he talks
about the New Covenant? He said, I do this not for your sakes,
but for my own namesake. When God does something, the
first object that God has in view is His own glory. His own glory. And so what God
does, He does only, He is only influenced by His own holy nature
and sovereign will. Go to Isaiah chapter 46. Isaiah
chapter 46. And look at verse 9. He says, remember the former
things of old, for I am God, and there is none else. I am
God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning. And from ancient times, the things
that were not yet done, saying, my counsel shall stand. And I will do what? What will
He do? all my pleasure." Whatever God
has purposed, whatever God has determined, that is exactly what
God will do. He will do what He has determined,
decreed, and purposed to do from the beginning, and nothing He
has decreed or purposed shall fail to come to pass. Why? I am God, that's what He
said, and there is none else. That's why he shall not fail.
Who shall stay his hand, or say unto him, What doest thou? Who?
I defy anybody. Matter of fact, more than that,
God defies anybody to try to stay his hand. All
his pleasure is what he wants to do, and all his pleasure he
will do. That's everything that's been
done, everything that is being done, and everything that shall
be done is all according to the divine counsel of the living
God. And all who says they don't believe that,
says, I'll have my own way. Does this trouble anyone that
God is absolutely sovereign? Does this trouble you? I'll tell
you, it troubles men. It troubles the world. You tell
them God is absolutely sovereign, it troubles them. They say, I'll
have my own way. I'll do what I please. Matter
of fact, I was reading this today, you don't have to turn there,
but in chapter, I believe it's 47, Babylon said this about themselves,
I am God. I am God and there is none else.
That's what this modern world says. I am God and there is none
else. I'll have my way. I am the determining
factor in my own destiny. Anyone who says such things as
that shows the utter depravity and ruin of their own nature.
For God has even purposed their rebellion for the good of His
saints. Even their wrath, their hatred, their evil, He has purposed
for the good of His people. And all who despise such a sovereign
God, I want them to understand they are forsaking the only hope
of their salvation. The only hope for salvation is
that God is sovereign. That God will perform what God
is purposed to do, which is to save His people. That's what
God is purposed to do. God has decreed to do good to
the sons of Adam's fallen race. How? Here it is. Exactly what
Christ is teaching. How He must die and suffer many
things of the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed. This is how, by sending His Son
to die for the purpose of saving His elect people. You remember
what God says about His elect, says to all His elect people.
He says in Jeremiah 31 and verse 3, He says, I have loved thee
with an everlasting love. An everlasting love. What is
the motivation of God to save anyone? It is His love. It is His love. For God so loved
the world, and what's the manifestation of that great love? He sent His
only Son, His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him
should not perish. Is that good or bad? Does that
sound bad? No, that's good. What God has
purposed is good. And behold, the eternal love
of God the Father was set upon some of Adam's race. That God,
having left the fallen angels to their lost estate, what was
God's will concerning them? That they should be in chains
of darkness, reserved for everlasting damnation, and that the angels
should have no Savior. That's God's purpose for them. that they should have no Savior. But now look at our race. See that we too have fallen.
into sin. That Adam, our federal head,
knowingly condemned us all to death by sinning and rebelling
against God. The Scripture says, so by the
offense of one, one offense, many were made sinners. It was God's right to pass by
this race. Did you know that? It was God's
right He was His justice that rightly
demanded our damnation. The soul that sinneth, the soul
that sinneth, now who among us is without sin, the soul that
sinneth, it shall surely die, says the justice of God. But now look at the garden. Look
after the fall. Man is dead. Trying to cover
his nakedness with the works of his hands. Who pursued who? It was God that pursued man. It was God that found our Father
steeped in His own works and religion to cover His nakedness. It was there that God began to
show us something, His plan. God began there at the garden
to show his plan, his purpose. What was that purpose? How he
would save sinners. And which plan was ordained even
before the fall in a covenant of grace? that one should come, a Messiah,
a Savior, the seed of the woman. And what was He to do? Who is
this seed of the woman? We know this is Jesus Christ,
the Son of the Virgin's womb. The Son of the living God came
in the flesh. that He alone should crush the
head of the serpent. Isn't that the prophecy? That
was the prophecy. That the seed of the woman should
crush the head of the serpent. That He should do away with all
sin, remove all obstacles that should bar or keep God's people,
His chosen sons, from life and salvation. But behold, this eternal
purpose is stated in this last clause as to how he should do
this. He's going to crush the head
of the serpent, but how should he remove sin? How should he
take sinners and make them holy before God? And he shall bruise
his heel. which bruising God Himself pictured
by the sacrifice of that animal to cover the nakedness of our
parents. Our God made the first offering to show forth that His Son must
come and give Himself an offering for sin. And so now, look and see Jesus,
the One who was promised to come, the One who must have come into
the world, taking our nature, even because it was the eternal
purpose of God. So why must He come and die?
