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. 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. 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 or the word is Cephas. You've seen it in him
called Cephas throughout the scripture. That's the taken from
the old Hebrew word. Thou art Peter or Cephas and
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 in heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt loose
on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Then charged he his disciples
that they should tell no man that he was Jesus the Christ.
And a little time elapsed and verse 21, 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. Then Peter took him and began to rebuke him, saying,
Be it far from thee, Lord, this shall not be unto thee. But he
turned, the Lord turned, and said unto Peter, Get thee behind
me, Satan. Thou art an offense unto me,
for thou savourest not The things that be of God, but those that
be of men. All right, let's ask the Lord
to bless His Word. Our Lord, we're so thankful for
Your Word. It is truly the power of the
wisdom and power of God, for it speaks of Christ who is all
that and more. We thank You, Lord, Our God,
Father in heaven, that thou hast revealed these things unto us,
not only given us your word, a copy of it, but given us an
understanding of it that we might know him that is true. This is
the true God and eternal life. Jesus Christ, our Lord. Lord, thank you for the word.
May we hold it in a higher esteem every
time we read it, every time we hear it, in a day in which men
are making void by law and seeking to steal thy words from the people
and place of their dreams and those who turn away their ears
from the truth and the faithful. In this day, this perilous, these
perilous times that we live in, Lord God, thank you that thou
hast caused us to tremble fear by word and. By your grace and
by your spirit to rightly divided. We thank you for it. Lord, we
thank you for all of it. We thank you for that which approves
and rebukes and corrects us, convicts us. Lord, we thank you
for that which comforts and consoles us. We thank you that you have
written the sins of Your nearest and closest disciples. Thankful
that you have exposed. Men and women throughout your
word for what they really are. That we might take comfort. Knowing
that. Our God is merciful to the chief
of sinners. But we feel the same workings
in us that they. Had in themselves. We look at
Simon Peter, one whom Satan desired to sift and even spoke through
and dealt with. Lord, we know ourselves something
of our own weakness and how we're easy prey to the adversary. And
we ask that you would do like, say unto us as you did to Peter,
that you prayed for us, Our faith fail not. And we're so glad that
a stronger than he is a captain of our salvation and on this
we rest this rock we stand. Lord, we pray again for those
in our midst who are sick, those whom thou love us, pray that
you might be pleased to raise them up. Thank you for bringing
our sister back. Rest this time, make it a time
of not only conviction, but comfort. For Christ's sake, in whose name
we're gathered, I ask forgiveness of sin. Amen. This message should be a real
comfort to every believer. I think all of us can relate
to Simon Peter more than any other disciple. I know that's
what you've told me, and that's certainly the way I feel. Peter,
Simon, Peter, was a sinner. That, it is certain. But the Lord says he was a saint,
one of his own. And here in this story, the Lord
himself calls Simon, Peter, or Cephas, a rock. The Lord himself
says to Simon that he is a blessed man, blessed by God, the father. And then a little while later,
he calls him a devil. Now, can you relate to this? Now, in verse 13, when Jesus
came into the coast of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples,
whom do men say that I, the son of man, am? And we heard We looked
at that. Last week. And we have heard
all of the heretical and blasphemous things that men say today about
our Lord. And there are too many, there
are too many things, and it's a waste of time to repeat them.
But he asked his disciples in verse 15. He said unto them,
and he says unto us, but whom say ye that I? and you say that
I. And Simon Peter spoke up. Without hesitation. Without reservation. On the bottom of his heart it
went off the top of his head. He did that a lot. But this time is from the depth
of his heart. And he said and we say can you
not say with him in full conviction. He said thou art the Christ the
son of the living God. And you say that you believe
that leave him who he is why I came what he did Bear with
me to John chapter six John chapter six I'll not have you turn. Too
much but I do want you to look at this and maybe another. John chapter six my wife asked
me last week a question that I want to pose to you. Good question. She asked me this out of the
blue she said. Do you have full assurance. Now. Before you answer that. You need to know what assurance
is. OK. Usually we think. of assurance that when we think
of assurance, we think that we are assured or sure that we're
safe, that we're a child of God. Well, if you believe what Peter says
on the bottom of your heart, you can have full assurance. I told her, yes, I do. Yes, I did assurance now just
the word assurance means a state of being sure. The state of being
sure of firm persuasion. Full of confidence certainty
and firmness of mind. Now if you. We can't look at ourselves. to
try to find assurance that we're saved. You just can't do it.
