If you would, turn with me to
Matthew 16. I'll look at a few verses here, starting
with verse 13. I listened to a message earlier
in the week by our brother Gabe, and I actually listened to it
about two or three times. The title of his message was,
Who is Jesus Christ? I didn't take his outline, but
the Lord has had me thinking on that the whole week. When
Paul texted me yesterday and asked me to bring the message,
this was the one that came to mind to prepare for. I don't
know if we could preach for a lifetime and still not declare completely
who Jesus Christ is. And if you get a chance, listen
to Brother Gabe's message because it is, as you know, he's a very
good, very good preacher. The Lord is really blessed. Him
to preach and declare the Word of God. But in this message in
chapter 13, or verse 13 in chapter 16 of Matthew, he says, when
Jesus Christ came into the coast of Caesarea, Philippi, he asked
his disciples, Whom do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?"
And in his day, the disciples answered and said, well, some
say there are John the Baptist, some say you're Elias or Elijah,
and others, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets. And that's the
same today, in our day and time. Men are out here speaking of
a Jesus that's meek and mild, They're speaking of a Jesus that
died for everyone. They're speaking of a Jesus that
just, he made salvation possible, now it's up to you. But that
is not the God we worship. And you know, this time of the
year, everybody's got their nativity up. They've even started doing
live nativities, which I'm sure our Lord hates that. But our
Jesus is not a baby. He is sitting at the right hand
of God. And he sits there with power. And then he went on to ask his
disciples, which this would be the answer for his disciples,
his believers, the people that he showed who he is, he asked,
But whom say ye that I am?" And Simon Peter spoke up and
answered, and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living
God. This story is recorded in Matthew,
Mark, and Luke, and in All three, they give just a little bit different
wording. It's the same thing though. In Mark, it says, you're
the Christ. And in Luke, it says, you're
the Christ of God. And that Christ is, he's the
Messiah. He's the one that's been foretold
of all through the Old Testament that he's coming. And now here
in the, Gospels, He's here. He's there. And then in the rest
of the epistles, the Acts and the epistles, and the rest of
the revelations, He's coming again. He's not coming as a... He's not going to be born of
a woman again and have to live on this earth again to rule.
He's already ruling. He's coming back next time to
take His take his own, and destroy this world. And we're going to see, and I
want to ask that question at this point, who is Jesus Christ? I want to look a little bit through
the Bible, what the Lord gives me, and the ability to be able
to do it, but sort of see who Jesus Christ actually is. And
the first place we need to go is Colossians chapter 1. We'll start in verse 15. It said,
who is the image of the invisible God? It's Christ. He's the image
of the invisible God. But he's the firstborn of every
creature, before God created man. God was. God is. And he says, I am. And he says, for by him, Jesus
Christ, were all things created that are in the heaven and that
are in the 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." Well, wait a minute now. This is Jesus Christ. His name didn't appear until
Matthew. And Genesis 1 says, in the beginning,
God created the heaven and the earth. Jesus Christ must be God. He is God. He's not separate
from God. I mean, men like to use, there's
God the Father, and then there's the Son, and then there's the
Holy Ghost. But it's God the Father, God the Son, God the
Holy Ghost. Those three are one. There's
three different forms. God is spirit. Jesus Christ is
a human form or what humans were originally created to be like
before sin. And the Holy Ghost is the one
that brings the spirit. upon us to declare who Christ
is and show us and reveal us Christ. But Christ is God. I don't understand how the three
can be one, but they are. And knowing that this is God, that Jesus Christ is God, He's
our Lord, He's spoken through spoken of all through the Old
Testament, starting in Genesis 3. After man had sinned,
the first thing God did was declare that He's sending them a Messiah. He's sending them a Savior. He's
the woman seed. He'll be born of a virgin. He
couldn't be born of man because man is sinned. But a woman, a
woman don't have seed. That has to be from God. So that's
a miracle that Christ was born. He was. He was from the beginning
of time. From the beginning before that.
