We're thankful to be back again,
and I'm thankful that everyone's here that's supposed to be. Mark
said that last night, and that's the truth. The Lord, through
His providence, controls all things. We believe that. I'm
here, and you're here. We're thankful that we are. If
you will, let's turn back to Matthew. I look in chapter 16
this morning. I was looking through my notes
a couple of years ago. I preached from this passage
in Matthew 16 and verse 13. And as I studied for that message
last night, I looked through them again. I wonder if anything's
changed. And Mike read to us in the back there, the truth
is the same through every generation. The Lord hasn't changed. I'm
God and I've changed a lot. And whether it was the commentators
of old or the prophets, the apostles, Men from the 1970's or 2007 or
today, the truth of Christ and the Lord's truth has not changed.
Hasn't changed one bit. How thankful we are. Man hasn't
changed much either, have we? But we read last night in Matthew
17.5 that after cross-transfiguration there on the mount, Peter asks
him, can we build a tabernacle and altar, one for Christ, one
for Moses for the law, and one for Elias for the prophets. And
while he yet spake, Behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and
behold, a voice out of the cloud which said, This is my beloved
Son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear ye Him." Spurgeon once said,
a man asked him, he said, when can you preach for us? He said,
it depends how long you want me to preach. What does that
have to do with it? So if you want me to preach two hours,
I'll preach right now. If you want me to preach an hour,
I need about a week. If you want me to preach 15 minutes,
I'll need two weeks to prepare to get it down. So this is the
shortest message in the Scriptures. I think I've told that to you
before. God the Father spoke from heaven and said Christ was
His Son. This is Him. In whom He was pleased. That's the only way the Father
is pleased. It's in Christ and through Christ.
And He says, hear ye Him. Listen to Him. So if He's the
one that's prophesied of old, from the Old Testament, all the
Old Testament, all the Psalms, the Proverbs, everything's pointing
towards Christ, and He's the way that the Lord's pleased,
and we need to hear Him, it would be very important for us to know
who Christ is. Who is this Jesus that they speak
of? That may sound kind of silly, But who is he? Most of the people
you know, most of the people here I presume, most people I
pass on the interstate. They have a sticker on their
car. Anyone knows who Jesus is. They celebrate his birthday.
We give out gifts. For some reason they give out
chocolate bunnies in the resurrection for Easter. I don't understand
where those things came from, but everyone has an idea who
he is. They know some man came that
was of God and he died and was on a cross. They don't know much
of him. But some people profess that they do know him. But do
they know him as the scriptures declare that he is? But the most
important question ever asked and that will ever be asked to
you at the appointed time, whether it's in this life, in your heart,
or if it's on the day of judgment, is what think ye of Christ? What
do you think of Christ? That's it. That's the most important
question ever. It's there in Matthew 16, 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 thou art John the Baptist, some Elias, others Jeremias,
or one of the prophets. And he said unto them, but who
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 have not revealed this unto thee, but my Father,
which is in heaven. So before we see what's described
here in this text, it's important to know which Christ we're talking
about. It may sound silly, but it's
real possible to say a lot of accurate things about someone,
about a common friend or a person you know, and find out later
you weren't, two people that were having a conversation weren't
talking about the same person. This happened to me. I was in
Kentucky and there was a man in the Army that was a pay grade
above me. So there was a lot of respect
I have to give him and things of that nature. And his name
was Stephen Myers. And I knew him well. We got along
well, worked well together. And I knew a lot of little details
about him. What kind of car he drove, things
he preferred. And we knew each other well.
We joked together. I moved to Kansas a couple years later and
I heard that there was a Stephen Myers that was a scout that drove
this kind of Vehicle and he locked these kinds of guns and all this
and I said, that's that's Stevie And so I went in there to that
area where he was and I come around the corner and I said,
Stevie, I'm picking on him. That's what I teased him with.
