This morning I want to bring
a message to you that I've titled in the form of a question, and
that is, What do you savor? What do you savor? If you'll
look down in verse 33 of Mark 8, you'll see the verse from
which I derived this title. It reads, But when he, speaking
of Christ, had turned about and looked on his disciples, he rebuked
Peter. saying, Get thee behind me, Satan,
for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but the things
that be of men." That word savour is there. It means to be mentally
and earnestly disposed towards, to set your affection on, to
have an interest in, to be mindful of, that is, to think on. The literal reading would be,
thy faults are not of the things that be of God, but thy faults
are of the things that be of men. Now, for us to ask ourselves,
and I ask each of us this morning, let's ponder that question. Consider
seriously, in the context that we'll be looking at here, do
we savor the things, do you savor the things that be of God or
the things that be of men? You'll notice as Christ sets
this forth, and we'll see exactly what he's referring to here in
just a moment. But he doesn't set forth that
in his rebuke to Peter and the disciples. He doesn't say, you're
beginning to savor things of men more than God, but here we
see that dichotomy, that dichotomy we see set forth throughout Scripture,
the religion of grace versus the religion of works, God's
way of salvation versus the way that we naturally imagine on
our own. And he says, so he's speaking
at this moment in time, he's telling them, You either savor
the things that be of men, or you savor the things that be
of God. And his rebuke, of course, to the disciples at this moment
is, Get thee behind me, Satan. You're not savoring the things
that be of God. And so to look at this, we've
got to consider it in its context, both the verses preceding verse
33 and after. And we'll begin for our text
today in verse 27. So follow with me there as we
read. It says, And Jesus went out,
and his disciples into the towns of Caesarea Philippi. And by
the way, he asked his disciples, saying unto them, Whom do men
say that I am?" Now, this is the Lord of Glory. This is the
God-man, the omniscient, all-knowing God. He doesn't ask questions
in order to learn information, for he knows all. But yet he
poses questions, as we know often in the scriptures, as is recorded,
in order to teach a truth or convey that which he wants to
convey. And such is the case here. He asked them, Who do men
say that I am? And they answered, verse 28,
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 answereth, and saith
unto him, Thou art the Christ. And he charged them that they
should tell no man of him." In other words, it wasn't his time,
his hour had not come, and these disciples had had revealed to
them something that the others didn't, for they thought him
to be a prophet, John the Baptist, Elijah. And yet they knew him
to be the Messiah, and he said, well, let's not tell that yet,
you see, for that would bring on the suffering and the death
that he would engage and endure. And then he says in verse 31
that he began to teach them, and this is what he taught 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. That is, Peter
took Christ aside, apparently, and began to rebuke him. And
it says, but when he, verse 33 again, Christ, Turned about and
looked on his disciples. He turned back and apparently
in the hearing of them all Peter Peter we get the sense here as
being a spokesman for them that they are of like mind and So
he rebuked Peter saying get thee behind me Satan For thou savors
not the things that be of God But the things that be of men
It's interesting, you know if you go back there to verse 28
and When he asked them, he said, who do men say that I am? They
said, well, John the Baptist, Elias, or one of the prophets,
and Matthew, it says Jeremiah, or one of the prophets. And you
notice there that the common view of Jesus, as expressed by
the disciples in answer to that question, is that this indeed
was an extraordinary person. You know, they had perceived
by Christ, by his doctrine, and probably most notably by his
miracles, that he was, in fact, someone special, something extraordinary. John the Baptist, they said.
John the Baptist, who was considered a supreme prophet, the most recent
of the prophets that they would have been aware of. And Elias,
or Elijah, who wrought many miracles. And many, the thought in that
day was that Elijah would return and usher in of the coming Messiah. And so none of them thought him
to be any less than one of the prophets who they held in very
high esteem. And it's interesting if you think
about it. All of those perceptions, those commonly held perceptions
of who Jesus Christ was would require that this one who they
thought him to be would have to have died and then be risen
again. You see, for all these men had
died at that time. So they would have no problem
with the miraculous resurrection from the grave of one. But we
see in verse 29 that Peter and the disciples knew something
different. You see, they had had it revealed to him that he
in fact was indeed the Messiah who had been promised and prophesied
in the Old Testament. He wasn't just the forerunner
of Christ or the Messiah or the one who would usher in, but this
Jesus of Nazareth was indeed the Messiah, the God-man. And they knew that. It had been revealed unto them.