We can't look within ourselves to find any assurance that we
are saved. The only thing we can be sure
of if we take a real hard look at ourselves, the only thing
we can really be sure of is that we're rotten, no good sinners.
You're all convinced of that. There's nobody in here that's
not sure of that, are you? And when a self-righteous Pharisee
doesn't believe that, that's a certainty. I'm assured of that
every day, aren't you? Every waking moment of my life,
I am assured of the fact that I am a sinner. And now, so Scripture says, and
now here's what the Bible says, here's what God's word says.
He says, look unto me and be ye saved. Now look to yourself. Scripture says, believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Period. Scripture says this is
eternal life to know the only true God and Jesus Christ can
be a sin. That's salvation. Look at John
chapter six, Peter says the same thing, but in a different way.
John chapter 6, I love this, verse 66, from that time many
of his disciples went back and walked no more with him. They
didn't like what he said. Here in this chapter he was declaring
his sovereign right, who he was, God's sovereignty and his own.
And then the Lord said unto the twelve, will ye also go away? Then Simon Peter, spoke up answering
him. Lord, to whom shall we go? Who would we go to for answers?
Where would we go? Why would we go? Thou hast the words of life. Does Peter speak on your behalf?
Peter said, we were dead in trespassing and sin. No interest in God. No hope. Without God, without
life, until you came along and called us from death unto life
and spoke these words unto us, your life, you have given me
life from the dead. And then he went on to say, and
we believe and are sure. Peter says, I have full assurance
that thou art the Christ. Folks, that is full. Do you have full assurance that
Jesus is the Christ? Do you? Now let me ask you, do
you have full assurance? We believe, and it's not just
a head notion, it's not just that I hope it's so, and I'm
sure that thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. Do
you believe that, Melanie? That's not presumption to say
that either believe it or you don't. Then you have full assurance. You're assured, Jerry, of who
Christ is. That's salvation. Don't let anybody tell you anything
else. To whom do you say that? To whom
shall I go? Why? I don't want to go. I will
go unless you keep me. Everything you say now is my
life to whom shall we go. Well the apostle Paul later on
said this I like this he said. I know whom I have believed.
I know whom I have believed. And I am persuaded. See he had
full assurance. He didn't say a thing about himself.
He said I know whom I have believed. He's the same one that wrote.
By grace, he's saved through faith, it's not yourself. Gift
of God. He believed because God gave
him that gift. He says, I know whom I have believed. And I'm persuaded that he is
able. That's the difference between
our Christ and this other one is another Jesus out there, our
Christ is able to keep us from falling. present us all right
to say to the other. I know people use that term even
name their businesses that they don't believe that. We do know. So we commit all unto him unto
him. Against that that's for sure
I go back to the text so. And we've already looked at that,
but I hope that's some comfort to you. And so if somebody asks
you, do you believe you're a child of God? Do you believe you're
saved? Don't look to yourself. Don't give any answer regarding
yourself. Say, well, I trust Christ. If there's a mediator, an intercessor,
a savior, At the right hand of the majesty on high right now.
Sure, it's in the center. And I'm saying. That's what I
am. Well, verse 17, he said unto
him, blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jonah. Blessed. He doesn't say you're blessed
more than any other man, he doesn't say you're blessed above man,
it's your superior all men. He doesn't say that, does he?
