for our scripture reading. And
I'll read verses 27 through 33. And Jesus went out and his disciples
in into the towns of Caesarea Philippi,
and by the way, that is, as they walked, journeyed to their destination,
he asked his disciples, saying unto them, Whom do men say that
I am? And they answered, John the Baptist. But some say Elias, or Elijah,
and others, one of the prophets. And he saith unto them, but whom
say ye that I? And Peter answereth and saith
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, be rejected of the elders
and of the chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and after
three days, rise again. Our Father, we ask you this morning
that during these difficult times, and we've been forced to do things
that we are not comfortable with, things that we don't want to
do, and yet we don't want to appear rebels in our community. And so we'd ask you this morning
that you be with us and help us to give you the glory
for all of these things that are taking place, knowing that
they're necessary. and that these things are according
to your purpose and your grace. And knowing that these things
are for our ultimate good and for your glory. Now be with us
this morning as we have these services and open our hearts
and our minds and enable us to worship you with understanding,
worship you in spirit and in truth. We ask it for Christ's
sake. All right. Page 186. Page 186. The Church's One Foundation. Page 186. The Church's one foundation is
Jesus Christ, her Lord. She is His new creation by water
and the Word. From heaven he came and sought
her to be his holy bride. With his own blood he bought
her and for her life he died. Ye lake from every nation, yet
one o'er all the earth. Her charter of salvation, one
Lord, one faith, one birth. One holy name she blesses, partakes
one holy food. And to one hope she presses with
every grace endued. Middle in tribulation and tumult
of her war, She waits the consummation of peace forevermore. Till with the vision glorious,
her longing eyes are blessed. and the great church victorious
shall be the church at rest. ? Yet she on earth hath union
? ? With God the three in one ? ? And mystic sweet communion
? ? With those whose rest is won ? ? O happy ones and holy,
Lord God of hosts ? us grace that we, like them the meek and
lowly, on high may dwell with thee. The lesson this morning is taken
from Mark chapter 8, out of the verses that I read to you earlier. And my subject is, what men say. What men say. Our Lord asked,
how do men react to my preaching? How do men, what do they say
about me? And then he asked them, now what
do you say? What do you say? I want to read
you something over here. If I can find it again. Over here in Matthew, I think
it's chapter 13. No, chapter 12. He's talking to the Pharisees. And he says in verse 34, old
generation of vipers, how can you being evil speak good things? For out of the abundance of the
heart, the mouth speaketh. A good man out of the good treasure
of the heart bringeth forth good things. And an evil man out of
the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things. But I say unto you
that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give
account thereof in the day of judgment. For by thy words thou
shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned. That's my message this morning,
what men say. In all four of the Gospels, Matthew,
Mark, Luke, and John, they record the well-attested miracles of
Christ. These things were seen by all
that were around them, believers and unbelievers. They were seen
by the paupers of the day, and they were seen by kings and royalty.
These things were well-attested. Nobody could deny it. When Peter
on that day of Pentecost stood up to preach to him, he said,
Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles
and wonders and signs, which God did by him in your midst,
as you yourselves also know. You know it. You were there.
You saw it. You can't deny it. He raised
the dead, he cleansed the lepers, he gave sight to the blind, he
cast out demons, he fed the multitudes, on and on and on the list goes.
And these miracles were well known even by those who had no
interest in the things of God at all. I dare say you could
go into a local bar down here and all these men about half
souched in there on a Saturday night and you talk to them about
these miracles, every one of them will know what you're talking
about. They've heard them their whole lives. And it is the knowledge
of these things and what they truly mean that is at the heart
of what I want to say to you today. And I want to give you
at the outset what God the Holy Ghost says about these things,
about these miracles. In John chapter 20, verses 30
and 31. Turn over there with me if you
will. John chapter 20, verses 30 and 31. Now he's come to the
end and he's about to ascend into glory. And this is what
it says about him and the things that he did. Verse 30 of John chapter 20.
And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his
disciples, which are not written in this book. They're not recorded, but some
were. But these are written, verse
31, that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son
of God, and that believing you might have life through his name. Now that's what these miracles
are all about. And Mark has recorded many of
the miracles that Jesus performed in the presence of his disciples.