That man come around the corner and it was the same rank and
the same kind of truck and the same kind of interest. That was
not Stevie. And I almost got in a lot of
trouble for that. But it was easy. I had a conversation for
about 15 minutes about this guy, the details of this person. But
we were not talking about the same person. It's easy to be
misunderstood. But there's two drastically different
answers when the Lord asks this question in this passage. There's
what the mind of the flesh thinks, what this world thinks, what
I think in my nature, what we consider Christ to be. And then
there's the truth. There's a figment of our imaginations,
what soothes us, what makes me happy to understand, what's convenient
for me. And then there's the Christ,
the Savior, the God-man in human flesh. So in Matthew 16.13, it says, When Jesus came into the
coast of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples, saying,
Whom do men say that I am? So our Lord here, He takes His
disciples to a really remote place. It's about 30 miles north
of the Sea of Galilee. They weren't bothered by all
these crowds that's been with them, all those thousands of
people. And it was considered to be the mouth or the main spring
of the Jordan River, which in all these rivers and these cultures,
that's the root of wisdom. The root of life is the spring
of a river. So how fitting that he took them
there to get to this basic question. In other cases, Christ asked
these questions to the unregenerate men in a public place like in
Matthew 22 and what we looked at last night. He asked these
Pharisees in public. But here, His carefulness and
His tenderness to His people. He gets us alone. The Lord always
separates us. And that may be in a small group
and it will often or always be in the heart. He comes to us
personally where we are. But He's in a simple place with
simple people and He appears to ask what we would think a
simple question. He said, who do men say that
I, the Son of Man am? Now it's important to look at,
it says the Son of Man. Why would He say that? We could
read right over that and not pay any attention. But we're considering what we
would look at, His lowest office. Some of the commentators wrote
that Christ was descending to our level, but any time He deals
with us, any time He deals with sinners, it's Him descending
to us. We don't rise to Him, He comes
down to us from His high office. And any office that He holds
is fully, completely holy and sovereign. Whether that's the
seed of woman, my castrate yesterday morning to come and crush the
serpent's head, or it's Him in the flesh, Or is
Him dealing with us as our mediator? On behalf of us, anything He
does is holy and sovereign. And when He comes in the flesh,
from Adam forward, each generation of believers looked for that
Son that was promised. When Eve had Cain there in Genesis
4 and 1, she said, I've gotten a man from the Lord. She thought
this was it. And every believing woman from
Eve to Mary, they thought the same thing. They had their firstborn
son. They thought, this is the promised one. The Lord gave this
to me. Now they were mistaken, but they were looking for that
one, that Messiah, the anointed one, the promised man that would
come. And it would be safe to assume during those times that
any unbelieving soul would understand that. They would know a little
bit of this one was coming. They knew the prophecy that was
about of the God-man to come. Now in our text here, he says,
what the Son of Man asked this question, and he says, who do
men say that I am? So the answers here is only two,
what the world thinks and what the truth is. I had a boss tell
me one time, he said, your perception of reality has no impact on reality
itself. And I was having a bad day at
work, but what I think doesn't matter. What I consider to be
true, that's not my truth. That's a phrase in common usage
here lately in this nation. That doesn't impact what happened.
I always say there's three sides to a story, his, hers, and the
truth. But there's two sides. There's my side and the Lord's
side. There's my opinions and the truth of the Lord. But the
biblical records here of blasphemy concerning the Lord Jesus, they
do not differ from today's opinions. The sins of the flesh haven't
changed. The enmity towards God hasn't changed. Why? The sinner's
pride hasn't changed. Nothing's changed from Adam to
Kevin. It's the same. Sinners are the
same. And the truth of Christ has not changed, both as a benefit
to us or as an offense. It's still the same. Blasphemy
means profane, irreverence, and wickedness. Now this can present
itself as one would think, just a blatant, outward, I don't believe
that, I hate what you preach, and I don't want to hear about
this Bible stuff. But, the more deceitful and cunning denials
are shown here in our text. These are the thoughts of the
common person at that time, and they're the thoughts of the common
person now. what they think of Christ, what the world thinks
of Christ. Those claiming to be Christians, they would see
this as a good thing. That's how they would see it.