He didn't say that to Mary. The angels didn't say that to
Mary. They said, Blessed art thou, highly art thou favored
among women. Like Peter, you're a blessed
man among men. You've been blessed. That is,
someone has blessed you. And he went on to say, Flesh
and blood hath not revealed it unto thee. It's a revelation. But my Father which is in heaven,
the Father, Who he said back there in John six, he said, all
that the father giveth me shall come unto me. I mean, if you
said no man can come unto the father except the father, which
has sent me drawing. Peter's one of the given to him
by the father. And later on, he told the disciples,
I go to my father and your father. My father has revealed this unto
you, the father. And verse eighteen he said I
say unto thee also I say also under the that our Peter. Now this is interesting I looked
up the word Peter and Petros is the Greek word but the original
Hebrew old word is safe. And what that means is a piece
of rock. Now, that's fitting, isn't it?
Isn't it, Jeanette? You're a piece of rock. Not the rock. Capital R. Oh, no. You're a little rock. A piece of a rock. And he goes
on to say, and upon this rock. He doesn't say upon you, Peter. I will build my church. Scriptures don't always record
every gesture the Lord makes. They could have. I believe he
probably did. Upon this rock, or upon your profession of faith
in me, what you said, this faith that you just confessed. that I'm the Christ this rock
that rock didn't Paul say over first breaking him that rock
is Christ. The rock that followed the children
of that rock is from whom the water came that rock is crap.
And what he said. The church is not built on a
simple Simon Peter my there's a whole heresy that was started
On this right here. The potpourri, this is where
it started. The church is not built, let
me quote to you from Ephesians 2, 20. It says we're built on
the foundation of the prophets and the apostles, Jesus Christ
himself, the chief corner stone. And Paul later on said, Other
foundation can no man lay than that which is laid. Jesus Christ
himself. He's the rock upon which we stand. He's the foundation, not Peter. Peter's going to find out in
just a moment, just a few minutes. And we find out, too, it ain't
built on Peter. Aren't you glad it's not resting
on Peter? Aren't you glad our salvation
is not dependent on a man? That is a mere mortal man. Somebody blocked much stronger
than Peter. Somebody much more steadfast than Peter. But he
says, and you may be puzzled by what he says here, but I'm
going to try to open it up to you. He says unto him, thou art
Peter, verse 18, and upon this rock, your profession, what you
said about me, who you trust, me. Christ, son of the living
God. I will build my church and the
gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I'm going to build
my church on this rock. Feed the church of God, Paul
said, which he purchased with his own blood, which Christ built. He's the master builder. And
Christ is the rock. And he says the gates of hell
shall not prevail against gates of hell. Now. Most folks believe that
God's trying his best to save as many people as he can. Populate
his head. That's an absolute lie. The foundation
of God's standard sure. Having this seal, the Lord knoweth
them that are his. He's got them all numbered, got
them all written down, the books even sealed. It's not going to
be any erasures or any additions. It's sealed. It's going to be
opened up in the end and every single person given to Christ
before the foundation of the world will be there that day.
Behold, he say, I and the children which thou hast given them. Of
those which thou hast given me I have lost nothing. He's the
great chief and good chief and great shepherd and never loses
a sheep. His advocate has never lost a
cake. But now Satan is trying to fill
up hell. That's true. He's trying to get
as many people. He's trying to, you remember
old Saddam Hussein? He had a lot of people in fear
of him for a while until he got holed up in a cave like a rat. Or men will come to nothing,
won't they Dan? The strongest of men, like old
Nebuchadnezzar. That's who old Saddam reminded
me of. Did you think of that when they found him all holed
up in a cave and his hair grown long? Nebuchadnezzar. I was a
big mighty man and he went in when it's all started he went
into that little country of Kuwait remember and invaded it show
his power his honor his glory and took everything for himself.
Well somebody a lot mightier than him said you're just not
going to do that. At the time I was so thankful
we had a president that we're just not going to stand by idly
and have another Adolf Hitler come along. I believe that man anyway. When
that old fellow was running he was doing he knew he was doing
he knew his days were numbered. Fighting the greatest nation
on earth with a bunch of pea shooters. The Republican Army
the greatest army. It's laughable isn't it? That's
man isn't it? That's like man. Anyway here's
the point. Old Saddam when he was leaving
Kuwait in these occupied places, he did what he called the scorched
earth policy. Remember that, Sam? In other
words, he was burning everything in sight, trying to destroy as
much as he took, trying to destroy it all before he went down. And
that's a good illustration. Are you with me? Satan knows
that he has a little season. He knows that. He's not stupid.
