Well, good morning. If you would
open your Bibles with me to Matthew chapter 16. Matthew the 16th
chapter. Before we begin, let's bow before
our Lord in prayer. Our Father, oh, how thankful we are to be
able to come into the presence of the thrice holy God and call
you our Father. What a blessing if you're electing,
adopting, redeeming love, you're regenerating love, that we be
born into the family of God. Oh, Father, how we thank you.
And Father, I pray that this morning that you would send your
spirit upon us and enable us to worship thee. Father, show
us your glory this morning. Enable us to hear of and to see
by faith our Lord Jesus Christ and believe him, to rest in him
more fully, more completely, to depend on him more fully. Father, we confess how desperately
we need you. We need your spirit. Without
thee, we can do nothing. We can't preach. We can't hear.
We can't worship. We can't repent. We can't come,
we can't trust, we can't believe. Without thee, we can do nothing.
Father, have mercy on us, we pray. Look down upon us in favor
and mercy. What we pray for ourselves, we
pray for our children's classes going on right now, Father, that
you'd bless in a mighty way. Father, for those who are hurting,
who are sick in deep waters, we pray for them. We pray for
Aaron as he's recovering. Father, be with him in a special
way. We pray for Barb and Ed and others
who need you especially. Father, be with them, touch their
bodies and comfort their hearts as only you can. All these things
we ask in that name, which is above every name, the name of
our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. All right. Our text begins in verse 21 of
Matthew chapter 16. I want to read our text and come
back and make a few comments. Verse 21, from that time forth
began Jesus to show unto his disciples how that he must go
into 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 and said unto Peter, get thee behind me, Satan, thou art
an offense unto me. For thou save us not the things
that be of God, but those that be of men. That's very sobering. Three verses, isn't it? And I
want to ask three questions from our texts this morning. Number
one, how is it that the Lord must suffer? He said how he must
suffer. How is it that the Lord must
suffer? Number two, why did Peter say, Lord, this should not be
into thee? And number three, why did the Lord tell Peter,
get thee behind me, Satan? If Lord will enable me, I believe
I can make these answers applicable to our souls today. Here's my
first question. How is it that the Lord must
suffer? Verse 21 says, from that time
forth began Jesus to show in his disciples how that he must
go into Jerusalem and suffer many things of the elders and
chief priests and scribes and be killed and be raised again
the third day. Now, why is it that the Lord
must do this? He had just told it in the previous
verse. He just told his disciples plainly, he's the Christ. He
is the Christ. He told them, I don't tell anybody
yet, but he told them plainly, he is the Christ. And since he
is the Christ, since this is true, he must go to Jerusalem. He must suffer. He must be killed
by the religious leaders of the Jews. And he must rise again
the third day. Now that's something the Lord
must do. He must do that. Now, why? Why must he suffer? Why must
he die? Why must he be raised again the
third day? Well, there are several reasons. Christ, first of all, must suffer
and die as a substitute for God's people to fulfill God's covenant
of grace. The father promised in his covenant
of grace to be gracious to a people, but the father can only be gracious
to sinners if Christ has made sin for those sinners. and he
suffers and dies to put that sin away and make them righteous.
That's the only way God can be merciful. He can be gracious
to them. So Christ must suffer and die to fulfill God's promise
of grace to sinners through the blood of his son. Look at Hebrews
chapter 10. This is what the writer to the
Hebrews tells us that Christ must suffer to fulfill the promise
of God, the promise of his covenant. Hebrews chapter 10, Verse 16, this is the covenant I will make
with them after those days, saith the Lord. I'll put my laws into
their hearts and their minds while I write them and their
sins and their iniquities. Well, I remember no more now
because of God's covenant of grace, he makes this promise
to sinful people, your sins and your iniquities. Well, I remember
no more. Now that's a promise of God that
the writer here quoted from Jeremiah chapter 33. Now, God made that
promise all those years ago, and how's he gonna fulfill it?
