Let us turn to the portion of
God's Word that we were reading in Matthew 16. And I'll read
again verses 15, 16 and 17. As the Lord addresses His disciples,
He says unto them, By whom say ye that I am? And Simon Peter
answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living
God. And Jesus answered and said unto
him, Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood
hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. And I want us to look at this
confession of Peter's, particularly what we have here in verse 16. and the significance of such
a confession Simon Peter answered and said thou art the Christ
the son of the living God how important is confession another Apostle Paul reminds
us of that in Romans 10 if thou shalt confess with thy mouth
the Lord Jesus, and believe in thine heart that God hath raised
him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart
man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession
is made unto salvation." And so here we have these remarkable
words in which Peter is confessing his faith in the Lord Jesus Christ
And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the
Son of the living God. Well, let us begin by looking
at the confession of this man. At that time, it is evident that
there were many different opinions concerning just who this man
Jesus of Nazareth was. And we certainly see that in
the context When the Lord speaks to the disciples, there at Caesarea
Philippi, verse 13, He asked His disciples, saying, Whom do
men say that I, the Son of Man, am? And they said, Some say that
thou art John the Baptist, some Elias, others Jeremiah, or one
of the prophets. There were then different opinions
with regards to the identity of this person, this man. He refers to himself there in
verse 13 as the son of man. There were all these different
ideas with regards to who he was as he is exercising this
remarkable ministry. And it is an important matter
Think of the language of the hymn we're going to sing just
now, those lines of John Newton, what think you of Christ? He's
the test to try both your state and your scheme. You cannot be
right in the rest unless you think rightly of him. And what we have in the words
of Peter in this confession is really a very careful and considered
statement that's being made. when Peter answers in this fashion
and declares that Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ, that he is the
Son of God, that he is God's manifest in the flesh. Those words then in verse 16,
I say, are a considered response on the part of this man. And
when we think of Peter, of course, he was by nature such an impulsive
man. So often he would speak rashly,
he didn't always think about the things that he was saying,
always quick to answer. And we see that subsequently,
when the Lord, who pronounces him as a blessed man, here in
verse 17, within a matter of a few verses, addresses this
blessed man as one who is the very instrument of Satan, because
of the rashness of his speech. When Christ, at verse 21, begins
to speak of the purpose of his coming, how he must go to Jerusalem
and there, he must make that great sin atoning sacrifice that
was the purpose of his coming into the world of course he comes
to make atonement for the sins of his people and Peter took
him withhold in verse 22 and began to rebuke him saying be
it far from thee Lord this shall not be unto thee and then the
Lord turns and says to Peter get thee behind me Satan thou
art an offense unto me for thou savest not the things that be
of God, but those that be of men." How Peter, time and again,
so quick to speak, so impetuous with his words. And we see it
also at the beginning of the 17th chapter we read through
to that chapter where the Lord takes Peter together with James
and John, and he's transfigured there in the mountain. They see
through the veil of his humanity, the veil of his humiliation,
they see his glories as that one who is truly the Son of God. And Peter, again, here is Peter
so forward. Verse 4 there he says, it is
good for us to be here if they will let us make here three tabernacles
one for thee and one for Moses and one for Elias now in Luke's
account in Luke 9.33 we're told that Peter said that not knowing
what he said he doesn't always think about what he's saying
this man Simon Peter he's very quick to speak But when we come
to his confession, which is what we're really concerned with this
morning, here in verse 16, I say that this is a considered response on Peter's part. These are careful words. He's not uttering these words
in any way lightly. And it's not only here, of course,
in Matthew 16, but remember at the end of chapter 6 we find
a similar confession, a chapter in which the Lord winnows his
followers. Dear old Sidney Norton used to
love to call it the chapter of the great diminishings, the multitudes,