like me and are. I think he has a song. His days among he knows it that's
what he's doing to bring down all he can to gather in his little
kingdom bring within his own gates of hell bring in his people. But not one person. Who is standing
on Christ the rock. Will go in those gates Not one
person, he can't have one of them. As you go back and read
old Job stories, starts out, chapter one, starts out, make
everybody absolutely sure that Satan cannot touch one of God's
own. God's hedged him about. Job,
here's this, here's Job's profession. Job didn't say, I know, I know
I'm saved, I have full assurance I'm saved because I'm a fine
fellow and I asked you evil and I, no sir. That's what God said
about him. None like him. He's choosing
evil. Well, here's what Job said. The
root of the matter was in Job. In other words, Job was standing
on a rock. Same rock as Peter. Job said, I know my Redeemer
lives. Right there it is. And nobody,
that's what that means by the gates of hell, shall not prevail
against it. Christ went, as it were, through
hell for us on the cross, didn't he? Did he come out? Sure did. Can't be holding back. Verse
19, and he says, I'll give unto thee the keys of the kingdom
of heaven. The keys of the kingdom. Keys are to do what with? I didn't
bring my key. Keys are to unlock doors. That's what these are. Keys to
unlock door. Now, he did not say. I will give
you the keys of hell and death, the keys of eternal life, the
keys and the order that you might let into heaven whom you will.
That's not what he said. Now, who has those keys? If you
read Revelation one, what does it say? Christ, he says, I have
the key. What he's saying to Peter here
is, I'll give you the keys to open closed doors. Keys of discernment, keys of
wisdom. The Lord gave these apostles
gifts and abilities to open up the mysteries of the gospel that
had been kept closed for years. The smartest, wisest men on earth,
Pharisees and all that. Could not open these mysteries
up. They didn't know. Neither can
they today. Neither can the scribes today.
The professors and so forth. In the seminaries. They don't
know. But to a poor fisherman. Are
you with me? It shows the power of God. It
shows that who he gives the keys to, they open. It's not flesh
and blood. And Peter and the apostles and
all were able to open up these mysteries which are a closed
door until the Lord opens it. Now Peter, Peter is the one that
spoke up first. Peter, when the Lord asked all
his disciples, Peter said, Thou art the Christ. Now the Lord
honors that. Someone who boldly comes out
for the truth, the Lord will honor it. Lord honored me like
Martin Luther. Martin Luther stood up when nobody
else would, didn't he? Huh? In the face of the whole
world, as it were, didn't it? Did the Lord honor Martin Luther?
Did the Lord bless Martin Luther in a special way? Certainly he
did. Well, Peter just bowed to Christ. You know, he said that
a couple of three times. And he also spoke up when he
shouldn't have. But anyway, the Lord honored that boldness that
when Peter cut that Man, when Peter took that sword out in
the garden by the sand, he was aiming at that fellow's head. Peter was in the defense of his
lord. He was ignorant. His lord didn't
need his defense. But nevertheless. And haven't
you taken the sword and want to cut somebody's head off with
it? That's not the way it's done. The Lord doesn't need us to do
that, but the Lord honors that. You understand? The Lord honors
that. So the Lord come when he left, the time Peter stood before
thousands. And the Lord saved 3,000 people
from this simple fisherman's bridge. You understand? The Lord,
because Peter spoke up. You are going to do great things. Great things. And folks, the
first twelve chapters of the book of Acts is full of the Apostle
Peter. It's him preaching everywhere. It's him, it's him, it's him.
The Lord honored that. The Lord will honor anybody that
speaks on his behalf. Not in the ways that we may think
so. Peter was killed. He sure honored Him, didn't He? He said, And whatsoever thou
shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatsoever
thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. He does
not say, Whosoever thou shalt bind. Did he? Did he say that? No. He said, whosoever sins you
forgive will be forgiven. Pope Peter, he did not say that,
did he? There's one mediator. There's
one who can forgive sins but God. He did not say that, did
he? Huh? No, sir. He said, if whatsoever. Now, what does this mean? Well,
listen to this. The Lord God himself told Abraham
to circumcise every male. Didn't it? When was that? When were men loosed from that?
