I have entitled this message,
Get Thee Behind Me, Satan. Try to put yourself in Peter's
shoes for just a moment. is God, says to Peter, get thee
behind me, Satan. Thou art an offense to me. Mark's account says when he turned
about and looked upon his disciples, he rebuked Peter saying, get
thee behind me, Satan. There was something very public
about this withering rebuke. And how must Peter have felt? Perhaps he felt like it was all
over for him. I try to think if the Lord said that to me,
get thee behind me, Satan. The Lord is saying to Peter,
you're as bad as the devil. You are in league with him and
you're just like him. And he said this to an apostle.
I do not know of a more withering and stern rebuke in all the word
of God. Get thee behind me, Satan. Now, we would do well to look
at this very closely. Why did the Lord say this? to
Peter. Would he say this to me? Get thee behind me, Satan. Now let's begin in verse 13 of
Matthew chapter 16. 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? What are men saying about
me? Now you have an opinion this
morning concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. You have an opinion.
Nobody's neutral. You have an opinion concerning
Christ. What are men saying about me? Verse 14, and they said, some
say, thou art John the Baptist, and some Elijah, and others Jeremiah,
or one of the prophets. They put you in some pretty illustrious
company, but their opinions are different, and they are varied. You see, error is always multiple
choice, isn't it? And their opinions are contradictory.
He can't be John the Baptist and Jeremiah. And what they were
saying made Christ out to be lower than he actually is to
compare him to a man. That's a slam. I don't care if it's the best
man to ever live. He's nothing in comparison to the Lord Jesus
Christ. He's the God man. I read a book recently and one
of the statements the writer made, he said, how God is like
George Washington. And I thought, no, God is not
like George Washington in any way. He can't be compared to
anybody. He's God. Then the Lord says,
verse 15, he saith unto them, but whom say ye that I am without
commenting on what men say, What do you say? When God looks into
your heart, and he sees in your heart, doesn't he? He knows what's
really there right now. When God looks into your heart,
what are the thoughts he sees concerning his blessed son? What do you think of the Lord
Jesus Christ Here is the issue and the only issue. Did you hear me? This is the
only issue. What do you think of Christ? Verse 16. And Simon Peter answered and
said, thou art the Christ, the son of the living God. What an answer. Thou art the
Christ, God's prophet, the word of God, God's priest, God's king,
your God, the son of the living God. You're not like God. You are God, the son of the living
God. The son of God is who he is.
The Christ is his offices that refers to his work. So when Peter
is making this confession, whom say ye that I am, he's referring
to the person and work of Christ. You're God, the son, you're God's
word. You're God's prophet. You're
God's preacher. God's king, the person and work of Christ. Now
our message. is who Jesus Christ is. That is our message. Nothing else even matters. That's our message. Now, do you hear that? It's who
Jesus Christ is. I used to listen to Brother Mahan
say, you don't come to Christ through doctrine. You come to
your doctrine through Christ. And I used to wonder what that
meant. I know now. I know. You find out who He is,
the doctrine will be obvious. There won't be anything to argue
about. You find out who Jesus Christ is, you'll know He must
be successful in what He does. You've got no other options. What think ye of Christ? You know, one time the Lord was
preaching to 5,012 people. And 5,000 of them left him. And
he looked at the 12, and he said, will you also go away? There's
the door. Will you also go away? And Peter answered, Lord, to
whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal
life, and we believe and are sure that thou art that Christ,
the Son of the living God. Now, this is the issue. What
think ye of Christ? When God looks in your heart,
what does He say? Verse 17. Now, here is our Lord's reply
to Peter after he gives this glorious confession. 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." Now you listen to me real carefully. Do you
believe in your heart that Jesus Christ is the Son of God? Do
you believe He's the uncreated, eternal Creator? God the Son. Do you really believe that? Do
you really believe that Jesus is the Christ, God's prophet,
God's priest, and God's king? Do you believe that? Listen to
me, whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of
God. If you really believe that, you
know why you believe it? It's not because you figured it out.
It's because God revealed himself. Blessed art thou Simon bar Jonah
flesh and blood didn't reveal this to you, but my father Which
is in heaven? verse 18 and I say unto thee
that thou art Peter and upon this rock I Will build my church
and the gates of hell Shall not prevail against it Now, this
is the confession of the church, who He is. This is the rock, this confession,
who Jesus Christ is. This is all that matters. This
is all that's relevant. who he is. This is the rock upon
which Jesus Christ builds his church, this confession of him.
He's not talking about Peter. Peter's not the rock upon which
he built his church. Peter's a little rock. He's talking
about Peter's confession. Peter was a weak man. Peter was
a sinful man, just like you and I are. You think the Lord would
build his church upon you? Well, he wouldn't. You'd say, of course
not. We wouldn't build it on Peter either. He built it upon
this confession concerning who he is. Thou art the Christ, the
son of the living God. That's who he is. And this is
the confession that he builds his church upon. And the gates
of hell shall not prevail against it. You know what that means?
