But one of our texts today says
there's a time to laugh and there's a time to mourn. And this passage
before us is a very serious one that should make us seriously
and soberly examine ourselves. Right after Simon Peter confessed
faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, Satan came upon him. And what Peter said and did was
the most offensive thing ever to the Lord. He never took such
offense as he did at what Peter did and said. And he rebuked
him more sharply than any disciple at any time, before or afterward. Look at it with me. Matthew 16, verse 21. From that time forth began Jesus
to show unto his disciples how that he must go unto Jerusalem
and suffer many priests and scribes and be killed and be raised again
the third day. Then Peter took him and began
to rebuke him, saying, Be it far from thee, Lord, this shall
not be unto thee. And Mark's Gospel, I believe
it is, says he turned and looked upon all his disciples and said
this in front of all of them and rebuked Peter sharply and
said, Get thee behind me, Satan. Thou art an offense unto me. For thou savorest not the things
that be of God, but those that be of men. Now, the Lord, it
says, His message to the disciples from that time forth, He began
to show unto His disciples, verse 21, 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. That was His message to them.
That was His constant word to them from this time forward.
How that He must go to Jerusalem and suffer these death. Do you
remember when He arose from the grave and joined those two disciples
that were walking on the road to Emmaus? They were sad. Do
you remember? And He began in the books of
Moses and the prophets and the Psalms and began to expound unto
them the things concerning himself. And he said to his disciples,
Ought not Christ to have suffered? He said, O fools and slow of
heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken. That is,
everything in scripture speaks of this, how that Christ ought
to suffer these things and to enter into his glory. So from
that time forward, he began to reveal these things to his disciples. His disciples, only God's chosen
people, only the elect are shown the purpose of Scripture. Only
God's chosen ones, his blessed ones, are instructed by the Spirit
of God who Christ is and why he came and what he did. The
rest of the religious world is just going through the motions.
They're drawing near with their lips when their hearts are far
from believing and knowing and understanding and rejoicing in
God their Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. But in great mercy and
grace and the blessing of all blessings, the Lord reveals Himself
to His disciples who He is, why He came, what He did, who He
did that for, and where He is now. And this is our only message. And that was the Lord's message
to His disciples. From that time forward, look
at several things with me. How He showed them how He must
go unto Jerusalem. You see that? He must first go
to Jerusalem. Jerusalem was the holy city.
Jerusalem was where the temple God walk. It was called the city
of David. It was the throne of David. How
fitting that Christ said, I must go to Jerusalem. I must ascend
to Jerusalem. I am the king and I must go to
my throne. And he did. He set his face like
a flint to go to Jerusalem. Like David who brought in the
ark to Jerusalem, Christ must go to Jerusalem. But now, he
did not ascend that throne in the city itself, but he was taken
outside the camp, because that's what Scripture says that Christ
is to do, is to go outside the camp. And his throne was a cross
on which he hung. So he began to show unto them
how he must go unto Jerusalem. Secondly, it says, told them
how he must suffer many things of the elders and chief priests
and scribes. According to the scripture, in
Psalm 118, it says in verse 22, the stone which the builders
rejected, the same has become the head of the corner. And then
the next verse says, this is the Lord's doings. And it's marvelous
in our eyes. The elders and the priests were
supposed to be the builders, supposed to be those who built
up people on this most holy faith. And by the way, that psalm is
quoted five times in Scripture. The stone which the builders
rejected has become head of the corner. You mark it down. that blind religious leaders
are the ones that Satan uses. They have transformed themselves
into ministers of righteousness, angels of light, and they are
not preaching the gospel, but rather they're hindering the
gospel, like these men who pretended to be who the people thought
to be were the men of God. So our Lord began to show them
how that he would be rejected of the religious leaders, mainstream
religion. He must be according to the Scripture. And then he began to show them
what things he must suffer, the many things he must suffer. Every single thing that our Lord
suffered was recorded in Scripture. He must. Things like this, in
Isaiah, I gave my back to the smiters. my cheeks to them that
plucked off the hair. I hid not my face from shame
and spitting." The Lord will help me. He said, So I have set
my face like a flint. The disciples all did not want
him to go to Jerusalem, but he must. And he began to show them
from that time forward, I must. For this cause I came into the
world. He must go to Jerusalem. suffer
at the hands of the leaders, and he must suffer many things
at their hands, all things that are reported in Scripture, such
as he was wounded for our transgression. He was bruised for our iniquity. The chastisement, the whipping
of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed. Everyone turned their own way. He was oppressed, afflicted,
taken from prison, so on and so forth. Psalm 18, Psalm 22,
everything that he endured must be fulfilled, must be. He must
suffer many things. And then the end of his suffering.
