Well, good morning to everyone.
Good to see you all again. Jan and I are feeling much, much
better. Jan's coughed so much, she's
throwing her back out, but other than that, we're as good as we
can be. If you would, open your Bibles with me to Mark chapter
eight. Mark chapter eight. And before
we begin, let's bow before our Lord together in prayer. Our Father, How we thank you
that this is the day that you've appointed that we can meet together
with our brethren and to worship your matchless name. And Father,
I pray that you would enable us to do that this morning. That
you would enable us to worship you in spirit and in truth. How
I beg of you that you would deliver us from going through the form
and emotion of religion. And Father, enable us to worship
our Lord Jesus Christ. cause his name to be lifted up
and magnified, and cause your people to, with the eye of faith,
see him and in awe and in wonder, worship him. Father, how I pray
that in both services this morning that you might be pleased to
show us your glory, your redemptive glory through our Lord Jesus
Christ. And what we pray for ourselves,
Father, we pray for your people wherever they meet this morning.
We pray especially for our children's classes, that you might use this
time, Father, to plant the seeds of faith in the hearts of our
young ones, that one day we could say of them, as Paul said of
Timothy, that they've known the Holy Scriptures from their youth,
which are able to make them wise unto salvation, how we beg mercy
for their souls. And Father, we ask your forgiveness
for our sins for our continued sin after all that you've done
for us, how sinful and weak and faithless we are. Father, we
beg your forgiveness and pray that this morning you might be
pleased to teach us through your word. Father, it's in Christ's
sake, in his name and for his sake we pray, amen. Now I've titled the lesson this
morning, Things That Christ Must Do. And we've looked at part
of this conversation a few weeks ago in our series on questions
in the scriptures. But I want to look at it in a
little different light or from a little different angle this
morning. Things that Christ must do. And our lesson begins in
verse 27 of Mark chapter eight. And Jesus went out and his disciples
into the towns of Caesarea Philippi. And by the way, he asked his
disciples saying, whom do men say that I am? And they answered,
John the Baptist, but some say Elias, and others one of the
prophets. And he saith unto them, but whom say ye that I am? And
Peter answered and saith unto him, thou art the Christ. Now this is the question of questions.
It's the most important question that can be asked of any of us.
It's the most important question that can be asked because our
eternal souls hang upon our answer to this question. Who is the
Lord Jesus Christ to you? Who do you say that he is? Is
the Lord Jesus Christ your all? Is he your king? Is he your savior? Is he your only hope of righteousness? Your only hope of life? Your
only hope of glory? Is he, hearing of him, is he
why you're here this morning? Well, that's who he is to everyone
that God has given saving faith to. And our Lord is gonna teach
us who he is and how it is that he has accomplished all of this
salvation for his people. Now, the disciples knew that
Jesus was the Christ. You can just hear Peter's confidence
in this answers. He answered for all 12 of them.
They were so confident in this, they knew that this man that
they were following was the son of God in human flesh. They knew
he's the long-promised Messiah. They knew it. But even as Peter
answered for them, they showed something very interesting. That
knowledge and saving faith are two different things. There's
no question a person can have knowledge. They can have right
knowledge, knowledge of scriptural facts and so forth. They can
have knowledge without saving faith. I can tell you that by
experience. There's something else I can
tell you by experience. A person can have saving faith and still
have a whole lot to learn. A whole lot to learn, don't we?
And the most needful thing that we need to learn is who the Lord
Jesus Christ is and how it is that he's accomplished the salvation
of his people, not so that we know the right facts, but so
that we'll trust him, so that we'll believe him and trust our
souls to him. And the disciples had not fully learned that yet,
So the Lord told them in verse 30, charge them that they should
tell no man. Now you'll find as many different answers to
this. Why did the Lord tell them that? You'll find as many different
answers to that question, as many different people as you
read. But I'm confident in this case, at least one of the reasons,
I don't know why the Lord does what he does, but one of the
reasons the Lord told them not to tell anybody what they knew
yet, is they didn't know what to tell yet. They didn't know
what to tell. Later on, we'll just see this
here in just a few minutes, Peter gives an indication, they're
still looking for an earthly king and an earthly kingdom.