Not necessarily the Pharisees, the Sadducees, or the Herodians,
these high-minded, well-educated Bible people. It's just normal,
run-of-the-mill people. Everyday people. They simply
ask, who do men say that I am? That's what Christ asks. We know
these folks, and they're no different than us. They're the same people we see
daily. Most of the people you know, your family, your co-workers, everyone around you, people walking
up and down the streets. What do these normal people say? They're
in Matthew 16, 14. And they said, some say thou
art John the Baptist. Some, Elias. And others, other
people, they say you're Jeremiah or one of the prophets. Now,
a few things can be taken from this comment. One, all of these
names that are given, the people say Christ is, they say Jesus
is, they're all honorable. The three saints listed there
and that generalized term, one of the prophets, Applied outwardly
seems to be very charming. If someone had said that about
me, I'd be pretty puffed up. I'd have my chest out and say,
oh, Kevin's just like Elias or something. He's like unto him.
I would take pride in that. It would be a great compliment,
but these compliments and these high opinions aren't high enough.
They're not accurate. They're good thoughts of a person,
but they're not fitting for the righteousness that Christ has.
All these opinions here in verse 14, they're all different. Some
say one thing, others say another thing. They're not of one accord. Scripture says many people of
many minds are easily divided. There's a lot of divisions there.
Each one of these are already passed away by the time that
this question was asked. So any of these things that people
said, they're all risen from the dead, have to be. There's
a great man from the past that some miracle had happened, he's
here. But it's just a man. No more, no less. And they're
all false opinions. By nature, they seem to be high
thoughts, and they're incorrect because that comes from a corrupt
heart. It's very telling of the nature of man. These saints,
they're just not much more than men, and there lies the problem.
Most people, they don't mind being helped. They don't mind
having someone aid them, but they have no interest in being
saved. They look to a counsel of a wiser person and take what
they need from it and make it their own. I'll just take the
good stuff from here and the good stuff from there and I'll
use what I want to use. But they don't want to have someone
to rule over them. Christ in that parable of the
pounds, Luke 19 says, when the people were told of it, said,
we will not have this man to reign over us. That's all they
saw, that son of man. They looked at the man part.
A man is slightly above you. It's nothing more than that.
Slightly better. And that's what most folks in
pulpits this morning are saying. There's someone named Jesus,
someone they may call Christ, that's only slightly better than
you are. Slightly better than you can
kind of sway and persuade and bend the way you need them to.
But it's only limited to the individual's discretion. All
of their power and their desires of that little lowercase g god
that they present is dependent on you. They want a god that's
made like them. That's the man's thought. I frequently
hear people say, and Bob was talking about this before, I
have a long time friend I'm allowed to speak boldly to. We've been together for 15 years
or so, and he picks on me pretty good, and I probably become too
bold, but I speak very plainly to him. I'm not afraid of hurting
his feelings and him leaving. If he'd have done that, he'd
have left a long time ago. He says, I like to think that God
is, and you fill in the blank. If you like to think that God
is a certain way, my friend, that is a poor way of looking
at the situation. You're in for a disappointment.
You wouldn't go into a courtroom and say, well, Judge, I like
to think that the law on speed limits means this. It would have
no impact on the judge's decision if you were speeding, would it?
How much more so will it during judgment? If we face the Almighty
God and we say, well, Lord, I think it ought to be this way. I don't
think it'll carry any weight for you. Isaiah 55 says, For
my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,
saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher
than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my
thoughts than your thoughts. I'm often asked too, well, what's
your interpretation of this? What's your pastor's interpretation
of this Scripture? 2 Peter 1 says, Know in this
first that no prophecy of the Scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in
old time by the will of man, but holy men of God spake as
they were moved by the Holy Ghost." You can't lock yourself in a
basement somewhere with a big stack of books and study the
Bible and read it and come out six months later and know Christ.
That's not what the Scriptures say. You hear of Christ in the
preaching of the Gospel. Man has a desire to do the work.
They have the desire to find out those mysteries themselves. Another friend always told me,
he said, God has no hands but your hands. That's a common phrase
where I grew up. The buckle of the Bible belt
there in Tennessee and Kentucky and Virginia and that area. It's
a common thing to tell people. God has no hands but your hands.