Well, the writer to the Hebrews tells us that God's gonna fulfill
that promise by the sacrifice of Christ. Look back here at
verse 12. But this man, after he had offered
one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of
God, from henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his
footstool, for by one offering, by his one offering, by the sacrifice
of himself, by one offering, He hath perfected forever them
that are sanctified. Now that's why Christ must go
to Jerusalem. He must suffer and die there
and be raised again the third day. He must go there to sanctify
God's elect, to fulfill God's promise to them. Then Christ
must suffer and die. He must rise again the third
day to fulfill all of the Old Testament scriptures, all of
those promises and pictures and types of the Messiah all through
the Old Testament God promised the Messiah. Now Christ has come. He must fulfill all those types,
all those pictures, all those promises. Christ must die as
Abel's lamb to give us a way to come, to give sinners a way
to come worship God. It's through the blood of Christ,
through the sacrifice of Christ, not our works. Christ must die
like that Passover lamb. When he died, it was the time
of the evening sacrifice of the Passover. He died to fulfill
that picture of the Passover lamb. Why? God's substitute must
die for God's elect so that they can live. Christ must die for
sin, like that sin offering was sacrificed. His blood must be
shed, his body must be burned under the fiery heat of God's
wrath to put away the sin of his people. That's what that
picture was given. How many times has somebody sacrificed
that sin offering? Every single time that was telling
us somebody's coming. This sacrifice, this animal,
this goat, this bullock, it's not getting the job done, you're
going to have to do another one. Christ came in by one offering, sanctified
his people. He must die to fulfill that picture
of the sin offering. Christ must die and he must rise
again the third day to fulfill that picture of Jonah, who came
out of that belly's whale after three days. And what did Jonah
come out of that whale's belly saying? Salvations of the world. Christ must be raised again the
third day, showing us salvations of the Lord. His sacrifices put
away the sin of his people. That's why he can't stay dead.
We don't have time to go through the whole Old Testament, but
the whole Old Testament is written to tell us somebody's coming.
Now Christ must come, fulfill all those types and pictures.
Here he is. Then Christ must suffer. He must
die. He must rise again the third
day to glorify all of God's attributes, all of them at one time in one
place. Now there's so many attributes of God. What is God like? What's
his character? Well, we know that God's holy,
don't we? God is holy. Those angels that fly about his
throne cry, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God, Lord of hosts.
God is holy and no man can approach him without a mediator. We need
a mediator and we've seen several examples of that in scripture.
King Uzziah came and offered incense before the Lord without
a high priest. Those priests withstood him,
said, don't do this, and this doesn't pertain to you. You can't
come to God. Even the king can't come to God
without a mediator. He did anyway. God struck him
with leprosy. Uzzah, they were carrying the
ark. David was bringing the ark back from the Philistines. They were carrying it the way
God told them not to carry it. They weren't carried on the priest's
shoulders. They had it on a cart. And those oxen stumbled, looked
like that arc was gonna fall off the cart, fall under the
dirt, fall into the mud. Moses didn't wanna see that happen.
He didn't wanna see the arc of God broken. All he did is stuck
his hand up there to steady it. He came to God without a mediator.
You can't touch that arc. Only the priest can come, and
he must come with the blood of the sacrifice. God struck him
dead. God is holy. We cannot approach
him without a mediator. And God is just. God must punish
every sin. He can't ignore one, not one.
We know that because he's told us so. And I made examples that
we've seen through scripture. God's going to punish sin. We
know that God is wise. His name is wisdom. He's so wise. His name is wisdom. He knows
everything. And we know this, God is merciful.
God is gracious. God is, he is love. But now here's
the question. How can God deal with you and
me in love? How can he deal with you and me in mercy and still
be holy, still be just? How's that possible? How can
that ever be possible? How can both God's justice and
God's mercy be glorified at the same time? How can his holiness
and his grace be just or be glorified at the same time? One way, one
place, the sacrifice of God's son. One way. When the father
sacrificed his son for sin, now we see God's truly holy. He's
truly just. He'll even kill his son when
sin's found upon him. We think God's merciful and God
is gracious, but when we see that God, the father, killed
his son in the most horrible way imaginable so that he could
show mercy to his people, we know God's merciful. He must
be merciful if he sacrificed his son to do it, to show mercy.
When God sacrificed his son for sin as a substitute for his people,
we see truly God is all wise. God found a ransom. Nobody else
could find a ransom. Nobody else could find a way.
God found a ransom for sin that would enable him to be just and
justifier, that would enable him to remain holy and still
be merciful to sin. It's in through the blood of
his son. And you just apply that to every attribute of God you
can think of. They cannot be seen more clearly than they're
seen at Calvary. That's why Christ must suffer
and die. Then Christ must go to Jerusalem.
