Yeah, I didn't know how to withdraw. Well, good evening. I think it's
time we begin. I'm kind of running behind. Sorry about that. Take your Bibles with me and
let's begin our service by reading the Word of God together. Matthew
chapter 16. Matthew chapter 16. Let's begin our reading in verse 13.
It says, When Jesus came into the
coast of Caesarea Philippi, 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, and others Jeremiah,
or one of the prophets. And he said unto them, But 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 Barjona, for flesh and blood
hath not revealed it unto thee. but my Father which is in heaven. And I say also unto thee that
thou art Peter. But upon this rock I will build
my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give unto thee the
keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt bind
on earth shall be bound heaven and whatsoever thou shalt loose
on the earth shall be loosed in heaven." In charge to his
disciples that they should tell no man that he was Jesus the
Christ. And 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. But Peter took him and began
to rebuke him, saying, Be it far from thee, Lord, this shall
not be unto thee. And he turned and said unto Peter,
Get thee behind me, Satan. Thou art an offense unto me.
For thou savorest not the things that be of God, but those that
be of men. And Jesus said unto his disciples,
If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, take up
his cross, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life
shall lose it, and whosoever will lose his life for my sake
shall find it. What is a man profited? He shall
gain the whole world and lose his own soul. What shall a man
give in exchange for his soul? For the Son of Man shall come
in the glory of His Father with His angels. Then He shall reward
every man according to his works. Verily I say unto you, there
be some standing here which shall not taste death till they see
the Son of Man coming in His kingdom. God had the blessing,
the reading of his word, we'll study from here in just a few
minutes, the Lord willing. Let's go to him in prayer. Again, Father, we bow before
your throne of grace and mercy. Before your presence we come
in the name of thy blessed Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, and in
his name On the grounds of His blood and
righteousness, we ask, Father, this night that You would give
us liberty and unction of Thy Spirit to worship You, to honor
You for what great things You have done through Jesus Christ
our Lord. Father, I do pray that You would
emphasize this evening the necessity of Christ's death, of His righteousness,
and of His resurrection. Father, you would show us the
necessity of keeping us and sustaining us, that you would comfort our hearts
with this message of the gospel of Jesus Christ. I pray this night for those who
are outside of Christ, those who do not know Him. I beg you
for grace upon their hearts and souls. I plead that you would,
Father, be gracious and give them what you gave Peter, what
you've given us, understanding, that they may believe on Jesus
Christ and be saved. I pray you'd set aside the things
of this world which are many, the thoughts, the cares, the
concerns. I beg you to set them aside for
this time. send your Holy Spirit unto us.
I pray that Christ be magnified in all that is done in this place. As we sing, I beg you for hearts
to sing. As we hear the word, I pray for
ears. I pray this night you'd give me liberty and pray that
your spirit would give me the words that are necessary for
the comfort and the salvation of your people. Forgive us our
sins. Cleanse us of our unrighteousness.
These things we plead in the name of Jesus, our Savior, for
his sake. Amen. Brother, come lead us in
a couple of hands, please. And he did. Take your hymn book
and your wheel and turn with me to number 400. Come thy path. Number 400. Come Thou Fount of every blessing,
tune my heart to sing Thy praise. Streams of mercy never ceasing,
call for songs of loudest praise. Teach me some, if law disowneth,
sung by flaming tongues above. Praise the mount I'm fixed upon,
if mount of love's unchanging love. Here I raise my Ebenezer,
hither by thine have I come. And I hope by thy good pleasure,
safely till I arrive at home. Jesus sought me when a stranger,
wandering from the fold of God. He, to rescue me from danger,
interposed His precious blood. Oh, to grace how great a debtor,
daily I'm strayed to be. Let that grace now, like it better,
find my wandering heart to be. Prone to wander, Lord, I feel
it. Prone to leave the God I love. Here's my heart before you. Take and seal it. Seal it for thy courts above. Number 133. 4,000 times. Oh, for a thousand tongues to
sing my great Redeemer's praise. the glories of my God and King,
the triumphs of His grace. My gracious Master and my God,
assist me to proclaim to spread through all the earth abroad
the honors of Thy name. Jesus, the name that charms our
fears, that bids our sorrows cease, Tis music in the sinner's
ear, Tis life and health and peace. He breaks the power of
reigning sin, He sets the prisoner free. His blood can make the
phallus clean, His blood availed for me. He speaks, and listening to his
voice, new life the dead receive. The mournful broken heart rejoiced,
but the humble poor It is good to be in the house
of the Lord with you. It's good that God has brought
us again together to this place to hear His Word. I don't at times feel I actually
speak to other people. I don't really speak to me. But when you get out and you
speak to other people, you just don't realize what great things
God has revealed to us. great things God revealed to
us. And not only revealed them, one
thing, just know them. It's another thing to love them. Isn't it altogether different?