You will recall the woman with the issue of blood. He healed
her. and Jairus' daughter, the casting
out of the demons in legion. He fed great multitudes with
a handful of loaves and a few fishes. He gave ears to a deaf
man and eyes to the blind. And on and on and on the list
goes with the miracles that Christ has done. And then along the
way to Caesarea Philippi, our Lord turned to his disciples
and he said, whom do men say that I am? You're out here, I'm up here
teaching, you're out there in the audience and you can hear
people mumbling around and after the services you're milling around
among them and I've sent you out among them and you went out
and prayed. What do men say? Whom do men say that I am? And this is the issue right here. Who is Jesus Christ? Who is he? Who is this Jesus of Nazareth? Who is he? Who is he? That's the issue and that's what
our Lord said. This is what he was teaching.
This was the object of his teaching. It's the object of faith. Who
is this man, Jesus? Whom do men say that I am? Those
that I preached to, those that I fed, those whose kinsmen and
friends I healed, having heard me speak and seeing these wonders
and signs. What do they say then concerning
me? Whom do men say that I am? Well, let's begin right there.
What does the average person believe having read or heard
concerning this man Jesus of Nazareth. Whom do men say that
he is? Well, his disciples said, some
say you're John the Baptist. You're John the Baptist. We've
read the Old Testament. We know that one is coming who's
going to be the forerunner of Christ, and they say that's you. Malachi, the last prophet of
the Old Testament, spoke of the coming of the forerunner of Christ,
saying, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming
of that great and dreadful day of the Lord. And this, our Lord
said, if they would have it, was Elijah. He came in the spirit
and character of Elijah. The Jews rejected the idea of
John being the forerunner of Christ because they would have
to accept that Jesus then was the Christ. And yet they could
not deny the miracles that he did. They could not deny his
popularity with the people. They could not deny the very
providence of God. And so they were content to say
that he was the forerunner of the Christ. Or perhaps a great
teacher. Even a prophet of God. Now a
prophet to a Jew was a great honor. That, to them, was the
highest known office in the earth, was a prophet. God spoke to the
people through a prophet. He always did. Always did. And then others said he was Elijah,
one of the prophets. Moses spoke of the coming of
another like unto him, but greater. Indeed, our Lord was that prophet
of whom Moses gave witness. But Christ didn't fit their ideas
of the Christ. Jesus of Nazareth did not fit
their concept of a Redeemer, of this coming Messiah. They
looked for one who would rise up from their ranks. He would
be taught in their schools. He would be numbered among them.
He would be with them. in their faith, and with them,
and fellowship with them, and walk with them, and honor them,
but he would rise up and come up above them. And this is what
they looked for. One who would rise up from their
ranks to become king, or one who would rise up from their
purest ranks and become the great high priest of which the scripture
spoke. And they were willing to uh... confer upon him all the honors
but not the title of messiah they would not give him back
and even today we have no more information than they did you
say well we've got all kinds of information no you don't i'm
still looking at the same miracles that they looked at i'm still
looking and reading the same prophets that they read I'm still
looking at the same account that God gave of his son. You see
what I'm saying? We don't have anything new. The
only thing, if we have anything new that they didn't have, it
would be the presence of the Holy Ghost. We have that. But the Holy Ghost
didn't wait till the very last century to work. He was working
in Elijah. He was working in all of Moses
and all of But he came in full scale upon his church in the
last days. The Word of God gives us nothing
which it didn't give them. I'm saying these things to you
because I want you to relate to their reactions. Because their
reactions, it hadn't changed. It's the same today as it was
then. It's the very same. The Bible
records the same miracles, the same parables, the same teaching,
the same prophets which they had. In fact, it says, whatsoever
things were written aforetime were written for our learning
that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might
have hope. Romans 15, 4. And we go to school. We work
at our various occupations. We interact to some degree with
society at large. Whom do men say that our Lord
is? What do they say about Him? Well,
I dare say even though they use the name Savior, and they use
the name Messiah, and even the Christ, they give Him no more
accreditation than the Jews of old. They'll only give Him accreditation
of a prophet. He's limited. They limit Him. as a man, just like they did
a prophet. He's inspired by God. God works
in him, but he's not God. They won't give him that accreditation.