who would follow the Lord at the beginning of John chapter
6. They want to take Jesus of Nazareth and make him king but
then as the Lord teaches and he emphasizes so much the sovereignty
of God and the people begin to depart and to go away and then
when we come to the end it seems that even the twelve will depart
and forsaken but it's Simon Peter who says to whom shall we go
thou hast the words of eternal life and we believe and are sure
that thou art that Christ the Son of the Living God. And that's another incident,
I believe, besides what we read of here in Caesarea Philippi. So these are careful, considered
words that this man is speaking. There is some evidence that they
are separate incidents because in chapter 6 of John We have
at the beginning the feeding of the 5,000. The multitudes
are gathering and the Lord feeds them all by a miracle. It's then
that they want to make Him their King. And then as we said, as
we go through the chapter, so the Lord sifts and searches them
by His teaching. And we come to the end in that
confession. Well here, in chapter 16 of Matthew, Earlier
on the Lord refers to the miracles of feeding the 5,000 and the
4,000. Look at the words that we have
at verse 10. Do you not yet understand? Neither
remember the five loaves of the 5,000 and how many baskets ye
took up. Neither the seven loaves of the
4,000 and how many baskets ye took up. Those were events some
while ago. and they recorded here in chapter
14 verse 15 following and then again in chapter 15 verse 22
following so this is another occasion when Peter is making
this great confession distinct from that that we read of at
the beginning of John chapter 6. They are then words that Peter
had obviously given some thought to as he had witnessed so much
the miracles of Jesus of Nazareth and heard so much of his ministry. It's a confession and it's a
very deliberate confession of his faith in the Lord Jesus. And how important it is that
we give some thought to the things that we would confess. It's a
solemn matter, isn't it, to take upon our lips the name of the
Lord Jesus and to acknowledge Him and to confess Him as our
God and our Saviour. God has created us as rational
beings. God has given us a mind. God has revealed himself to us
in his word. There are things to be read,
things to be considered, matters to be examined. Why the Lord
says, Be ye not as a horse or as a mule that hath no understanding,
whose mouth must be held in by braid and bridle? God looks for
a sound mind, God grants us a sound mind that we might be able to
explain the reason why we would make such a confession with regard
to this man as the only one who is able to save us from our sins. When the Apostle Paul writes
to Timothy, he speaks of a sound mind. there in 2nd Timothy 1.7
God has not given us the spirit of fear he says but of power
and of love and of a sound mind we're not to despise the mind
then we're not to despise doctrine we're to seek to understand the
great doctrines of the word of God we should examine the scriptures
if we're going to be those who can make a true confession of
the Lord Jesus Christ. We're not to confound a sound
mind in these things with a merely notional religion. We're not
saying for a moment that all we have to do is ascend with
our minds to gospel truth. There's more to faith than that.
We acknowledge that. Because faith involves trust
as well as confession. There's that resting in the Lord
Jesus Christ There's that sense in which we know something of
our emotions to be involved in the exercise of faith. The hymn
writer rightly says, opinions in the head, true faith as far
excels as body differs from a shade or kernels from the showers. If we've got a real religion
then it will involve not just our intellect, it will involve
our emotions, it will involve the totality of our being. But I emphasize this morning
the importance with regards to our understanding of these things. If we're going to confess, as
this man Simon Peter makes, is confession. Or doesn't the Lord
Himself ask that question later when He speaks to that man, that
Pharisee who was such an expert in the Lord of Moses? The end
of chapter 22 Christ says to the Pharisees, what think ye
of Christ? What think ye of Christ? Whose
Son is He? They say unto him, The Son of
David. He saith unto them, O then that David in spirit call him
Lord, saying, The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right
hand, till I make thine enemies thy footstool. If David then
call him Lord, O is he his son. No man was able to answer him
a word, neither does any man from that day forth asking him
any more questions. They were always trying to catch
him out with their clever questions as they thought. But here the
Lord silences them. And how does he silence them?
He speaks of himself, his person, and he speaks of those two natures.