It's altogether different to know these things. But then there's something about
a need. These things aren't just things I know. These are things
I need. These are important things. Eternal things. Beautiful things. And glad tidings of good things. That's what we're to preach.
Glad tidings of good things. good things, what the gospel
is. I'm thankful God has given us
the knowledge of it, the understanding of it, but more, the heart for
it. I pray he continually gives us
this heart. Because I tell you, this old
heart could become cold. It can become indifferent, like
that sheep, it just gets fat. The wool could just get so thick,
nothing get through. He has to put us in a straight
place and shave it off. I'm glad he does that. I'm glad
he does that. When we fall over because we're
so fat, we fall over. What does he do? He comes along
and he lifts us up and puts us on our feet. Puts us on his shoulder. We're broken. It's not just knowledge of things,
is it? It's person. It's Jesus Christ. To us, he
is altogether love. Not my message, but I thought
of the glories of heaven. You know who's in the center
of that? You know who's surrounded? on every side being worshiped. It's Christ. He's the center
of everything. I pray He's the center of my
message. Every message I preach, I pray He is the center of it,
because that's exactly what God intended in this book, that He
is the center. Because he is. He's an anchor,
isn't he? You feel like you're flying off. One thing about this
anchor is he won't let go. He keeps us. Draws us in. I'm so glad that he rules. That he's not struggling with
the devil. I heard that today. I thought
it was the silliest thing I ever heard in my life. as though they
were in a contest of some sort. And I just couldn't help it.
I said, he's God's devil. I'll do with him as he wants
to. I beg our God to give us grace
tonight. This message would come in power of the spirit and not
in the preacher or the hearer, but that God might give it to
you. We'll pray for those that are
sick. Remember them. Please. If you don't see them,
pray for them. If you don't see them, pray for them. One pastor once said that
if a sheep is all by itself, it's either lost or it's sick. I don't know. I need you. I need
to be with you. I just have to. It's not just
because I'm here to preach the gospel. But I know this, we need the
fellowship of the gospel. We just do. And so if you don't
see Him, ask God to be mercy. Ask God to be gracious. And I
am sure that He will be gracious. Let's go to Heaven in prayer.
Now Father, we bow again. We lay ourselves at your feet. We stand in need of mercy, grace, power that we don't have in ourselves. I plead this night that you would
pour in the grace of thy word into my heart and mind. Pour
it out to your people as you intended for their comfort. That there be one dead soul to hear this message. that You would empower, give
them knowledge and understanding and wisdom to see Christ, to believe Christ. I pray, Father, that You would
be with those that are struggling in the body, those who are sick, those who are in trouble, those who are in danger, and
don't know it. She would deliver them out, bring them again, hear the Word
of the Living God, and rejoice. Pray, Father, for those who are
sick in their spirits, those who are enamored with the things of this
life, as we often do, that you would please be gracious and
bring them again to your feet to find mercy. And I know this, there is plenty
of mercy at your feet because of Christ. May he be magnified and honored
and glorified in this message tonight. And I beg this in the
name of Jesus and for his sake. Amen. I take the Bibles and turn
back with me to Matthew chapter 16. The title of this message, Great
Necessity. Great necessity. Now in this text, there are going
to be four things, four things that our Lord Jesus Christ mentions
that are absolutely necessary. Necessary. I'm just going to
give it to you before I give it to you. Now, the first one
is the necessity of His death and His resurrection. the great
necessity of His death and His resurrection. And when our Lord
tells about His death and resurrection, we're going to read how Peter
comes up and forbids Him. Imagine that. He takes the Lord
and pulls Him aside and rebukes Him. He said, ìFar be it from you
that you should die.î And what does the Lord do? He rebukes
him. So that's the second thing, the
necessity of rebuke. We are often in need of it. We
are often in need of it. The third great necessity is
that of consecration. Our Lord talks about, if you're
going to follow me, you must give up everything. Take up your cross and follow
me. The necessity, the necessity of consecration. And the fourth necessity is His
return. He must return. He must return. So now, by way of introduction,
in the previous verses, Our Lord Jesus Christ asked that question
to his disciples. He comes across from Caesarea
Philippi and he sits down with his disciples and he asks the
question, who do men say that I am? And they gave flattering answers. Now, because these were the most
sincere answers. They were not the ones thinking
that he was a bad person or whatever, you know, blasphemous. These
are the ones who were sincere about him. And they said, well,
hey, some think you're resurrected John the Baptist. Some think
you're Elijah. Some think you're Jeremiah or
one of the prophets. Sounded pretty good. Wasn't good
enough. And he asked them that question,
whom do you say that I am? And remember, Simon's usually
the first one to speak up, and he did. He said, we know, we
believe that thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. What an answer that is, because
it was the right one, it was exactly right, it was perfect.