He's a great teacher, he's a great leader, he's a great example,
he's a great inspiration, he's a great martyr, but not God come
into the flesh. The world will own him to be
most anything but not the biblical Christ. And then secondly, let's
hear from those who truly believed. Those who did believe. He said,
whom do you say that I am? That's what men said and they
heard the same thing you heard. Now what do you say? Having heard
the same things, having seen the same miracles, what do you
say? Those whose faith is confirmed
in the word of God, and as well, they're given these things of
God. In Mark 8, 29, he saith unto
them, but whom say ye that I am? And Peter answered and saith
unto him, thou art the Christ. I'm gonna show you something
from the scriptures this morning. These accounts of these same
things are given in these other books. And I want to show you
just how complete those accounts make this and why they had more
than just one. He's not a Christ. He's not a
Messiah. He's the Christ. In Matthew's
account, in Matthew 16, 16, he records some additional words
of Peter's confession. He said, thou art the Christ,
the son of the living God. In order to be the Christ, you
must be the son of the living God, and that's what they said
about him. And then Luke quotes him saying
this, thou art the Christ of God. The Christ is the promised Savior,
Redeemer, deliver, he was foretold from the days of the garden,
the woman's seed, Genesis 3.15. He'd suffer at the hands of Satan,
but in the end, he'd crush Satan's head. And his particular and
effectual redemption was pictured as the Lord slayed a lamb and
covered them with his skin, way back yonder in the garden. And so on and so forth, all the
way through the scriptures, he's pictured and promised and prophesied
of. In Acts 10, verse 43, it says
to him, give all the prophets witness that through his name,
whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins. And
I'll be honest with you, from the time I was a child growing
up in a Nazarene church, I heard the terms Christ, the Christ
child, the Messiah, the Savior, the Redeemer, and so forth. All
my life I heard these things. And if anybody would have asked
me who Jesus of Nazareth is, I'd have told them. He's the
Christ. He's the Savior. That's what they said. But I
gave that name no more thought than if he'd used the name Jesus,
and most of the time they did, or if they'd used the name Joshua,
or if they used the name Jeremiah. I gave it no more thought than
that. They're just general terms, nothing specific, nothing with
any meaning to it. Nobody ever took the time to
tell us what they meant by the terms savior. You can't be a savior if you
can't save, can you? You can't be a redeemer unless
you can redeem. But they say he's a savior, but
he can't save. He's got to have your help to
save. You have to let him save you. You see what I'm saying? They
don't attribute to him, he's not the Christ of God by God's
account. Nobody ever took the time to
tell us that he must be the son of God to be the Christ of God. I like that, I like Luke's description
there in his book. He is the Christ of God. The
Christ by God's definition, by his testimony. In John 8 and
verse 13, the Pharisees said, thou barest record of thyself,
thy record is not true. Now listen to this. Jesus answered
and said unto them, though I bear record of myself, yet my record
is true, for I know whence I came and whither I go. But you can't
tell whence I came and whither I go. You judge after the flesh,
fleshly reasoning, fleshly foundation, fleshly thought. You judge after the flesh. Fleshly
feelings and concepts and philosophy and yet if I judge my judgments
true for I'm not alone But I and the father that sent me He said
it's also written in your law that the testimony of two men
is true I'm one that beareth witness of myself and the father
that sent me beareth witness of me You see what I'm saying
Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ of God And he tells them that,
and after a while they got frustrated with him and they said, if you
be the Messiah, if you be the Christ, tell us plainly. Well
my soul, how plainly can you get? And that's exactly what
he told them. I told you, but you believe not
because you're not of my seed. He's the Christ of God. God come
into the flesh. He's the Savior, Redeemer, Deliverer,
Substitute, by God's definition, and not ours. See, this is why
I just, I just, I just having trouble believing that He just
died for certain ones. It's not up to you. This is the
Christ of God. We're going to receive Him by
God's testimony or we're not receiving Him at all. We're believing
on another Jesus. You see what I'm saying? He's the Christ of God and that
by God's definition. This is that blessed confession
which our Lord told Peter when He said it there in Matthew.
He said, flesh and blood didn't reveal this to you, Peter. with
all your background and all your pharisaic teachings and all that
the Jews, all their traditional foundations and all of these
things. He said, flesh and blood didn't reveal this to you. You
didn't just come up with this. But I hear men tell me that they
do all the time. I'm just sitting in my closet
and it just came to me. No, it didn't. It didn't come
to you. You heard it. You heard it, that's
the only way you can know it, is to hear it. It's written,
it's written right there, but you'll never come up with it. Well you say, how do you know
that? How can you say that? Because that's what God said.
Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard. Now listen, neither have entered
into the heart of man the things that God hath prepared for them
that love him. You tell me you come up with it. You ain't got
it in you to come up with. You'll hear it or you won't have
it at all. And you'll bow to it or go to
hell. That's just how important this question is and that's what
our Lord is pressing on these disciples. This is the issue. The issue ain't who the Pharisees
are and what people gonna think if you turn your back on them.