I mean, God always was. Always is. And He created everything. And then He came in the form
of a man. for salvation of his people,
to save his people. His name in Matthew 1 says that
we shall call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people
from their sins. That's the reason his name is
Jesus, his Savior. My understanding is the Hebrew
of that, this is Greek name is Jesus. In the Hebrew, it was
Joshua. And how much is Joshua a picture
of Christ? Leading his people all the way
along into the promised land. Exactly what Jesus Christ does
for us. Leading his people. In Genesis 22, he's the land
provided. Isaac asked, where is the lamb? He understood at that point.
He got it. It's spoken down through and
showed his people that they needed a lamb to be sacrificed, a substitute
for their sins. And in Genesis 22, he is that
lamb. He's the lamb that was provided
as the substitute for Isaac so that Isaac didn't have to die
on that altar. And he's our substitute. Lord Jesus Christ is our substitute
that we don't have to stand before God and determine or stand before
God and have our sins exposed. In Exodus 12, he's the blood
on the door because of his blood. Our Lord said in Exodus 12 that,
when I see the blood, I will pass over you. We need to be
covered with that sin offering, that blood. Our sins cannot be,
if the Lord sees one of our sins, we're guilty of all of them.
Everyone from the day we were born till the day we die. But
with that blood, he covers his people. and will stand in Christ. And there, our God said he won't
see our sin. He'll be put as far away from
the east as they are from the west. In Genesis 6 and 7, he's the
ark. He's the ark. All that are found
in him are saved. Our God chose one man and his
family out of that wicked generation to put him in an ark. He shut
the door. He called all the animals in
he wanted to save. And he saved them. And that's
exactly the way he saves his people. He calls people out of
this wicked generation. He shows them and reveals himself
to them. And they will glorify His name
from then on for the rest of their life as long as He keeps
them. And if He keeps us, we're kept. In Isaiah 40, it says, He sitteth
on the circle of the earth. He is. He made the earth, and
He sits on it. He's got dominion over this earth. In John 3, he's the brass serpent. He must be lifted up, even as
that serpent was lifted up. He had to come to this earth. He had to die. He had to be put on that cruel
cross, shed his blood for our sins. Without it, there's no
remission of sins for sinners. And then John 1, let me turn
there with you. said in the beginning was the
word and the word was with God and the word was God the same
was in the beginning with God there again it just affirms that
Jesus Christ is God that's hard to grasp God manifest
in the flesh walked this earth was tempted in all points as
we were. That's what Hebrews told us. He understands our needs because
he was touched with our firmness. He didn't succumb to sin like
we do, but he was tempted in all points like we are. He resisted
that temptation. He put the devil behind him. And He is our salvation. Salvation is of
the Lord. In Isaiah 6, His name is Wonderful,
Counselor of the Mighty God. This is who Jesus Christ is. His name is wonderful. Before the Messiah's name was
determined or shown in the New Testament, in the Old Testament,
his name was wonderful. And the story of Samson's birth,
when he came to Manoah and his wife, his name was secret. He came to Abraham. in the form
of a man, and told him about destroying Sodom and Gomorrah. And he's after the order of Melchizedek. I looked that up. I was reading
some about that in the Hebrews, what Paul wrote. And over in
chapter 7, Melchizedek, there's no mention of him. He says he's
without father, without mother, without descent, having neither
beginning of days nor end of life, but made like unto the
Son of God. I mean, that's Jesus Christ. He had no mother, no father.
He had no beginning of days. He's always been. And in Hebrews 7.1, it says,
For this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the Most High
God, who met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings
and blessed him, to whom also Abraham gave him a tenth part
of all." He had to be from God if Abraham, a believer, was giving
money to him. And then it says, first being
by interpretation, he was king of righteousness. It's not our
God, the King of Righteousness. He is our righteousness. And He's the King of Salem, which
is King of Peace. He is our peace. He is our hope. And then in John chapter 10, He says, my father which gave
them me is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck them
out of my father's hand. I and my father are one. There
again, there's God the father and there's God the son, but
those two are one. My father sits right here in
front of me. Me and him are a lot alike, but
we're not one. We're two individuals. We agree
on a lot. We disagree on others. God, the
Father, and God the Son disagree on nothing. They are one. They
are the same. And God came to this earth. Walked this earth as a man. God, who can't go without punishing sin, came
here to be savior of sinners. He walked this earth. He was
accused of heresy, blasphemy, because he said he
was God. He was hung on a cross and his
blood was shed, but that was all he had to lay
his life down. God had purposed for it to be
done, and he laid his life down willingly for his people. That was God hanging on that
cross. That was our Savior hanging on that cross. And he rose again. Man can't raise his own dead
body, but God can lay his life down and raise it up again. He
has the power. He is all powerful. And then
once you read 1 Corinthians 1 with me, a few verses, Start with verse 22. It says,
for the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom.