And the Lord said this, blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jonah, listen
to this, for flesh and blood have not revealed this to thee.
But my Father revealed it. Now everybody in this building
that knows the Lord Jesus Christ, you that know who He is, how
do you know it? You know it because the Father
revealed it to you. He is the Christ. That's what
this takes in. He's the Christ. And he tells
Peter, he said, Peter, you're blessed. There's no doubt about
it. And then what does he do? He puts him in his place. He
said, thou art Peter, you little pebble. What you are? You're a little rock. But upon
this rock, that word means massive rock, I will build my church,
and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Anybody that
says that's talking about Peter has no idea what the Old Testament
Scriptures say about the rock. In every instance, in every instance,
when the rock is mentioned in the Old Testament, it is pointing
only to Christ, never to Peter. He said, you're just a little
pebble. But I am the cornerstone. I am the foundation. I am the
rock of my church. And I'm going to build my church.
And listen, the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
He is talking about his victory, his success in cutting asunder
the bars of iron and brass and steel, which are sin and death
and hell. He cuts them asunder, and he
goes in, and they're not going to prevent him from getting his
people. That's what he's telling them.
Gates of hell shall not prevail against this. And he tells them what he gives
them. He said, I've given thee the keys to the kingdom. And everything
you bind on earth, listen, the text should say, is already bound
in heaven. What you're saying on earth,
I'm giving you the key, which is what? The gospel. And he gave
the apostles that gospel. He gave them that office of apostleship
in which they did have things that other men did not have.
They had great understanding. They had the keys. And He said, whatever you bind
on earth, whatever you say here on earth, listen, that's already
been bound in heaven. And whatever is loosed here on
earth, look, it was already loosed in heaven. You know, you were
loosed before you were loosed, right? You were set free before you
even knew you were set free. So now he testifies this, so
this knowledge of the Christ is being revealed to the disciples.
What Christ is going to do now is he is going to testify as
to how Christ should save His people. They know He is the Christ,
but yet they don't know exactly how the Christ is to save His
people. And that's where we begin in
our text in verse 21. He said, from that time forth,
from that time forth that they knew He was the Christ, He was
the rock of His church, yet they didn't know how He was going
to save His church. And what is He going to do? He's
telling them how it must be done. Look at this. From that time
forth began Jesus to show unto his disciples how that he, what,
must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things of the scribes and
priests And not only suffer, he must be killed. And he must
be raised from the dead. He's telling them how he's going
to save us. And he does this by the necessity.
And this is the first of the four necessities I mentioned
at the beginning. The necessity of his death. and his resurrection. Now notice, when Jesus said,
showed how he must suffer and must die, he must go to Jerusalem. There was no other option. I tell you what, we better be
careful when we say God must do something. But I didn't say
it, God said it. God said I must. And when God
said I must, listen, that's not only the best way, it's the only
way. It's the only way. Now as we know, God alone cannot
and will not be obligated to do anything for man. Nothing God does for man is by
obligation. Nothing. All that God does is only influenced
by His own sovereign will and purpose. That is the only influence
God has. You remember in Isaiah 46, he's
distinguishing between the true God and a false God. What's the
distinction? Here it is. Sovereignty. A false
God is not sovereign. He's controlled. He's manipulated. He's moved from one place to
another by a man. That's a false God. God says,
I'm not like that. He said, I'm God and there is
no other God. None like me. Listen how, declaring
the end from the beginning. From ancient times the things
that were not yet done saying this, my counsel shall stand
and I will do, listen to this, I will do all my pleasure. That's God. That's God. God does what He pleases to do. So then all God will do, has
determined and decreed and purposed to do from the beginning, nothing
then can stay His hand or say in Him, what are you doing? He will do all His pleasure.
