Good morning. Let's all stand
together. We'll sing hymn number 450. 450. There will never be
a sweeter story. ? Story of the Savior's love divine
? Love that brought him from the realms of glory ? Just to
save a sinful soul like mine ? Isn't the love of Jesus something
wonderful Wonderful, it is wonderful. Isn't the love of Jesus something
wonderful? Wonderful it is to me. Boundless as the universe around
me. Reaching to the farthest soul
away Saving, keeping love, it was that found me That is why
my heart can truly say Isn't the love of Jesus something wonderful? Wonderful, it is wonderful. Oh, isn't the love of Jesus something
wonderful? Wonderful it is to me. Love beyond our human comprehending. Love of God in Christ, how can
it be? This will be my theme and never
ending. Great redeeming love of Calvary. Isn't the love of Jesus something
wonderful? Be seated. We'll sing hymn number
256. 256. When peace like a river attended
my way, when sorrow Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught
me to say. It is well, it is well with my
soul. It is well, it is well with my
soul. It is well, it is well with my
soul. Though Satan should buffet, though
trials should come, Let this fixed assurance control that Christ hath regarded my
helpless estate and hath shed his own blood for my soul. It's a favorite. It is well with
my soul. It is well, it is well with my
soul. I sing o'er the bliss of this
glorious dawn. I sing not in part, but the whole. is nailed to the cross, and I
bear it no more. Praise the Lord, praise the Lord,
O my soul. It is well with my soul. It is well, it is well with my soul. And Lord, haste the day when
my faith shall be signed. The clouds be rolled back as
a scroll. The trouble shall resound, and
the Lord shall desync. Even so, it is well with my soul. It is well, it is well With my
soul, with my soul It is well, it is well With my soul Mark chapter eight. It's well with my soul. And you
know who made it well? Christ did. He did it all. All to him I owe. I contributed
nothing. Only thing I brought was my sin. And he put it all away. I've
not contributed one thing to my salvation since God saved
me until I get to glory. Not one thing. Not contributed
one thing. Not the first thing. And I'm thankful that I, if I
had any part to do with it, it'd be messed up. Messed up. Bruce
Crabtree wrote a little article one time, I Can't Mess It Up. And we can't mess it up, can
we? We can't mess it up. We can't mess it up. All right,
let's start here in verse 27 and read to the end of the chapter. And Jesus went out and His disciples
unto the towns of Caesarea Philippi. And by the way, He asked His
disciples, saying unto them, Whom do men say that I am? And they answered, John the Baptist,
but some say Elias, and others, one of the prophets. And he saith
unto them, But whom say ye that I am? And Peter answered and
said unto him, Thou art the Christ. And he charged them that they
should tell no man of him. And he began to teach them. that
the Son of Man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the
elders and of the chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and
after three days rise again. And he spake that saying openly,
and Peter took him and began to rebuke him. But when he had
turned about and looked on his disciples, he rebuked Peter,
saying, Get thee behind me, Satan. for thou savest not the things
that be of God, but the things that be of men. And when he had
called the people unto him with his disciples, he said unto them,
Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, take up
his cross, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life
shall lose it. But whosoever shall lose his
life for my sake and the gospel's, the same shall save him. For
what shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world
and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange
for his soul? Whosoever therefore shall be
ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation
Of him also shall the Son of Man be ashamed when he cometh
in the glory of his Father with the holy angels." Oh, God our Father, great, glorious
God our Father, God of glory, thrice holy, eternally
holy and righteous, and the God of purpose, the God that does
what He does on purpose, the God who has provided a Savior,
and He provided Himself one that would honor and glorify Him in
this world, our Lord Jesus Christ. O Lord, we look unto Him. He
is our all in all. Oh, how He is our All in All.
Father, we thank You that You provided us a full, free, glorious,
eternal salvation, not just based in time, but based on eternity. Lord, You made Christ to be the
Lamb slain from before the foundation of the world, and You sent Him
into this world in time. to save those that you chose
in Him before the foundation of the world, and then you called
them by your blessed grace, called them to yourself, put all their
sin away, made a way to come into the holiest of holies. Oh,
God, blessed be your name. Oh, blessed be your name. Father,
we thank you that you allowed us here this morning together
with the saints of God, but Lord, we do pray Oh, we pray that you
would cause this gospel to run well today, that this gospel
would find a place in a soul's heart, find a place in the heart
and soul of some sinner here today, that oh, Christ would
be honored, Christ would be glorified in the faith of someone who had
come to Christ. Lord, we cannot save a soul,
we cannot do anything to But Lord, we can preach the gospel.
