this portion of scripture that
we're going to look at, and I've entitled the message, Christ
Crucified, Our Salvation. And that's exactly what it is.
There is no salvation for sinners apart from the death of Christ
on the cross. Now that's a given, that's established
from the very beginning of the scriptures. When Adam and Eve
fail, I always go back to this because, you know, we talk about
one of the rules of interpretation being the rule of first mention.
Well, the first mention is a specific prophecy of the Messiah. who is Jesus Christ the Lord,
was found in Genesis 3.15 when the Lord revealed to Adam and
Eve that the seed of woman would come and crush the head of the
serpent who was instrumental in bringing in condemnation and
sin and death. And that's Christ. He's the seed
of woman. He's the God-man sent from heaven
and united himself with sinless humanity to stand in our place,
and that means he had to die. The penalty of sin is death,
death in every facet of it. We can talk about physical death,
talk about spiritual death, and then eternal death, and what
all that involves. That's the consequence, the judgment
of God against sin. And in order to accomplish the
salvation of those of us who are sinners, who deserve death
and have earned death, he brought forth the way that the Messiah
would accomplish this in the death of him as a substitute.
And you remember in Genesis 321, you know, Adam and Eve, they
made their fig leaf aprons to cover their shame and their nakedness.
That's a picture of man without righteousness. and that trying
to cover himself with his works. And so God, what did he do? He
slew an animal, which I believe was a lamb. It doesn't specifically
say that, but we know that later on in Genesis 4, Abel brought
a lamb sacrifice to God. But he slew an animal, shed blood,
that's death, that's just to satisfy, and he made Adam and
Eve coats of skin, which is a picture of Christ's righteousness imputed.
for us. Now that was set forth, that's
the law first mentioned. In other words, whenever God
saves a sinner, that's how he does it. It's by grace, it's
never been any other way. Even when he gave the law, it
wasn't for their salvation, it was to expose their sinfulness
and their need of salvation by grace. And Certainly, as we look
through the Old Testament, the main population of the Israelites,
they didn't see it. And they weren't taught it by
their religious leaders. Now in every generation, for
example, for that 1,500 years from Mount Sinai to the cross,
in every generation, there was always a remnant but it was always
a remnant of, and that's a few people, however many it was,
it was few compared to the rest of the population, and it was
a remnant according to the election of grace. And the Bible tells
us from the very beginning that grace reigns through righteousness
unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. Now, Christ had just
asked the disciples, who do men say that I am, who do you say
that I am? And you remember Peter's great
confession, thou art the Christ, you're the Messiah, you're the
seed of woman, you're the lamb. Remember John the Baptist, behold
the lamb of God. We're gonna be talking about
the lamb in the message this morning from Revelation. Because
when we deal with all the judgment of God against sin and all that
negative, we've got to see the positive. And that positive is
our standing and our state in Christ, the Lamb. And so Peter
confessed, he said, you're the Christ, you're the anointed one,
you're the savior of sinners. And Christ told him, he said,
blessed are you, Peter. And of course he was talking
about all the disciples there because Peter was speaking for
them. He said, for flesh and blood
has not revealed this to you, but my father which is in heaven.
What a great confession. But then look what happens here
in Matthew 16. Look at verse 21. It says, From that time forth began Jesus
to show unto his disciples how that he must, now underline that
word must in your, if you don't underline it in your Bible, underline
it in your mind. 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." Well, what's he doing? He's talking to them about the
gospel. Now, he'd preached the gospel to them before. He talked
in some about his death and resurrection. And he must do this, he says. Why must he? Because he is the
covenant. He's the surety of a covenant.
And I always go to passages like Hebrews chapter 2 because It
tells us verse 14 of Hebrews 2. It says, for as much then
as the children. Now who are the children? That's
God's elect. That's the chosen of God. Chosen
before the foundation of the world by God and given to Christ. And so because those children
are partakers of flesh and blood, that's what we are. He also himself
likewise took part of the same. He had to become flesh and blood
too. The Word, the Son of God, in
his deity, had to unite with sinless humanity, body and soul. The Word was made flesh and dwelt
among us. Now why is that, why must he
do that? Look at verse 14 of Hebrews chapter
two. It says, that through death,
He might destroy him that had the power of death, that is the
devil. It was through his death that he would crush the head
of the serpent. And without that death, there
is no salvation. And that's why I entitled this
lesson Christ Crucified, Our Salvation. And it says in verse
15 of Hebrews 2, and deliver them who through fear of death
were all their lifetime subject unto bondage. For verily he took
not on him the nature of angels. He didn't come to save angels.