He is the son of Davy. but he is also David's Lord he
is a man, he is of the seed of David but he is also declared
to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness
by the resurrection from the dead says the Apostle at the
beginning of Romans he is the God-man and isn't this really
what Peter is confessing. The Lord
had asked that question in verse 13, Whom do men say that I, the
Son of Man, am? He speaks then quite clearly
of the truth of his human nature. He is Jesus. That was the name
that was given to him at his birth and he was born as other
men and women are born into this world there was a miracle of
course because he was conceived by the Holy Ghost in the womb
of a virgin but he had a real human nature that he derived
from his mother that holy thing that shall be born of thee shall
be called the Son of God he's a man, he's a son of man but
what is Peter confessing here? Thou art the Christ, he says,
the Son of the Living God. He's also
the Son of God, as he is the Son of Man. And we see here how
sound is the doctrine that Peter is confessing. Jesus of Nazareth,
Peter says, is none other than the promised Messiah. the Christ
and the Christ is none other than the eternal Son of God and
that's the way it was promised of old in the prophets in the
language of Isaiah for example behold a virgin shall conceive
and bear a son and shall call his name Emmanuel Isaiah 7.14
how explicit is the prophecy and so in the fullness of the
time God sends forth his son made of a woman and made under
the law. He's made of a woman, he's not
made of a man, he's not begotten of any man. Know that human nature
was conceived by the Holy Ghost in the womb of the Virgin. The Virgin shall conceive and
bear the son and shall call his name Emmanuel. And then again,
Isaiah 9, verse 6, unto us a child is born. Unto us a son is given. Yes, the child is born. But the
son is given. The son is given. It's the eternal
son who is given. It is that one who is God. Very
God of very God. begotten, not made, of one substance
with the Father in the language of the Creed. Or remember what
Philip says to the Lord there in John chapter 14. He says,
Show us the Father and it sufficeth. And Jesus said, Have I been so
long time with thee, Philip, and yet hast thou not known me?
He that hath seen me hath seen the Father. Believest thou not
but I am in the Father and the Father in me he is one with the
Father because he is God and God is one and God is three,
God is Father, God is Son and God is Holy Ghost and here he
is being confessed by Simon Peter as the Christ, the Son of the
living God. We think again of the language
of prophecy. Not only in Isaiah, we see it
also in the book of Psalms, do we not? And that remarkable second
Psalm where God says, Thou art my Son, Thou art my Son, this
day have I begotten thee. And it has been well observed
that he neither began to be born nor will he ever cease to be
born. but He is ever being born, because
today there doesn't imply yesterday nor tomorrow, but always the
present time, today. Today I have begotten thee, says
the Father. What is today? It's God's day.
And God's day is the eternal day. He is the eternal Son of
the eternal Father. And isn't that really the great
mystery? of godliness. This is what Peter
is confessing, you see. He's confessing the great mystery
of godliness. What is the mystery of godliness
there in 1st Timothy 3.16? Well, the godliness is a reference
really to religion, real religion. Real religion. What is the great
mystery? God was manifest in the flesh. Oh, that's the great mystery.
And that's the mystery that we have here. And the significance
of what follows in chapter 17, the Transfiguration. At the end
of chapter 16, the Lord says, There shall be some standing
here which shall not taste of death. They're not going to die
till they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom. Now this
Son of Man, as Peter has confessed, is also the Son of God. And the
Lord takes Peter, James and John and goes up into a high mountain
and we're told he was transfigured before them and his face did
shine as the sun and his raiment was white as the light. Or they see the glories of his
deity. They witness a scene that we
cannot really begin to understand there are two other men with
them Moses and Elijah one representing the law the other representing
the prophets why all the Old Testament is speaking of this
person whom these disciples are witnessing in his transfiguration
and then how the Father speaks a bright cloud overshadowed Him
and behold a voice out of the cloud which said this is my beloved
Son in whom I am well pleased hear ye Him hear ye Him He is God the Son of God the
Saviour of the world The one that Peter is confessing here
at Caesarea Philippi. All the soundness of the doctrine,
the theology of this man. He was but a fisherman. But what blessed truth is he
declaring here? He sees so clearly the great
doctrine concerning the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. and
so he says it again here in John chapter 6. We believe, he says, and are
sure that thou art that Christ, the Son of the Living God. Whom say ye that I am? asks the
Lord. Simon Peter answered and said,
Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God. and that's
the confession that we all have to come to if we are to know
anything of salvation we must make that same confession as
Peter makes we must not only understand something with regards
to the work of the Lord Jesus Christ we must also see so clearly
who the person is who the person is Oh, it's true here the Lord
does go on, doesn't he, to speak of the work that he came to accomplish. It was from that time forth.