And Lord, we pray as we always do for our lost loved ones. Lord, they're all rebels. They're
all sinners. They're all God haters. They
all reject Christ. You're not at all in their thoughts.
But Lord, there was a day we was like that. And yet you saved
them. Lord, you saved them by your
grace. Lord, bring glory to yourself in this service today. Bless
the father's sins for Christ's sake. Amen and amen. Let's all stand together as we
sing the hymn of the day in the bulletin. Great Father of glory, how rich
is Thy grace! What wonderful love is displayed
in Thy face! In Jesus thy image with brightness
we view, With hope to be formed in that likeness anew. Wanderer of wonders, astonished
by days, to see in a manger the ancient updates of sin. to release us that yoke so long
worn. My God, my Creator, the woman
was born. For unworthy sinners, my Lord,
have His head. For unworthy sinners, He suffered
and bled. My spirit rejoices, the work
is all done. My soul is redeemed, my salvation
is won. Great Father of Glory, how rich
is Thy grace! What wonderful love is displayed
in Thy face! In Him, our beloved, we're washed
in His blood. With confidence come to the throne
of our God. Be seated. Doc and Janie, you
come on. Tell me the story of Jesus. Write on my heart every word. Tell me the story. sweetest that ever was heard. Tell how the angels in chorus
sang as they welcomed Tell me the story Write on my heart every word. Tell me the story most precious,
sweetest that ever was heard. Death of the cross where they
nailed him Writhing in anguish and pain Death of the grave where they
laid him ? Could then never come back again
? ? Love in that story so tender ? ? Clearer than ever I see ? Stay and be me while you will. Tell me the story of Jesus Write
on my heart every word Tell me the story most fresh I'm gonna tell you a story about him this
morning. The subject of this morning is
Confessing Christ, Confessing Christ. Our Lord told His disciples,
He asked them there in verse 27, Mark 8, By the way, now this is in Luke,
it's also in Matthew, three places this subject is. And some places
there's just a little bit of difference, but not enough to
make any difference at all. But He says to His disciples,
whom do men say that I am? Now our Lord knowed exactly what
people thought about Him, knew what people said about Him, but
He wanted His disciples to know. He wanted His disciples to understand
something. He's going to teach them something.
Our Lord never just asked questions just for information, never did.
You and I have to ask questions for information, but our Lord
asked questions He already knew the answer to. But He asked something
to teach His disciples, He asked something to teach them, and
they answered Him, they answered Him. Some say that it's John
the Baptist, you know, they beheaded John the Baptist and they thought
John had risen from the dead. Here it said, John's back. They
said, Well, some say you're John the Baptist. Some say you're
Elijah or Elias, and others just one of the prophets. As far as
they were concerned in what they said about him, it didn't make
any difference. I mean it was all the same because they missed
who he was. And he asked that question, and
over in Luke it says he asked what the PEOPLE say about him,
what the PEOPLE say about him. And I'll tell you what, and look
what he said here. And he said, John the Baptist,
and he said unto them, But whom say ye that I am? But whom do
they say that I am? You know, people have a lot to
say about Christ. A lot of people have a lot of
opinions about the Lord Jesus Christ. There s a lot of popular
opinions about Him. There s multitudes of opinions
about Him, even today. Some say, Well, He s a prophet.
He is a prophet, he is a great prophet, mighty prophet. That's
what the Muslims say about him, he's just a prophet. And then
others say, well, he's the greatest teacher there ever was. He was
a great teacher. A lot of folks want him, they
say, well, he's an example, he's a great example for us to follow.
Some even say he was a martyr, he was a martyr. They martyred
him. And then there s the historical
Jesus where people go back and try to figure out what He s really
about. Other folks say He s absolute
myth. A fellow asked me this morning where I got my information
about Israel going into the Promised Land, going over Jordan and going
into the Promised Land, Joshua taking them in, and David being
called the Jerusalem being called the City of David. He said, Where
did you get your information? I wrote one word, Bible. He don't
care, as long as you don't, you know, where'd you get this information?