He said in verse 21, in the last line, he began to show them how
he would be killed like the sacrifice, the lamb slain, he must be killed,
the sin payment, the sin offering, and be raised again the third
day. The end, the result of all that
he would do, he said, was to be raised again the third day. He must be raised from the dead.
Proof, number one, that he is God. he ever lives, and proof
positive and fulfillment of Scripture that by his death our sins are
paid for and by his resurrection we're justified from all things.
The high priest must come out of the holy of holy alive, proving
that the sacrifice was accepted. Have you ever noticed how that
the Lord keeps saying nearly every time He says, that he must
be raised, he says, again. That struck me, I've never really
thought about it. Raised again? I thought he was
only raised one time. He says raised again. Well, this
is the Lord's wisdom. Just as there are two births,
we're born of the flesh and we're born of the spirit. There are
two resurrections. When the Lord comes to us in
the gospel, he gives us life, doesn't he? He gives us life.
But then there's another resurrection. We'll be raised again. We're
raised to walk in newness of life, but someday we're going
to lay these bodies down, and someday the Lord's going to join
us with our bodies to be raised again. And our Lord did just
that. Our Lord, when He died on the
cross and His body was put in the grave, He went somewhere. He went to glory. But three days
later, He entered into His body and was raised again. Again. So that, I believe, is why He
said that. But why did the Lord tell His
disciples these things? He began to show them from this
day forward And it was His constant message to them and to us. It's
the message of Scripture. Why does the Lord keep telling
us these things? Well, number one, to reveal His
true reason or purpose for coming to this earth. To reveal who
He is, like I said, and why He came and what He did and who
He did it for and what that means to us. That's the whole message
of the gospel. to reveal His true reason for
coming. Very few people know that. Very
few people do. But all of God's people do. And
He keeps telling them and us to reveal God's purpose in Christ
crucified to put away sin. Like we looked at Wednesday night,
the whole purpose of the of the ark and the tabernacle and the
high priest and all that they did was in remembrance of sin. The need to put away sin. Sin is the problem. Sin is the
root of every problem on this planet and in us. And Jesus Christ
came into this world to put away sin. One way. Not a sacrifice. of himself. He's the only one
who could do it. And so he said, Lo, I come in
the volume of the book, it's written of me. Once in the end
of the world hath he appeared to put away sin. Most people believe he just came
to show us some kind of example of love and mercy and kindness,
which he did, but that's not why he came. He began to show
his disciples that and continues to do so. And he began to show
them or correct their false notions about the Christ, the kingdom
of God. He said to them in other places,
he said, my kingdom is not of this world. And neither is your continuing
city here of this world. And he began to correct all their
false notions about his coming, about the temple, and his second
coming. He said, it doesn't come with
observation. The kingdom of heaven is right
in the middle of you, inside you. And many other things. Many other things. But these
are the principal reasons our Lord began to teach them of himself
and why he came. Verse 22, Then Peter took him, and began to rebuke him, saying,
Be it far from thee, Lord, this shall not be unto thee. Pity
thyself. Have pity upon yourself. Oh,
don't let this happen. Did Peter lay hold of our Lord? Did he put his arm around Him
and take Him to the side and began to say to Him, Oh, don't,
don't, no, don't let this happen. Something like that happened. And at first glance, you and
I may think he meant well. He was sincere about it. He was
truly concerned about the Lord's welfare. But our Lord's reaction
shows that it was something very, very wicked, and the wicked one
himself was behind it. And our Lord, and like I said,
I quoted Mark, I believe it is, I didn't write it down, Mark
or Luke, said that the Lord turned after Peter said that and looked
on all his disciples to make sure that they are listening
to him. And then looked Peter straight in the eye. The one
that he just said, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona. You're Cephas. You're Peter. You're a little
rock, a stone. Flesh and blood didn't reveal
this to you, but my Father would say, oh, how blessed you are.
