You can probably tell from the
songs, and I thought I was going to be preaching from 1 John 5
on the subject of prayer, but I believe the Lord has given
me a message from Matthew 16, so I'm going to preach here. I said several weeks ago that I intended to preach from this.
Our Lord's message here is so vitally important. This is a
difference between life and death. That's what he's declaring here.
The question I want to answer is what is required of us if
we would be true disciples of Christ? True students of Christ. What does the Lord Jesus require
of us to believe on Him and to truly be His? I've titled this,
Things Necessary to Faith. He gives the answer right here
in this text, and these are weighty words, and these are words that
deserve our utmost prayer and study. Verse 24, Then said Jesus unto
his disciples, If any man will come after me, if any man will
believe on me, trust me, then let him deny himself, take up
his cross, and follow me. For whatsoever or for whosoever
will save his life shall lose it. And whosoever will lose his
life for my sake shall find it. Now he says clearly right here
what is required. He says if we will believe on
him, be saved by him, then we must deny ourselves, take up
our cross, and follow Him. That's what's required. We must
deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow Him. Now first of
all, the Lord Jesus only requires of us what He has already done
for His people in an infinitely greater way. He says there in
verse 21, From that time forth began Jesus 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. It was a must. These things were a must. In
all of this that he's talking about, He's saying it was a must
that He deny Himself. It was a must that He go to the
cross, take up His cross. It was a must that He die. It
was a must that He be raised again the third day. These things
were a must in order that He would fulfill the everlasting
covenant that He agreed to fulfill before the world was made. That's
what was required in that covenant he made was that he go to the
cross. It was a necessity. It was a must to fulfill the
law for him to go to the cross. It was a must for him to fulfill
the prophets. Everything the prophets wrote.
Paul said in Romans 1, they wrote concerning the Lord Jesus Christ.
Everything that he would suffer and all the things he would accomplish,
that's what the prophets wrote in all the Old Testament Scriptures.
He's going to fulfill those Scriptures. It's a must for him to go to
the cross. It was a must for him to do the very thing the
Father sent him to do. And that is to manifest the righteousness
of God. The whole purpose, the very reason
that the Father sent Christ into this world, was to declare that
God is just. It was to show forth, to manifest
how that God does all things righteously. The reason that
the Father justly made Him a curse is because it's clearly said
in the Scriptures that He made Him sin for us who knew no sin
that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. That's why he
justly made him a curse, because he made him sin for us. This
is what Christ was declaring on the cross, the righteousness
of God. He was declaring how that God
is the justifier of every one of his people that are brought
to believe on him. That one on the cross is God
who justified his people from our sins. That's God justifying
His people from our sins on the cross. That's why it was a must
for Him to go to the cross. He said in John 3.14, as Moses
lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the
Son of Man be lifted up. And whosoever believeth in Him
should not perish but have eternal life. They were in the wilderness,
they had sinned against God, and God sent forth serpents that
were biting them and killing them. And the remedy was, God
said to Moses, you make the very thing that's killing them and
lift it up on a pole. You make a serpent, because that's
what's killing them is a serpent. What was killing us? Sin. And
so he made him sin and lifted him up on the cross. And he said,
now whoever looks to that serpent, he'll live. And the Lord tells
us, whosoever believeth on the Lord Jesus Christ, look to him
in faith. Look to him in faith, in the
heart, and you'll be saved. He is the cure for our sin problem. the Lord Jesus Christ. The servant
is not above his master. The servant is not above his
Lord. As the Lord is, so the servant
will be. And our Lord Jesus Christ only
requires of his people what he did for us in an infinitely greater
way. You and I will never suffer as
Christ suffered. We never will. We will never
suffer as Christ suffered. And we'll never do what He did
in the perfection that He did it. He said, Is it nothing to
you, all ye that pass by? Behold and see if there be any
sorrow like unto my sorrow. which the Lord hath afflicted
me, which the Lord hath done to me, in that He's afflicted
me in the day of His fierce anger. There's no sorrow like the sorrow
that our Savior bore. Yes, He calls on us to take up
our cross. That means to suffer for His
sake. But you and I will never suffer
like our Redeemer suffered. I don't care how badly We suffer. We won't suffer like He did. But that's why He did it. He
did it to save us. He did it to perfect His people.