Bible. The only thing we're going to
learn about Christ is the Bible, and men have all these opinions
about Him. Some even call Him a Savior.
Lots of people call Him a Savior, but He's not a Savior. He can
t be a Savior because their whole theology is built on John 3.16,
God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that
whosoever believeth in Him should be saved. They base their whole
theology on that. He died for EVERYBODY in the
world. Well, if that s so, then who
in the world is going to be saved? Who s going to be saved? You
know, and they talk about His blood. But whom did He die for? Who was He a Savior for? Who
does He actually save? Huh? And you know if He's gonna
save anybody, He has to shed blood. And if He shed His blood
for the whole world, I tell you right now, He is so glorious,
so powerful, so mighty, His blood has such virtue in it, such power
in it, that every soul on this earth would be saved. That's
the blood of Christ, how powerful it is. Ain't that right? There's
not a soul for whom Christ died will perish, not a soul. And
oh my, but I'll tell you what, the voice of a people, what do
people say about me? Well, the voice of the people
and what people say about him is not what God said about him.
What God said about him and what men say about him is two different
things. And I wanna know what God says about him. And I'll
tell you the voice of the people. And all listen. And he saith
unto them, but whom say ye that I am? This is what we're talking
about, confessing Christ. Whom do you say that I am? That's a question for all of
us. Who do you say that I am? He asked those 12 men, whom do
you say that I am? You know of seven times that
He's called the Great I AM, but who is He? Who do you say He
is? Well, Simon Peter answered Him,
and over in Matthew 16, he says, Thou art the Christ, the Son
of the living God. And Peter answered, saith unto
him, Thou art the Christ. And what do you say? Thou art
the Christ. One place it says the Christ
of God, other place says the Son of the living God. When He
talks about Christ, He's talking about the anointed God, the only
Savior that we all have. And I tell you, beloved, all
of us have to answer this question. You keep Mark and look with me
in Matthew 16. Look with me in Matthew 16. Matthew
16. Look down in verse 15. Look what he said. He saith unto them, But whom
say ye that I am? Simon Peter answered and said,
Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And he 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. Now, when he said flesh and blood,
didn't make you to understand this. You know, there's a lot
of people, when we talk about, Paul said, I knew Christ after
the flesh once. Now, what does it mean to know
Christ after the flesh? Every single one of us in this
building knew Christ after the flesh one time. Not only after
our flesh, our fallen flesh, and the fallen flesh cannot have
a right apprehension of the Lord Jesus Christ. And not only that,
but we knew Christ after His flesh. That's what Paul said,
I knew Him after His flesh. I knew Him as a man. I didn't
see Him as God. I didn't understand to be who
He really was. I didn't understand His power.
I didn't understand His eternality. I didn't understand that He was
God manifesting. I didn't understand any of those
things. And Paul, he said, I knew Christ after the flesh, after
my flesh and after His flesh. I had no confidence in Him being
the Savior. Had no confidence in Him being
God. Had no confidence in Him being the Savior. Had no confidence
in Him being the Messiah. That's what he's saying. And
oh, we didn't know Christ after the flesh. Oh no, our flesh,
all the things that I said about the Lord Jesus Christ when I
was unconverted, when I was a young man, I was ashamed, so ashamed
of the things that I thought about Him and I said about Him
and I believed about Him. But oh my, but how in the world
do we really know who He is? When He said, whom do you say
that I am? How can we know what? The only way, flesh and blood
can't tell you. Flesh and blood can't tell you.
I'm flesh and blood and I'm up here preaching to you. But I
tell you, my flesh and blood can't reveal Christ to you. Only
the Holy Spirit can reveal Christ to you. He said, My Father which
is in heaven made you know that. And oh my, God, oh my, He revealed
Him to God as a sinless man. And I tell you what, we don't
follow the opinion of man. I don't care what anybody else
says about him. I know what I believe about him. I don't care what
anybody else says about him. And oh my, look what he goes
on to say about himself here in verse 30, and he charged them. That word charge means don't
you DARE tell anybody that he should tell no man of him. Don't
tell them! I'm fixin' to tell you something,
don't go around tellin' people, this is what's gonna happen.