That was a binding law by God. When were they loosed? Peter. And the apostles sent letters
out and said, you don't need to be circumcised. That's why the Pharisees got
so mad. You're making void the law. That's what we say. You don't
have to observe the Sabbath day. You can't do that. Just did. You see that? And on and on they
went. New moon, Sabbath days and meats. You can all eat ham now. The Gentiles erupted. Oh boy, I didn't want to give
up my part. And the Jews were shocked. Who
are you? Who do you think you are? I'm
the one that Christ said. What you bind is bound, what
you lose is loose. And you know it all pertained
to Christ, didn't it? handwriting of ordinances who are against
the Christ made onto the cross, and then the disciples broke
them down one by one said, If you be circumcised, Christ profits
you nothing. And Paul, chief apostles, the
one that really opened it up, didn't it? Circumcision is not
made with hands. It's the heart. Every one of God's people are
circumcised, male and female. Or if you can explain that, well,
go on, I've got to hurry. Then charged he his disciples.
Is that clear to you? Did that open that passage up
to you? Then charged he his disciples that they should tell no man
that he was Jesus the Christ. There's time for that because
the Lord must go to the cross. And this is what he said in verse
21. He says, from that time forth began Jesus to show unto his
disciples how that he must go on to Jerusalem and suffer many
things of the elders and chief priest and scribe and be killed
and be raised again the third day. How he must suffer and die
and rise again and ascend back to his throne. That's why he
came. That is why he came. This is
the sole reason why Jesus Christ came. He came, he might live,
die, and rise again. He might be Lord over the dead
and the living. Isn't that what Romans 14 says? That's why he came. He says,
for this cause came I unto this hour, for this reason, for this
purpose. This is why Christ came. He came, that's why he's called
the Christ. That's what Christ means. He's
the law keeper. He didn't do this to show us
how, although it does, but he did it for us. We have kept the law perfectly
in Jesus Christ. That's how he can present us
holy. They kept the law. He's the lamb
slain, but the sin has to be punished. The wages of sin is
death. Well, he died. That's so that's why the apostle
wrote who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect
is God that justifies why? Because Christ died. Penalty
has been carried out. Punishment's been met. Law's
been fulfilled. It's a person. All our salvation
is dependent on this person. Did he do it? Yes, he did it.
This is why people... I want to do something about
this. My dad just beat this thing to death. people all over, their salvation
depends on a so-called Jesus that tried and didn't get the
job done. Now it's up to them. Then they're
goners. They're hopeless. They're goners.
Because with man, it's impossible. With man, it's impossible. That's
what the disciples said. Lord, who can be saved? He said,
with man, it is impossible. They said, with God? And I'm
God, Christ said, all things are possible. Our faith is on
a person. Our faith is completely in a
person. And whatever he did, if he got
it done, then it's done. And our salvation is sure. That's why I came. And from that
time forth, he began to show them this. Then Peter. Now, this is serious. Verse 22,
Peter took him. I believe Peter actually. Laid
hold of the Lord. You ever done that to somebody,
somebody? You think they're speaking rashly or acting in a bad way
or something? Come here, come here. My dad's
done that to me quite a bit, took me, laid hold of me. I believe Peter actually took
hold of the Lord and pulled him over to the side as you would a child or somebody, or somebody
that's not acting right. When I read that, I immediately
thought of another person who reached out and laid hold of
something. And I remember Sunday's message.
And there was a fellow named Uzzah that reached out and tried
to help that old, which this can't happen, and took hold of
it. And that's what Peter did. He
grabbed hold of that ark. And he took the Lord over to
the side, and it says, began to rebuke him. That's what it
says, doesn't it? Began to rebuke him, means to
tell him this is not right. You're not speaking right here.