God purposed it. God planned it. God ordained
it. You know one of my favorite passages
in Proverbs is Proverbs 8 when it says that I was set up wisdom
which is Christ personified. He says I was set up from the
beginning or ever the earth was set up. He was set up to be the
Christ. He was ordained to be the Christ,
the servant of God. And listen, He must come and
die and rise again from the dead because of the Scriptures. How many times is that said in
the New Testament? According to the Scriptures. According as it is written. You do not see that every sacrifice,
every offering, everything that was done in the Old Testament
pointed to this. Picture this! You know, in Hebrews, that spins
the whole book, pointing out this truth, that those things
were a type, a shadow, a picture of better things to come. Those
sacrifices that could never take away sin. Yet now the Savior
has come, who alone can take away sin. And he began to teach
his disciples, saying, I must go, I must die, according to
the Scriptures, according to the Word of God, I must suffer
and die for the sins of my people. Matter of fact, Hebrews chapter
10, he sums it up, what he had said before, by this word of
prophecy. He says in Hebrews chapter 10,
he said, For it was not possible for the blood of bulls and ghosts
to take away sin. Wherefore, when he cometh into
the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not,
but a body hast thou prepared me. In burnt offerings and sacrifice
for sin thou'st no pleasure. Then said I, Christ, lo, I come. In the volume of the book it
is written of me to do thy will. God Above when he said sacrifice
an offering and burn offering for sin thou wouldest not neither
had pleasure therein Which were offered by the law? Then he said
lo I come to do thy will O God he taketh away the first that
he may establish the second By the which will we are sanctified
how through the offering of the body of Christ once for all Now
why must he come? Why must he die? He must do so
because it is the fulfillment of Scripture. He has come to
do the will and work of God. You remember when he was first
teaching in the temple? And his mother saw that he was
not there. His parents saw he was not there
and went back and caught him and said, what are you doing?
And he said, what? Wish you not to be about my father's
business. Don't you know I must be about
my father's business? Necessity was laid upon him. Necessity. And he said, I am
not straightened until it be accomplished. He set his face
like a flint in all his life to accomplish this one thing
God has sent him to do, to save his people. What a Savior. Magnificent and glorious. He
was about, always about, his necessary business. And what
was this necessary business? Well, first of all, it was to
obtain righteousness for us. We had no righteousness. None
of God's elect were born with righteousness. None of our own
we could ever claim. We were born dead in sins. None
righteous. No, not one. So then He came
as our Mediator to obtain righteousness for us. In Isaiah chapter 42
in prophecy of Scripture declares this, He says, the Lord is well
pleased for his righteousness sake. He shall magnify the law
and make it honorable. He came to establish righteousness. The word of God is clear. Except a man be holy as God, he shall never see God. Hebrews 12, 14 says, follow peace
with all men and holiness without which no man shall see the Lord. God by very nature is holy without
sin, without evil, without imperfections. Therefore, He cannot and will
not accept anyone unless they have peace with Him and holiness. Therefore, Jesus must have come. He must have come to restore
the sons of God to righteousness. He must perform the righteousness
of God in the flesh so as to obtain the righteousness of God
by His faithfulness. Therefore, He may impute this
righteousness to ones who had none, who had no righteousness
at all. Now, does my heart desire that
I'm speaking to sinners in need of righteousness? Because I'm
speaking to a sinner right here in need of righteousness. That
I have none of my own. None to offer God. Yet I am reading
of one who said, I must come. I must provide righteousness. I must obtain righteousness. How? By His own obedience. By His own obedience to God. You know, the Scripture says
that there's none righteous, that we have all sinned and come
short of the glory of God. But now the righteousness of
God without the law is manifest, witnessed by the law and the
prophets. Even the righteousness of God, which is by how? The
faith of Jesus Christ. the faith of jesus christ in
that good i'm glad it doesn't say that the faith of joanne
in their right in it the faith of fred evans that's not how
righteousness was obtained it was obtained by his faith by
his obedience not by ours but this rep is righteousness of
god might be upon upon us to us. That means imputed and
imparted to all who believe on Him. Therefore He must come and
fulfill all righteousness. And what He said to John the
Baptist, it is, it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness.