They don't know what to tell about Christ yet. They don't
know why sinners should be pointed to Christ yet because they still
don't know what he came to do. And if you don't know what Christ
came to do, who he is and what it is he came to do, you ought
not be telling anybody anything, should you? You know, something
Brother Henry said so often, don't run before you're seen.
If you don't know what to say, just don't say anything. I believe
that's a big part of the reason why the Lord said don't tell
anybody this yet, because they didn't know the full story to
tell just yet. And if you start going telling something that
you don't know, you're going to make yourself and others miserable.
I promise you that. Now the disciples did have the right answer to
the question, who is Jesus of Nazareth? They knew he was the
Christ, the Son of God. Now that's good, that's good,
but that's not salvation. Like I said a minute ago, the
right knowledge of doctrinal facts is not saving faith. Saving
faith is knowing and trusting Christ, not the facts, knowing
and trusting Christ. And I think that point would
be it'd be a very good idea to stress that point, especially
to this congregation. Those of us who have had the
gospel preached to us for so many years, generations, generations
of this congregation have heard the gospel preached. Beginning
back whatever year it was sometime in the 1950s, this congregation
has had the gospel preached to. Now you'd think, After all these
years of good, sound, scriptural teaching, going verse by verse
through the scriptures, you'd think something had sunk in. And I know it has, something
has, but it is a depressingly small amount, isn't it? My prayer
is that the Lord will keep you and me, us, from knowing the
right answers, but not knowing Christ. Whatever it is that happens,
I don't want to miss faith in Christ. I don't want to be one
of those that stands before the Lord and says, Lord, Lord, we
preached and prophesied in your names. We did many wonderful
things in your name. I don't want to be one of them.
I want to know Christ. I need him. And you do too. And that's why I'm so determined
to keep preaching Christ to you. And I hope it's your prayer that
the Lord give you faith in Christ, that we keep looking to Christ,
that Christ is the issue, that Christ is the reason. You know,
just knowing facts is not good enough. And the Pharisees are
the perfect example of that. They knew the facts, didn't they?
But they didn't know Christ. When somebody want to know, where's
the Messiah going to be born? They knew the right answer. Oh,
he's going to be born in Bethany. Who is? Who is Jesus? Who is the
Christ? He's the son of David. They knew
the right answer, didn't they? But they didn't know Christ.
They didn't trust Him. We must know Christ. I mean above
everything, we must know Christ. It's not good enough to know
other people who've been given saving faith in Christ. If God
doesn't give me faith in Christ, I'm gonna perish. It's not good
enough to be buddy-buddy with people who are believers and
spend the time yucking it up with them and seek out what we
call fellowship with them. If I don't have fellowship with
Christ, I'm gonna perish in hell. Now, I want to have fellowship
with you. I want to have fellowship with God's people. But if I don't
have fellowship with Christ, I'm gonna perish in hell. I need
to be seeking Him. See what I'm saying? It's not
good enough to know the doctrines of grace. I've known the doctrines
of grace my whole life and spent a lot of that time unsaved, dead
in sin. It's not good enough to know
the doctrine if I don't know who the doctrine teaches. Like
Brother Henry said so many times, you don't arrive at Christ through
doctrine, you arrive at right doctrine through Christ. If I
know Him and I trust Him, my doctrine will be right. Here's
something else. I mean, this is just so obvious
this time of year. It's not good enough to be like
the Pharisees and know that the Messiah is to be born in Bethlehem. I reckon the whole world knows
Jesus was born in Bethlehem a little over 2,000 years ago. It's not
even good enough to know that that baby that was born is the
eternal father in human flesh. If we would be saved, we must
believe on him. We must believe on him, not the
baby, the crucified man. We must believe on Him. We must
understand that everything He accomplished in the flesh accomplished
the eternal salvation of His people, and He is my only hope. Not just His work is my only
hope, He is my only hope. We must know Him. We must know
who He is, what He accomplished, why He did it, and where He is
now. And that's what the Savior's
gonna teach His disciples in the rest of this passage after
they've given the right answer about who he is. And Lord's gonna
teach us how he's accomplished the salvation of his people by
teaching us what he must do. He must do these things. Now
we better be careful saying there's something God must do. But we're
on good ground here because the Savior tells us these are things
that he must do. Number one, the Lord must suffer. at the hands of the religious
leaders of the day. Verse 31, and he began to teach
them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected
of the elders and of the chief priests and scribes. He must
suffer these. Why must the Lord suffer at the
hands of these wicked men? Well, first of all, it's to fulfill
the scriptures. Look back at Matthew chapter 26. The Lord
must suffer these things to fulfill the scriptures. Matthew 26, verse
52. This is after Peter cut off the
ear of the high priest's servant. Then said Jesus unto him, put
up again thy sword into its place. For all they that take the sword
shall perish with the sword. Thinkest thou that I cannot now
pray to my father and he shall presently give me more than 12
legion, 12,000 angels? But how then shall the scriptures
be fulfilled? That thus it must be. It must
be, the Lord must suffer at the hands of these people to fulfill
the scriptures. Now let's look back at the Old
Testament, Psalm 22. We'll look at just a few of the scriptures
that the Lord is talking about that must be fulfilled in him
suffering at the hands of these religious leaders. Psalm 22 verse 12. Many bulls have compassed me.