You better get up and do something. You better give more. You better
witness more. Those same friends, when I tell
them, I say, that's not who Christ is. That's not the God of the
Bible. That's why you need to read your
Bible. I quote Psalm 115, it says, Their idols are silver
and gold, the work of men's hands. They have mouths, but they speak
not. Eyes they have, but they see not. They have ears, but
they hear not. Noses they have, but they smell not. They have
hands, but they handle not. Feet they have, but they walk
not. Neither speak they through their throat. Why is that? They make them that are like
unto them so that everyone trusts in them. Man makes a God that's
like unto him. You say a God has no hands but
your hands. He has no ability. You say that
because you have no ability. The Lord hasn't revealed that
to you. And people say, well, that's your interpretation. And
so that's a circular argument you can't get around, but it's
pretty straightforward. The Lord's text here, when he dealt with
that rich, young ruler, that rich, young ruler knew exactly
what he meant. He told him. It was plain, wasn't
it? He just didn't want to hear it. So what am I alluding to? That man has no good thoughts
and deeds. Inside, we're not all basically
good. Somewhere deep down inside, we're
all good people. That's exactly right. Man's spiritually
dead. Romans 3.23 says, for all have
sinned and come short of the glory of God. Romans 5 says, Wherefore, as
by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, so death
passed upon all men, for all have sinned. That's offensive. I didn't like to hear that when
I was first exposed to this truth of Christ. I thought I was pretty
good. I knew some bad things. I need to stop cussing or drinking
or smoking or whatever eel it is of the teetotalers that generation. We need to put some things away,
but I didn't want to hear that overall I was bad. But that's
our issue. Sin's the issue of blood. It's
a disease. It's hereditary. So I told people
a long time ago, if two zebras have a baby, It's going to be
a zebra. If two sinners have a baby, it's
a sinner. It says, look for the sounds
of a child when it's born. You want to hear that baby cry.
Well, what's it doing? It says they come from the womb
speaking lies. The baby's not hungry. It doesn't need a new
diaper. It's crying so you pick it up. It's lying to you. That's
from our birth. I don't teach them children to
lie when they're little. They do that by themselves. I
did too. It's my nature. That's offensive to folks. That's
what men want. They say, well, I don't like
to think that way. I just assume they see these truths and they
see a God of election in the Bible, and they say, well, the
scriptures do speak of that, but I just assume not look at
it. Psalm 10 says, For the wicked boasts of his heart desires,
and blesses the covetous, whom the Lord abhorreth. The wicked,
through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God. God
is not in all of his thoughts. So did I get all that from Peter
telling him that they think Christ is one of the prophets, Jeremias? Anything, man will cling to anything
other than Christ. Because anything that's man-made,
like we read earlier, digging down for that foundation. What
do you do once you get out of the way to get to a rock, to
a foundation? You get dirt out of the way,
don't you? That's what the Lord has us do. This flesh from the
dirt gets us out of the way and gets us only to sit on Christ.
But what about these disciples? So we saw what the world thinks
by nature, what the world sees in Christ, but what does a believer
think of Christ? What does his elect think? So
in Matthew 16 verse 15, He saith 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. Now this
is a short, direct, accurate answer of who Christ is. Peter,
there's a brief picture of Christ as our mediator. He answers for
the group. The Lord asks and he answers for us. And it's often
called, this portion of scripture, Peter's confession of faith.
And that's what it is a confession is, it's a declaration. If you
confess to something, you tell the truth. You can't confess
to a lie, tell the wrong thing, that's called lying. But a confession
is to tell the truth, and that's what he did. He confessed that
Christ is the Son of the Living God. He's the Messiah, the prophesied
One of Old, God Almighty. So with that statement, and like
that illustration in the beginning, we have to be clear about who
this describes. Christ was God Almighty in human
flesh. He is God. John 10.3 said, I
and my Father are one. As Mike commented earlier, he
thought it not robbery to be equal with God. He's His equal.
We know Christ is called the Word in Scripture, don't we?
