I'd like for you to turn with
me this morning to Matthew chapter 16. And our lesson will be in verses
13 through 19. I think you all will recognize
this as we read through it. Matthew chapter 16 verse 13. When Jesus came into the coast
of Caesarea Philippi, He asked his disciples, saying, Whom do
men say that I, the Son of Man, am? And they said, Some say thou
art John the Baptist, some Elias, or Elijah, and others Jeremiah,
or one of the prophets. Nobody was agreed on who He was. This is the Son of God, the One
promised from the beginning, and no one could agree on exactly
who He was. Verse 15, He saith unto them,
But whom say ye that I am? And Simon Peter answered and
said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus
answered and said unto him, 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 that
thou art Peter." That word is a little stone, a little rock. And upon this rock I will build
my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
And I'll give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and
whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven,
and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven."
Now there are five things that I want you to consider as we
look at these verses, which I just read to you. And these five things,
I believe, are the very basis of all gospel preaching. The
first thing I want you to look at is the Lord's declaration
of Himself. He begins, even in His question,
with a declaration of who He is. He refers to Himself in verse
13 as the Son of Man. Whom do men say that I, the Son
of Man, am? What does He mean by the Son
of Man? Way back yonder in Genesis 3,
verse 15, after the fall of man, the Lord came to Adam and Eve
in the garden. And He slew a lamb there. How do I know it was a lamb?
Because when Abel came, taught of his father, he brought a lamb
to the altar. He slew a lamb and he covered
their naked bodies with its skin. And he gave to them in the light
of that sacrificial lamb the promise of a coming Redeemer. He called him the woman's seed. And when Adam knew his wife Eve
and she brought forth her firstborn son who was Cain, when she brought
forth that child, she said, I have gotten a man. Now people who
know a lot more about the language than I do tell me that reads
like this in the original, I have gotten the man. She thought this
son was the son of man promised to her by the Lord in the garden. Now, a woman doesn't have a seed,
so a seed must be divinely and according to His promise be put
within her. And this offspring will be the
Son of Man, the promised Son, the woman's seed. And all down
through time, this seed can be traced. All through the Old Testament,
you can find this seed. Adam's seed is cursed. and so
the seed of all his offspring. The seed of promise must be of
God and yet a man. He must be the Son of God and
the Son of Man. All down through time, this seed
is mentioned in connection with the promise of redemption. He
shall be the seed of Jesse, the seed of David, And then in particular,
Abraham. In Genesis 17, 7, the Lord said
to Abraham, I will establish my covenant between me and thee,
and listen, and thy seed, and thy seed after thee in their
generation for an everlasting covenant to be a God unto thee
and to thy seed after thee. All of the promises of this coming
Redeemer and Messiah are in connection with this seed. Turn with me
to Galatians chapter 3. So the Son of Man is the hope
of man. That's what he's talking about.
The Son of Man is the resurrection of man. The Son of Man is the
way of salvation. The Son of Man is the object
of faith. And the Son of Man is the basis
for all the promised blessings of the covenant of God. The Son
of Man. Galatians 3, verse 16. Now to Abraham and his seed were
the promises made. He saith not, and to seeds as
of many, but as of one unto thy seed, which is Christ." You see
that? And all down through the Bible,
you can follow that seed. And that's what that seed means. This is who He is. He's the promised
one, the sent one, the seed of woman. The question then is not
so much what I believe, as whom I believe. You see how our Lord
put the question right where it ought to be? Whom do men say
that I, the Son of Man, am? It's a question of whom, not
what. And here's the second thing.
Whom do men, worldly, ignorant, religious men, say that I, the
Son of Man, am? How do they describe me? What
significance do they attach to my being? How do they explain
my coming and ministry and miracles? What is the name they give me? Whom do men say that I, the Son
of Man, am? Those who have been raised in
religion, taught from the Scriptures, Whom do they say that I, the
Son of Man, am? Now, since we're confined to
30 minutes, let me look at these answers in a general way. In
the 14th verse of Matthew chapter 16, he mentions three very significant
prophets. Prophets who would have been
above. just the simple name prophet.