He must suffer and die. He must rise again the third
day because the father has ordained it. He ordered it. Our Lord often
referred to his hour by an hour. It's not yet come by an hour.
It's not yet come. Well, that hour, that moment
in time, and what would happen in that moment of time, when
that moment of time would arrive was ordered by the father before
he created anything. Now, the father ordered it. He
ordered the time, he ordered the place that his purpose of
redemption would be carried out. So Christ must go and carry it
out by his death as a substitute for his people. And then God's
justice demands it. Christ must suffer. He must die. He must rise again the third
day because God's justice demands it. God's justice demands that
sin be paid for and Christ is the only one who can do it. But
you know what else? God's mercy also demands it.
God's mercy demands God be merciful to somebody, but God can only
be merciful if sin is paid for. Well, Christ is the only one
that could do it. So he was obedient. He must go
to Jerusalem to suffer and die. He must. Now you and I feel like we want
to be very careful saying that God must do something. You know,
there are, we may, we want to be very careful about that, but
this is also true. There are some things that God
must do. Now we want to be careful about saying that because we're,
we're the creature, the creature can't obligate God to do anything.
So we want to be careful about that. But there are some things
that God must do. He must do them. because he can't
violate his character. God must be just, and he must
be merciful, because that's his character. There are some things
that God promised he would do, so he must do them because God
cannot lie. I'm gonna list just a few of
them. We won't turn to all these references for time's sake, but
let me just read them to you. These are some things that God
must do. Luke 2, verse 49. I must be about
my father's business. I must be about the business
of establishing righteousness. I must be about the business
of obtaining eternal redemption for his people. I must do that
because that's the father's purpose. Luke four, verse 43, he said,
I must preach the kingdom of God. Now, why must Christ come
and preach the kingdom of God? Because nobody else knows what
it is or how to get into it. We think it's all fleshly. We
think it's talking about an earthly kingdom, Christ, he said, I must
preach the kingdom of God. That's why people know what it
is. So they'll know how to enter. It's all in him. Luke 19, verse
five. Our Lord looked up in that sycamore
tree and said, Zacchaeus, you come down. Today, I must abide
at thy house. I must. Why must he? Because
that sheet up that tree is the son of Abraham. He's one of God's
elect. He must come down. Christ must
abide in his house. John three, verse 30. John the
Baptist made the cry that every one of God's preachers constantly
cry, he must increase. He must. But I must decrease. He must increase in glory because
he's going to go to the cross and suffer and die to put away
the sin of his people. He's going to rise again the
third days that for their justification, he must increase. but you and
I must decrease. We must decrease in our own estimation
of ourselves. We must. John four, verse four,
he must needs go through Samaria. Now, why must he go to that awful
place? Samaria, because the good shepherd
must gather all of his sheep to himself. And there's a lost
sheep down there. John 10 verse 16, The other sheep
I have which are not of this fold, them also I must bring. I must bring. Why must he bring
them? Because they belong to him. The
father gave them to him. He died to purchase them. He
must bring them. They can't stay lost. And then
John 20 verse nine, he must rise from the dead. Now why must Christ
rise from the dead? Because if he died for sin and
he stayed dead, sin's not put away. But when Christ rose from
the dead, it showed us that his death, his sacrifice, his blood
put away the sin of his people. Their sin demanded his death. Now that sin's gone, he can't
stay dead. He must rise again. The Lord must do all of those
things because all of those things must be done if God's elect would
be saved. Aren't you glad he did them?
Aren't you thankful he must do them? And he did. Right, and
here's a second statement. Why did, or question, why did
Peter make this statement in verse 22? Peter, then Peter took
him and began to rebuke him. He began to rebuke the Lord,
saying, be it far from thee, Lord. This shall not be unto
thee. And what Peter is saying there
is, Lord, pity yourself. Pity yourself. Avoid this. Don't
go to Jerusalem and suffer these things. Pity yourself. And aren't
you glad the Lord never did that? He never pitied himself. He never
one time thought of his own comfort and his own safety. Not one time
ever. He always did his father's will. No matter what it cost him. No
matter what. He always thought of what his
people needed first. Not his own comfort, but what
his people needed. And he always did it. Always. He never failed
once. He's the son of God, but he was
made flesh, made under the law, and he obeyed it always. He always obeyed that law so
that his people would be made righteous. His father can only
accept perfection. Christ obeyed the law to make
his people righteous. He always did whatever it took
to honor his father. He always did it. Whatever it
took to save his people, he always did it no matter what it cost
him. No matter. Now, Peter didn't
understand that. Peter still did not understand
that he's still thinking about an earthly kingdom. He's thinking,
how can we have this earthly kingdom? How can our Lord free
us from, from this Roman tyranny? How can all that happen? If he
goes to Jerusalem and suffers and die, it's like Peter saying,
Lord, I love you too much to even think about you suffering
and dying like that. It strikes me here. It seems
like when Peter heard the Lord say, I gotta go to Jerusalem,
I must go to Jerusalem and suffer and die at the hands of the scribes
and the Pharisees and the chief priests. When our Lord made that
statement, it's almost like it's so shocking to Peter, he quit
listening. He quit listening. It would always
do us well to listen to the whole sentence. It's like Peter never
did hear the Lord say, I gotta rise again the third day. Peter
was so distraught to hear that his master would suffer and die.