And John 1.1 said, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was
with God, and the Word was God. Verse 14, it says, "...and the
Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and He beheld His glory,
the glory of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace
and truth." He said, I and my Father are one. The Word was
God. So we're saying that Christ is
the Son of God. Yes. And that Christ is God. Yes. It's both. Growing up, my pastor used to
say, if you don't understand the Trinity, you don't cast it
away, you believe it. That's easy to say, and people
will say, well that's religious stuff, look over it. But we understand
that. I don't understand how antibiotics
work on a deep level, but if I have a real bad infection,
I'm going to take antibiotics, aren't I? That's the truth. We
accept those things, as the Lord says, and we pray that He gives
us the grace to understand them down the road. But what else
do these believers know? We know that He's the God of
creation. Christ is. All things were made by Him.
He made the world, the heavens, everything in it or on it. He created everything. But now,
many people say, yes, the Lord created everything, but you have
to make good on it. He gave us this world, but we have to keep
it. We have to make it better, make
it a heaven for Him. That's not true. Man should never
waste a gift that the Lord gives him through His providence, but
your works does not make things flourish. The Lord does. A lot
of people say Christ made it possible, but you have to make
it effectual. That's silly. Our previous president actually
got that right. He said, you didn't build that.
And that made a lot of people angry, didn't it? The business
owners and the engineers and all these people, these managers,
anyone above grunt level work. They got mad over that comment.
But what do the scriptures say? Is that true? Let's look in Colossians
chapter 1. Colossians 1 in verse 15. It says, Who, speaking of Christ,
is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature? For by Him were all things created
that are in heaven and that are in earth, visible and invisible,
whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers.
All things were created by Him and for Him. And He is before
all things, and by Him all things consist." Are you saying that
Christ controls who the President of the United States is? Absolutely.
And does He control who your boss at work is? Yes. Whoever
gets promoted or demoted at work? Yeah, absolutely. He controls
all things, all those principalities and powers. But how does He do
that? If He created all of these things, He made them, are they
just like a top that you spin and let go? And He hopes for
the best and He'll come up with plan B later? Does that happen? No. Christ is the God of creation. He's also the God of providence.
Let's look in Job chapter 37. He's completely sovereign in
all things. both in creation and while they're coming to fruition. Job 37.5 God thundereth marvelously with
His voice. Great things doeth He which we
cannot comprehend. For He saith to the snow, Be
thou on the earth. Likewise to the small rain and
to the great rain of His strength. He sealeth up the hand of every
man that all men may know His work. Then the beasts go into
the dens and remain in their places. Out of the south cometh
the whirlwind and the cold out of the north. By the breadth
of God, frost is given, and the breadth of the waters is straightened.
It's frozen up. He makes the lakes freeze. Maurice
Montgomery used to say, folks would tell him, well, that's
just natural things. We don't think much of it. The
rain and the snow. You can't do it, can you? He
makes the lakes freeze. You can't make it rain. In Job
37.11 there, Also, by watering, he weareth a thick cloud, he
scattereth his bright cloud, and it is turned round about
by his counsels, that they may do whatsoever he commandeth them
upon the face of the world and the earth. He causes it, what's
the reason for all these things? He causes it to come whether
for correction or for his land or for his mercy. So how do we
respond to something like that? How would we A Lord that controls
all the things in creation and all the earth and our work and
our dominions and powers and thrones and managers and bosses.
He controls all those things. Look at verse 14. Hearken unto
this, O Job. Stand still and consider the
wondrous works of God. So if humans had any sense at
all and we saw these things and we understood it, the Lord gave
us the knowledge to understand Christ is the The God of creation
and He's the God of providence. He controls all things. We would
just stand back and say, what a God. Would I worry? Would I have fret? No, of course
not. The Lord controls all things.
You all can probably quote these. I won't have you turn to them.
But Ephesians 1.11 says, Him who worketh all things after
the counsel of His own will. Is that some things? Is that
parts that I don't feel like handling? Do I let God? Handle
these things or I'll put these in his hands." No, he worketh
all things after the counsel of his own will. Matthew 10 says,
Are not two sparrows sold for a farling? And one of them shall
not fall to the ground without your Father. But the very hairs
of your head are all numbered. The Lord knows how many hairs
I have in my head. He knows the color of them too.