And he began to teach them. He asked them, whom do I say
I am? And he began to teach them. He said, I know all these folks
got all these opinions and got all these things they say about
me. So he done all that to begin to teach them, begin to teach
them. And this is the first thing he
said, that the son of man must suffer many things. I tell you what, she sung that song this morning,
telling me the story of how they nailed him to a cross, suffering
in anguish and in pain, and that's why the first thing he told them
said, this is what I'm going to say about myself, and this
is what we say about him. He began to teach them, and oh
my, Lord, teach us, teach us, teach us, teach us, teach us.
And He began to teach them, teach them. You notice who He's teaching,
you know, His disciples. And He goes, look what He goes
on to say, that the Son of Man must suffer many things, suffer
many things. And oh my! You know, our Lord
Jesus Christ, when He came into this world, He came into this
world, and as quick as He was born, He started suffering. The
moment He was born, He started suffering. Here He had to leave
His Father in His glory, and He had to come and be born and
planted in a virgin's womb by God Himself, by the Holy Spirit,
and when He was born, they wrapped him in some swaddling clothes,
got some clothes, wrapped him up, washed him up, and took him
out and laid him down in a little manger. And there was animals
all over the place there, probably stonk, and that s where they
spent the night, the first night with their baby that was born.
He was born in that shed, he s born in a cow stable, and automatically
he s born to a poor family that had no money, had no prestige,
had no power, didn t have anything that would distinguish them from
anybody else. And our Lord Jesus Christ, the
minute he was born, he started suffering. And I tell you, he
himself said, I m a man acquainted with grief and sorrow. And I
tell you what, he suffered in his birth, And I tell you, He
suffered all the days of His life, and I tell you what, He
suffered at the hands of His enemies. He suffered at the things
they said about Him. He suffered, oh, He suffered.
And I tell you, the greatest suffering He had, listen to me,
greatest humiliation our Lord Jesus Christ endured in this
world was not His cross. Listen to me, listen to what
I'm going to tell you. He come to be on that cross.
That's why He said the first thing, He must suffer many things. but the greatest humiliation
that Christ endured in this world was coming into this world to
be identified with rotten, corrupt sinners like us. That was the greatest humiliation
was. I got to go down there and dwell
among a bunch of REBELS, a bunch of GOD-HATERS, CHRIST-REJECTORS, You know, I was telling Shirley
the other day, my wife, I was telling her the other day, I
said, You know, we pray for our children, and we say, Lord, please
have mercy on our poor, pitiful children. I was laying awake
the other night, and I thought, There s nothing poor about our
children, there s nothing pitiful about our children. They s born
with a hatred for God, BORN WITH AN IGNORANCE OF GOD, DON'T WANT
TO KNOW GOD, THEY'RE NOT INTERESTED IN GOD, THEY'RE REBELS FROM THE
TOP OF THEIR HEAD TO THE SOLE OF THEIR FOOT. THAT'S MY CHILDREN
AND YOUR CHILDREN. AND WE NEED TO BE HONEST WITH
GOD ABOUT IT, CHRIST TEACHING THEM. BE HONEST WITH GOD ABOUT
THEM. TELL THEM HOW BAD THEY REALLY ARE. THEY'RE ACTUALLY
SINNERS. THEY GOT NOTHING TO GIVE. THEY'RE
NOT POOR AND THEY'RE NOT PINNIFUL. And that's what our Lord's teaching,
you must suffer many things. And we, He suffered, He has to
put up with us, He suffers from us. And our coldness, and our
lackness, and our inabilities, and all the things that's wrong
with us, He has to suffer with us. And He suffered not only
that, but He suffered at the hands of His friends. Now I want
you to look in Zechariah. Malachi is right before the book
of Matthews. Everybody knows that. Well, Zechariah
is the next book. Malachi, then Zechariah, and
I want you to look in Zechariah 13. He suffered at the hands
of his friends. He suffers. He suffers. Suffered many things,
many things. We can't begin to tell how much
suffering our Lord went through in this world. And oh, look what
it said here in verse 6, Zechariah 13, 6, And one shall say unto him, What
are these thy wounds in thine hands? Then he shall answer them,
shall answer, Those with which I was wounded in the house of
my friends. That's his friends, and then
look what it says about what God did. Awake, O sword, against
my shepherd, against the man that is my fellow, saith the
Lord of hosts, smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered,
and I'll turn my hand upon the little ones. And oh my, now I
want you to also look with me in Psalm 41.9. Where'd you get
those wounds at? I went to my friend's house. I went to my friend's house and
he done that to me. Went to my friend's house and
he done that to me. Psalm 41 verse nine. Look what he say. Yea, mine own familiar friend,
in whom I trusted, which did eat of my bread, hath lifted
up his heel against me." My friend, my familiar friend. Where'd you
get those wounds? I went to my friend's house.