And that's what He accomplished. He saved His people from our
sins on that cross. When He said it's finished, He
declared, I've saved all My people. I've purged their sins. I've
made them the righteousness of God in Me. I have finished the
work. That's what He did. It was Christ
doing for us. He was denying Himself. He took
up His cross and He calls us now to deny ourselves and take
up our cross to suffer for His sake. That's not too much to
demand, is it? When you consider what He did
for us and how infinitely greater He did it, that's not much at
all to require of us. Go over to Philippians 2 with
me just a moment. Here's what our Lord is saying
right here. Philippians 2. Verse 3. Let nothing be done
through strife or vainglory, but in lowliness of mind let
each esteem other better than themselves. Look not every man
on his own things, but every man also on the things of others. Let this mind be in you. This
is the mind that was also in Christ Jesus. Who being in the
form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God? He is equal. That's what it means. But he
made himself of no reputation. He took upon him the form of
a servant. and was made in the likeness
of men. And being found in fashion as
a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even
the death of the cross." That's what he means when he says, let him deny himself and take
up his cross and follow me. He's saying, let this man be
in you which was in Christ. And because he did that for his
people, He exalted God to the highest. In the process of saving
his people, he exalted God to the highest. And it says in verse
9, wherefore God also hath highly exalted him and given him a name
which is above every name. that at the name of Jesus every
knee shall bow of things in heaven and things in earth and things
under the earth and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ
is Lord to the glory of God the Father. So, when our Lord tells
us here what's required, He's only telling us and requiring
of us what He's already done. what He's done so perfectly,
so infinitely greater than we'll ever do, that He's all our salvation. All our salvation. If you haven't
believed on Christ, believe on Him. Believe on Him. I pray that those words come
from this powerless earthen vessel into your heart with Christ,
by Christ, in such power that you just find yourself just not
able to do anything but believe on Him. That's what I pray for
you. Now secondly, go back to Matthew
16. I want to look at Peter's offense and give you a word about
rebuke. Peter had just declared the truth
of who Christ is. Our Lord said, who do you say
that I am? And Peter answered, he said,
Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And the Lord
Jesus commended him, commended his faith, commended him for
testifying openly before all, bearing witness in truth that
Jesus Christ is the... He's the Christ. He's the one
chosen of God and sent by God. He's the God-man. He's the son
of the living God. The son of man is the son of
God. And he said, flesh and blood didn't reveal that to you, Peter.
My Father which is in heaven taught you that. That's why you're
blessed. You're blessed of God. And he
said, Peter, your name's Rock. That's what Simon means, is Rock. He said, but it's on this rock
that I'm going to build my church. On the clear, truthful testimony
of Christ and Him crucified. He said, I'm going to penetrate
the gates of hell so that they won't prevail against me. And
I'm going to go in wherever my people are and I'm going to send
this gospel and I'm bringing them out. And the gates of hell
will not prevail against my church. Peter just declared the truth
of Christ. And then he heard the Lord Jesus
say, He must suffer, He must die, He must be raised again
the third day. He heard the Lord declare, this
is a must that I do this. And Peter rebuked God. Think about that. Peter rebuked
God. Verse 22, Then Peter took Him
and began to rebuke Him. This is Christ the truth. This
is the truth speaking. This is God speaking. And Peter
rebuked Him. He heard the Son of God declare
what He must do on the cross. And Peter called Him a liar.
He said, Be it far from thee, Lord, this shall not be unto
thee. Be sure to understand this, brethren.
What Peter did, you and I can easily do. We can easily do what
he did. This is a believer speaking.
This is somebody born of God, taught of God. The Lord just
said that. This is a believer speaking. But a believer can
fall into serious, serious error. And that's what Peter had done
here. And yet, still be the Lord's, still be forgiven of all his
sin. The Lord not ever bring it up,
never charge him with it, because he's been put away in Christ's
surety. That's so now. Now try to put
yourself in Peter's shoes. You've heard the gospel preached
and you've been rebuked through the gospel as the gospel is going
forward. Some of you have been rebuked
personally one on one by a faithful pastor. But now I want you to
put yourself in Peter's shoes here. Not any of the Lord's disciples
were ever rebuked as sharply as the Lord rebuked Peter right
here. Not a single one. Now listen to what the Lord said.