What is His pleasure? Now that's important. And if
God's going to do His pleasure, I'd like to know what it is.
Now I have no hand in influencing it, but I sure would want to
know what his pleasure is, because that's what he's going to do.
Listen, this is his pleasure. Everything that's been done is
his pleasure. Everything that's being done,
listen, is his pleasure. And whatever's going to be done
is his pleasure. That's what he's going to do.
Whatever he pleases, to do. Does this trouble you? Anybody
troubled by this? Does such power and wisdom move
you to love or rebellion? Listen, this won't leave you
stagnant. If you really consider this,
you won't straddle the fence on this one. You will either
love it or you will hate it. Many men are moved to rebellion.
They say, I don't like that. I like to have my own way. No, I'm going to be the master
of my own destiny. No, you won't. God said, I'm going to do what
I want to do. And all who say such things rebel
against him are manifest only their ruin and depravity. For
even their rebellion was ordained of God." They can't escape it. They can't escape it. Even their
defiance of his sovereignty is an act of his sovereignty. I like this, that God of heaven
shall laugh and have them in derision. What he does, he laughs
at such foolish arrogance. But these who despise the sovereign
will of God do not realize this, that they forsake their own salvation. If you despise the sovereignty
of God, you are doing nothing but destroying your own soul.
This is what Proverbs 8 verse 36 says, but he that sinneth
against me, listen, Christ is speaking in Proverbs 8, he that
sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul. All they that hate me love death. seeing this is what the Word
of God reveals about the sovereign purpose of God, that what God
has decreed to do is good. Because God can't do
anything that's not good. Everything God decrees is good.
And what God has decreed to do is good for the sons of Adam's
race. How? How will God in sovereign
decree and will and purpose do good? Here it is. By sending
His Son into the world to save sinners. It's the greatest good. It's the greatest good. Behold
the eternal love of God that God set His love upon some of
Adam's race. Why is that good? Because if
God had set His love upon none of Adam's race, there would be
no hope for any of us. We'd be like the fallen angels
who had no Savior. God, when they sinned, God left
them in their fallen estate. Sent no Savior to save them.
But look at us. Look what God has done for us
according to His will. When Adam sinned, did He kill
him? No. Oh, he was dead. He was spiritually dead. He even created a religion. Fig
leaf religion. He said, I'm going to hide from
God and I'm going to cover myself. God's not going to know. It was in that condition, listen,
that God came to him and not seeking to destroy him
but save him. See, we were fallen in sin and
Adam, our federal head, just like him. And so by his rebellion,
and listen, it was God's right then to pass
by our whole race. It was God's right. When Adam
sinned, it was God's right to leave us there. And yet what
do we find? We found Adam in his sin. And what is the first thing God
does? God declares to them the gospel. He shows them how it
is He purposed to save them. He said, the seed of the woman. Listen, He's saying this, the
seed of the woman must come. Which is Christ. And listen,
He's going to do something. We know this is speaking about
Jesus Christ, and He was sent to do something. He was sent
to remove their sin from them. He said, the seed of the woman
is going to crush the head of the serpent. What good news?
It was that serpent that began all this. What great news! The head of
sin would be killed. And God told him how. He said,
and he shall bruise his heel. God said that the Savior, the
Christ, the Messiah must die. He said that at the beginning. And then he showed him a picture.
You know, Adam and Eve were naked and God killed two animals. Killed two animals. and use their skin to cover their
nakedness. What a picture of the Lord Jesus
Christ, of what He must come and He must do. He must die. And by doing so, He would provide
for us a covering, a righteousness. That's what God purposed. That's
what God purposed. So now, behold what Jesus says
here. The one who is promised to come
has come. He's talking. The seed of the
woman that God promised to come is here. And he's speaking. And
he's testifying exactly what God testified to our parents
in Eden. The seed of the woman must crush
the head of the serpent in one way. He must die. And so Christ said, from this
time forth, Jesus began to show to his disciples how he must
go to Jerusalem and suffer many things of the elders and chief
priests and scribes and be killed. Be killed. So Christ came into this world.
He has come. What did he do? That's the important
question here. He is the Christ, but how did
the Christ save us? Well, first of all, when He came
into this world, He came to provide a righteousness for us. We had
none. None of God's elect had a righteousness.
