I'd like to ask you if you would
turn in your Bibles to the 9th chapter of Luke. Our text will
be verses 20, 21, and 22. In verse 20, and we looked at
this in great detail last week, but we need to look at this as
I mentioned in the Bible study this morning. We started a Bible
study with a recap of last week's. I don't normally do that. Today
we did because it needed to be done to set the table, to keep
the Word of God in context. So we're going to do that again.
Here in verse 20 we read this. He said unto them, unto his disciples,
after asking them whom do his people say, and then he asked
them whom say ye that I am? Peter, answering, said, The Christ
of God. And we went over to Matthew,
where Matthew gives us a little more detail. And the Lord said,
Blessed are you, Peter. Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona. For flesh and blood hath not
revealed that unto you. He called the man standing before
Him the Christ of God, the Deliverer. Did he learn that from reading
Scriptures? Did he just figure it out? Oh,
you know, this guy's gotta be the Christ right here, yeah.
Oh yeah, that's for sure. No, the Lord said, blessed are
you, flesh and blood had not revealed it unto you. Nothing
of this world can reveal that unto you, but my Father which
is in heaven. Then the Lord says here, back
in Luke chapter 9 again, He says in verse 21, and He straightly
charged them and commanded them to tell no man that thing. Now,
people say, now why would God say not to say that? Why? It wasn't His time yet. But not
only was it not His time, it wasn't the apostles' time either.
There was going to come a time when the Lord was going to send
those apostles out, and this was after he had died, been buried,
and been raised again, and spent much time with his apostles,
eating and drinking and fellowshipping and talking, and then be raised
into heaven, to the throne of God. There was going to come
a time, and that time was after that, when he would send those
men out and they would declare who the Christ is. It was not
their time to do that yet. The Lord Jesus knows everything.
He knew that he was sending these men to their death in this world. He knew that they were going
to be persecuted just as their master was. He knows all things.
He's God in the flesh. Isn't that right? So as God in
the flesh, he knows this, he's going to send them out. So he's
telling them here, he's instructing them, it's not time yet. It wasn't
the Lord Jesus' time. See folks, what killed Christ
was that he claimed to be God of who he is. What killed Christ
is he said, salvation is of me. Salvation is of the Lord. You
got nothing to do with it. And the people got up and said,
Ha! We won't have any of that. We'll kill you. We'll take you
out. Don't be raising that stuff up
in all the people that are paying us money. We're living a pretty
good life here in this religious realm that we live in, that we
built up. And the Lord Jesus knew that
His disciples would die for the same reason. Now I'm thankful. I'm thankful that God rose me
up in a country where we're not persecuted like that. But we
are, aren't we? Do we not get persecuted by our
own family? Oh, I can't stand that God that
you guys talk about over there in Rescue. What is wrong with
you people in Rescue, California? What is wrong with you people
over in Marysville? What is wrong with you people
down in San Diego? All you talk about is this Christ
who died on the cross. There's so much more good stuff
to learn in the Bible. It wasn't time yet for the gospel
to go forth from anyone but the Lord Jesus himself. They tried
to kill him. They drove him out to the edge
of a cliff and were going to throw him over the cliff and
he disappeared and walked right through the middle of them without
them even noticing. Why? Because it wasn't his time yet.
God has a time for everything, folks. Aren't you thankful for
that? He had a time for John and Kathy
to come to this building and hear from one of his ministers,
one of those disciples that he had sent out to preach the gospel,
the good news that Christ came to save sinners. That's such good stuff. But it
gets even better. Notice what it says in verse
22, and this will be our text for this morning. saying the
Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected of the elders
and chief priests and scribes and be slain and be raised the
third day. Now we've been talking a little
bit about this Son of Man in our Friday night Bible study.
But I need to bring those who aren't able to spend Friday night
with us a little bit up-to-date here on this. Notice that it
says the Son of Man, and the Son is capitalized. This is the
Lord God Almighty, this is the Word of God declaring that His
Son, who came to this world, is 100% man. He's 100% man and
100% God. Nowhere in scriptures is the
son of any man with a capital F. Except for when he's talking
about the Lord Jesus Christ. Son of man. God becoming a man. Saying the son of man must. What? You mean the scriptures
put boundaries on God? That's what the word must does.