What He came to do. Not one jot of the tittle of
the law shall be moved, except it be fulfilled. That's what
He came to do. Fulfill the law, not destroy
it. And that same passage I just
read to you in Isaiah 42, it says he's to magnify and honor
the law. Listen to what it says about
us. But this people's robbed and spoiled. They are all of them snared in
holes. They are hid in prison houses.
They are a prey, and none delivereth for a spoil, and none saith restore. No hope. That's us, isn't it?
That's us. But then he tells us in verse
chapter 43, "...but now saith the Lord God that created thee,
O Jacob, that formed thee, O Israel, fear not, for I have redeemed
thee. I have called thee by thy name,
thou art mine, thou art mine, I have redeemed thee." Friends, it would do no good
for Jesus to come just provide righteousness, would it? If that
was his only task, suppose Christ came, provided all the righteousness
you'd ever need, and then just went back to glory. Do you suppose
that would be sufficient? No. Why? Sin. Sin. What would you do with your
sin? If you had the righteousness
of God, all that you would do would contaminate it. Therefore, Jesus Christ must
have come to satisfy the justice of God on our behalf. Without His offering for sin,
we could never be saved. behold in the volume of the book
is written to me to do that we'll that he might take away the first
to establish the second what was the first the law he had
to satisfy the law completely which he did how I must suffer
many things and be he'll he killed He must have been crucified to
satisfy the justice of God. He alone was able to do this.
No one else. He alone must do this because
He alone is able to do this. No one else. you get this sense that they're
uh... in their in our country especially we there's got to
be another way i mean they're doing we're doing something we
can figure out what what is it we say well there's just got
to be another way to do this and so we we think that's ingenuity
well maybe so when it comes to things of the world i'm sure
we don't have all knowledge to know which way to do things when
it comes to salvation this is the only way he must be killed
Or, you must be killed. He must have died. Because it
was the only way that God could save us, the only way God could
accept us, is if He bare our sins in His own body. And listen
to this, He not only must be killed, provide righteousness,
and be killed, but listen to this, look back at your text.
He says, "...and raised again the third day." I'm thankful
for this. thankful for this. Let us praise God for His perfect
plan of salvation, which He declared and decreed in the scriptures
of how God could be just and justified the ungodly by the
blood and righteousness of Christ. But not only did He do this,
He must die for our sins, but He also must be raised again
for our justification. Paul says in Romans 4, He was
delivered for our offenses, but raised again for our justification. Now just as surely as God ordained
His death, He also decreed His victory. His victory. The Apostle Peter says in Acts
chapter 2, you men of Israel, Hear these words, Jesus of Nazareth,
the man approved of God among you by miracles, signs, and wonders,
which God did by him in the midst of you, as you also know, him
being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of
God, you have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain,
whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because
it was not possible. that he should behold none. Now
why should he not be holding of death? Why? Because there
was no more sin to hold him. Sin was the cause of his death. But now because sin has been
atoned, sin has been redeemed by His blood, there is no more
sin. Therefore, the grave could not
keep His prey. It must have let Him go. And
God raised Him from the dead. Therefore, we who are in Christ,
who believe in Christ, we must and should rejoice in His necessity
that He must have died for our sins We must rejoice in the necessity
also of His resurrection, for God raised Him up, and when He
raised Him up, He raised you up. He raised you up with Him. Remember,
when He was performing righteousness, where were you? You were in Him.