It was when Peter, as it were a spokesman for these apostles,
has made his confession, from that time forth began Jesus to
show unto his disciples that he must go on to Jerusalem. And
so for many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes
and be killed and be raised again the third day. This is the very
purpose of the incarnation. Why was God manifest in the flesh? He was manifest to accomplish
this great work. He was made of a woman. He was
made under the law. And he must honor the law, he
must magnify the law. And he is doing that of course
here by the manner of his living. and all his teaching he is that
one who is holy and harmless and undefiled and separate from
sinners and never man spake like this man but his obedience extends
unto death he must be obedient unto death even the death of
the cross these are the things that we
must come to believe concerning the person and the work of the
Lord Jesus Christ, their salvation in none other. But see how Peter
is brought to make this confession. What does the Lord say after
Peter has made his confession? Verse 17, Jesus answered and
said unto him, Blessed art thou. O blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jonah,
for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto them, but my
Father which is in heaven." It's a revelation. And that's what
real religion is. It's a revelation. We can't give
ourselves real religion. It all comes from God. It's all
by the sovereign grace of God. what does the Lord say previously
here in chapter 11 and verse 27 all things are delivered unto
me of my father and no man knoweth the son but the father neither
knoweth any man the father save the son and he to whomsoever
the son will reveal him the father reveals the son and the Son reveals
the Father. It's all revelation, isn't it?
It's all revelation, it's all from God. Again, think of the words that
we have in that 6th chapter of John. We've referred to it already,
that great long chapter, and the Lord's teaching. He says,
They shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore that hath
heard and hath learned of the Father cometh unto me. If the
Father is teaching us, what will He teach us? He'll teach us our
need of faith in His Son. Faith in the person and the work
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, this is the work of God.
Again there in John 6 and verse 29, this is the work of God,
that ye believe in Him whom He hath sent. There is no other
way in which we can come to this confession, but by a revelation
from God, but by the gracious work of God in our souls. It was ever so. It was ever so. It's so with Simon Peter. Was
it not also the case with the Apostle Paul? And he reminds
the Galatians of that. We've said many times there in
the opening chapter of that epistle how he asserts his apostleship
but from whence does he receive that authority to be an apostle
of Jesus Christ? Well he says, it pleased God
who separated me from my mother's womb to call me by his grace
It's all of God, you see. God who was there in His natural
birth, separating Him from His mother's womb and bringing Him
to the birth, is the one who also revealed His Son in Him,
when He pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb and
called me by His grace to reveal His Son in me, you see. I consulted
not with flesh and blood." And he goes on to speak, doesn't
he, of the Gospel that he preached. I neither received it of man,
neither was I taught it by man, but by the revelation of Jesus
Christ. It's a revelation. God hath revealed
them unto us, Paul says, by His Spirit. God has revealed them unto us
by His Spirit. It's the Father, it's the Son,
it's also the Holy Spirit. Oh, look at the language that
we have there. In that passage we've just made
reference to His first Corinthians. There in the second chapter. Verse 10, God has revealed them
unto us by His Spirit. For the Spirit searcheth all
things, yea, the deep things of God. For what man knoweth
the things of man, sayeth the Spirit of man which is in him. Even so the things of God knoweth
no man but by the Spirit of God. And he goes on, the natural man
receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, their foolishness unto him. Neither
can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. Oh, a man, you see, to receive
these things, to believe these things, must be made a new man.
The man must be born again, born of the Spirit of God, born from
above. A man can receive nothing except
it be given him from above, says John the Baptist. And this is
Peter's experience then, it's the sovereignty of God, the grace
of God in making such a revelation to him. Oh blessed man, blessed
art thou Simon Bar-Jonah for flesh and blood hath not revealed
it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. And then what does the Lord go
on to say? I say unto thee that thou art
Peter and upon this rock I will build my church and the gates
of hell shall not prevail against it is he not speaking here particularly
with regards to Peter's call and Peter's conversion and all
that that entails remember when this man was first brought to
the Lord Jesus we are told in the opening chapter
of John it was his brother Andrew they were it seems disciples
of John the Baptist and Andrew comes and having seen the Lord
Jesus for himself he goes and finds his brother Andrew and
brings him and tells Peter they found the
Messiah and what does the Lord say to that man? Thou art Simon
Thou art Simon the son of Jonah thou shalt be called Cephas which
is by interpretation a stone I think it was just a few weeks
ago we were looking at that final chapter in John, weren't we?