That same man, he said, get behind me, Satan. Now, that's seriousness. The Lord had rebuked Simon Peter
before, and he'll rebuke him again. And his disciples, and
us, and he will rebuke us again. We need it. We need it. But here he was very angry. He
was very offended. And he spoke roughly to Peter
before everyone and made a public example out of him. Now, there
are several things we need to learn here, we, all of us, several
things. Number one, let every man be
swift to hear and slow to speak. Peter spoke before, and he should
have, when he spoke out and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son
of the living God. Well spoken, Peter. But right
here was a time to listen very carefully and not open his mouth. But he didn't. Simon Peter wasn't listening.
And we all have a real problem with that, don't we? We all have
a real problem. He wasn't listening. He should
have been listening. The Lord had just said he must
suffer. Not too long after this, we'll
look at this. Our Lord, all of the disciples
were talking about who is greatest in the kingdom of heaven, right
after the Lord said the same thing about His suffering. We're
very poor listeners, aren't we? I remember my father saying this
years ago. You know, people will listen
to a message, and they weren't studying it, and they weren't
meditating on it, didn't give any prayer to it. And he brought
a message that he had studied and prayed about and sought the
Lord's will and compared Scripture with Scripture. And someone took
offense to something he said. I remember him saying that. Please pray about it five minutes. Or think about it five minutes
before you reject it. He said, because I have. Simon
Peter wasn't listening. He wasn't listening. So we need
to be more swift to hear and slow to speak, or else we might
not react the way we do to a certain thing. Number two, when God's
Word and His purpose is not clear to us, be silent. Submit to it. Wait on the Lord,
and you'll see. Wait. manner wanted to take things
into his own hands, that, oh, no, we can't let this happen.
Who do you think you're dealing with, Peter? When things, God's purpose is
not to our liking. Peter didn't like what he was
hearing. Oh, I don't want this to happen. And he thought, we've
got to stop it. Peter, Simon, Satan. Be silent. Submit. Wait until
you see. You may see clearly that God's
hand. Well, you will. You will. If
you wait, you will see God's hand in this. Don't react so
rashly, so quickly. Wait and you'll see. Submit.
Be silent too. Be silent too. That's what meekness
implies. Another thing here is It is the
height of pride and it is an offense to our Lord for a sinner
to tell him what he ought to be doing and ought not to do. It's an offense to our Lord,
a great offense for a lowly, ignorant sinner to try to tell
the Lord what he ought to do. I think you ought to do this,
or not do. Job and his friend. They were
fine until they all started talking about what they thought God does
and what God ought not to do. Remember that? If you've read
it. They all got in on it. And Job, who was a righteous
man, defending himself, who you would too if you were wrongly
accused as they did him. Finally, he began to say things
in his own defense, and it began to be against God. And if you
keep defending yourself, you're defending the wrong person. I
mean you and your family or whoever it is. You're defending the wrong
purpose. We're to justify God in the condemnation
of ourselves. Now Job and his friends began
to talk about what God does and what God does not do, and in
the end, the Lord said this. He asked two questions. Who is
this? Who is doing all this talking?
Remember that? Who is muddy in the waters here?
Who is it, this, that thinks they know something? about me. Job did. But after a while, he
kept talking, and the Lord said, Who is this that darkeneth counsel
by words without knowledge? And Job took that rebuke to heart,
and he said, I'm going to put my hand over my mouth. That's
my problem. And the Lord asked them, too.
He said, With whom did the Lord take counsel. Did I ask you? Simon Peter laying hold of our
Lord is just like Uzzah who touched that ark. You know that story,
many of you. Uzzah in the Old Testament, the
ark was on a cart, an ox cart, which it shouldn't have But it
was on an ox cart, and it was kind of teetering. The oxen stumbled,
and Uzzah, this priest, reached up. He meant well. He was going
to help the ark out. He didn't want the ark to fall.