It says in Matthew 5, Neither shalt thou swear by thy head,
because thou canst make one hair white or black. He knows how
many I have and controls all that. Nebuchadnezzar was brought
to say in Daniel, And all the inhabitants of the earth are
reputed as nothing. And he doeth according to his
will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the
earth, and none can stay his hand or say unto him, What doest
thou? A lot of people say that the
Lord needs a helping hand. Let's look in Acts chapter 17. Does the Lord need me? Do I need
to help Him and do something for Him? Or has something already
been done? I don't think I told you this
yesterday. I had it wrote down. Somebody,
I think it was Don, years and years ago, told me. And I wrote
it in the cover of my Bible where it says, Holy Bible and the copyright
and all that. Don't look for what to do. Look for what's been
done. It's there in Acts 17 verse 24. God that made the world and all
things therein, seeing that He is Lord of heaven and earth,
dwelleth not in temples made with hands, neither is worship
with men's hands, as though He needed anything. Seeing He giveth
to all life and breath and all things, and hath made of one
blood all nations of men, for to dwell on all the face of the
earth, and hath determined the times before pointed, and the
bounds of their habitation, sets them hedge about it. That they
should seek the Lord, if happily they might feel after Him and
find Him, though He be not far from every one of us. For in
Him we live and move and have our being. He's the source of
all life. God of Providence is why we are
sitting here today. It's why I'm sitting here today. Don told me that. He said, your
entire life has led up to this point. And that's for every one
of us. Everything that's happened in
our lives to this moment right now has brought us here. The
Lord God Almighty did that. So we know the God of Christ
is the God of creation. He's the God of Providence. And
thankfully, we know He's the God of salvation. Before the
world was, God elected a people, and He put them in Christ. And
in His power, He comes to those people, and He meets us where
we are. He comes directly to us, and
He conquers them, and He stays with them to the end. And until
that appointed time, when that last saint is called home, when
it comes to the knowledge of Christ, the Lord will wrap this
world up, and we'll all be with Him in glory. We'll get to see
Him face to face, and be known as we are known. We'll get to
know Him. And then we can look back on those testaments that
are our lives, and He'll say, look here, this is when I separated
you from your mother's womb, and I did this for you, and I
did that for you, and I kept you. And we'll sing His praises,
and His grace, and His mercy forever. But, like I said for
that one, we're looking for what to do. Natural man says, what
needs to happen? What do I need to do to be saved?
The child of God, if the Lord touches you in your heart, you
say, I'm saved. What happened? Tell me what happened. Tell me
what Christ did. But how does that happen? How does the Lord
have limited atonement and lose none of His elect? Is it man's
choice to accept Jesus as his personal Savior? As His God,
does He put Christ on a pedestal or did He beat Him to it? Was
He already Lord? Let's see what happened to Peter
here. Back in our text in Matthew 16, look in verse 17. And Jesus answered and said unto
him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona, For flesh and blood,
that includes Peter's own, flesh and blood hath not revealed it
unto you, unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. That's what
the child of God believes, that Christ Almighty revealed it to
us. As Paul said, Christ revealed
in you. You know, if they've had a blanket over this cup,
We don't understand the words of the scripture now because
the language has changed some, but it's like receiving. I think
I told you all that. For this cup to receive water,
we have things so good now, we have a choice. If you all gave
me a pizza, I can receive it or not receive it. But this cup,
if I took a pitcher of water and poured water into it, that
cup received the water. Well, if Christ is revealed in
us, if I had a blanket over that cup and I pulled it away, I revealed
a cup. That's what was already there.