John 21 and the Lord revealing himself to his disciples there
at the Sea of Tiberias and we spoke of how he reveals himself
in in his ministry the way in which he's restoring this man
Simon Peter who had denied the Lord three times and three times
the Lord puts that question to him Simon son of Jonas lovest
thou me Simon son of Jonas lovest thou me Simon son of Jonas lovest
thou me three times he denied the Lord three times the question
is put to him and how the Lord constantly addresses him not
as Peter or Cephas but by that name that reminds him of his
natural birth he was Simon Simon the son of Jonah And when the Lord speaks to him
here, you see, He reminds him of that. Blessed art thou Simon
Bar-Jonah, Simon son of Jonah. O thou art Peter, thou art Cephas. And upon this rock I will build
my church, says the Lord. The very name that we have here,
this name Peter, is a constant reminder that he is a new man
in Christ. If any man is in Christ, he is
a new creature, a new creation. All things are passed away. All
things are become new, he has a new nature. And this is the
Lord. Conversion, in a sense, is a
process, isn't it? The new birth, of course, is
instantaneous. A person is dead in trespasses
and sins, a person is born again of the Spirit of God, and they're
a new creation. But the Lord deals with us by
degrees, and He's dealing with this man over and over again. And we see him here as that one
who is reminded so graciously by the Lord that this confession
is the evidence that he has that new nature. to utter such a considered
confession of faith as this and he's a blessed man all blessed
are thou the Lord says in blessing I will
bless thee and what a blessing is upon Simon Peter blessed is
the man whom thou choosest and cause us to approach unto thee
He is that blessed man that we read of in Psalm 65. He is the
evidence of His choice. He approaches unto the Lord God. He confesses the Lord Jesus Christ. And flesh and blood hath not
revealed it. For this man is born not of blood, nor of the
will of the flesh, nor of the will of man. He is a man that
is born of God. and he makes therefore this great
confession of faith, not of himself. And the wonder of it, what is
this? Why this confession is the very foundation of the church. Thou art Peter or Cephas by interpretation
of stone. Upon this rock I will build my
church. But what foundation can no man
lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ our Lord? What is the foundation? It's
this confession, it's the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, that
One who is the Son of Man. Whom the men say that I the Son
of Man am, but that One who is also the Son of God, thou art
the Christ. the Son of the Living God. He
is the foundation of the Church. It's Christ. It's Christ in His
person. It's Christ in His work. From that time forth began Jesus
to show unto His disciples how that He must go unto Jerusalem. Or when the time was come that
He should be received up, we are told how He steadfastly set
His face to go to Jerusalem. He must go on to Jerusalem and
suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes
and be killed and be raised again the third day. It's the work
as well as the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. And this is
the one that we have to come to. Now, Peter obviously doesn't
forget these things. Do we not see these blessed truths? when he writes in his epistles
when he writes there in his first epistle there at verse 4 in chapter
2 to whom coming as unto a living
stone disallowed indeed of men but chosen of God and precious
ye also as lively stones are built up a spiritual house and
holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable
to God by Jesus Christ. Wherefore also it is contained
in the Scripture, Behold, Hylian Zion, a chief cornerstone, elects,
precious, and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded."
Shall not be confounded. All this blessed confession then
that Peter makes by the revelation of God the Father, thou art the
Christ, the Son of the living God. For upon this rock I will
build my church, says Christ, and the gates of hell shall not
prevail against it. What are the gates of hell? Isn't
that all the opposition, all the machinations, all the wicked
ways of Satan can never prevail. Remember how there at the beginning
of Ruth chapter 4 we see how the gates of the city was the
place where transactions were made and decisions were made. And the gates of hell you see,
that's the place where Satan is devising all his plans, all his devices. But all that
Satan could ever do is not going to prevail. The gates of hell
shall not prevail against this foundation. All the Lord Jesus
Christ has vanquished all the powers of sin and Satan. He has triumphed gloriously over
the law, over sin, over death, over the grave. or that God would
bring us in to make such a confession and grant us that blessed faith
to acknowledge who Jesus of Nazareth is. Whom do you say that Jesus
the Son of Man is? What thinking of Christ is the
test to try both your state and your scheme. You cannot be right
in the rest unless you think rightly of him." Or to make this
confession then with this blessed man Simon Peter. He answered
and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God. Amen.