This can't be. No, no, no, that's not the way
it's going to be. You're wrong. Be it far from thee, Lord. This
shall not be unto thee. No, Lord, I don't think you need
to do this. I don't think that's... Oh, I don't think it's right,
Lord. I don't care how sincere he was. Buddy, this is dangerous. This is serious, what he did. Because listen to what the Lord
said to him. Verse 23. He turned and said
unto Peter, before all those witnesses, Get thee behind me,
Satan. Thou art an offense unto me. Now. Give me a few more minutes,
OK? I haven't even been forty five
yet. What Peter was doing, did you
read in your margin, it says, pity yourself, Lord, pity yourself.
You read that? But Sam. Isn't doesn't that pretty
much describe modern religion today, the kind of pity for Jesus? Doesn't it, Ron? Doesn't it pretty
much describe modern religion? Don't you pity Jesus? He wants
to have his way. Let's not let this happen. It's an absolute offense, an
abomination to God Almighty. Everything about it. All this
Jesus pity. Satan is behind it all. Satan
is behind it all. It all sounds real good. to these
lovey-doveys, you know, tree-huggers for Jesus. Satan's behind all
those who don't care to hear about a blood sacrifice. Are
you with me, John? Satan is behind all this religion
that there's no blood in it. It's all flowery. It's all sweetness,
all love, and all that. No, let's not talk about it.
They interviewed that idiot The most widely watched fellow on
TV in the world today, Joel Osteen, down in Houston, took over for
his daddy. He's got that sick smile on his
face. He's saying it. And they interviewed him on Larry
King Live, and he kept asking him, what about hell? What about,
oh, we don't like to go there. We like to think of, we don't
like to talk. We just don't bring that up. Satan. is behind that man's smile. Satan is behind all this bloodless
religion, all this religion that there's no offense of the cross. There's no offense of the cross
because it's an offense to them. And Patrick, they are an offense
to God. Do you understand why this happened
here? Peter, there's a root matter
here, because he says to Peter, he said, thou art an offense,
Satan. Satan entered into Peter. The Lord allowed it to happen.
And he said, You savour not the things that be of God. What's
the things of God? You read it, Dan Ogle. You read
it. And blessed are you, Dan Bar-Ogle. Flesh and blood didn't reveal
it to you. If you went out there, the average so-called church
You wouldn't have heard anything about it. But our God, who hath
blessed you with all spiritual blessings in the heavenly places
which are in Jesus Christ, hath abounded toward you in all wisdom
and prudence, having made known unto you the mystery of His will.
What is it? In the dispensation of the fullness of time, He's
going to gather together all things in Christ. In what? Christ. That's the will and purpose of
God Almighty. That's the reason this whole
globe spins. That's the reason God created
it. That's the reason it still spins. When Christ came, it was
the center of the universe, the center of time, Christ to be
crucified, to establish, to bring in an everlasting kingdom, an
everlasting righteousness by the sacrifice of himself, to
obtain eternal redemption for all of his elect, past, present,
and future. The whole shooting match is about
Jesus Christ and him crucified. That's why this thing exists. And all who are saved who have
been revealed the will of God, the will of God revealed to them,
know that we are for the praise of His glory who first trusted
in Christ. That's what the whole first chapter
of Ephesians is about. We're all to the praise of Jesus
Christ's glory. Everybody else is not interested
in Jesus Christ's glory. I don't care how much they say
about Jesus. I don't care how much they say, because there's
no blood in it, Melanie. There's no blood in it. There's
no offense of the cross in it. God's not on the throne. Christ
is not on the throne. He's outside their heart's door
knocking. That's not our Christ. That's not the one that's been
revealed unto us, Kelly. The one we revealed unto us is
sitting on a throne. And we're seated with him. And
when somebody's sitting, that means there's nothing left to
be done. And there's a footstool under his big feet. That's the Christ we believe,
Brother Henry, and everything else, Satan's behind it, and
it's an offense to holy God. God sent His Son down here to
redeem a worthless, no-good world full of worms, maggots, and dogs. That's what the Scriptures calls
every one of them. Nothing. All the inhabitants of the earth
are reputed as nothing. Grasshoppers. But God. I'm going to holler. I'm sorry.