But we preach Christ crucified. Under the Jews, it's a stumbling
block. Under the Gentiles or the Greeks, it's foolishness.
but unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks." It's Christ,
the power of God, and the wisdom of God. Jesus Christ is the power
of God. He's the wisdom of God. It says,
25, because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, the weakness of God is stronger
than men. For you see your calling, brethren,
how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not
many noble are called. But God hath chosen the foolish
things of the world to confound the wise, and God hath chosen
the weak things of the world to confound the mighty. It says here that God's foolishness
is wiser than men's. His weakness is stronger than
men. Men like to think they have a
part in something. Men are nothing. We are a created
being, and our creator does with us as he pleases. And he died. the just for the
unjust. Men have it all wrong. They claim
that man, that God should save man. No, God should send all
men to hell. God chose to save a few. Didn't say not any, said not
many. He chose to save a few from their
sins and keep them. and deliver him before the throne
of our God, and we will worship him the rest of our days. He is Jehovah Jireh. He is. He will provide himself
a lamb. He is that lamb, and he provided
that lamb be slain for us. He's Jehovah Ra. He's the Lord
is my shepherd. As long as he is my shepherd,
I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green
pastures. He's Jehovah's Akenu. He's the
Lord our righteousness. As our righteousness, we don't
need to look to anything in ourselves. We only need to trust and look
to the Lord Jesus Christ. He is our, if he's our righteousness,
We have no righteousness in ourselves. Our righteousness is as filthy
rags. Read Philippians 2 with me. Let this mind be in you, which
was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God, thought
it not robbery to be equal with God. But he made himself of no reputation,
took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness
of men. and being found in fashion as
a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even
the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly
exalted him and given him a name which is above every name. He
is that prophet. He is that priest. He is that
king. that at the name of Jesus, every
knee should bow of things in heaven, things in earth, and
things under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that
Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Wherefore,
my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not is in my presence
only, but now much more in my absence work, Work out your own
salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God which worketh in
you, both to will and to do of His good pleasure." It's the
same thing we've been talking about the whole time. Jesus Christ,
He gets all the glory, or He gets none of it. He saves His
people, not everyone. If He saved everyone, everyone
is saved. But he didn't save everyone.
And this generation shows that he did not save everyone. But
he has a remnant. As bad as things look in this
world, he has a remnant. He still has his people in it. Considering this earth is still
going, and this world is still going, he's bound to have more
sheep out there that he's got to call. He's got to have more. And then if we go back to our
text in Matthew 16, after Simon Peter had answered
him, or said that he was the Christ, the Son of the living
God, 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. The Lord Jesus Christ shows us
that he is Lord, that he is God, that he is in control, that he
does it all. We are blessed people. And we're
not blessed because of anything we've done. We're blessed because
the Father hath revealed it to us. that is our only hope of salvation
is the Lord Jesus Christ and then I'm not sure whether I ever knew
this or just had forgotten it but in verse 18 it says and I
say unto thee that thou art Peter in John 1 verse 42 Peter, by
interpretation, is stone. Small, little, stone. But then
it says, and upon this rock, Christ is that rock. I will build
my church. God used the means that he's
done. He's planned everything from
the beginning of time and it's coming to pass as he planned
it or foreordained it that Christ would be this rock
that he'd build his church upon. The church is Christ's saved
people that he has chosen and saved and put in Christ and if
we're on that rock The gates of hell shall not prevail against
it. We have nothing to fear. We need to rest on that rock,
Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is Lord, He is Savior,
and He is foremost God. And that's all I have, so may
the Lord bless it.