If it's the word must, is there any possibility, what does that
mean to you? I want you to think about that. Does the word must, now I know
if you hear me use that word to you, yeah sure John, you must
take me down to the, we'll see if that really works out. Folks,
when God uses that word must, it must. There's no ifs, ands,
or buts around it. It must. When the Word of God
uses the word shall or shalt, for instance, when Adam sinned
against God and ate of the fruit, when the Lord told him, He said,
you can eat of all the trees, all the fruits, of the garden,
but one. For in the day that thou shalt
eat of that fruit, thou shalt surely die. Guess what? It came to pass. It happened. The word must means necessary
as binding. It means knit together as in
The only way it is, if it's knit together, it must be. You have
to have the twines intertwined together. The other word that's
used for it is twine. And the first time it's used
in the New Testament is over in Matthew chapter 16. Let's
go back to Matthew again if you would. Turn over to Matthew 16
and let's look at it there. Now over in, back in Luke chapter
9, you don't need to turn back there just yet, but back in those,
there it says, saying the Son of Man must suffer many things. So the Lord tells them, don't
go out and tell the people who I am yet. It's not your time.
And then He goes, and then here's why. Because the Son of Man must
suffer. The Lord knew He was going to
the cross. You know, it says over, again, you don't need to
turn to it. I'm going to turn over to Acts
chapter 2 real quick. I want to read this for you.
I want to read it aloud. I want you to hear exactly how
God's Word says it. He says in verse 23 of chapter
2 of Acts, Him being delivered by the determinate counsel. You know what that means? That
means it was determined. It was determined by the counsel
of God before the world was ever made. The covenant of God was
that God the Father would give God the Son a people, but that
people were sinners and couldn't be in the presence of God. Because
of one man's offense, all are made sinners before God. Him
being delivered by the determining counsel and foreknowledge of
God, ye have taken and by wicked hands have crucified and slain.
It wasn't His time yet. There was still the fulfillment
of God's Word that had to be done. So we see over here, back
in intertext, it says, saying, the Son of Man must suffer. Well,
in Matthew 16, verse 21, we read it this way. From that time forth,
in other words, for the rest of the time of God's life on
this earth, He went forth and He did what? He began to show
unto His disciples how that He must go. He must go. Folks, there's no other way. Christ had to go. He put a boundary
upon Himself that He must take this path. Why? Because His Word
must come to pass. He's God. It angers me when the
religions of this world make up a God of their own imagination
who can't do anything. Why would I listen to a God like
that? Why would I come to a God who's waiting for me to do something
when the real God is not waiting for me? He came to me when I
was dead in trespasses and sin and called me out of darkness
into His marvelous light, just as He's done to you. And you
know it. You know it. From that time forth
began Jesus, the Son of Man, the Son of God. God in the flesh
to show unto his disciples how that he must go into Jerusalem.
He must go unto Jerusalem and suffer many things of the elders
and the chief priests and the scribes, and be killed and raised
again the third day. See, every time he talks about
his death, There's something that is included with it. Have
you figured it out? His resurrection. The Lord Jesus
accomplished perfection. When God the Father said to the
world, to those who were standing around the Lord Jesus, this is
my son, on whom I am well pleased. Hear ye him. Hear ye the one,
hear the one who has loved you with an everlasting love. Hear
this one of who did everything perfect. He came to do the Father's
will. What was the Father's will? That
Jesus Christ should lose none. That should be like a piece of
tape that covers the mouth of those who say, God loves everybody,
but some are going to go to hell because they won't let Him save
them. If God left me to myself, I still
wouldn't let Him save me. Aren't you thankful He comes
to us in the day of His power, in the day of His love, and He
gives us a new heart? A heart that's willing? You remember
that day? Do you remember it? I remember
it so well. I'm never going to forget and I'm never going to
let her live it down because it's the greatest thing in my
life when my sister-in-law, boom, poked me in the side with her
elbow and she goes, look at you, sitting on the edge of your seat.
She'd never seen me do that before. You know why? Every time she
saw Johnny in a church before, he was over there going, trying
to stay awake. Is it over yet? Look at the watch. And here she saw me sitting on
the edge of my seat listening to every word of God. Why? Something was being said
for the first time to a new heart that had never heard the words.
God does love you. And that's grace. And that's
mercy. It's not the love that you hear
from the religions of the world that goes out and is waiting
for you to receive it. It's a love that comes and says,
you're mine. I'm not going to let you die.