He came to save sinful men and women. But he took on him the
seed of Abraham. Who's the seed of Abraham there?
That's believers. That's what the Bible teaches.
But look at verse 70. Wherefore, for this reason and
all things, it behooved him. That word behooved, you've heard
me say it before. That's a Greek word for debt. The debt of our
sins was imputed, charged, accounted to Christ. And as God the Father
chose a people and gave them to him, Christ willingly chose
to do what was necessary. And that was to become flesh,
to keep the law, and go to the cross. So it behooved him to
be made like unto his brethren. In order for him to die as our
substitute, he had to be made like us without sin now. I gotta emphasize that today
because there's so much heresy going on about that. People saying
Christ became a sinner or that he was corrupted. No, no, no,
no, no. Our sins were imputed to him.
It behooved him. The debt was put to his account. But so he had to be made like
unto his brethren that he might be a merciful and faithful high
priest in things pertaining to God. In other words, how could
he be a merciful and faithful high priest? The high priest
brought the blood of the lamb into the Holy of Holies and sprinkled
it upon the mercy seat. And it says to make reconciliation
for the sins of the people. So we're redeemed with the precious
blood of Christ. So back here in our text, he
must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things of the priest and
the scribes and be killed and be raised again. Now look at
Peter's response. This is baffling to me, it's
baffling to you. This is the same man who made
that confession. You're the Christ, the son of
the living God. Now think about that. Think about
it in the context of the old covenant. Everything they did
as far as being accepted with God in a ceremonial, temporal
sense was based upon the shedding of the blood, the blood of atonement. And how did they think about
it? Well, we don't know a lot concerning
what, we can't climb into their minds except what the scripture
says this is the way it was. But Peter made that confession,
and then it says in verse 22, then Peter took him and began
to rebuke him. This old sinner rebuking the
Lord of glory? Think of the pride. Began to
correct him. All of that. And began to rebuke
him, saying, be it far from thee, Lord, this shall not be unto
thee. It was as though Peter ignored
the statement that Christ made about his resurrection. He told
him he had to go to Jerusalem, he had to suffer, he had to be
killed, but he was gonna be raised again the third day. Well Peter,
didn't you hear what I said? I said I'm gonna be raised again.
Don't you understand the types and the pictures of the old covenant?
What did Peter understand? Now this is what, scriptures
like these, that calls people to say, well, the disciples weren't
actually converted to the faith until after the resurrection.
And that could be, you know, it wouldn't upset me either way.
I know that God, Christ brought them together. And he kept them
together. And there was an appointed time
that God had arranged that each one of us who know the gospel,
we're gonna hear it and believe it. Does this mean that Peter
didn't really believe the gospel there? I don't know. If it did,
it wouldn't upset me. You know, the only people I've
ever talked to who get upset at that are people who want to
claim they were converted before they heard the truth. And according
to the Bible, you cannot claim to be converted before you heard
the truth. Because if you're in a lie, you're
in idolatry and you're spiritually dead. Could this just simply
be an incredulous answer? Because, you know, a lot of times
Peter spoke out of the flesh. Don't we do that sometimes? You
remember later on, Peter denied the Lord three times. We're just
weak, pitiful human beings. And I know this. If you're one
of God's chosen people, God has had his providential hand upon
you from the womb. And everything, one of the things
that we're gonna see, I'm gonna be dealing with in the message
later on. You know, somebody says, boy,
I'm glad I heard the gospel before I die. Well, if you're one of
God's chosen people, there's no other way it's gonna be. I mean, you can get shot up with
100 bullets if you're one of God's chosen people and you hadn't
heard the gospel, you're gonna survive that. because he's gonna
bring you under the gospel and bring you to faith in Christ.
Well, one thing that we know about Peter here, about some
of the other disciples, they weren't thinking right. Their
thinking was fleshly. And I know this about the disciples,
they still are under the impression that Christ, the Messiah, is
going to set up an earthly kingdom in Jerusalem. They still thought
that. And they could have believed the gospel and still thought
that, because even when he ascended, before he ascended in Acts chapter
one, they asked that question, Lord, when are you gonna set
your kingdom up here in Jerusalem? And he wasn't going to. And it
was later on that they learned about that, that it's a spiritual
kingdom, not a physical kingdom. So you can turn these phrases
and discuss this any way you like. I know this, that that
it's the truth that sets us free. We're not going to be converted
under the preaching of a lie. And I know this about the disciples,
they were not under the preaching of a lie. Christ was preaching
the truth. But Peter said, be it far from
thee. And you know that phrase, be
it far, is one word, it's translated merciful in Hebrews 8 and verse
12. And it's kind of like Peter saying,
Lord, be merciful to yourself. Be it far from you. And what
Peter was failing to realize, whether he knew it or not, and
was just speaking out of the flesh, which we sometimes do,
whether he knew it or not, he was forgetting the fact that
if the Lord was merciful to himself, he couldn't be merciful to us.