I chose to bring this message to you from Mark because there's
an interesting omission here. in the discourse in Mark. And
I didn't bring that, I didn't choose Mark to hide that omission. We're going to look at that.
In fact, be turning, hold your place in Mark and look with me
over in Matthew chapter 16. You see, God the Holy Spirit
inspired both the gospel of Matthew as well as the gospel of Mark. And I believe these differences
are to give to us a different emphasis. in these different
passages. And I think that's true in all
of the four Gospels as we see stories repeated. We get a slightly
different emphasis. And so I want us to look at the
emphasis that I believe is set forth here in Mark while not
ignoring the similar parallel passage in Matthew. In Matthew,
God draws us to an emphasis on the point that if we're to know
God and His Son as He truly is, that we will not do so naturally,
that it does take a special revelation by God himself. Look with me
in verse 15 of Matthew 16. Here we have repeated Christ
saying unto the disciples, But whom say ye that I am? Verse 16, And Simon Peter answered
and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And
Jesus answered and said unto him, and here we have a discourse
that is not recorded in Mark, but certainly took place. He
said, Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood
hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. And I say also unto thee, thou
art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the
gates of hell shall not prevail against it, and I will give unto
you the keys of the kingdom of heaven. And he goes on. And then
he picks back up in verse 20 with the same charge that we
read in Mark 8, telling them not to tell anyone that he was
the Messiah, that he was Jesus the Christ. So Christ makes mention
here in Matthew of this revelation that was given to him, given
to Peter and the disciples, concerning who he was, and yet we know that
they too the disciples from their reaction and even Peter's rebuke,
we know that they held the same view that most in that day held,
and that was they had come to believe that the Messiah was
coming to earth, God, man, but to establish an earthly kingdom. And we see that in their response.
If you look back in Mark chapter 8, in verse 32, we have the rebuke
then of Peter. Before we get there, let me back
up. I don't want to skip over verse
30 and 31 there. 31 in particular, we see that
he told them now, don't tell anyone that I'm the Messiah.
And it says he began to teach them. And you see there, he taught
them, and here's an important word you might want to underline,
that he must. That he must suffer many things.
That word must could appear before every verb in that sentence.
That he must be rejected. See, that was the Sanhedrin described. The religious authorities of
that day. That he must be killed. Not that
he must simply die, but he must be killed. That he must rise
again after three days. And in verse 32 there it says,
he spake that openly. And that means boldly and clearly. He didn't speak in parables here.
They fully understood what he was saying. At least they understood
the words. And then in verse 31, you notice
it says there at the beginning of that verse that he began to
teach them of these things that he must do. Now you think about
it. They were raised to believe that
Jesus would come and establish this temporal earthly kingdom,
the Messiah, the God-man. And so how shocking it must have
been to the disciples, as voiced by Peter in his rebuke, You see,
they imagine that's what he would come to do, and they imagine
that's where he would be blessed. And so we get down to verse 32,
and we see that Peter rebuked him. And Peter took him and began
to rebuke him. Now, if you go back to Matthew
16, I should have had you hold your place there, but in verse
22, we learn a little bit more there about the nature of Peter's
rebuke. In verse 22, it says, that Peter took him, just as
we read in Mark, took him aside and he began to rebuke him, and
this was his rebuke, saying, Be it far from thee, Lord, this
shall not be unto thee. You see, this is the same Peter
that in Matthew's account had been told he would be given the
keys of the kingdom of heaven. This is the Peter who, and listen,
that is properly understood. That's not St. Peter standing
up there at the gate letting people in and out of heaven as
is often depicted in cartoons. But in fact, what this is referring
to is he would be given an understanding of how God saves sinners. The keys to the kingdom of heaven,
of the gospel itself. He would be given the ability
to declare it and to deliver it unto others. And yet, given
the mindset of their day, it's not unreasonable for us to imagine
that Peter perhaps thought that when he said, Peter, you're going
to get the keys to the kingdom, that he was saying, you'll have
some high post. in this earthly kingdom that he imagined the
Messiah had come to establish. So how disheartening it must
have been for him, see Peter, to discover, this is Peter who,
the disciples now, they had left their vocations to follow Jesus
Christ, the Messiah. And that had been revealed to
them. And here as he hears Christ's words, if he could comprehend,
if he saw that as accurate of what Christ said he must do when
he said he must suffer and die and rise again, he would have
to say, wait a minute, this is not at all compatible with what
I expect. You see, things aren't as they
seem to me. And I want to suggest to you
this morning, That that's precisely what happens whenever God begins
to reveal himself to a sinner. You see, we're called to repentance.