None of us were born with righteousness. We were all born unrighteous.
So Christ, our representative, must have come into the world
to provide a righteousness. I like when the Lord talked to
his mother when he was just a little boy. And he was talking to the
doctors and the theologians of his day. And his parents looked
around and said, where is he? They went back and they thought
they was going to scold him. She scolded him. Don't you know he's
worried about you? He said, don't you know that
I'm supposed to be about my father's business? He was about his father's
business the whole time of his life. and all the while he was
making for us a righteousness. A righteousness, not just any
righteousness. Paul in Romans 3 says it is the
righteousness of God that he made for us by his faith. The
righteousness of God. Therefore Jesus must have come
in this world to restore his children. He must have provided
for us a righteousness in the flesh so as to attain
to the righteousness of God by His faithfulness. This is the
only way we could be made righteous. There is no other way to be made
righteous. There is no other way. Therefore, when Jesus said,
I must go, that's what He was going for. He was going to make
our righteousness. Is there any sinner that needs
righteousness? Man, is there anyone who has
no righteousness? If you've got no righteousness,
it's the best place to be. Because this is the one Christ
came to make righteousness for. Those who had none. He said,
I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. And
so who's the only one happy that he must go? Sinners, they're
the only ones. He came to provide righteousness
for us. This is why Jesus must have come,
to fulfill the law of God by his own obedience. But in our
text, Jesus is not just speaking of his need to live for our righteousness,
but to die for our redemption. To die for our redemption. The righteousness of Christ would
do us no good unless justice has been satisfied. If Christ provided you a righteousness
and gave it to you in your present condition, he would only contaminate
it. Therefore, he must also satisfy
the justice of God. In the law, you see both of these,
don't you? In the law of Moses, you see both of these. You see
the righteous necessity of perfect obedience. And on the other hand,
you see what? Justice demanding blood. This is what Christ came to do.
He came to satisfy both the righteousness of God and the justice of God. He said, Behold, in the volume
of the book it is written of me to do thy will, O God. Listen, by the witch will we
are made holy. By the witch will. And he says
in Hebrews 10, he said those priests, they went in there offering
those sacrifices time and time and time and time and time again,
never putting away sin. But this man, This man, he offered
himself once unto God. And the scripture says he hath
perfected forever them that are sanctified. Behold, his death was to satisfy
the justice of God against our sins. And he alone was able to
do this as the God-man. as the God-man. Notice what he
asked the disciples. He said, who do you say, who
do men say that I the Son of Man am? That's all they saw. They saw a man. Peter said, oh,
you're a man, but you're much more than a man. You're the Christ,
the Son of the living God. In other words, you are God and
you are man. You see, what it took to bear
our sins is it took God and man. See, God could not bear our sins.
God could not be contaminated with our sins. And yet, the flesh
could. And the scripture says this,
He, being without sin, was made sin for us. Only way He can do
that is God and man. He did. He bare our sins, Peter
said, in His own body on the tree. And so you behold there the spotless
offering of the Son of God as He bore our sins in His own body
and the justice of God fell on Him without mercy. You see then
why He must die. You and I could not stand before
God unless He come and die in our place. And thirdly, He must be raised
again. He said He must be killed and He must be raised, very specifically,
the third day. I like that. He said not just
raised. Not raised 100 years after or 50 years after. Specifically,
three days. Why? That's what the Word of
God testified of Jonah. As Jonah was in the belly of
the whale three days and three nights, even so must the Son,
must, I like that, even so must the Son of Man be in the heart
of the earth three days, three nights. Necessity. And I'll tell you, we should
praise God for His perfect plan. I'll tell you what, we should
praise God for His perfect plan. That He is determined to save
us. He purposed it. And then all along the way, he
began to tell us how he was going to do it. And then when Christ
came, he literally told them how he was going to do it. And
then he literally did it. And when he did it, listen, he
was successful. Now this is what the resurrection
testifies of, his success. That's what it means. If he bore
my sin in his own body and God healed him because of my sin.