If he didn't go and die under the judgment of God for our sins,
Where would we be? We'd be lost forever. He's on
that cross, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Why? For our salvation. And that's
what was brought out there. And everything he did, he made
an end of sin, he finished the transgression, he brought in
everlasting righteousness, he sealed up the vision, the prophecy,
entered the holiest of all. The exercise of mercy from God
must be consistent with his holiness and his justice. That's why he
must go to Jerusalem, suffer, bleed, and die, and be raised
from the dead. And his resurrection from the
dead was the, as the theologians say, the sine qua non, the confirmation
that he was and is successful, victorious. Now did Peter believe
that? Or did he believe it and just
lose sight of it? That's possible, I think it is.
But look at verse 23. Listen to the Lord's response
to Peter. But he turned and said unto Peter, get thee behind me,
Satan. Thou art an offense unto me.
For thou savest not the things that be of God, but those that
be of man. Peter was speaking out of the flesh, selfishly. I can imagine, you know, you're
with the Lord of God, the Lord of glory, and you hear his words
of comfort, you see his power. You don't want him to leave.
In your own selfish way. not and lose sight of the fact
that he had to leave he said if I go not away the comforter
will not come you know what he's telling the comforter there being
the Holy Spirit as an advocate in his way and what he's telling
them there in John 16 if I don't go to the cross and die and be
raised again and go unto the Father there's no hope of spiritual
and eternal life for you well He said, get thee behind
me. Now was the Lord being too harsh
here? Was he just being mean, you know, get thee behind me?
No, he's just telling the truth. Peter was following a fleshly
desire inspired by Satan, who I believe did not want Jesus
of Nazareth to go to the cross. Now what do I base that on? I
base that on the Mount of Temptation. You remember when Satan tempted
the Lord on the mountain? And he offered him everything
that he felt like he could, he didn't have that authority, but
he thought he did, to give him if he'd just serve him. You know the death of Christ
is the defeat of Satan. John 12, he said, if I be lifted
up, I'll draw unto me And he said that that was the downfall
of Satan. Well, God has to be just when
he justifies the ungodly. He must be just when he saves
sinners like us. And the only ground upon which
he can do it is the death of the God-man, the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the only way that sins
will be put away The only way God can forgive our sins, the
blood of Jesus Christ, his death. And that's the only way that
our righteousness before God can be accomplished. That one
which God has imputed to all of his elect was accomplished
in time right there on that cross. As our surety, our substitute,
as our redeemer. And as our life giver, because
out of his death comes spiritual life. Well, look at verse 23
again. He said, but he turned and said
unto Peter, get thee behind me, Satan, thou art an offense unto
me. Peter was trying to put a stumbling
block before the Lord. You see that? But there could
be no stumbling block put before him. Like I said, Satan tried
to do it on the Mount of Temptation, but he failed, failed miserably. And throughout his life, you
know, he was confronted with these things. Even in his fleshly
weakness, the infirmities of the flesh, he cried, if it be
possible, let this cup pass from me. Now he wasn't bargaining
with the Father, and he wasn't denying that he had to go to
the cross, but he was just feeling the pain, like you and I would. Yet he was without sin. And he
says, for thou savest not the things that be of God. What are
the things that be of God? That which glorifies God. That
which brings glory and honor to God, as both a just God and
a savior. As the God who justifies the
ungodly. As the God who gives life to
the dead. Paul wrote, God forbid that I
should glory save in the cross. of our Lord Jesus Christ, by
whom the world is crucified unto me and I unto the world. For
in Christ Jesus neither circumcision or uncircumcision availeth anything,
nothing. It's all the glorious person
and the finished work of Christ. And that's not the things of
men, that doesn't glorify man. That doesn't satisfy man's fleshly
appetite. That's what Peter was experiencing
here, the fleshly appetites of a sinful human being. Lord, we
don't want you to go. We want to stay with you. Want
you to stay with us. And he says, Peter, don't you
realize what I've told you before? It's necessary that I go away. For if I go not away, the Comforter
will not come. So Christ crucified is our salvation. is our hope of glory. We plead
his blood and his righteousness for our salvation. Okay.