Went to my friend's house. Oh my. And I tell you what, he
suffered many things. And I tell you what, you know
when he says he suffers many things? And he said, as he suffered also
as a sacrifice. for sin, Christ suffered once
for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God.
And then look what it says there about Him, And be rejected of
the elders and of the chief priests and scribes. He going to be rejected,
going to be rejected. And they said, Isaiah said, we
reject him as one forsaken of God. Look in John chapter seven
with me. Look in John chapter seven. I could quote these verses to
you, but our Lord is teaching these men something. He's teaching
them about his death. He said, this is what men say
about me, but this is what's gonna happen. This is what's
gonna happen. Look what he goes down here now
to verse 45. Then came the officers to the
chief priest and Pharisees, and they said unto them, Why have
you not brought him? They sent him to take him, to
arrest him. The officers answered, Never
a man spake like this man. I've heard a lot of people talk.
I've heard you talk, and I've been in all the synagogues. I've
never heard nobody talk like this man, never, never. And then
look what they said. Then answered them, the Pharisees,
Are you also deceived? Are you deceived in him? No wonder
he asked them, Well, who do you say I am? These fellows said,
Are you deceived in him too? How many people are really deceived
in Christ? HAVE ANY OF THE RULERS OR THE
PHARISEES BELIEVED ON HIM? ANYBODY, IS ANYBODY AROUND HERE,
ALL OF US THAT'S RUNNING EVERYTHING AROUND HERE, DOES ANYBODY BELIEVE
ON HIM? NOW LISTEN TO WHAT ELSE THEY GO AND SAY, BUT THIS PEOPLE
WHO KNOWETH NOT THE LAW ARE CURSED, ARE CURSED. OH MY GOODNESS, OH
THAT'S, BE REJECTED, BE REJECTED OF THE CHIEF PRIESTS AND SCRIBES.
Anybody who was anybody was against him and then look what else he
said down back over here in our text He said he and of the chief priests
and scribes And be killed be killed They find up to this time be
killed I must, I'm gonna suffer. I'm even gonna suffer to the
point that I'll be killed. You know, a fella gets up some day and
he don't know that anybody's gonna, he gonna be killed that
day. He don't know he's gonna be killed that day. Nobody does.
Nobody wants to be killed. But our Lord Jesus Christ said,
I will be killed. I will be killed. And you know what a killing it was, what a
killing it was. Why would you kill an innocent
man? Why would you kill a sinless
man? Why would you kill a holy man? Why would you kill a perfect
man? Why would you kill somebody that
never did anything to anybody? Why would you kill a man who
has went nothing but went about doing good? Why would you kill
a man that just opened a blind man's eyes? Why would you kill
a man that cleansed lepers? Why would you kill a man who saved sinners? Why would
you do it? Why would you kill him? You know
why they killed him? Because they hated Him without
a cause. Couldn't find a cause to do it,
just hated Him for the sake of hating Him. Hated Him for the
sake of hating Him. So this tells us three things.
First of all, our Lord was a substitute. He must suffer many things and
be killed. Our Lord, He said, He's teaching, He said, He taught
His disciples, He's teaching them, no matter what anybody
else, this is what's gonna happen. This is who I am. I come into
this world to be rejected, to be despised, and must suffer
many things, and I have to be killed. And that tells us, first
of all, that He's a substitute. And I tell you, when it comes
before God, we have to have a substitute. We HAVE to have a substitute.
Oh, my, we have to! I mean, what does it mean to
have a substitute? It means to have SOMEBODY take
your place before God. Now, here s what happens. What happens is that when Christ
was put in our place, God laid our sin on Him. All of our sins
was laid on Him. Now, just the sins of this congregation
alone, just this congregation. But now you look at all the people
from the first of Adam until the last person, and I'll tell
you, everybody's already in glory. He put all their sin on Christ. All the sin of all for whom He
died, they laid them on Him. And then they said He was wounded.