It wasn't put there just now. I didn't do a magic trick and
make it. I revealed it. Christ is revealed in us. But
believing is not something we choose to do. Logical, deductive
reasoning cannot lead you to the knowledge of Christ. I used
to tell people, not literally, I'd argue with folks to pick
on them, I don't believe in dinosaurs. And I'll joke with folks about
that, but if I truly didn't believe in that, I could become a paleontologist,
I could write books about dinosaurs, and I could wear dinosaur t-shirts
and run a museum. But if I truly didn't believe
it, I could put on this show and go through all these steps
to make a livelihood out of it, but deep down inside in my closet
at home, I wouldn't believe it. If you believed in a sports team,
you could root for another sports team and act like you didn't
love it. But if that's truly what you believe, you can't change
what you truly believe. But that's a mystery. The mystery
that's revealed in the Scriptures is that Christ is all. He made
you believe that. Let's turn to John chapter 10
and I'll let you go. John chapter 10 and 25. If I
told you this before, I'd act like I didn't. I had to watch
a section of road for a long time in another country. I was
in a guard tower, and every morning I would see two groups of sheep
come from either side of the road. And those young boys took
care of those sheep. They had about maybe 75 or 100
sheep apiece. And they were little fellas,
like 8 years old maybe, 8 or 10 years old. And one would come
down this way of the road, and one would come from this side
of the road. And they would pass each other, but they would stop
and they would talk for a few minutes on their way to the fields
to let these sheep eat. And when they got through talking,
they would The one would keep going this way, the one would
keep going his original way, and they would whistle a little
bit and click and make noises and throw rock over here and
hit a rod on this side or something. And those sheep who would all
mingle together, they would follow this one that they'd started
with, and that sheep would follow that one that they had started
with. And I always thought of this verse, John 10, 25. And
Jesus answered them, I told you and you believed not the works
that I do in my Father's name, they bear witness of me. But
you believe not because you are not of my sheep. It doesn't say
you're not one of my sheep because you didn't believe. You don't
believe because you're not one of my sheep. And I said unto
you, my sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me. And I give unto them eternal
life, and they shall never perish. Neither shall any man pluck them
out of my hand. My Father which gave them to
me is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck them out
of my Father's hand." Is that what you believe? You believe
that you're just a... In our minds, sheep are these
pretty little white things that jump over fences and children's
cartoons. Sheep are nasty. They smell bad. All that hair gets knotted up.
But are you a sheep? Like that lady last night, the
Canaanite woman. Are you just a dog looking for crumbs? And
who is able? Who is able to help you? The
Lord didn't come to save the Pharisees and these high-minded
people that had a certain level of knowledge. He came to save
those that are in need. Only the sick needs a physician,
He said, right? But are you one of these sheep?
Is He the shepherd? If the Lord calls you, He brought you here
today. He calls generally and effectually. If He calls you and He pricks
you in your heart and you know that you're just a dirty sheep
that has no defenses, you have no means of your own, and that
Christ is the one that created it all, through His providence
He brought you here, and through Him being the God of salvation,
He saves you and He's able to keep you and preserve you, perseverance
and preservance. He can preserve you till the
end. Then, like Peter, He will say, blessed are you, and He'll
keep you to the end. What a blessing it would be.
You don't have to attain a certain level of knowledge to come to
Christ and to hear these things and know Him. You don't have
to, I'm going to wait until I'm a little bit older, or I'm going
to wait until my job's done, or I have more time to focus
on Him. No, if the Lord brought you down,
the only way you can look up is to be underneath something.
If the Lord's brought you down, He's brought you there. Look
to Him. Turn to Him. Follow that. And I pray to the
Lord, if you're His sheep, that you hear His voice, not mine,
the Lord. I hope He speaks to you through
these scriptures and turns you on. And if He does, be glad and
rest and know that He'll keep you till the end. I hope that
was a blessing to you, brother. Let's pray. Father, when we're left to ourselves,
we're so weak and unable. We need Your patience and Your
ability to teach us and Lord, keep us and show us our need
of Christ. Show us who He really is. Let
us see glimpses of His glory and bring us low that He may
be exalted. Be with your people everywhere,
Lord, as they gather this morning. Comfort them. Give them the ears
to hear and hearts to understand. Bless your preachers as they
proclaim Christ. Give them boldness. Be with those
saints that haven't heard you yet, Lord. If it's your will,
open their ears. Don't let them turn to themselves.
Give them that peace that's in Christ. Save your lost sheep,
Lord. We know you will. We ask that
you be glorified through Him. It's in Christ's name that we
ask.