Strong bulls of Bashan have beset me round. They gaped upon me
with their mouths as a ravening and a roaring lion. These strong
bulls of Bashan, that's the chief priests and the scribes and the
Pharisees who were the religious leaders of the Jews. They were
so strong, they had such a strong hold on the people. They were
the ones. who are making our Lord suffer
like this, but the Jews aren't alone. Look down at verse 16.
For dogs have compassed me. The assembly of the wicked have
enclosed me. They pierced my hands and my
feet. That's the Romans, the dogs,
Gentile dogs. They're going to cause the Lord's
suffering too. Everybody who is anybody is going to turn thumbs
down on the Lord Jesus Christ and cause him to suffer. Look
at Isaiah, hold your finger there at Psalm 22. Look back over at
Isaiah 53. These are the scriptures that
must be fulfilled. Isaiah 53, verse three. He is despised and rejected of
men, a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief, and we hid as it
were our faces from him. He was despised and we esteemed
him not. The Lord had to suffer being
despised and rejected of the people. You and me. Suffer being despised like that
to fulfill the scriptures. Look over Psalm 41 to show you
how this suffering at the hands of these religious
leaders being betrayed and despised How close this was to the heart
of the Savior. He had to suffer even being betrayed
by his closest friends. Psalm 41, verse nine. Yea, mine
own familiar friend, Judas, in whom I trusted, which did eat
of my bread, hath lifted up his heel against me. Judas lifted
up his heel against him and betrayed him, and the other 11 abandoned
him. The Lord suffered being hurt and betrayed by somebody
who was his close friend. Now, the Lord clearly knew that
was gonna happen. He ordained for it to happen.
He told the disciples that it was gonna happen. But yet when
it did, it hurt him. Explain that, I can't, but it's
so. If you've ever been betrayed by a close friend, you start
to get some understanding of what that was like for the Savior.
He suffered that as the friend of sinners who stick it closer
than a brother, as the friend who would never ever betray you. He suffered being betrayed by
his friends. Christ suffered at the hands of these wicked
men so that the scriptures would be fulfilled. Now here's why
that's so important. The Holy Spirit moved the prophets
of old to write these things in God's word long before they
happened so that we would know when Christ is betrayed and he
suffers like this at the hands of the religious wicked, that
this is God's eternal purpose being carried out. Just like
everything else that happens in the world, everything that
happened leading up to the cross and at the cross is God's eternal
purpose being carried out. He recorded that in the Old Testament
scriptures, so you and I would know that. Now I'll tell you
another thing that we see. Why the Savior must suffer these
things at the hands of the scribes and the Pharisees. You know why
it is? To highlight our sinful nature.
How sinful must we be to treat the Holy Son of God this way? When mankind treats the Savior
this way, it shows how much we need a Savior, how much we need
the Christ that we've rejected. So the Savior must suffer these
things at the hands of these religious leaders. And number
two, he must suffer and he must be killed. Verse 31 back in our
text says he must suffer these things, so the chief priests
and scribes, and be killed. Now look back again at Isaiah
53. It wasn't good enough that the Lord just suffer at the hands
of these men. He must be killed. He must be. Now why? Why must he suffer and
die? Well, Isaiah 53, verse seven.