When He died, where were you? You were in Him. And when He
rose, where were you? You were in Him. Now, where are
you now? You are in Him. In Him. vital union. There He sits in heavenly places.
And where do you sit? In Him. In Him. Because God has
put us in Christ, has ordained Him to be our Savior by covenant
of grace, so He must also fulfill it in righteousness, in His death
and resurrection, and so that all He died for all that were
in him when he was raised. This is the last thing, the necessity.
He must save all his people. Necessity. Necessity. Just as it was a necessity for
him to die and rise again, it is his necessity to call all
his elect. Why do you think you were called? Accident? Chance? Luck? Just happened to be in
the right place at the right time? Happened to feel the right
way at the right time? No. You were saved because He
must save you. A woman at the well, Samaria.
What did Jesus say before He saved her? I must needs go through Samaria. Why? There was one of His there. You remember what He said to
Zacchaeus? He went all the way through Jericho. Not one word
spoken as He went through Jericho. He healed the blind man on this
side, went through, healed him on the other side, and then He
finds Zacchaeus. And what do you say to him? I
must needs go into your house today. Why are you saved? Because he must needs go into
your heart. Necessity. And I want you to understand
this. He must bring us home. His glory demands it. His blood
demands it. His righteousness demands it. He must bring you home. He says, I will gather you from
all nations, people, kindreds, and tongues. Now, I want you to see these
other things rather quickly. The error of Peter, and this
is important. Now, after he displayed his necessity, Peter took him,
began to rebuke him, and say, God forbid! God forbid that you
should do this! God forbid that you should die!
Now listen, Peter was a man just before this. Our Lord said, Blessed
art thou, Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood hath not revealed
this to thee. He knew, said, thou art the Christ, the Son
of the living God. And he said, well, that's because God taught
this to you, because God revealed it to you. This man was a saved
man. And yet now, listen, out of an
ignorant zeal of so-called love, And I don't doubt that Peter
did it in a matter of love. Put yourself in this place, would
you not do the same thing? Lord, no, don't die. No, we want
you to be here. But our Lord turned to Peter
and He said something that was very sharp and very piercing
to the soul I know of Peter. He said, Get thee behind me,
Satan. for thou savourest not the things
that be of God, but those that be of men." Peter failed to understand the
full purpose of Christ. In some foolish zeal and ignorant
love, he desired Christ not to die. But without that death, where
would we be? We see now that he was very ignorant,
very foolish. God's people are still prone
to all kinds of ignorance like this. Don't look at Peter and
down him because we are still prone to all kinds of things
like this. We are still so often weak in
our flesh that we too may think our actions to be actions of
love and zeal for Christ, and love thinking we are furthering
the gospel of Christ, but only being used of Satan to hinder
the purpose of Christ. There are many now among the
brethren, and I want you to be aware of this. I really do. I
want you to understand this. There are many of the brethren
today who believe that they have some revelation of God. They
have found some doctrine that's been hidden for generations and
now they've discovered it. But this doctrine that they've
found has nothing to do with Christ or the gospel. But they
believe that they in love and zeal for Christ must preach it. Yet what is the result of this
so-called doctrine is only discord. It only sows discord among the
brethren. They have sought to raise it
to the same necessity as the preaching of the gospel of Christ. Isn't this what Peter was trying
to do? He was raising his own love, his own thoughts, and putting
it, bringing the gospel down to be submissive to his own thoughts. to his own desires. And I tell
you, the Lord needs to rebuke these men. Because we have one
command as a church. Preach the Word. Preach the Word. Preach Christ and Him crucified.