Who wounded Him? God wounded Him. What for? Our transgressions. Well, what
happened then? He made His soul an offering
for sin. And our Lord Jesus Christ, when
He bore our sin on that cross, bless His holy name, He turned
around, and God in His sovereign mercy, and when He put Him in
our place to bear our sin, God took Christ's righteousness and
His obedience and all that He did, and because He was killed
and RAISED again the third day is what it said, God took ever
His obedience and all of His righteousness and He gave it
to us. We got our sin, He got our death,
He got our shame, He got our guilt, we get His life, His sinlessness,
His righteousness, His obedience, that's a good exchange. Be killed! be killed. So He substitutes. And then it
says that He be killed, and after three days, rise again. You know
what that means? That means that He satisfied
God, that it was finished and is actually accomplished. God
said, I m not going to leave Him dead. He never saw any corruption. He didn t have any sin of His
own. Now, when a man dies, he starts corrupting, but oh no,
when Christ died, He said, listen, my soul, I'll not suffer my Holy
One to see corruption, and He raised Him from the dead, and
He was just as holy and as righteous, and God, when He rose from the
dead, as He was when He come into this world. And I'll tell you, that's to
me. To me, the greatest thing about
the gospel, to me, is the satisfaction that Christ rendered to God. God would not be satisfied with
anything you or I ever did. He would not be satisfied with
any Pharisee. He wasn't satisfied with Adam's
fig leaves. He's not satisfied with the Pharisees,
and the Pharisees, and the Sadducees, and the scribes, and the priests.
Nobody ever satisfied God. They try, and they try, and they
try, and they try, they work, and work, and work, and work,
and go to law, and I, Lord Jesus Christ, He satisfied God, and
so God, He satisfied Him in such a way that God will never come
to us and look for anything. He'll never ask us for nothing.
I seen the one of the dumbest, God dishonored, blasphemous,
condescending, awfulest thing I ever heard the other day. It
says, Jesus died for you, what have you done for Him? And like I said over at Joe's funeral
the other day, the only work that I want to go before me is
Christ. And the only work I want to follow,
follow me into glory is Christ's work. That's the only work that
matters. He satisfied God. I'll lay down
tonight and I'll go to sleep and if God takes me before I
wake up in the morning, there will not be aught that God will
have against me. Because He satisfied God. And you know what? Bless His
holy name. You talk about peace. What peace? Talk about joy. What joy? Talking about comfort, talking
about assurance. Oh, bless His name. Oh, my soul,
my soul. Christ purchased it and bought
it with his own blood. And after he bought it and paid
for it, he entered into glory and sits down at the right hand
of God because everything's been done. Oh, huh? Oh, my. Well, I tell you, This gospel, oh,
what a gospel we have. What a gospel. There's no good
news in sin or save yourself. There's no good news in working
your way to heaven. There's no good news in a man's
free will. There's no good news in God giving
you a chance. The only good news is that salvation
is an accomplished salvation. And oh my, okay. And then look what happens now,
and that in verse 32, and he spake that saying openly to his,
and there's other people heard, and that saying openly, and Peter
took him. Now I personally think, now these
men were falling, because Jesus turned around, and I think Peter
took him aside. I think, Lord, I want to talk
to you. I need to say something to you.
And he got him off and said, oh no, no, no, no, no, no. No,
you're not gonna be killed. We just can't let that happen.
That's just not right. Our Messiah is supposed to come
and rule heaven on earth. Our Messiah is supposed to come
and he's supposed to bring peace to our, set back up as the king
over Israel. We're not supposed to have a
suffering savior. He's supposed to be the king.
And he took Christ and began to rebuke him. Over in one place
it says it's not RIGHT for you to suffer. And oh, my! And I tell you, in
our confession about Him, and oh, He took Peter and began to
rebuke him, and He turned around, He turned back and looked at
those disciples, and He rebuked Peter. Oh, my! saying, Get thee behind me, Satan.
Now, it wasn't Peter he said, Get behind me, but he rebuked
Peter because Satan was there tempting Christ through Simon
Peter. And he rebuked Peter, saying,
Get thee behind me, Satan, because you don't delight in, you don't
understand, and you don't love the things that be of God. But
you want the things of men. You want Christ without a cross.