We discover that things just aren't the way they seem. And
so Peter rebuked Christ as a result of that. And we read there in
verse 22 of Matthew 16 what the rebuke was. He said, ìBe it far
from thee, Lord, this shall not be unto you.î In other words,
this is not going to be fitting for you. This is not consistent
with what I imagine you to be. Not the Messiah that I'm expecting,
you see. And so we come then to Christ's
rebuke in verse 33 of Peter, where he says, Get thee behind
me, Satan. Thou savourest not the things
that be of God, but the things that be of men. Now here's Peter. The one he had said in Matthew
was blessed. He says it will be given the
keys to the kingdom of heaven. And here he is calling him satanic. This is a serious rebuke. He
says, get thee behind me, Satan. And he does so, he says, for
you savor. You're disposed toward, you're
mindful of the things, not the things that be of God, but the
things that be of men. You see, it's because of Peter
in his natural ignorance, okay? The same darkness that we all
start out on in our religious journey. He finds within himself,
Peter, this natural ally, Satan himself. And how does that show
up in our spiritual darkness? As we savor, as we're predisposed
to imagine that we'll be blessed, that the way of salvation is
that which proceeds from men, the things that be of men. See,
we're predisposed, as the writer of Proverbs said, toward a way
that seems right to us, but that way ends in death. And here our
Lord is saying, this is an offense to me, Peter. He's saying that
there's nothing more offensive than to deny me. Wait a minute,
Peter. How can you call me satanic?
Lord, I'm following you. I've left my vocation. I'm walking
right here in the physical presence of the Messiah himself. And God
has revealed that to me. And how could He be an offense? You see, it's because you deny
Jesus Christ when you deny his work. And there's nothing more
offensive. And so he says, get thee behind
me, Satan. He accuses them here of not savoring,
not being disposed towards, not being mindful of the things that
be of God. Now, what are those? Well, just
follow it in context, the very things he had mentioned in verse
31. Those things he said he must do. They were the things that
be of God. You see, that is his work. And instead, he said, you're
disposed toward the things that be of men. We know that's true,
that we all start off, see, on a road where we imagine that
salvation is conditioned on men. That is, on something we do,
some decision we make, something done by, something done through
us. And that's what it is to deny the gospel of grace, the
salvation conditioned on Christ alone. It's important here that
you understand we're talking about the disciples. I don't
know if Judas was among them or not, but we know that the
others were certainly, we know from the very record of God,
these are men who are among the eternally blessed of God. Those
Christ is speaking to here, he knew he would bear their sins
on the cross of Calvary. We know also that God had begun,
from Matthew's account, that he had begun to reveal some things
of himself, that he, Jesus Christ, was indeed God manifest in the
flesh, the Messiah. Now, I know that the scriptures
teach, see, that the natural man, that is, in our natural
state as we come into this world, apart from the new birth, from
God-given faith, that we cannot discern the things that be of
God, you see. And yet these men did discern
some things here. And we know after the resurrection
in Luke chapter 24, if you want to look at that later, that Christ
more fully revealed himself to these disciples. As it says there,
He opened their eyes to see how the Old Testament Scriptures
spoke of the necessity of his death and resurrection. The word
in Luke 24 there is behooved. See, in total opposition, in
180 degrees opposite of what Peter was saying here, he's saying
that word behooved has the connotation of, oh no, it is fitting for
me. You see, and it behooved as in
it must. It is of necessity for Christ
to suffer and die and rise again. Excuse me. I get it's important that our
attention is not diverted here. I'm not trying to argue at all
this moment, the precise moment of the disciples' new birth or
regeneration. I want to make sure you know
that. I know this, that the new birth, that is God-given life,
must precede our grasping of the vital information and a love
for the truth of the gospel wherein his righteousness is revealed.
That is what was accomplished in his death in perfect satisfaction
to God's justice. And that based upon, as I say,
his very death. And it's important that we realize,
though, look, doesn't the Scripture say that the Holy Spirit's work
is like the wind? You know, you can't see the wind.