Preach the necessity of His death, the necessity of His resurrection,
and the necessity of His salvation. We are to call sinners forth
to Christ and not spend our time on so-called science or vain
philosophy or vain doctrines which lead only to questions
and disputings and doubtings. Timothy, Paul says, keep that
which I committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings
and oppositions of science so-called, which some, having erred concerning
the faith. And so then, many have erred
concerning the faith. And so, like Peter, the Lord
rebukes all who would set anything above Christ." In other words,
what is the most important thing to Christ? His death and His
resurrection. So what is to be the most important
thing to the Church? His death and His resurrection. The salvation of His people.
anything else is just a distraction and it must be reviewed it must
be aside Now the third thing is, He teaches
the great necessity of consecration. Look at that in verse 24. And
the Lord Jesus said to His disciples, if any man will come after Me,
let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow Me. For
whosoever will save his life shall lose it, and whosoever
shall lose his life for My sake shall find it. For what is a
man profited if he shall gain the whole world and lose his
own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange
for his soul. Having rebuked Peter, he sets
forth this important doctrine of what it is to be a true disciple
of Christ. Now look, Christ Jesus' blood
was shed necessarily. It was shed for the elect, and
he was raised again for the elect, and listen, he must and will
come and save his elect. Now who are they? He describes
them right here. They, of necessity, are consecrated
to Him. Now what does that mean, consecrated? It's used in Scripture a lot. It means that we are absolutely,
completely, and utterly sold out to Christ. Lock, stock, and
barrel. We are absolutely... we deny
ourselves, our lives mean nothing. We are completely the servants
of Christ. That is what it is to believe
in Christ. It is to bow to Him. It is to serve Him. It is to
love Him and adore Him above all other things. Absolute, unconditional
surrender. Listen, if you believe Christ,
you'll take up your cross and follow Him. Listen, Christ Jesus will be
either the Lord of all or no Lord at all. Do you believe on the Son of
God? Then you and I must, of necessity,
be consecrated to Him. And listen, why wouldn't you
be? Is that not a great question? What is it profited if you gain
the whole world and lose your own soul? What does it profit
you? The world's passing away. All
the pleasures and lusts and sins that you think would help you
and please you, they are only fleeting and they will all be
destroyed. The only thing that's left is
Christ. Why would you lose your own soul
for the things of the world? Why would you not bow and consecrate
yourself to Christ? Now listen, tonight if you will
not surrender, if you will not deny yourself, unconditionally
surrender and believe on Christ, you will lose your own soul. But all of us who do believe,
who are born again of the Spirit of God, we have this hope. that in Christ we are safe. In Christ we are free. In Christ is all our life, our
joy, and our hope. And the last thing is Christ's
necessity of returning. In verse 27, "...for the Son
of Man shall come in the glory of His Father with His angels.
Then shall He reward every man according to his works. Just
as sure as the Son of God must have died and rose again from
the dead, just as sure as He must save His elect, just as
sure as His elect will consecrate themselves and believe His gospel,
He will come again and judge every man according to his works. Turn with me to Revelation 22,
and we'll close after this. Revelation 22. This is what John
saw. Revelation 20, sorry. Revelation
20. And verse 11, he says, And I saw a great white throne, and
him that sat on it, from whom the face of the earth and heavens
had fled away, and there was found no place for them. And
I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God. And the books
were opened, and another book was opened, which is the book
of life. And the dead were judged out
of those things which are written in the books according to their
works. And the sea gave up their dead wherein? were in it, and
the death and hell delivered up the dead that were in them,
and they were judged, every man according to his works. And death
and hell were cast in the lake of fire, which is the second
death, and whosoever was not found, written in the book of
life, was cast in the lake of fire." You got that? Two books.
You got that? Books. There were books over
here, and then there was another book. What is this book? This book is the works of man.
It is an account of everything that a man has done in all of
his life. And he said they were judged
out of those books. But there was another book. What's
this book? It's the book of life. It's that
eternal book. God wrote your name in it, believer.
Your name is in that book. And you want to know something?
Everybody whose name in that book, you know what they have
in the other books? Nothing. There's no evil deeds
to judge. But what is there? Complete righteousness. Look at that. Joanne, she's in
this book. It's over here. Righteous. No sin. I have blotted out the
transgressions of my people. You see, you'll be judged according
to your works. The thing is, your works are his works and his works are your works why? he must suffer and be killed
and be raised again from the dead and his people must consecrate
themselves and they do and his people will be judged and be
found righteous. How do I know this? Because it
must happen. God purposed it. God planned
it. Christ accomplished it. The Spirit
keeps it. Perfect. Perfect. It's perfect
because you and I don't have anything to do with it. Not good? Good news. Pray God will bless
this. Let's stand and be dismissed
in prayer.