He turned and he 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. Now not only did the Lord rebuke
Peter sharply, He did so before all the disciples. They're all
standing there. And our Lord did this, he rebuked
him before them all. Mark says, he spake that saying
openly. When he was telling them he must
suffer, he was speaking openly before the disciples. And Peter
took him and began to rebuke him. But when he had turned about
and looked on his disciples, he rebuked Peter. Our Lord turned
around and looked at all of them sitting there. And then he rebuked
Peter, right there in front of everybody. We live in a day when
Satan's convinced this ungodly world that nobody ought to be
rebuked, everybody's right, nobody's wrong, and you certainly wouldn't
do it in front of anybody. Compromise is the dogmatism of
the day. Compromise is the dogmatism of
this day in which we live. They're not dogmatic about anything
except compromising everything. But you know the apostles called
men and women's names. They called them by name and
told the church, be warned about them. They called them by name. Paul told Timothy, this charge
I commit to thee, war a good warfare. And brethren, this is
a warfare. Anybody that doesn't believe
that the believer's life's a warfare, they're sadly mistaken. This
is a warfare. It's a constant warfare. He said, Wage a good warfare,
holding faith and a good conscience, which some, having put away concerning
faith, have made shipwreck, of whom is Hymenaeus and Alexander. He called them by name. He said,
Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world. He
said, Hymenaeus and Philetus, who concerning the truth have
erred, saying that the resurrection is passed already and they overthrow
the faith of some. He said, Alexander the coppersmith
did me much evil. He called him by name. He said,
The Lord reward him according to his works. Of whom be thou
ware also. He said, Beware of this man,
for he's greatly withstood our words. Paul told Timothy concerning
the brethren. He said, them that sin, rebuke
before all that others also may fear. So before all the disciples,
the Lord Jesus rebuked Peter calling him Satan. Saying, thou
art an offense to me. You and I have been rebuked.
If you're a believer, you've been rebuked. I've never been
rebuked like that. He called him Satan. He said,
you're an offense to me. Why did he do that? Why did he
call him that? It's because Peter, what he said was of the devil. What Peter said was of the devil. Peter at that moment was siding
with the devil against the Lord. against his Savior. Peter did
what the devil always tries to get believers to do. Our Lord
said, For thou savourest not the things that be of God, but
those that be of men. You're savouring those things.
Not the things that be of God, but the things that be of men.
That's what the devil always tries to get the Lord's people
to do. He succeeded in you and I when
we were under His power before God converted us. And He's done that in this whole
world. This whole world, unregenerate world savors the things that
be of men, not the things that be of God. But He tries to do
this in all God's people. And for a little while right
here, He succeeded in Peter. The thing that's of God is, let
a man deny himself. That's of God. Let a man deny
himself. The thing that is of man is have
pity on thyself. Look at the margin right there.
Pity thyself. That's what Peter was saying
to him. Lord, have pity on yourself. Don't go to the cross. Have pity
on yourself. That's not the thing that's of
God. That's what's of the devil. The
things that are of God is this, take up your cross, suffer for
the sake of Christ. The thing that's of men is compromise
so you can keep the peace and you don't have to suffer. That's
of man, that's not of God. Paul said, Our brethren, if I
yet preach circumcision, why do I yet suffer persecution?