You only see its effects. And so we know that at some point
in time, these disciples certainly received life, for they exhibited
the evidence of God-given faith and repentance. But I think there's
an important lesson that we need to keep in mind here. Just as
we do not want men to look toward an experience, to try to look
for some experience to gain their confidence that they are among
the blessed of God, it's equally important that we do not negate
God's command to believe and repent. okay, to turn from our
idols, to forsake the things that be of men, imagining salvation's
condition on something done by me or in me or my decision, and
instead to trust and rely on, to savor the things that be of
God, and how he saves sinners based upon the substitutionary
work of Christ on the cross, based on that, those things that
he must do and he did do at Calvary. And what I'm suggesting to you
is that until that has taken place, we have no warrant to
consider ourselves or others as certain inhabitants of this
spiritual kingdom that he would establish at the cross. You see,
because apart from that, there's no affirming evidence of spiritual
life. You have to look no further than
the first four verses of Romans 4 to see plainly that as long
as one remains ignorant of, are not submitted to the righteousness
of God in Christ. That is, the satisfaction that
he made in perfect obedience to the Father's justice, even
unto death, that is, in paying the penalty that was due unto
all those that he represented, whose sins he bore. That righteousness,
that as long as one is unsubmitted to that, as it says there in
Romans 10, the implication being, by default, they're going about
to establish one of their own. That is, they're savoring the
things that be of men. And so, therefore, we have no
warrant to imagine spiritual life as present apart from that
evidence. But the good news is the blessed
of God, just like these disciples, they must and they will progress
beyond a mere understanding, as glorious as it is, that this
was the Messiah, that it is the God-man himself so as to comprehend
his words, that is, the gospel. that pertain to his very work. To remain ignorant, see, of what
he accomplished. Not just that he did live and
die and was risen again, but what took place there. Why was
it of necessity? Why must he suffer, you see?
To not know what he accomplished therein would be to persist,
listen, under the indictment that was brought upon our Lord
here when he says, yet be behind me Satan. Thou savourest not
the things that be of God, but the things that be of men." That's
a serious indictment. And we see more of this as we
continue on in the discourse that follows in Mark chapter
8. If you'll look with me in verse 34, it says, And when he
had called the people unto him, the picture there is that Christ
and his disciples were walking along together into the towns
of Caesarea Philippi, and others were following. And as if I've
got something important you all need to hear, He called them
all together. He says, He called the people unto Him with His
disciples also, and He said unto them, Whosoever will come after
Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow
Me. What is it to deny himself? Well,
He just told us in verse 33. It's to deny, to imagine, that
you're blessed based on the things that be of men. And instead,
take up my cross. See, all of my blessedness, based
on my oneness in Christ, based upon his work that he completed
at the cross. That is, when he died, I died.
I wasn't there. But I was there representatively,
and my sins were put away. And I have no hope. I deny myself.
I don't imagine that I can appropriate that, you see, based upon something
I do in receiving it. down an aisle or in praying or
prayer, nothing I do, I deny myself, but I take up my cross. I see my oneness in Him. And
in His resurrection, knowing that I have life when He came
out of that grave, for I have that righteousness. It was made
mine the same way my sins were made His, by imputation. And
it's a wondrous, wondrous thing for God to reveal that to a sinner. He says in verse 35, for whosoever
will save his life shall lose it. It's an upside-down world,
isn't it? What will you do to be saved? Well, if you can do anything
to be saved, it won't cut the mustard. You'll lose it. But
whosoever shall lose his life for my sake, and look this, underline
this, and the Gospels, the same shall save it. You see, we can't
just... Men often say when they hear
the message of the gospel, they say, that's too deep for me.
It's really not, but it is deep for our natural mind because
apart from spiritual life, we can't comprehend the things that
be of God. But they'll say, that's just
too much. I just trust in Jesus. While these men here, these disciples
who encountered this rebuke, first person, they are in front
of Jesus Christ. You see, they say, wait a minute
now, I walk hand in hand with him, but he says, whosoever shall
lose his life for my sake and the Gospels. You see, there we
see his person and his work cannot be separated. It's not just Jesus. We don't know Jesus apart from
the understanding of what Jesus came to do and did accomplish
at the cross of Calvary as revealed in the gospel. The gospel, which
is distinguished in Romans 1, 16 and 17, is that distinct message
wherein the righteousness of God is revealed. That is, the
satisfaction He made in that which He must do, which He did
do in His suffering and death. And he says, For what shall it
profit a man if he shall gain the whole world and lose his
own soul? You know, these these who thought
perhaps these disciples at that time thinking they would have
a place in this earthly kingdom that they imagine the Messiah
to set up. What if they could gain that?