I'm not going to let you. In fact, I'm going to die for
you is what it says. You've heard me use this to describe
him before. It's like sweet and sour pork.
He died for me. That's sorrowful. I'm so sorry. That such a gracious God would
have to go through that for me. But here's good news! Here's
the sweetness of it! He did! Why? Because He must! He must die for us! He promised! God the Father promised the Son,
and the Son promised, I'll go do it! That's what it means. by the determinate counsel, I
just read for you from Acts, the determinate counsel of God.
He came here to do His Father's will, and that was to lay down
His life. The Son must suffer many things,
and be rejected of the elders and the chief priests and scribes,
and be slain, and then guess what? Raised from the dead on
the third day. Why? Because it was perfect.
It was the perfect, righteous blood of Christ. that was laid
down and shed that day on the cross for His people. And God
the Father said, this is My Son in whom I am well pleased. Death
can't hold Him. I'm the God of death. I'm the
God of everything. I'm the Sovereign Lord of everything
there is, nothing! Nothing can get in the way of
what I have purposed. In fact, what I have purposed
will be. Let's talk a little bit about
why our Lord must. In researching this word, I found
a couple of interesting points to share with you this morning.
First, first one is this, the word must is used in scriptures
132 times. And according to the Esau coordinates,
what is interesting is that all the times this word is used in
the Old Testament, it's referring to man. It's referring to what
we must. That word, shalt, that the Lord
used to Adam, shalt not eat thereof, or thou shalt surely die, that
word, it means the exact same thing as must. It means it will
happen. If He has purposed it as God,
it shall happen. And it did. And everything in
the Old Testament that is used with the word must, though, is
used in the works of men. What's interesting is that It's
referring to man, that man must do this or man must do that.
And then every one of the 49 references that I looked at referred
to the actions of man. It's not until you get to the
Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John where you see the word
must referring to God. Notice the subject matter. Did
you catch it yet? Did that jump out at you at the
scriptures there? We read, the Lord must suffer
many things. That's the first time it's used
in the book of Luke. The first time the word must
is used in the book of Matthew. What's the subject matter? Christ
crucified. Christ and Him crucified. Isn't
that interesting? The very first time God uses
that word, that boundary, that binding word in reference to
His Son, it has to do with something that He must do, and that is
Christ Jesus, the Son of Man, and Him crucified. In Mark it
reads this way, he says, And he began to teach them that the
Son of Man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders,
and the chief priests and scribes to be killed and raised, and
after three days raised again. This is the cornerstone, folks.
This is what the entire gospel of Christ Jesus is. It's Christ
and Him crucified. It's God's love for a people
that is so beyond what you and I understand as love, that He
gave His only begotten Son. God died. Can we wrap our mind
around that? It's another one of those things.
We can't explain how the three distinct persons, God the Father,
God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, as one God, but we know
it so, don't we? That's what it says in the Word
of God. There is only one God. But we know there's three different
persons. But there's only one God. But the Bible talks about
three different persons, but there's only one God. I can't
explain that. I can declare it, but I can't
explain it. People declared it to me, and I didn't care less
for a long time. It wasn't until God made it important.
I said that and I look out and there's several of you got a
big ol' smile on your face going, yep, I understand that John,
me too. Christ and Him crucified is the
cornerstone for your and my hope. It's the cornerstone for the
true gospel. The gospel of Jesus Christ and
His crucifixion. The good news that God supplied
a substitute, a sacrifice for a people that He had loved before
the world was. It's the gospel that the Lord
purposed in becoming a man. All the musts and shalls that
were listed in the Old Testament are as sure as the must and the
shalls and the new, but man could not nor would not fulfill any
of the must that was spoken of in the Old Testament. You must,
you must love God with all your heart and all your soul. Man
couldn't do that. We know we couldn't, don't we?
You must love your neighbor. You guys didn't have my neighbor.