That's not the issue. The issue is not we're sitting
out here alone and everybody else out here is Antichrist.
The issue is who is this man, Jesus of Nazareth? Who is he?
Who is he? And I tell you, knowing who he
is, the only way you can be saved. There ain't no other way. That's eternal life, isn't it?
That's what it says. John said, we know that the Son
of God has come and given to us an understanding that we may
know Him that is true, that we're in Him that is true. This is the true God and eternal
life. And we have nothing to say as
believers of our own. If I say anything at all, I'm
going to have to show it to you in the Word of God. I don't have
anything original. It's just by the word of God
and our agreement to the same. That's why I want to sing that
song this morning. The church's one foundation is
Jesus Christ the Lord. That's the foundation. And redemption,
salvation, reconciliation are all biblical terms, not terms
spawned by man's experiences and his feelings and his history.
These terms and pictorial illustrations and definitions are things broken
down by God so that ignorant poor sinners like we are can
at least get some conception of what they are. When old Nicodemus
questioned the new birth, he was an intellectual. You have
to remember that. He told the Lord, he said, are
you saying I gotta crawl back in my mother's womb and be born
again? Kind of a smart aleck, wasn't he? Our Lord looked at him and
he said, if I told you earthly things and you believe not, how
shall you believe if I tell you heavenly things? What if I were
to tell you things on my level? Right over your head. Even some
of the simplest illustrations in the world in the Bible, right
over our head. Over in the book of, let's see,
I think it's in 2 Peter. Peter said, talking about Paul,
he said, and he said some things hard to be understood. Hard to
be understood. Right over his head. Now he said,
what if I told you things on my level? You wouldn't get anything. The terms and all these illustrations
and definitions are broken down by God and broken down so that
us poor, broken down sinners can perceive them. He told Nicodemus,
he said, no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came
down from heaven, even the Son of Man, which is in heaven. Now
you try to gulp all that down. He came down, he went back, and
he's down here talking to you, but he's in heaven at the same
time. He's our wisdom, he's our understanding. We know, John said, of these
things. And how awful in the sight of
God must we appear when we strut around before him like we're
wise men. Flesh and blood didn't reveal
these things to you, Peter, but my Father which is in heaven.
And salvation by the mysterious work of the Spirit is a very
real and necessary thing. And those left to themselves
will draw their own opinions from themselves and from established
religion and from local philosophy. They draw from what the scriptures
calls in Colossians 2, the rudiments of this world. That word rudiment
is an interesting word. I like to look these words up
every now and then. But this word rudiment, it means
rudimentary or basic principle. But it also means an undeveloped
principle. I didn't know that until I looked
it up this time. The rudimentary principles of
this world are undeveloped. In other words, they're in theory,
they're in concept, they're always reaching out, but they're not
gonna take a stand on it. It's a principle in undeveloped
form, one derived from a source not yet established. The Lord
said, I came down from heaven. I know what I'm talking about.
What are you talking about? I know where I got my information,
and I know where you got yours. In short, from a fallen flesh.
And there's no end to the contributing factors that enter into the judgments
derived by our past. Just no end to it. It's an ungodly
mixture of science, so-called, and philosophy, and religion,
and feelings. But God the Holy Spirit has given
to us and in us a holy unction. That is the ability to tell the
difference between right and wrong. That word unction is an
interesting word. It means anointing. It means
a healing balm, a soothing ointment. And in Revelation 3.18, he speaks
of having our eyes anointed with eye salve, a soothing ointment
he puts on our eyes that we might see. And as the precious gospel
of Christ is declared to us both from the word of God and from
the preaching of the gospel, we're enabled by God the Holy
Ghost to know the difference between lies and truth and between
liars and preachers of the gospel. Later, in 1 John 4, the apostle
said, we are of God. What a statement. Knowing where he came from, knowing
what was yet abiding in him, he said, we are of God. He that knoweth God, heareth
us. He that's not of God, heareth
not us. Hereby know ye the spirit of
truth and the spirit of error. Man taught of God, that man will
speak what God has taught him. That's what he's gonna say. And
you'll know him by his words. Isn't that what our Lord said? That's the only justification
he's gonna have is the gospel he preaches. You'll know him
by his words. Know him by his words. Unbelieving and unregenerated
men speak what they've been taught of men and what they've been
taught by the influence of Antichrist and of this corrupt world. Men called of God speak what
God has taught them. May the Lord be pleased to be
our teacher for Christ's sake. Amen.