You want Christ without suffering. You want Christ without having
to admit you're a sinner. But oh, listen to what he says
now. Oh, our confession about him. Our confession is He's the
Christ. And now look what it said in
verse 34 now. And when He had called the people
unto Him with His disciples, He said unto them, now listen
to me now, for whosoever shall save his life, no, verse 34,
whosoever shall come after Me, let him deny himself, take up
his cross, and follow Me. Now He said, If any one, any
man, whosoever, will come after Me, not after the opinions of
other people, not after what their mother and daddies are,
not after religion, but will come after Me. And this is the
first thing He said, Let him deny himself. What in the world
does that mean? I remember in Fundamentalism
they say, Listen, If you're hooked on Pepsi, go for a month and
not drink any Pepsi. Deny yourself that. That's what
they understood to mean there. But when it says deny yourself,
Paul wrote it this way. He said, I wrote the sentence
of death on myself. And that's what it means. Let
him deny you, whoever himself is, is what you yourself are,
who you are, who you are. Deny sinful self. Deny righteous
self, now that's the hard one to get up. That righteous self. Deny moral self. Deny good self. Deny lover self. Just deny yourself. What deny yourself is, I have
no part in this. I have no part in what Christ
did. That's what he's talking about. Paul one time said, if
any man glory after the flesh, I can. Oh, you wouldn't believe
what all I've done, all the things I accomplished. But he says,
listen, when Christ revealed himself to me, everything I ever
had before, done. It's over here. Everything about
Christ is over here. And I want to win him. I want
to be found in him. And I count all my righteousness,
nothing but done. I count his to be everything.
Now, that's denying yourself. Everybody here denies their self
and say, Christ said everything and I'm nothing. Huh? That's
why Paul said, though I be nothing. You know what a nothing is? And
you said this before, it's got rich seed, nothing's like a donut
hole. You can't eat the hole. That's
what it is. And look what else he went on
to say now. and take up his cross and follow me." What does it
mean to take up the cross? Well, first thing about a cross
is death. Death. Cross represents death. Paul said, I wrote the sentence
of death on myself. Huh? Death. We're dead to the
world, should be dead to ourselves, dead to the law. Oh, my. And then it's also a place of
shame. shame and humiliation. Oh my,
I tell you who's ashamed of Him, scribes and Pharisees and the
natural man, that cross is offensive to them. But you know what, we
confess about His cross, we take it up. God forbid that we should
glory only in one thing, that's the cross on which Christ died.
And then He said, follow Me. He said, without Me you can do
nothing. And then, oh, let's talk about
the worth of a soul. He said in verse 35, for whosoever
will save his life shall lose it. What in the world is that
talking about? If you save your life in this
world, and you got so many people in the Bible who did, Demas did,
having loved, forsaken me for having loved this precious world.
Judas did it. But when you try to save your
life in this world, Save your life. That rich fool, he said,
Listen, I tore down my barns, I built big ones, and I filled
them up. So sat down, take on ease. His whole life was built
around materialism, what he could get, what he could accomplish,
and what he could store up. His whole life was wrapped up
in the world. His whole life was wrapped up
in making money. And I tell you what, and he said,
Listen, if you try to save your life in this world, Listen, I
like my sin. I like the life that I've got.
I don't need Christ. I've got plenty of money. I've
got a big house. I've got everything I could possibly
want. Oh, I'd rather be on my boat
as to come hear Christ. Oh my. Oh, the wrath of a soul
is unspeakable. Save his life, and what that
means, save your life from identifying with Christ. That's what they
said. These people are deceived. Save
his life from identifying with Christ. Save his life from the
cross of death. Don't want to deny self. It's
not that important. I've got plenty of time, and
look what our Lord said. He gonna lose his life. Go ahead
and let the world be enthralled with the world. Go ahead and
love materialism. Go ahead and love the world.
You ll lose it. And then look what our Lord said,
But whosoever shall lose his life for My sake. Now, what does
that mean? That means that you give yourself
up to Christ. I don t care about my life in
this world. You know, That's one of the most mysterious things
for the world to forget about a believer, is that believers
got a home to go to, and occasionally they want to go! Huh? They want to go! And I'll save
him, you know, and lose his life for my sake, give up his life
and the world, and materialism, and covetousness, and greed,
and self-righteousness, and self-confidence, and pride. GIVE IT ALL UP! GIVE
UP YOUR LIFE TO CHRIST! FOR MY SAKE! Shall save it. Oh, my! You know, when we have Christ,
we got life. In having Christ, we have life.