They would have been outstanding men, like Moses. And some said
he was John the Baptist, that is, that prophet of whom Moses
spoke that would come. John the Baptist, and he had
already come and gone. And then Elijah, whose name was
connected in spirit and attitude to John the Baptist. But they
didn't see that. They looked for a literal resurrection
of Elijah. They looked for Elijah to appear
in the last days. And so some said that's who it
is. And then some Jeremiah. The writers are all crisscrossed
about this, but most of them say that there was a lot of things
in common with Jeremiah. The length of his stay on this
earth, the length of his ministry, all that type of thing. is all
very common with what the Lord Jesus Christ said. But I believe,
more than anything, it's that Jeremiah was the intercessor.
He was the weeping prophet. And in that sense, they saw the
compassion of this man, Jesus of Nazareth, and gave him the
name Jeremiah. But I'll settle on the last statement
of the verse. One of the prophets. Now, a prophet
in Israel was a title of great distinction. They were highly
favored messengers of God. These were men who carried the
message of God to Israel. And God often accompanied them
with miracles and wonders and signs. By Moses' hand, God split
a sea. You think about that. He split
a sea, and an entire nation of millions of people marched across
on dry ground. And you can go on and on and
on with the iron that floated, and the walls of the Jordan at
flood stage stacking up, and the sun standing still, and on
and on with miracles and things done by their hand. They were
all looked upon with honor and called saints. But in the end,
they were all just men, and they all died. bound with limitations of men,
weaknesses of men, sins of men. Now let me tell you something
here. Most so-called Christian religions will confess the deity
of Christ. You're going to be hard-pressed
to find any religion, Catholic or Protestant, that doesn't confess
the deity of Christ. But their ignorance of God is
what enables them to do that. The deity of which they speak
is entirely different from the deity proclaimed in the Bible. The deity of the Bible declares
God an absolute sovereign. He doeth according to His will,
David said, in the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants
of the earth. He's done whatsoever He pleased. In one place, the Lord said this,
talking about these same people to which He addresses here. He
said, Thou thoughtest I was altogether such a one as thyself. That's
your thought. That sums up man's thought of
God. Man thinks that God is altogether
such a one as himself. He measures God by himself. He measures God's rights and
God's laws and God's will in the light of His. And he puts
limitations on God. God can't do this and God can't
do that. And he limits God. In Romans 1, Paul declares this
to be the condemnation of the heathen. When they knew God,
just in that limited light of conscience and creation, when
they knew God, They glorified Him not as God. Neither were thankful, but became
vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.
And they changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an
image made like unto man. And from there, everything is
downhill. Birds, four-footed beasts, and creeping things. Religion takes from the Son of
Man the deity of His person, and He leaves Him among the other
sons of God. Highly esteemed, yes, but not
the living God. Not the living God. All right,
here's the third thing. Whom do you say that I am? That's what the world says. What
do you say? What do you say? Turn with me to Galatians chapter
4. Peter said, Thou art the Christ,
the Son of the living God. Now watch this, Galatians 4,
verse 4. But when the fullness of the
time was come, what time? The time purposed of God, when
the Son of Man should appear on the earth. When the fullness
of the time was come, God sent forth His Son. made of a woman,
made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law
that we might receive the adoption of sons. Who is this made in
Mary's womb? Who is this? Brethren, these things are serious.
These are serious things. These are things that men take
for granted. Men overlook. Men just come in. Ignorant as a box of rocks and
wave their hands and call that worshiping God. They don't know
God. It was the Son of God who was
made of the woman. And He was made a man, as a representative
man, a federal head in covenant surety of His people. And so
He must be made under the law to redeem. This world was his
garden. His garden. Adam had one statute
to keep. The Lord Jesus Christ kept the
whole law. The whole law. His life, his
temptations, his suffering, his everyday trials were all part
of his obedience as our representative head. He made himself. He who thought it not robbery
to be equal with God. You see how he states that? He who thought it not robbery
to be equal with God made himself of no reputation. Nobody made
him to do it. He made himself of no reputation
and took on him the form of a servant and was made in the likeness
of men. And being found in passion as
a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even
the death of the cross. The Lord Jesus Christ as a man
took my place under the awesome demands of the holy law and was
tempted exactly as I am, yet without sin. This man Jesus of
Nazareth, the Word made flesh who dwelt among us, is the end
of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. And the God-man, as the substitute
for all his elect, took upon himself the weight of our sins
before the holy justice of God and bare our sins in his own
body on the tree. He bore our griefs, Isaiah said,
and carried our sorrows. Wounded for our transgressions,
bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement of our peace was
upon him. All we like sheep have gone astray.