Paul used his persecution as proof to his brethren, I'm preaching
the gospel. If I wasn't, I wouldn't be persecuted. If I was giving sinners just
one thing for them to do, I wouldn't be suffering persecution. If
I just backed up off of what Christ accomplished on the cross
and what the scriptures clearly revealed He was doing on the
cross, I wouldn't suffer persecution. But then it's the offense of
the cross ceased. He said, do I now persuade men
or God? Do I seek to please men or do
I seek to please God? For if I get pleased men, I should
not be the servant of Christ. You mark this down. You mark
this down. Every compromise, every division,
every lie, You can trace it back throughout
the history of the church right to this hour. Every compromise,
every division, every persecution can be traced to the devil's
effort to deny Christ what he suffered on the cross and what
he accomplished on the cross and for whom. Everything can
be traced to that. Everything. The devil and his
seed hate the truth of particular redemption. The doctrine of limited
atonement is hands down the most hated doctrine by the devil and
his seed because it declares that Christ went to the cross
and suffered for a particular people, that he suffered justly,
that he manifest the righteousness of God, and that he justified
each and every one for whom he died. He crushed the serpent's
head on Calvary's cross and won the victory. And for that reason,
the devil and his seed, the devil and his people hate the doctrine
of the cross. They try just to get it diminished
just a little bit. Just take away a little bit of
what Christ did on Calvary's cross and for whom. Just back
off of it a little bit and the devil and his seed will be happy.
Brethren, understand this now. The Lord only rebukes those He
loves. If we undergo chastening, it's
because we're a child of God. The Lord only rebukes those He
loves. Now, it's usually through the
preaching of the gospel that the Lord rebukes. That's the
chief way He rebukes His people is through the preaching of the
Word. But the Lord also does use, occasionally, he does use
his preacher one-on-one to rebuke one of his children. Paul told
Titus, these things speak and exhort and rebuke with all authority,
let no man despise thee. That's what the Lord's given
how he uses his preacher. He does it mainly through the
preaching of the gospel, but he does rebuke one-on-one sometimes
using his preacher. Years ago, I had to be rebuked
personally one-on-one by a faithful pastor. And I can tell you this,
I'm so thankful that he rebuked me. I am so thankful. It wasn't pleasant at the time.
But I'm thankful he did it. I'm very thankful he did it.
So, if we're rebuked through the gospel or by a faithful preacher,
remember, it's the Lord that's rebuking me. If I'm a child of
God, I got one or two things I can, one or two ways I can
go on this. If I'm rebuked, I can either
say, well, that wasn't the Lord, because I'm not a child of God.
Or I can say, that was the Lord rebuking me. because I am his
child. That's why he did it. Now you
can decide which way there you want to go. I want to say he
rebuked me because I'm his child. It's the Lord that did it. If
it offends me, you think about this. This was offensive to Peter. I'm sure it was offensive to
Peter. But if it's offensive to me,
it's only because it goes against my flesh. That's the only reason. And I know that. I know that's
true. And whatever the Lord teaches
me in His Word is right. It's always right. And it's for
my good and it's for His glory. So, that's the first thing I
need to remember. It's the Lord. It's what's right. It's what's for my good. It's
what's for His glory. You think of how bad it would
have been for Peter if the Lord had not rebuked him. Think how
awful that would have been for Peter if the Lord had not rebuked
him. So, let's not be offended when we're rebuked of the Lord.
The Lord only chastens those He loves, and those who are His,
He makes us hear, He makes us obey. The scripture says, Proverbs
13, 1 says, A wise son heareth his father's instruction. A wise
son heareth his father's instruction, but a scorner heareth not rebuke. So look at James 1. This is the
Lord's instruction to us anytime we hear the word and we're rebuked. We're not grown yet brethren
and we need to be rebuked and we have to be rebuked. You rebuke your children, you're
chasing your children. If you love them, you do. And
you do it for their benefit. That's what this is. That's what
the Lord was doing to Peter. And look here, James 1. This
is what he tells us then concerning how we hear. Verse 19, Wherefore,
my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to
speak, slow to wrath. For the wrath of man worketh
not the righteousness of God, Wherefore, lay apart all filthiness
and overflowing naughtiness, and receive with meekness the
engrafted Word which is able to save your souls. Be doers
of the word and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. Look
at verse 25. He says, Whoso looketh into the
perfect law of liberty, that's the gospel, and continueth therein,
he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this
man shall be blessed in his deed, or blessed in his doing. See
that? He'll be blessed. So, I said
this to you many times, when you hear the gospel preached,
If something cuts your flesh, take as much time in prayer and
study and seeking to understand what's being preached as it took
to prepare it. Be swift to hear, slow to speak,
slow to anger. All right, now lastly, let's
hear what Christ requires if we would be His true disciples.