If you had, you might have been sitting there going, well, that's
another one of those I can't do. All of those musts and shalls
that we read about are just as important as the New Testament. But man could not, nor would
not, fulfill the musts of Scripture. Our very nature is one of enmity
with the things of God. Even our most honorable deeds
in our natural unregenerate state, even the man plowing the field
to feed his family, is filled with sin. What? Don't you talk
about my grandmother and my grandfather that way, John. I will. Don't
you talk about my little son, my little daughter, they're so
innocent. I will. Why? Because God's Word
says so, that's why. Our very nature is enmity against
the things of God. Our good deeds are at best filthy
rags in the sight of the Holy God. Mark 14 verse 49, we read
these words, I was daily with you in the temple teaching, and
you took me not. But the Scriptures must be fulfilled. Why? Because they're God's Word,
that's why. And if it's God's Word, as we
read in John 1.1, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was
with God, and the Word was God. And in verse 14, it says that
the Word was manifest in the flesh. The Word was made flesh. Scriptures must be fulfilled. Only one could fulfill the musts
and the shalls of God, and that is the Lord Jesus Christ. When
the soldiers came to take Jesus, Peter had cut off an ear of one
of the Lord of Glory, and he said this, he said in Matthew
26, 52-54, he said, Put up again thy sword into its place. For
all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword.
Thinkest thou Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father,
and He shall presently give me more than twelve legions of angels? Do you think, you know, I don't
need your sword. I don't need you to come down
to the front of the pulpit and pray a prayer. I don't need you
to do that. I'm God. If I need something,
all I gotta do is pray to the Father and He'll give it to me.
More power than you can ever imagine. But how then, the Lord
continued to say, how? If I do that, if I let you come
down to the, you know, if I make that part of salvation, then
how can the scriptures be fulfilled? They can't. Because if we have
anything to do with it, then the musts are no longer there.
The Son of Man must. The Son of Man must. He came
to do the Father's will, and that's exactly what He did. There
were no maybes, there were no mights, there were no possibilities. He did it, and He did it perfectly. Without spot, our Lord and Savior
said, it is finished, and that's exactly what He meant. The work
of saving all for whom the Father gave Him was accomplished when
the Son of Man suffered many things, and was rejected of the
elders, and of the chief priests, and of the scribes, and was killed,
and after three days rose again. When God uses the word must,
can there be any question of it? I think not. That's what
the religions of the world are preaching though, isn't it? Christ
loves everybody. Will you not let him into his
heart today? Our God says I must I must One
of my personal favorites of the Lord's must turn over to John
chapter 4 This is one of my favorite musts look at verse 3 he left
Judea and departed again to Galilee and He must needs Is there any
chance that that could have not happened? Is there any possibility
with your God that that may not have happened? Not with the God
of Scriptures. He must needs. There's no possible
way that this could not have come to pass. There's no possible
way that He was waiting on somebody to make it happen for Him. He
must needs go through Samaria Oh, how wonderful that God must
needs go through Samaria. He must go through rescue. Did not the Lord must come through
rescue when He spoke to our heart for the first time? Aren't you
thankful that there's a must involved in our God? That it's
not a God of possibilities, but a God of musts? Oh, I can hear
him say this, I must need to go to a rescue. A certain man
and his wife will come through here, and they are mine, he says. I will have them. My blood was shed on the cross
for them. I paid their debt in full. I
was made sin for them, that they might be made the righteousness
of God in me. I took their sins into the grave,
paid their price, and left them there. never to be seen again. These two, this man and his wife,
are now white as I, pure as I. The book of Hebrews describes
it this way, for by one offering, the one offering that this man
had done had perfected four I must need to go through rescue. You see, God sent a preacher
to rescue. Blessed are the feet of them
that preach the gospel, them who preach the good news. I must
need to go through rescue. I've sent a man to preach, a
sinner who was saved by grace, to speak my words and in the
day of my power, in the day of my love, I will give life to
these two." I remember a time when I didn't know. I didn't
know if he was going to call her or not. I didn't know if
the Lord was going to leave me on a path, an unbearable path
of walking side by side with one who did not know him. I've
had the request of prayer for a young man who does that this
very day. And I pray the Lord will bring
his wife to hear the gospel someday. This one who came through rescue,
this one who must come through rescue, why? Because he shall
lose none. Matthew 16, 21, from that time
forth Christ began to show unto his disciples how that he must
go into Jerusalem. Pastor Fortner wrote this, he
says, Here our Lord told his disciples that he must go up
to Jerusalem, suffer and die, and rise again the third day.