We've turned everyone to his own way. And the Lord hath laid
on him the iniquity of us all. For the transgression of my people,"
it says, he was stricken. And in this condition, God shall
see the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied. Peter said, Thou art the Christ. Now, that's not what he said.
He said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. This is the God-man. The God-man. And then fourthly, we've got
here the blessings of the revelation. Listen to this. Matthew 16, verse
17, Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood hath not
revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. Now
turn back with me again to Galatians chapter 4. Peter, you didn't
figure this thing out on your own. You didn't sit over in some dark
corner until 2 o'clock in the morning puzzling over this mystery
and suddenly it popped into your head. That's not how this came
about. Flesh and blood didn't reveal
this to you. The other eleven apostles didn't get you over
in the corner and buttonhole you and explain these mysteries
of God to you. That's not how you got it. Flesh
and blood didn't reveal these things to you, Peter, but my
Father which art in heaven. Galatians 4, verse 6, And because ye are sons, God
has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying,
Abba, Father. That's why the Father revealed
these things to Peter, because he was a son. And that's why
He revealed them to you, those of you who know it, because you're
a son. You're an heir. The revelation
of Christ is the revelation of God and His eternal purpose of
grace in Christ. Our calling is a holy calling,
it says, not according to our works, but according to His own
purpose and grace given us in Christ Jesus before the world
began. And it is not a revelation of
a few obscure facts, but a complete and total revelation of even
the deep things of God. Aren't you astounded sometimes
just with what the Lord has taught you? Aren't you just absolutely
dumbfounded? that these men who are college
educated, these men who are sharp as a razor, they can figure anything
out. They're sharp. They're schooled. They're educated and know nothing
about God. And yet you know the deep things
of God, profound things, things that leave the natural man scratching
his head. Leavers are not ignorant, and
they are not blind. They are sons of God, and they
are heirs with Christ. And the Spirit of the living
God abides in them. And this revelation is according
to the unchangeable Father of glory. Every good gift and every
perfect gift cometh down from the Father of lights. That is
where it comes from. With whom is no variableness.
Neither shadow of turning. And then fifthly, let's look
at this just briefly. Matthew 16, verse 19. He says to Peter, And I will
give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven. What in the
world is he talking about? Well, I tell you, just about
every old religious picture I've ever seen has St. Peter at the Golden Gate. And he's got the keys. That's
not what this is talking about. That's not what this is talking
about. And this is not talking about Peter as the head of the
church. I know the Catholics look at
Peter and they look at this confession and that's where they get the
basis for the Pope or Victor or whatever you want to call
him. But that's far from what this is talking about either. Christ is the rock upon which
the church is built, against which the gates of hell should
not prevail, not Peter. And these promises and declarations
given to Peter is the promise of the gospel. That's what he's
talking about when he says, I'm going to give you the keys that
unlock the mysteries of the kingdom of God. It's the gospel. It's this gospel revelation. It didn't come by flesh and blood,
but from my Father. And I'm going to give you this.
I'm going to give you these keys. I'm going to give you what this
world don't know. And whatsoever you bind here,
it will be bound there. Why? Because it's God's gospel. And what's binding here is binding
there. And what's binding there is binding
here. This is talking about the gospel
given to Peter. And Peter was the first of the
New Testament ministers to preach to both Jews and Gentiles. Christ is the head of the church.
His apostles, as they established the local church and finished
out the full canon of God, and then his pastor and teachers.
It's the gospel of Christ and the revelation of God's Spirit
that unlocks these mysteries of the kingdom and sets the captives
free. And Christ is the rock upon which
the church of God is built. And any gospel preacher knows
that. And every believer knows that.
They all know it. He's the foundation. What other
foundation can no man lay than that which is laid? Christ the
Lord.