He never heard the good news that the Lord's going to rise
again from the dead. So Peter made this absurd statement. This shall not be into the Lord.
Pity yourself. Don't do this. And there are
several reasons that I could think of that Peter would make
such an absurd statement that he would take it upon himself
to rebuke the Lord of glory. You know why I did it? This is
the primary reason. Peter's judging things according
to the flesh, not spiritually. Peter's flesh just got in the
way to stop him from seeing the spiritual necessity of Christ's
death. He must die as a substitute for
his people. It's the only way sin can be
paid for. And Peter just could not yet, see the necessity of
Christ's death. He would later, wouldn't he?
But at this moment, he can't really see it. And you know,
unfortunately, I point this out about Peter. Remember, I told
you I want to make this applicable to our souls. Unfortunately,
this can happen to you and me. Even a believer who truly believes
and truly loves Christ, even a believer, can be ignorant of
some spiritual truths. and will show our ignorance from
time to time. Even a believer who truly believes and truly
loves Christ can act foolishly and even become an instrument
of Satan for a time. And Peter was both of those.
He truly loved the Lord, didn't he? He truly believed the Lord,
but he also acted foolishly. Look what Peter said in verse
16. Simon Peter answered and said, thou art the Christ, the
son of the living God. That's a man of faith. That's
a man who believes and loves Christ. But in the same man,
rebuke the Lord, saying, be it far from thee, Lord. This shall
not be unto thee. See, Peter was bold. He was a
man of faith, and he's a man of flesh. He acted foolishly. He became an instrument of Satan
for a time. And again, I tell us, you and
me, be warned. This very same thing can happen
to us. We need to be mighty, mighty careful. Judging what
the Lord is doing. And I say, be careful. We need
to never do this. Never judge what the Lord is
doing based upon our emotions. Never judge what the Lord's doing
based upon how it feels to us. Don't ever judge the Lord. If we're judging the Lord, we're
doing the exact same thing Peter did. We're taking the Lord of
glory and rebuking him. Don't ever do that based upon
our very limited understanding of what's going on. You and I
can't see past the end of our nose at the very best. We're seeing through a glass
darkly. We can't see what the Lord's doing. We don't understand. Be mighty. I wish I hadn't put
that in my notes. Don't be mighty careful. Don't
ever do it. Don't ever do it. And I'll give you an example
from our day. Second Corinthians 521, this is a quotation from
the word of God. For he hath made him sin for
us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of
God in him. Now, nobody that understands
language can mistake what that's saying. The Lord Jesus Christ
was made sin. He wasn't made a sinner, he was
made sin. And when he was made sin, he
suffered everything that sin entails with the exception of
committing. He suffered the guilt of it. He was made guilty. He suffered
the shame of it. He suffered the death that it
deserves. And people have actually made this statement to me. Oh,
oh, so religious. Oh, I love the Lord too much
to say that he was made sin. I love the Lord too much to quote
scripture. See, that's judging by emotion.
That's judging by our very limited understanding. You think you love Christ? And
I know if you believe him, you do. You think you love Christ?
I can tell you this, the father loves the son, doesn't he? And the father made him sin.
That's what God said. And you had better hope that
Christ was made sin for you. You better hold. You can't be
redeemed any other way unless he took your sin from you and
made it his and suffered and died for it. If Christ didn't
take your sin away from you, if he didn't suffer everything
that sin deserves, if he didn't die for that sin and he did not
rise again the third day for you, you're still in your sins. Your sin is still on you and
you'll be damned for it. That's exactly right. If Christ
was not made guilty of sin before he was put to death, you know
what happened? The father put an innocent man
to death. That's an unjust judge, isn't it? You have much hope
of standing before an unjust judge? I think not. And the same
thing could be said to Peter. Peter, I know you love the Lord. There's just no doubt about it.