If there was any sin left, he could not be raised. But because
there is no sin left, there is no more punishment for sin, there
is no more offering for sin. His offering was so perfect that
God must have raised Him from the dead, and He did. Just as surely God ordained His
death, He ordained His resurrection. Low in the grave He lay, Jesus
my Savior. He tore the bars away, Jesus
my Lord, up from the grave, He arose. A mighty triumph over
his foes. He arose the victor from the
dark domain and he lives forever with his saints to reign. He
arose. He arose. Hallelujah, Christ
arose. What Peter said on that day of
Pentecost, didn't he? He said, This man Jesus, who
did all these miracles, God testified of Him, and Him being delivered
by the determinate counsel, He must be killed. And for knowledge
of God, you by wicked hands have crucified and slain, whom God
hath raised up, having loose from the pains of death. Why?
It's not possible that it could hold Him. It's not possible.
Therefore, we who are in Christ, we should have the most cause
to rejoice. Why? He must provide our righteousness. You know what He did? He provided
our righteousness. He must die for our sins. You
know what? He did die for our sins. He must
rise again, and He did rise again. And the scripture says this,
that He now ever liveth to make intercession for you. Oh, I like that scripture. We
have a high priest who is touched with the feelings of our infirmities.
Isn't this something? To know that he knows what you
suffer and has more compassion than
you possibly can understand. When God raised him, he did something. By His resurrection, He justified
us. Justified us. And I know this, He must save
His people. just as surely as He went to
the cross, just as surely as He rose from the tomb, just as
surely as He was raised from the dead and ascended into heaven.
He must save His people. Look at Isaiah chapter 43. Isaiah
chapter 43. Look at verse 3. He said, for I am the Lord thy
God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Savior. Listen to what I
did for you. I gave Egypt for thy ransom,
Ethiopia and Sheba for thee. Why? You were precious in my
sight. Thou hast been honorable, and I have loved thee. Now, how can he say that about
me? except he see me in Christ. He can't say that about me unless
he sees me in Christ. And notice what he says, therefore,
because of this, therefore, I will give men for thee and people
for thy life. Fear not, for I am with thee.
I will bring thy seed from the east and gather thee from the
west. I will say to the north, give up, and to the south, keep
not back. Bring my sons from far and my
daughters from the ends of the earth. even everyone that is
called by my name. You see, he must. Why? Because our Lord Jesus said
this, of all that the Father giveth me, I shall lose not. I'll go through these next ones
quickly. I don't want to, but I'm sure I have to. The second
necessity is rebuke. Here, go back to your text. Peter
then rebukes the Lord. Look at that in verse 22. He
stood up, took Him, rebuked Him, saying, Be it far from Thee,
Lord, this shall not be unto Thee. He said, I must be killed.
I must rise again the third day. He said, Oh no, don't do that. And our Lord turned to him. who
just moments ago said, blessed art thou, Simon, Barjona, for
flesh and blood hath not revealed this to thee. He turns to him
again with a different manner, and he says, get thee behind
me. Who? Satan. But thou art an offense unto
me. For thou savest not the things
that be of God, but those that be of men. And why did Peter
rebuke him? Peter had a theology, like most
Jews. They believed that Christ, when
he would come, would set up a kingdom. Well, that didn't match his theology.
He said, how can you be killed? You're the Christ. You're supposed
to set up Israel. He didn't understand. He didn't
understand. And because his theology went
against the doctrine of God, he was accounted as a tool of
Satan. On offense, he didn't understand
fully that Christ must have died. And you find this throughout
all the apostles, even after his death. Remember that on a
road to Emmaus, those disciples, and they were saddened. And Jesus
comes up to them, and he said, why are you so sad? He said,
well, we thought he was crying, but he died. We don't understand. And Christ
said, ought not Christ to have suffered and been into his glory?
He said, boy, your theology's wrong. God's people are still prone
to all kinds of errors. Is that not true? Can you not
find that in Scripture? What about Peter and the Church
of Galatia? Now the Lord told him personally
about he can eat anything. He literally came down and said,
Peter, you can eat anything. And the first chance he gets,
he tries to go sneak back under the law. Can God's people do
that? Peter did. One thing about this, I don't
need to worry about rebuking people. Christ takes care of
that himself. He will. And he does it through
the preaching of the gospel. When the gospel is preached,
see this word that was preached, it's going to do that all by
itself. It'll rebuke. It'll teach. The Spirit of God
will teach you. He will instruct you in the things
of Christ. And when we're wrong, He'll rebuke
us. He'll rebuke us. And listen,
it's necessary. Isn't chastening necessary? If you're without chastisement,
then are you what? Bastards. The necessity of chastisement. We are often like Peter. At times
the Lord said, bless. How can you imagine the audacity
to just recognize that he's a son of God, then turn around and
rebuke him. I don't smirk because we do it.