He was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth.
He is brought as a lame to the slaughter, and as a sheep before
her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth. He was taken from
prison and from judgment, and who shall declare his generation?
For he was cut off out of the land of the living. He died,
for the transgression of my people was he stricken. Christ must
die, to fulfill the scriptures. Christ must die to fulfill the
picture of the Passover lamb. Christ our Passover is what?
Slain, sacrificed for us. Christ must die because redemption
from sin can only come through the blood, through the blood.
When I see your suffering, I'll pass over you. No, when I see
the blood, the blood, I'll pass over you. Our Lord told Nicodemus,
as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must
the Son of Man be lifted up. He must be lifted up and crucified
on a cross. He can't have his head chopped
off. He can't be stoned to death. He must be lifted up on a cross
and die. Well, why must the Savior be
lifted up and die? Because the sin offering must
die. The only way any sinner can live
is if the sin offering dies for our sin. He must die. Christ must die because the justice
of God demands it. When the father made his son
sin for his people, God's justice demanded that the son die. It's
not optional. The Lord said in Ezekiel 18 verse
20, the soul that sinneth, it shall die. It must. The guilty
shall die because God's justice demands it. Christ was made guilty. Even though he never sinned,
he was made guilty. If the father put him to death
and he was innocent, that was unjust. Everything God does is
just. Christ was made guilty, even
though he never sinned, and then he must die. Christ suffered
until the price for sin was paid, and then he gave up the ghost.
to satisfy the holy justice of his father. He did that willingly
for his people. He did that willingly to glorify
his father. Look over 1 Peter chapter three.
I want you to see this. I feel like this is so important
for us to understand. The sacrifice of Christ, yes,
it satisfied God's justice. It was something that must be
done to satisfy justice, but this is not a cold legal transaction. The death of Christ is an act
of great love. Christ must die as a substitute
for his people because the death of Christ is the only way those
people that Christ loves can be brought into God's presence.
1 Peter 3, verse 18. I'm in 2 Peter, hang on a minute. 1 Peter 3, verse 18. For Christ
also hath once suffered for sins the just for the unjust that
he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but
quickened by the Spirit. Christ has such love for his
people that he died to bring his people back to God, to bring
his people to himself, but quickened by the Spirit. Christ died, but
he was quickened by the Spirit, and that brings me to my third
point. After three days, the Savior must, rise again from
the dead. He must, that's what he says
here in Mark chapter eight, at the end of verse 31, and after
three days, rise again. He must rise again. Now this
is such an important point. There's no good news of the gospel
without the resurrection of Christ. We don't just celebrate the resurrection
of Christ, you know, one day a year on Easter, different day
of the year every year, so it can't be the anniversary of Christ's
resurrection because it's a different day every year. We celebrate
the resurrection of Christ every time we preach the gospel. That's
why we meet on Sunday, Sunday the first day of the week when
the Savior rose again from the dead. There's no good news of
the gospel without the resurrection of Christ. Now again, Psalm 53,
Christ must rise again the third day. to fulfill the scriptures. To show us this was God's eternal
purpose. The Savior told us himself he
must rise again the third day to fulfill the scriptures. To
fulfill the picture of Jonah who came out of the belly of
the whale after three days. That's a picture of the resurrection
of Christ. He must die to fulfill the scriptures. He must rise
again to have the victory that his death accomplished. Isaiah
53 verse 10. Yet it pleased the Lord. It pleased
the Lord's justice. It pleased the Lord to bruise
him. He hath put him to grief. When thou shalt make his soul
an offering for sin, he shall see his seed. He's not just gonna
die and be defeated. He shall see his seed. He shall
prolong his days and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in
his hand. He shall see of the travail of
his soul and be satisfied. By his knowledge shall my righteous
servant justify many for he shall bear their iniquities. He must
die to have the victory that he purchased for his people.