Now here's the lesson Christ taught after He rebuked Peter.
This is what He's teaching us. Right here, verse 24. Matthew
16, 24. Then said Jesus unto His disciples,
If any will come after Me, if any will believe on Me, trust
Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow
Me. Now, it may seem like Peter was
concerned for Christ. It may seem like by him saying
he didn't want him to go to the cross, didn't want to see him
be killed and suffer and be killed. It may seem like he was concerned
for Christ. Our Lord's telling us that was
not what the case was. He was concerned for Peter. He
was concerned about himself. Peter did not want to deny himself.
and he didn't want to suffer. The Lord was a part of himself
and he didn't want to see the Lord suffer. He didn't want to
deny himself and see that happen. And he would suffer seeing the
Lord suffer and die and he didn't want to suffer. That's what it
was about. If I'll come after Christ, I
must deny myself worth confessing I'm a sinner. Confessing I'm
a sinner. I'm a guilty sinner and all I
do is sin. I must deny myself. If I'm going
to come after Christ, I must deny myself will. I must confess that I'm not saved
by my will. I'm not coming to Christ by my
will. I'm saved by God's will. I'm coming to Christ because
Christ and His power has made me willing. He's given me a new
will to come to Him. I have to deny myself will. I
have to deny myself works. I have to confess that I'm saved
not by my works, I'm saved by Christ's works. And any works
that I do are only because I'm His workmanship. And He produced
those good works. You see how important it is to
deny ourselves? Now we get that, don't we? That's
what we preach constantly. If I'm going to come to Christ,
I have to deny my self-worth. I'm a sinner, I have to deny
my self-will. I'm saved by God's will, not
mine. I have to deny my self-works. I'm not saved by my works, I'm
saved by His works. But it also means this, brethren,
if those we love deny the gospel, or they only seek for you to
compromise the truth a little, Though I love Him, I must deny
myself and not compromise. I have to be dogmatic about the
gospel. Though they may reject me and
it might cause me great suffering, I have to take up my cross and
suffer for Christ. Standing with Christ, defending
Christ and His gospel. Christ said this. He said it
would be so. Go to Matthew 10. And look, Matthew
10.34. He said, Think not that I have
come to send peace on earth. I came not to send peace, but
a sword. That's the word of Christ himself.
For I've come to set a man at variance against his father,
and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law
against her mother-in-law. And a man's foes, his enemies,
shall be they of his own household. And he that loveth father or
mother more than me is not worthy of me. That word, loveth father
or mother more than me, that means if he puts them above me. That's what it means. Does it
mean you're not supposed to not love your father and your mother?
In another place, he says if he doesn't hate his father and
mother. It means he's to have no regard to father or mother,
son or daughter, any other loved one. He's to have no regard to
them whatsoever so that all his affection is to Christ and he
stands with Christ. He says this, he that loveth
father and mother more than me is not worthy of me. He that
loveth son or daughter more than me, he's not worthy of me. And
He that taketh not His cross, that means it's going to cause
us suffering. These things are painful. But He says, He that takes not
His cross and follow after Me, He's not worthy of Me. It means
something else. It means this. If those I love
in the church begin to walk contrary to God's Word, or they begin
to sow discord and create division, or maybe they're a tail bearer,
you know, whatever it is, though I love them, though they're my
brother or sister in Christ, I have to deny myself, and I
have to stand with Christ, I have to stand with the truth, with
his people. God says he hates sowing discord. And this is true, brethren. We
need to understand this. Bad character and a bad motive
disannulls the faithfulness of a preacher or a brother or sister
no matter how true they preach the gospel. Though I love them, I must deny
myself by denying them in standing with Christ. Though I'll suffer,
I must take up my cross for the sake of Christ and side with
Christ. You know the Apostle Paul, go
to Philippians 1, I want you to see this. The Apostle Paul,
he was imprisoned for preaching the gospel. Now, you know how
we are. When he was thrown in jail for
preaching the gospel, do you know that the majority of his
brethren forsook him. Even ones that were saved through
his preaching, they forsook Paul. The majority did. He said in
one place, they've all forsaken me. But look what he said. This was his word to his Philippian
brethren who stood with him. He said, Verse 27, only let your
conduct be as it becometh the gospel of Christ that whether
I come and see you or else be absent I may hear of your affairs
that you stand fast in one spirit with one mind, striving together
for the faith of the gospel, and in nothing terrified by your
adversaries, which is to them an evident token of perdition,
when men become more fearful of men than they are of God."