You do this in Providence. When Providence don't go your
way. Lord, that can't be really. You gonna tell me how to do things?
We do. One thing about rebuke of God's
people is this, that they're... Peter became repentant. He didn't
keep that foolish notion. When God rebukes his people,
they give up their foolish notion. I've had many foolish notions. And I'm so glad to give them
up. So glad to let them go. It's a joy to let them go when
they're wrong. Lord, if I'm wrong, please teach
me. Please instruct me. Give me a
teachable spirit. If we don't, it's nothing more
than pride and self-righteousness. And this also, Peter was moving
away from the Word of God, and this is necessary. We're here
to preach the Word of God, and I don't want to move from that.
I don't want to move from preaching Christ to you. If I do, then
I'm an offense. If I move to preach anything
but Christ to you, I'm an offense. I'm an offense. Now the third thing is this,
the necessity of contrition. Now look at this quickly with
me in verse 24. And Jesus said unto his disciples,
if any man will come after me, let him deny himself, take up
his cross, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life
shall lose it. And whosoever will lose his life
for my sake shall find it. For what is a man profited if
he gain the whole world and lose his own soul? Or what shall a
man give in exchange for his soul? Having rebuked Peter and
set forth the importance of his death and resurrection, he now
gives us the manifestation of true discipleship. The manifestation of true faith
is total contrition. Total submission. This is the manifestation of
true faith. Cannot anybody say they believe?
Millions do. Just say it. It's easy to say,
isn't it? It's easy. You know, close your
eyes, raise your hand if you want Jesus to come and save you.
You can do that. Anybody can do that. I thought of Orpha and Ruth.
Remember those two? They both loved their mother-in-law.
They both claimed to love the God of their mother-in-law. But
when it came time for, to rubber meet the road, Ruth went And Orpha stayed. What's the difference? They both
believed. What's the difference? Contrition. One submitted and left. And one stayed right where they
were. True faith involves deliberate,
constant self-denial and contrition. This is exactly what Paul says
in Galatians. The flesh against the spirit,
and the spirit against the flesh. And these two are contrary one
to another. So if you cannot do what you want, what do you
want? You want total submission. What does the flesh want? The
opposite. Friends, true faith is an absolute,
unconditional surrender of myself to the sovereign will and pleasures
of the Lord. If we believe on Him, Jesus Christ
said, if you will follow me, this is it, take up your cross
and follow me. Deny yourself. Now friends, this has nothing
to do with eating certain foods or drinking certain drinks, and,
oh, I want to coke really bad, but I'm going to deny myself
for Jesus' sake. Foolish nonsense as religion
teaches. What is he saying? Deny your
self-righteousness. When we surrender to Christ,
we give up all our supposed rights. That's it, because we think we
have rights, but they're just supposed rights. And what do
you do? You give them up. You give them
up. Why? We belong to Christ. Do
you belong to Christ? No, do you belong to Christ? What I mean, are you a slave? Are you His slave, or do you
think He's your slave? Peter rebuked him like he was
his land. Oh, no. No. You're mine. You're mine. And I'll tell you this, Peter
didn't argue the point. You don't read of any argument Peter gave,
do you? I don't. He said, you follow me. OK. OK. You're right. Yeah. He totally outwardly submitted. But I tell you what, Judas heard
these same words, didn't he? What's the difference? Judas
kept his theology. You know why Judas betrayed him?
Because he said he's going to die. And Judas thought, Christ
can't die. This is not the Christ. And he
went and betrayed him. He held on to his old theology.
You know what Peter had to do? He had to let that stuff go.
What'd we do with our old religion? What'd you do with it? When you
came to Christ, what'd you do with it? Trash. That's what Paul called
it. He said, dung. That's what I counted. Dung. All my old religion, dung. Worthless. Why? Confused. Confused. He bought me lock,
stock, and barrel. I'm his. I don't have any rights. I'm his. You know what? There's no other place I want
to be. I want to be his. I want to be found in him, not
having my own righteousness, which is of the law. Why? Whosoever will save his
life will lose it. You want your life? You want
your rights? You'll lose it. Whosoever loses
his life for my sake, well, they find it. They find life. And that question, oh, this rings
in my ears. What is the profit of man if
he gained the whole world? Elon Musk, listen. If he spent
$1 million a day, It would take him 637 years and all his money. What is it profiting him if he
gained the whole world and lose his own soul? What if you had all hell? All
that you want, what is it? What is it worth to you? In the
end you'll lose it. What will a man give in exchange
for his soul? You know, the only thing you'll
have left when you die is your soul. It goes on. Either in heaven or hell, but
it'll go on. And so what are the things of
this world? So when Christ says, surrender all, what is that?