but then lose their soul. You see, for what you can't gain
your soul, as we see in the next verse, what shall a man give
in exchange for his soul? You're a sinner, and it's a holy
God that has to be satisfied. You cannot redeem yourself. It
took the infinitely valuable blood of a God-man, you see,
to make satisfaction before a holy God. So don't savor the things
that be of men. There's no hope there. And he
concludes in verse 38, whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of
me and of my words. Again, we say you can't separate
the person from the doctrine, from the work. Whosoever shall
be ashamed of me and 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 holy angels. Now, that shows what
a serious indictment this is to persist. Ashamedness over
his words over his doctrine over that which he accomplished in
his Life and death on the cross is to ultimately perish to find
yourself ashamed He'd be ashamed of you when he comes again But
you know there's some good news to hear Christ. What a rebuke
he had given to these and These who, like all of us, find a natural
ally within us in Satan. You see, we need something outside
of ourselves. And look what he, the discourse actually continues
into chapter 9. Look at the first verse. He said
unto them, but verily I say unto you that there be some of them
that stand here, you that I'm talking to, which shall not taste
of death till they have seen, till they've seen the kingdom
of God. come with power. That's not talking
about the second coming. He's saying some of you who are
standing here are going to see with the eyes of God-given faith,
not the establishment of a temporary kingdom, but the spiritual kingdom
that I'm going to establish and that which I must do, that is,
in my death on the cross of Calvary. Well, how is that relevant today? We have the marvelous advantage
of 20-20 hindsight. We have all of God's recorded
word before us. Consider that a lot of these
in Christ's day, the majority believed he to be an extraordinary
man, quite an example, equating him to be like one of the prophets
that they held in very high esteem. Most of Christendom today would
go beyond that. They would concur with the disciples,
and they would say, I believe he was God manifest in the flesh,
the God-man. I know long before I was even
exposed to the gospel wherein his righteousness was revealed,
I believed that Jesus Christ was indeed God and man. And not only that, in 20-20 hindsight,
I believed in most of Christendom today. The popular view is that
it is true that Jesus Christ did, in fact. We don't have the
same struggle born in a different era that the disciples were having
at this time, for we know that there's a record, witnessed by
hundreds, that Jesus Christ did come and live and die and was
raised again from the dead. So how does this admonition,
this question, how are we to ponder it? What do you savor? It's important, I believe, and
I think we can gain something from a recognition that much
of the New Testament, practically all of the epistles are written
toward religious men. And the warning is, watch out
for false, but don't be deceived, watch out for false preachers.
Watch out for another gospel, that is, people purporting a
different way of salvation, and they even say another Jesus.
You see, for if we can separate Christ from his work, we don't
know the Christ. We must understand, it's of necessity
that we understand what he accomplished, you see. In Matthew 7, our Lord
said, of those preachers, he said, they'll come to me and
they'll say, Lord, Lord, have I not prophesied in your name?
These are preachers now, called to the ministry, much like these
disciples had been called away from their vocations to follow
Jesus Christ. Or at least they imagined many
of them to be called into the ministry. They'd given their
life to the ministry, I'll put it that way. And they were given
great gifts. to perform miracles, cast out
demons in his name. And yet as they approach the
judgment, they approach the judgment based on the things that be of
men. And he says, you depart from me, ye workers of iniquity. So how are we to determine this?
I think there's a real clue for us in verse 31. When it says, he began to teach
them here that the son of man must suffer. And that is the
necessity of what he came to do. He must suffer. You see, he must be killed. He must rise again. Now, if we're going to consider
whether or not we savor the things that be of God or the things
that be of men, I think it's helpful if we ask whether our
understanding of these things that he must do That is, the
person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ is such that in
order for God to be reconciled to me as sinner, I see the necessity
of it. Is my doctrine of how I imagine
God saves sinners, did it really require that he come and die
and be risen again? And I'll use my own self as an
example in the past. And I believe that the majority
of those who call themselves Christian today wouldn't be able
to identify, if they were honest, with that which I believed. You
see, I believed Jesus was a God-man. I believed He lived, died, and
rose again. You see, I believe this Jesus
of Nazareth. I had the historical record here,
and I believed it. And I imagined that I was following
Him. But I also imagine I had also
a perverted view of what he came to do. I imagine that he came
and somehow died on behalf of all men that ever lived. And
so the blessing that I received was because he made it all possible,
I would say. You see, just like those who
said he's John the Baptist or one of the prophets, I thought
it was a very honorable view I had of Jesus Christ. And yet I said that the difference
between me and the multitude that the scriptures say most
perish, the difference was that I did my part and I believed. You see, I was savoring that
things that be of man. Now, I believe this. And it's
always hard when you're going back trying to recollect your
own thoughts from the past. But I believe had someone come
to me and challenged my thinking at the time and said, well, Randy,
why did Christ really have to die? I'd have said, oh, because
that's the way God set it up. That's his plan. Scripture says
it, so it had to be. And I believe that. And yet if
they challenged me and said, well, hypothetically, what if
the Scripture said Jesus and Satan had a battle in heaven?