Peter, I know you love the Lord. And I know you love him, And
really he loves himself too much to think about his master suffering
and dying and going away. But Peter, you better hope he
does. You better hope he goes to Jerusalem. He suffers and dies and rises
again the third day because you can't be redeemed any other way.
Now he must go. And he did, even though Peter
didn't understand it. To Peter's eternal glory. You
know our best reaction. when we don't understand why
the Lord's doing what he's doing. And really, we never do. We never fully understand what
the Lord is doing, why he's doing it. And our best reaction when
we do not understand, our best reaction is to bow to it and
shut our mouth. Just shut our mouth now. Because
what the Lord is doing is best. He must do it. Whatever it is
he's doing, he must do it exactly that way to redeem his people,
to bring them to faith, and bring them to glory. It can't be done
any other way. So it's best for you and me to
bow silently, knowing God's doing what is best. And you just apply
that to every situation in your life, and I promise you it's
best. Maybe we'll be, Less like Peter
was, poor old Peter. Don't you feel sorry for Peter?
Maybe we'll be less prone to be like that if God will teach
us to keep our mouth shut and bow. All right, here's the third
thing. Why did the Lord tell Peter,
get thee behind me, Satan? Verse 23. But he turned and said
unto Peter, get thee behind me, Satan. Thou art an offense unto
me. For thou saverest not the things
that be of God, but those that be of men. Now that is one harsh statement
to look at Peter and say, get thee behind me, Satan. Man, that's
harsh. Why'd the Lord do that? Well,
because at that moment, Peter was under the control of Satan.
You know, anything that takes our attention away from Christ
alone, from his righteousness alone, from his blood alone,
from his holiness alone, from his word alone, anything that
takes our attention away from Christ alone is of Satan. We
need to remember that. Before we get going off on a
tangent, we need to remember that anything that takes our
attention off of Christ alone is of Satan. Now that's how serious
this thing is. I know some folks think, you
know, I'm too dogmatic and I'm too emphatic about this. Well, I don't know. I don't know
about being too dogmatic, but I want to be more. I don't know
about being too emphatic, but I want to be more. It's Christ
alone. It's Christ alone. It's Christ
alone. It's Christ alone. That means
what you and me do matters nothing. It's all Christ. Can you be too
dogmatic about that? Not if I care about your souls,
I can. The Lord told Peter, this is of Satan. He told Peter, you're
savoring the things that be of men. You're savoring man's obedience. You're savoring man's works and
man's understanding. You're savoring this earthly
kingdom, things that you can get in this earth. You're savoring
those things that be a man and you don't savor the things that
be of God. Our Lord said, I must go to Jerusalem. I must suffer at the hands of
the scribes, the Pharisees, the chief priests. I must die. I
must be raised again the third day. Peter, I must do that, and
you're not savoring it. You're not savoring that. You're
not savoring the things that be of God, and nothing can be
more God-like. Nothing can be something more
of God than the sacrifice of Christ on the tree. Nothing can
be more God-like. Because like I showed you a few
minutes ago, it glorifies all the attributes of God. It fulfills
God's covenant of grace. It seals it in the blood of his
son. Enables God to be just and the
justifier of sinners. Nothing could be more of God.
And we don't have to understand everything that went on there
at Calvary. You know, we talk about Christ
being made sin. Can you understand that? I can't. I can't. I just believe it so.
We don't have to understand everything that went on there to savor the
results of Christ's sacrifice, that he suffered and died and
rose again. The son of God now did that for
the likes of me. I believe I can savor that. I hope that's what we'll do.
I hope, I hope that the Lord will enable us to do that, to
savor those things, to be of God. His sacrifice, His righteousness,
His salvation, His redemption, His person, to savor Him and
not savor these things that be of men. The flesh will keep pushing
us to that. And I mean by that, I mean our
flesh. I'm not just talking about other people's flesh. I'm talking
about our flesh will keep pushing that. God help us not to savor
it and teach us to savor these things that be of God, that be
found in our Lord Jesus Christ. All right. Oh, God bless that
too.