What did we lose? by coming to Christ, sin, corruption, death, shame, guilt, oh my, and
lose his life for my sake. Oh my, you know. Now we've gave up no condemnation,
what will he find then? He said if he shall lose, verse
35, if he lose my life for my sake and the gospels, that s
a fella that s gonna be saved. He s saved. Lord, here s my life, here s
my life. I know it ain t worth much, I
know it ain t worth anything except your precious blood, but
Lord, it s yours. And for your sake and the gospel
that I love. What did we find? We found Christ
to be everything, our all in all, found Christ our life. That's what we said. And then
look what he said down here in verse 36. I hope I'm not taking
too long, but I tell you, I'm gonna stay with it till I'm done.
For why shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world
and lose his soul? Oh, my, you take somebody that
if it was possible, if it was possible for somebody to gain
EVERYTHING in this world, EVERYTHING, all the gold, all the silver,
all the wealth, all the glory, and everything he ever wanted,
if he had it all, what profit will it be? And lose
his own soul. lose his soul. And then, oh my,
and look what it says. And if a man done that and found
out that he's lost his soul, what could he go around? Could
he give the world back and pay for his soul? Could he give all
the world at his gain? Could he pay it back, give it
all back and save his soul? Once you lose your soul, there's
nothing you can give in exchange for it. Nothing you can give
in exchange for it. You can't buy it back once it's
lost. You can't buy it back. You can't
buy it back. And then look what our Lord said
here. Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me, ashamed of
me, and my words, not just me and what I have to say. And look
what he described that generation, just like we describe our generation,
adulterous, going after everything, every image and everything but
God, spiritual adultery, a sinful generation. That person that's
ashamed of me, I'm going to be ashamed of him when he comes
in the glory of his Father with his angels. Oh my! To be ashamed of his words? To
be ashamed of him? Oh, why would anyone be ashamed
of Christ? Paul said, I'm not ashamed of
the gospel. He told Timothy, don't be ashamed of me and my
chains. Oh, don't be ashamed. He said,
and oh, if you're ashamed of him, he said, listen, when you
face me, I'm gonna be ashamed of you. And you know what he
said? He's not ashamed to call us brethren. And oh my, and look
what it says, when He cometh in the glory of His Father with
the holy angels, Christ's gonna come in His own glory, gonna
come in the glory of the Father and the glory of the holy angels.
Oh my, would we be ashamed of Christ and His words? Oh my, are you ashamed of the
words that were said today? Ashamed of the gospel that we
heard today? Huh? Oh no, we couldn't. Be ashamed of Christ? Could be
ashamed of him who loved me and gave himself for me? Huh? Oh my. Our Father, Thank you, oh blessed
be your name, for allowing us to talk about you one more time
in this world. And oh Lord, you laid the axe
to the, you laid it to the plumb line. Oh Lord, there's only one
life in this world to have, and that's the life of Christ in
our soul. Eternal life given to us by you. And Lord, we would
And you laid it clear, whosoever tries to save their life in this
world, too interested in this world, too interested in its
power and its love, will lose their life. But, oh God, to have
the gospel and have your words, that's eternal life. Oh, thank
you, Lord. Blessed be your name. Save your
people in this place for Christ's sake. Amen. Turn to 400 in the
hymn book. We're going to close with this.
And this is to the tune of When I Survey. When I Survey. 400. 400. Let's stand together
and sing this. Oh my. Jesus and shall it ever
be Jesus and shall it ever be A mortal man ashamed of Thee
Ashamed of Thee, whom angels praise Whose glory shined through
endless days ? Ashamed of Jesus sooner far ?
Let even blush to shone a star ? He sheds the beam of light
divine ? But always benighted soul of mine ? ? Ashamed of Jesus, that dear friend
? ? On whom my hope of heaven defends ? Know when I blush,
be this my shame That I no more revere His name Ashamed of Jesus, yes I may When
I've no guilt to show wash away. No tear to wipe, no good to crave,
no fears to quell, no soul to save. Till then, nor is my boasting
vain, ? Till then I boast in a Savior slain ? ? And oh, may
this my glory be ? ? That Christ is not ashamed of me ? See you
tonight, six o'clock, God willing.