They played a baseball game and it was the ninth inning and there
were two outs. Jesus' team was behind by three
runs, bases were loaded, and Jesus came up to bat and he hit
a grand slam and defeated Satan then and there. And this Bible
says, Whosoever shall believe on his name, that is how he's
identified, and if he's identified as the guy that hit the home
run that beat Satan, Randy, if you believed that, would you
go to heaven and those that didn't believe it perish? And if I was
honest, based on my doctrine, as absurd as that example may
seem, If I was honest, I'd have had to say, well, yeah. If that's
the way God set up, He just didn't set it up that way. You see,
my view of how God saved me was an arbitrary thing that God set
up. There was not a necessity that
He die. I knew nothing about a just God
who had to be just, that all of His infinite holy attributes
had to be honored. I had no regard, see, for the
honor, no fear of God. That's what that means. For the
honor of who God was in this thing called salvation, I didn't
savor the things that be of God. You see? And so I didn't know
that God could not possibly show mercy apart from His justice
being satisfied based upon that which Christ must and did do
in His life and death. You see, to savor the things
that be of God is to savor. Think of that. You know, when
you savor something, you put your whole trust in it. Like
savoring a good steak. I delight in it. It's to rely
upon it. It's to have a vested interest,
and to savor the things of God is to have a vested interest
in that which is of Him and of Him alone. To savor the things
that be of men is to imagine that something I did made the
difference. Oh, I'd say He did it all. I
might even give up my vocation like those disciples and get
into the ministry to follow Him. But you see, as long as I thought
that the ultimate difference was based on my following, you
see, based upon something that proceeded from me, I was savoring
the things that be of men, that's what really counted. That's what
really made the difference. And all the while, you see, I
would have thought of that I was following one who was certainly
extraordinary, who I thought I was honoring, just as they
did at this particular moment in time. Many, see, who devote
their time and their energy to following Christ as they understand
him to be, but in an ignorance, now, that is akin to that which
the disciples manifested at least at this moment in time, listen,
unknowingly, but likewise, they share and cry out in rebuke to
Christ, just as Peter did. And here's how they do it. You
see, when they hear clear declarations of the gospel that proclaims
the very finished work of Christ at the cross, just as Christ
had proclaimed it here to the disciples on what he must do,
and they hear of a sovereign God saying, I'll have mercy on
whom I'll have mercy in Romans 9, and whom he will he hardeneth,
or they hear Christ in his high priestly prayer, praying in John
17, I pray for them, referring to those whom the Father had
given him, the elect, and I pray not for the world, but for them
which thou hast given me out of the world. Or when he says
in Romans 8, those whom he foreknew he loved beforehand, he did predestinate. And those he predestinated he
called or named, and those he called or named he justified,
and so on. When they here see that a sovereign
God has chosen a people unto salvation, you see, that requires
a denial of the things that be of men. You see? And so, what
do they do? Like Peter, they say, no, be
it far from thee. That's not Christ as I know Him
to be. I won't have anything to do with
it. All I know is I'm just going to trust in Jesus. Don't bother
me with your doctrine. Yet Christ said, if you're ashamed
of me and my words, I'll be ashamed of you. This is a serious indictment. To savor the things that be of
God is to in your heart and mind to fall down in abject spiritual
poverty. That means bankrupt with nothing
to offer. Needing pure unadulterated mercy. That is the favor of God based
upon satisfaction that was made in his work at the cross of Calvary
and based on that alone. Just as God here ultimately revealed
himself, we know more fully to the disciples Likewise, we can
take comfort, as we read in the first verse of chapter 9 there,
that all of the blessed of God, they will see. Ultimately, they
will be brought to behold Him in His glory in the face, that
is, the person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ, and they're
going to find their confidence there and nowhere else. And so
I pray that will be the case for you. Seek salvation God's
way. When it comes to your salvation,
Be disposed exclusively toward that which Jesus Christ alone
accomplished. So that you too can say with
the Apostle Paul, say from the heart, God forbid that I should
glory, save in anything but the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ.
You see, that's what it is to savor the things that be of God.
What do you savor?