You don't have to turn here, but in Psalm 16, verse 10, the
psalmist wrote, thou will not leave my soul in hell or in the
grave, neither will thou suffer thine holy one to see corruption. He's not gonna stay dead. He's
not gonna be corrupted and just go back to the dust. He must
rise again. He must rise again to fulfill
the scripture. Then, Christ must rise again
from the dead because God's justice demands it. God's justice first
demanded that he die, didn't it? Now, after his death, God's
justice demands that Christ rise again. Now, sin, that's what
causes death, isn't it? That's the only reason for death
is sin. For the death of Christ put away.
All the sin that had been laid on him, that sin's gone. It's
been washed away by his precious blood. It's been paid for by
his blood. Sin's gone. Then he can't stay
dead. Christ must rise again. And here's something good for
us to take home. Christ must rise again for the comfort and
assurance of salvation for his people. What is your confidence
that Christ put your sin away? What's your confidence? What's
your confidence that you must be saved? What is your confidence
that when all this shootin' match is over, God's gonna bring you
to glory with Him? What's your confidence in that?
It's the resurrection of Christ. That He both died and rose again
for you. Romans 4, 25. Who was delivered
for our offenses. He was put to death for our sins
laid on Him and was raised again for our justification. He was
raised again as proof. He justified his people from
all of their sin. Those people must have eternal
life because Christ rose again from the dead. That's our comfort
and our consolation of salvation and eternal life. Then Christ
must rise again to make intercession for his people. Oh, aren't you
glad you have an intercessor with the Father? Doesn't that
just comfort your heart to think that the right hand of the Father
is one who makes intercession for you? Well, a dead Savior
can't make intercession, can he? But a living one can. So
he rose again from the dead, and the writer to the Hebrews
told us he ever liveth, he'll never die again, he ever liveth
to do what? Make intercession for them, for
his people. And since Christ died for sin,
his intercession will be effectual. He's got something to plead.
He's got the blood of his sacrifice. He's got his death that satisfied
God's justice for sin. He's got his sin atoning blood
to plead for the forgiveness of sins for his people. Then
the father will forgive them because he's always going to
honor the sacrifice of his son. He's always going to honor the
blood of his son. The son's going to plead his
death. as a substitute for his people, then the Father will
never demand that you die. He'll never let you die. Now,
if Christ died for you, he won't. Then Christ must rise again so
that he reigns over all of God's creation, so that he reigns to
ensure the salvation of his people. The Apostle Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians
15, verse 25, for he must reign. He must reign as king of kings
and Lord of lords. He must reign, Paul said, until
he has put all enemies under his feet. Oh, I'm thankful for
that. I love to read that scripture.
He must reign. If my king reigns, I am safe
in his kingdom. Everything that happens around
me that I don't like, that I don't trust, that I don't, oh, If my
king reigns, I'm safe in his kingdom. I can trust this king. Then Christ must rise again so
that he can come and gather his people to himself. Aren't you glad this is not all
there is? I look forward so much to these
days that we can meet together and preach the gospel and worship
together But I'm very dissatisfied with
it. I'm very dissatisfied with my preaching. I'm very dissatisfied
with my faith. I'm very dissatisfied with my
love as much as I enjoy it. I mean, this is the most enjoyable
thing God's given us in this life. But aren't you glad this
is not all there is? There's coming a day when Christ
our Savior is gonna appear again and gather all of his people
to himself. Now he can't come again unless
he first died and arose and went back to the father. I mean, it's
just kind of, I always try to keep things simple in the way
that I think. Christ can't come again unless he first came here
and left. Well, he came here and left. He suffered, he died,
he rose again and sent him back to the father and he's coming
again. Now you just wait till you see
his glory then. Oh my goodness, I'm glad he's
coming back. Then Christ died so that he'd
be the firstfruits of them that slept. The firstfruits of them
that slept to rise and die no more. Now that tells me everyone
for whom Christ suffered and died and rose again, they must
be saved. They must be. They must be given
spiritual eternal life. They must rise again from the
dead spiritually because Christ our Savior did. They must be
saved. Peter said, there's none other name under heaven given
among men, whereby we must be saved. Not that we might be saved,
not that we'll be saved if we decide to accept Jesus, whereby
we must be saved. We must be, because Christ died
and rose again. When I was first making my notes,
I was gonna quit right there, but something else I want us
to see. How important is it for us to believe on this Christ
who must suffer, who must die, and who must rise again? Tell
you how important it is. If we don't believe it, we're
under the control of Satan. Look at verse 32. We're under
the control of the prince of the power of the air. Verse 32,
Mark 8. And he spake that saying openly
And Peter took him and began to rebuke him. Lord, don't go
suffer, don't go die. How can we have this earthly
king if you go suffer and die? Don't do that. But when he had
turned about and looked on his disciples, he rebuked Peter saying,
get thee behind me, Satan. Satan, for thou savest not the
things that be of God, but the things that be of men. I can't
think of a more harsh rebuke than that, can you? Get thee
behind me, Satan. Peter didn't want the Lord to
go suffer and die. He didn't want him to go redeem
his people by his precious blood, by the blood of his sacrifice,
because he was thinking about earthly things. That's being
under the control of Satan. That's why the Lord rebuked him.