Why? Why must he? It was because the Father ordained
it. The prophets revealed it. The Old Testament types and figures
were a portrait of it. God's justice demanded it, and
the time of appointment had come. Our Savior was clear when he
told his parents, I must be about my Father's will. Why? Because those things had to come
to pass. Christ became flesh for this
very reason to suffer and die for his chosen people. In Luke
22.7, then came the day of unleavened bread when the Passover must
be killed. That's the sacrifice. That's
the spotless lamb who must be killed for you and I. This message
is the very message our Savior uses to bring His chosen children,
His elect, into His light. Luke 4 verse 43, and He said
unto them, I must preach, I must preach the Kingdom of God to
other cities. That's our hope for our children.
There's still hope. As long as there's breath in
one of our loved ones, there's still hope for them. There's
still a reason to pray, Lord, oh, be Thy will. Come to them
as You came to me, dead in my trespasses and sin, and give
them life. Aren't you thankful to hear that
I must preach, He says? He does that today. I know there's
men, sinners, saved by grace, standing in pulpits, preaching
the Word of God, but I can't talk to your heart. Only God
can do that. Aren't you thankful He still
does? He says, I must preach the Kingdom of God to other cities,
for therefore I am sent. This is the message preached
that the Lord uses to shine His light in the hearts of His people.
Listen to 2 Corinthians 4, verse 5-6, For we preach not ourselves,
but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your servants, for
Jesus' sake. For God, who commanded the light
to shine out of darkness, has shined in our hearts to give
the light and the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ, the Son of Man,
the Son of God is that light. So let me consider one last point
with you, if you would, and that is the grace, the election of
God. Folks, election, that's a point
we can't pass over. The world around us wants us
to pass over it. You don't have to go there every
time, John. Yes, we do. Why? Because that's grace. Grace
is God choosing I would not choose Him. Grace is God coming to me
when I'm dead and trespassing in sin and saying, live. We must
worship Him in spirit and in truth. So if we're going to talk
about the Lord Jesus Christ and Him crucified, we need to talk
about who He was crucified for. And that's for His people. People
want to talk about the love of God as though He loves everyone
and reject the truth of God's hatred towards sin. They reject
these words in Malachi 1, verses 2-3, I have loved you, saith
the Lord. Yet ye say, and where hast thou
loved us? Was not Esau Jacob's brother?
Saith the Lord, Yea, I loved Jacob, and I hated Esau, and
laid his mountains with a heritage, and laid his heritage waste for
the dragons of the wilderness." The love God has for Jacob is
not of anything found in Jacob. Aren't you thankful for that?
God allowed Jacob To be the ugly person he was, to show you and
I that there was nothing, absolutely nothing in him lovable, just
as like there's nothing, absolutely nothing in you and I that's lovable.
Not in the sight of God. He chose to love us. Listen to these two verses if
you would. Romans 9-11, For the children
being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the
purpose of God, according to election, might stand not of
works, but of him that calleth. Chapter 9, verses 13-15, as it
is written, Jacob have I loved, this is referring back to Malachi,
but Esau have I hated. What shall we say then? Is there
unrighteousness with God? God forbid, for he sayeth to
Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy. There's election. And I will have compassion on
whom I will have compassion. Who is man to question God's
ways? The teaching of universal love,
that God loves everybody. It takes away the meaning of
the word must. If God loved everybody, the first
scripture we just read in Malachi would be a lie. He says, Jacob
have I loved, Esau have I hated. That would be a lie. Secondly,
the must that we have been reading about all throughout the scriptures
would mean that God is a failure. If that's the case, we've been
wasting our time. But folks, I'm telling you, the
Sovereign God of Scriptures, the Sovereign God of all, does
not fail. In John 6, 37-40, it says, All
that the Father giveth me shall come to me. That's the same meaning. It's not the same word, but it
has the same meaning. Shall. Must. come to me, and
him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. For I came
down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of him
that sent me. And this is the Father's will which hath sent
me, that all which he hath given me I should lose nothing." Let
me tell you a surety, folks. Christ came to save sinners.
In Matthew 1.21, the Lord Inspires Matthew to write these
words unto the Holy Spirit. He says, and she, describing
Mary, shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name
Jesus. For he shall. Same meaning. Same, exact same
meaning. For he must save his people from
their sins. Go back to our text in Luke chapter
9, verse 22. saying the Son of Man must suffer
many things and be rejected of the elders and the chief priests
and the scribes and be slain and raised the third day. Aren't you thankful? Aren't you
thankful that the Lord has put boundaries, boundaries that He
would fulfill completely and perfectly. in the stead of you
and I who can't do anything. God bless you.