So he helped out the ark, and he touched it. And God smote
him dead right there. And David didn't understand. He did later. We understand. that the Lord doesn't need our
help. He doesn't need our opinion. He doesn't even need our best
intentions. But we need to be silent to Him
and submit to His will. Another thing that we learn here,
and there's so much here, that Satan's great work, his most
subtle work, is against the gospel of Christ. While Satan is at
work throughout this world, in wickedness and perversions that
go on. His chief work, his primary work,
is not in the honky-tonks, as Brother Barnard used to say,
but in the pulpit. And Paul wrote this in several
places. He said, the God of this world,
His work is to blind the minds of them which believe not, lest
the light of the glorious gospel of Christ It was the image of
God should shine unto them. And Satan is at work, not only
out there in the world to prevent men and women from hearing the
gospel, but right here in the midst of us to keep you and I
from hearing it this morning. He was with Peter. And oh, there's so many verses
I could quote in reference to that. Here's another thing. Satan
can use and manipulate anyone. Simon Peter. He first used a woman against
Adam. Is that not the first one? Did
not our Lord say, Adam wasn't deceived, Eve wasn't. There's
a reason why women are not to speak and be in the place of
leadership, and that's the reason. And he did this to several women
throughout the Scripture. Job's wife, Job is the oldest
recorded book in Scripture, Job's wife told Job, why don't you
just curse God and die? Satan is behind things like that. Sarah to Abraham. Sarah to Abraham. Well, maybe God needs our help.
Maybe He meant for us to have a child on our own. So go in
to Hagar. Oh, my. The problems. The trouble
that you have brought. Satan behind that. But it was
God's purpose. Miriam to Moses. Miriam was... older sister of Moses, well respected. And she got bitter against and
angry against Moses, and the Lord made a public example out
of her. Joab rebuked David, Joab's closest
friend. should have been in subjection
to David. He rebuked him. He embarrassed him, really. And
the Lord killed Joann. Simon Peter. Simon Peter, himself. The Lord can use us. I mean,
Satan can use us to hinder the gospel. And each one of us need
to ask ourselves, Lord, is it out? Is it out? No one is exempt from that. And
the Lord is very offensive to him. The Lord who has ordained
peace and unity and subjection and submission. Here we are trying
to worship. And we all have been guilty of
these things. The purpose for us coming is
to worship the Lord, to glorify Him. I'm trying to preach the
gospel. The Lord knows that at times
I have done it like the men in Philippians who have done it
out of whatever reason, different bad reason. but the times when
it's been done in sincerity, with the desire just to feed
and just to help God's people. Is Satan in the midst of us? Absolutely. Can he use us? Yes, he can. That's the message here. When
we have our mind on other things, that's His temptations to us. That's what He uses to keep us
from thinking on the things of God. Do we enter into the house
of God with a criticizing spirit? Criticize the preacher. Criticize
our brother or have an ill will toward our brother or sister.
Who's behind that? Do we think on ourselves rather
than the things of God? This is what he said in the next
line. He said, Thou savourest not the
things that be of God. What's that? Love, joy, mercy,
kindness, forgiveness, peace. Whatsoever things are true. Let's
get to the truth of the matter. Whatsoever things are just. Is
this the just and the right way? to be and act, that whatsoever
things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, of good rapport,
think on these things, the Scripture says. But no, he says, thou savourest
not the things that be of God, but those that be of man. What's
that? Me and mine and self and all
of these things. Oh, my. You see, I seriously said it.
Simon Peter. How do you think Simon reacted
to that? When the Lord looked him in the eye and said, Thou
art the man. Satan is using you. That's what
he said to him. My, my. I'm sure that humbled
Simon as never before. It should have. Anyway, shouldn't
it? Well, how blessed we are. that the
Lord has shown us what things He must suffer and how He must
be raised again and what that means to us. And we're going
to look into that a little more in the next hour because that's
our message. Who Christ is, what He did, why
He came, what He did and who He did it for and what that means
to us. But Satan, his grand work is to keep us from hearing it.
His grand work is to disrupt, to sow discord, to blind our minds to ourselves,
to the world, and shut our ears to the gospel. It's a serious
matter, isn't it? A serious matter. Okay. May the
Lord use that.