What have you really surrendered? You'll lose it anyway. What have
you really surrendered? And I'll tell you this, I want
to give Him everything. We are commanded
to give Him everything. Our mind, our body, our soul,
our money, our time, our love, our affection, all of it belongs
to Him. And so, if I have Christ, what
am I really giving up? And the last thing is the necessity
of His return. Look at that in verse 27. And
the Son of Man shall come in His glory, in the glory of His
Father with His angels. And then He shall reward every
man according to his work. Wow. That's something, isn't
it? The necessity of His return.
Christ is coming again. That is just so. When, where, how, that's not
for me to figure out. And again, if I'm trying to figure
that out, then I'm not focusing on him. If I'm busy trying to
discern the times, I'm not paying attention to what is most important.
His death, his burial, his resurrection, his ascension, and his return's
imminent. It's imminent. Whenever he wants
to, when that last one is saved, he's coming again. The end. That's it. Don't worry about
anything else. When He comes again, that's all
there is. And He's going to judge all men, listen, according to
their works. Oh man, how in the world is that
going to work out? You that believe, you know this.
If you're judged according to your works, there's no hope for
you. Last turn. Look, turn to Revelation
chapter 20. Look and see what happens when
He returns, when He comes. Revelation chapter 20. And look
at verse 11. He said, I saw a great white
throne, a holy throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face
the earth and the heavens fled away, and there was found no
place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand
before God. And the books were opened, and
another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the
dead were judged out of those things which were written in
the books, listen, according to their works. And the sea gave
up their dead that were in it, and death and hell delivered
up the dead which were in them. And they were judged every man
according to his works. Look, it said it twice. It said
it twice. And death and hell were cast
into the lake of fire, which is the second death. And listen,
whosoever was not found written in the book of life, was cast
into the fire. What's the difference? What's
the difference between those cast in the fire and those killed
out? The book of life. It's the only
difference, isn't it? God's electing grace. Those who
were written in His book from the foundation of the world,
those whom Christ came and lived for, died for, and rose again,
those that Christ called to faith and come to Him, who surrender
to Him, who follow Him, who believe on Him, their names are written
in the book of life. And listen, we are going to be
judged according to our works. Listen to this. Because my work
is His work. My righteousness is His righteousness. My offering for sin is His offering
for sin. You know when He rose from the
dead, I rose in Him. That's what Paul says in Ephesians
2. We were quickened together with Christ when He raised Him
from the dead. When He ascended into heaven,
I ascended into heaven. So when He comes again and He
makes a judgment, You know, He's going to judge me according to
my works. And the glorious thing is, my works are His works. And it's not a 50-50 thing. It's
not a 99-1 thing. It's a totally 100% Him thing. His righteousness is my righteousness. All His righteousness is all
my righteousness. And all His blood An offering
is my offering, and I'm going to be judged by that. Therefore, I will not see the
second death. See, when Christ comes, he will
come to receive us unto himself. He told them that earlier, didn't
he? He said, in my Father's house are many mansions. Listen, if
it were not so, I would have told you. Honesty. Oh, just soothing honesty. If that wasn't the case, I would
have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. If I go and prepare a place for
you, I will, listen, no doubt, I must come again and receive
you unto myself. That Listen, where I am, you
may be also. This is the glory of His great
necessity. He must provide righteousness. He must offer Himself a sacrifice. He must be buried. He must rise
again from the dead. And as we live and by faith,
He must rebuke us. He must And when he does, what
comes out of that? Contrition. True believers surrender
all. And true believers have a hope
of his return. He's not going to leave us here. He promised. I pray that God would comfort
you with these words, strengthen you. Let's stand, be dismissed,
and pray. Gracious Father, be merciful
to us again. Open our hearts and minds to
receive what is thy word of the necessity of Christ's death,
burial, resurrection, of his necessity to call us and save
us and keep us. Thank you, Father, for your gracious
and kind rebukes. Thank you, Father, for the heart
and desire to give and surrender to thy will. I pray, Father,
that you give us grace to continue to do so. Forgive us our sins. In Jesus' name, amen.