All right. If I do have to say so, that's
some good preaching. But now, I wanna give you something. that will be very important to
help you in your everyday lives. Since all of this is true, these
are the things that Christ must do. Everything, everything that's
happening in God's creation, everything that happens to us,
everything that happens around us, must happen, must happen,
exactly the way it's happening. It must. Let me read you a few
scriptures. Matthew 24, verse six. The Lord
says, you should hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that
you be not troubled. For all these things must come
to pass. Yes, they're uncomfortable. Yes,
they're terrible. Yes, they cause terrible suffering
and display man's horrible sin and wretched nature and violent.
Yes, they do. But they must come to pass. They must. or else God wouldn't
do it. Revelation 22, verse six. These
sayings are faithful and true. And the Lord God of the Holy
prophet sent his angels to show and his servants the things that
must shortly be done. See everything God's doing, his
creation, whether we like it or we don't like it, they must
be done. They must, somehow they're working
together. They must be done to accomplish
The salvation and the glorification of God's people, they must be
done. The Lord told Ananias in Acts
9 verse 16, you go to Saul of Tarsus, you preach Christ to
him, for I will show him how great things he must suffer. For my name's sake. Paul's gonna
suffer a lot of things. Why? For the elect's sake. so they'll hear the gospel preached.
Maybe, Paul, like all of us other preachers, God's gotta just absolutely,
utterly, not just break our heart in two, but shatter it into pieces.
He must break our heart so that from a broken heart, we can preach
the gospel to the broken hearted. They must come to pass. Our Lord
said, other sheep I have which are not of this fold, them also
I must bring. You don't have to worry that
some of God's elect are going to slip through the cracks. The
Lord said, I have sheep that are not of this fold. They're
going to come from other generations, from other countries, from other
situations. Them also I must bring and they
will because they're going to hear my voice and they're going
to come to me. Now, since all of this is true,
these things must come to pass. What's one of the things that
I should strive for in my everyday life? is to hear the gospel and believe
Christ. The writer to the Hebrews, Hebrews 2 verse one says, therefore,
we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have
heard, lest at any time we should let them slip. You know what
that word ought is? Therefore, we ought to give the
more earnest heed. It's the exact same word translated
must in our text. I must give the more earnest
heed to the gospel because that's the only way I can know Christ.
That's the only way I can believe on Christ. That's the only way
God's pleased to give saving faith to his people. Maybe I'm
a grouchy old man. I probably am. But seems to me like that the
world has changed a lot, a lot over my lifetime. And not just
to believers, but to the world in general, it seems like what
goes on in buildings that we call churches do not seem, does
not seem as important to people as it used to. Maybe there's
too many other things to do. Maybe there's too many other
forms of entertainment. Now people used to use that as entertainment.
Now they got something better to do. I don't know. But it sure
does seem to me like that what goes on in these buildings, and
I'm talking now specifically about the preaching of the gospel,
doesn't quite seem to have the prominence in our lives that
it used to. Well, I want to seek that. I
don't want to gain the whole world and lose my soul. I don't
even want to gain the whole world and lose the joy of the gospel.
We must give the more earnest heed to the things that we've
heard, lest at any time we should let them slip. We must hear the
gospel. It's the only thing that will
feed and comfort and strengthen a believer to go through this
world here below. All right, well, I hope that'll
be a blessing to you.