He said, that's an evident token of perdition, but to you, because
you stand firm, It's an evident token of salvation and that of
God. Now listen, for unto you it is
given in the behalf of Christ not only to believe on Him, but
also to suffer for His sake. Just as necessary as it is for
you and I to believe on Christ, it's that necessary that we suffer
for Christ. Shall He suffer and we not suffer? Shall my Redeemer suffer what
He suffered at the hands of this God-hating, self-righteous religious
world? And shall I not be willing to
suffer for His sake in a greatly, greatly, greatly smaller way
than He suffered for me? And what kind of suffering? He
said, having the same conflict that you saw in me and now hear
to be in me. Has my religion cost me anything? Have you ever asked yourself
that? Has my religion ever cost me
anything? J.C. Ryle said, a religion which
costs nothing is worth nothing. It will do us no good in the
life that now is and it will lead to no salvation in the life
to come. Here's why. Here's why. You think
that's scriptural? I think it is. Because here's
what the Lord said right here. Verse Matthew 16, 25. For whosoever
will save his life, whoever will not deny himself and he's not
willing to suffer for Christ, he'd rather compromise and do
whatever he has to do to just keep peace so he don't have to
suffer. The Lord said he'll lose it. He'll lose his life. He's
just trying to save it, that's all. Aren't you glad Christ didn't
try to save his life? Aren't you glad? That matters,
don't it? He lost it, and because he lost
his life, he not only saved his own, he saved mine too, and yours
too. And he says, and whosoever shall
lose his life for my sake, he shall find it. What if I compromise
to keep the peace and I refuse to take a stand for Christ and
the whole religious world just thinks I'm great? And I get such
a following because I don't offend anybody, not what I preach, not
what I do, not what I say, and I just, boy this church just
builds and builds and builds and we just got a huge, massive
following. Look at verse 26. What is a man
profited if he shall gain the whole world? and lose his own
soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange
for his soul? Now Christ is coming again, and
we're going to all stand before the judgment seat. Now listen
to what Christ said, verse 27. For the Son of Man shall come
in the glory of His Father with His angels, and then He shall
reward every man according to his works. When He talks about reward, He's
saying, You're either going to go into heaven with him or go
into hell. That's what he's talking about.
Well, preacher, I don't think we're saved by our works. We're
not. But these works he's been speaking
about, that's going to determine whether or not we're trusting
our own works or whether we're trusting his works. All are going
to be found to have either one tried to save their life by pitting
themselves so that they never denied themselves, they never
took a stand because they refused to suffer for Christ, and thus
they proved that they never truly came to Christ in faith and followed
Him. Or, Christ is going to found
us to have lost our life for His sake. We denied ourselves
in all these ways I'm talking about. We suffered for Christ's
sake. and they'll prove that He drew
us to Him and gave us faith in Him and kept us looking only
to Him and we're saved by His works alone. That's what will
be proven by those works in that day. You get what I'm saying?
By our works, we're going to prove that we never knew Him
and never trusted Him because we wouldn't deny ourselves. We
try to save our life. Or we're going to prove we lost
our life for His sake, trusting Him alone. You know what I pray?
I pray that every one of you that God's given me the privilege
to serve, and that's what it is. It's a privilege to serve
you. And I pray that everyone He's
given me a privilege to serve will be found to have lost your
life for Christ's sake. That's what I want. I want to
know in that day that you truly lost your life for Christ. I pray God give us grace to do
that, to lose ourselves totally for Him. That's not too much
to ask when you consider what He's done for us. Amen.