But God is rich in mercy for His great love wherewith He loved
us. Who's us? The elect, the chosen. What's
wrong with that? God's right. He didn't have to,
but He did. He quickened us together, raised
us together with Christ. It's by grace you're saved, isn't
it? Through faith. And that's not
yourselves. It's a gift of God. It's not a word Felicity mentioned,
but we're His workmen. And God Almighty sent His Son
down here. The only way to redeem these hell-deserving sinners
was to kill His Son, like a lamb slain a butchered lamb, and put
His soul through hell, which a numberless people will endure
for their impudence and rebellion against a thrice holy God who
didn't care about His Son. And all those who say there's
another way, or this needs to be added to that, or let's flower
this up, or that is me, I helped. God, it's an offense to God.
It's an offense to Him. You mean I sent my son down here
to do that work and it didn't work? You mean there's another
way? That makes sense. And the Lord
allowed Satan to enter into Peter to show that. And but by the grace of God,
Roberta, you and I, I'd be an Armenian preacher spouting all
that nonsense, and you'd be sitting there saying, Amen, brother,
wouldn't you? Because we don't care about the
things of God. We don't want to, we're not really
caring about the glory of God, the glory of Christ, his honor,
his word. No, no, no, no, no, they're not
the things of men. I want a little cabin in glory.
I want a little crown. After all, I've done all this
all my life. Does that make sense? And also, let
me say this, Simon needed this. Simon needed this. Do you reckon
after the Lord said to Simon, Peter, and I'm going to give
you the keys of the kingdom and what you bind. Now, here's this
simple man standing there. I'm going to give you the keys
of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will
be bound. Whatever you bind loose on earth, it'll be loose. It's
Peter's thing. Wow! You reckon? Anybody reckon that
after it's all over, Peter kind of Well, Thomas, I didn't say that
to you, did he? You reckon, Sam? I know he did. Later on, he did, didn't he?
They may forsake you, not me. Oh, Peter. And so just a few minutes later,
he went from being a rock-solid, certain, sure son of the Most
High God with the keys of the kingdom to a devil. The Lord let him see, real quickly,
how weak and ignorant and sinful and what an easy prey he is to
Satan, that desire to sift you like wheat. Even Adam couldn't
stand up to him. What about you? Like those devils
said to those sons of Saba, Jesus we know, and Paul we know, And one of these fellows, you
know, they're in the service of Satan. Peter, the Lord, in
his mercy and grace, allowed Peter to see that, and he allows
us to, too. You see all these super-Christians
out there, you know? They really don't have many temptations.
I believe that. I don't believe they have many
temptations. I don't believe they have many problems. I believe
they've been given a victorious life. strong delusions from God. But
us? Are you bombarded at all times
with thoughts and things and suggestions and the most wicked,
vile things pop into your head and you say, did I say that?
How could I have said that? Old John Bunyan, that was him,
one time he said Satan whispered blasphemies in his ear and he
said he didn't know if it was him or the devil. That's a good thing. It's a good
thing. It just keeps us low. Keeps us
low. Keeps us looking to one who is
stronger than he. Or no match for the adversary. But I'll tell you who is. More
than a match. And who said, the Apogee have overcome the
world. Satan, sin, hell, and death.
And you're fine. But he went back to being
Cephas. Thank God. From Cephas to Satan
in just a minute. Back to Cephas. And it's the
same with you, isn't it? You come in here, after you hear
a message, you go out of here Juanita, and hell or high water
is not going to convince you. I'm not going to change. I know
whom I believe. And then Monday morning, oh,
you just feel like a devil. You come back dragging, and you
go back out again after Wednesday, a believer. That's why we come
here. That's why we come here. All
right. Stand with me. Our Lord, thank you so much for
this Word and we thank you before, we thank you again. It's all
our hope, help, strength, confidence, assurance in Christ who is the
Word made flesh. He is our rock on which we stand.
We know and are sure that He is the Christ. We're sinners,
but this is a faithful sinner. Christ came to save sinners,
but we're cheap and we're so glad and so thankful. And send
his name we've met here tonight. Amen.