God is going to knock down the gates of hell and rescue all
of his elect through this confession. The gates of hell won't be able
to keep this confession out. Oh, there's such power in the
gospel. Who he is. I love that scripture. Who is
he that can condemn? It's Christ that died. What else
has to be said? It's Christ. This is the confession. of the church. And this message
is the message that will knock down the gates of hell. Oh, who he is has such awesome
power. When those men came to arrest
the Lord Jesus Christ and he said, Whom seek ye? And they
said, Jesus of Nazareth. And he said, I am. Remember what happened? They
went backward and they fell to the ground. You see, he is the
eternal I And this is what will knock the
gates of hell down. Verse 19. He says to Peter. And I will 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, I realize some
people have looked at that as the message that the Pope, you
know, Peter was the first Pope and the Pope has power to bind
on earth and heaven. If he says you're forgiven, you're
forgiven. If he says you're not, you're
not. Whatever you say goes. How would
you folks like it if I had that kind of power? How would you like it? You'd
be in trouble, wouldn't you? I mean, I might say everything would
be good, but cross me once and see what happens. That's not
what the Lord is saying in any way. The Lord is saying those
who reject this message on earth are rejected in heaven. And those
who receive this message on earth and are set free by this message
on earth, they're set free in heaven. This is the keys of the
kingdom. This is God's doctrine. The Lord
said, He that heareth you, heareth me. And he that despiseth you,
despiseth me. Verse 20, Then charged he his
disciples that they should tell no man that he was Jesus the
Christ. You know, Christ did not come
here to found a new religion. He didn't come here to gain a
following. He came here to die. He came
here to make atonement for the sins of those the father gave
him. That was his purpose for coming. He came to die. He'll
not cry nor cause his voice to be heard in the streets. He wasn't
trying to gain a following. He came to die. Verse 21, from
that time forth, began Jesus to show unto his disciples how
that he must go unto Jerusalem. See, that word must, it means
it was binding. It was absolutely necessary. It was a necessity. It was a
necessity. And the only reason Christ must
do anything is he must do his Father's will. He must be obedient
to his Father. That's why he must He must go
to Jerusalem. He must suffer many things of
the elders and chief priests and scribes. And He must be killed. And He must be raised again the
third day. There's a divine necessity to
all of these things that He says. The Word means it is necessary,
it is binding, it must needs be, it's needful, it ought to
be, it should be, it behooved Him, it was necessary. It was
necessary for him to be rejected by the religious. As a matter
of fact, in the other versions, it says he must be rejected by
the scribes and Pharisees. You know why that's necessary?
To show us the dark, evil, wickedness of man's religion. It's a dark
thing. It's a devilish thing. Do you
know that if you do not believe the gospel of God's grace, if
you're not a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ, if you don't
believe grace, I mean free and sovereign grace, you're in the
devil's religion. You're in a satanic religion. That's the truth. Now, that's
strong language, but that's the truth. That's what the Lord says.
He must be rejected by the religious leaders, and these are the fellows
who claim to believe the Bible. Yet he said, I must be rejected,
but he must die. He must die. Christ came to die. Nobody else
ever came to die, but Christ came to die. We come to live.
We come to do something. Christ came for this one purpose,
to make atonement for the sins of God's elect. He came to glorify
God. He came to die. Look in Matthew chapter 23, or
excuse me, Matthew chapter 26. Verse 51, And behold, one of
them which were with Jesus stretched out his hand, and drew his sword,
and struck a servant of the higher priests, and smote off his ear.
Now the reason he cut off his ear is because he's aiming for
his head. The guy ducked and the ear came off. He was trying to
help out the Lord is what he was doing. Now what's the Lord
say? Then said Jesus unto him, Put up again thy sword into its
place. For all they that take the sword shall perish with the
sword. Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father, shall
presently give me more than 12 legions of angels? Do you think
I'm a victim in this and this is out of my control? But how
then shall the scriptures be fulfilled that thus it what?
Must be. It must be. Look over at Luke
24. This is after our Lord has risen
from the dead. He says in verse 44, And He said unto them, these
are the words which I spake unto you while I was yet with you,
that all things must be fulfilled. which were written in the Law
of Moses, and in the Prophets, and in the Psalms concerning
me. Then hopened he their understanding, that they might understand the
Scriptures. And he said unto them, Thus it's written, and
thus it behooved." That's the same word. It was necessary for
Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day.
And that repentance and remission of sin should be preached in
His name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And you're witnesses
of these things. It behooved Christ. It was necessary for
Christ. Now why? Why was it necessary for Him
to die? Let me give you two or three reasons. First, because
it was God's eternal purpose. He's called the Lamb slain from
the very foundation of the world, and it was absolutely necessary
for Him to die. It was God's purpose that Him
being delivered by the determined counsel and foreknowledge of
God, you have taken and with wicked hands have crucified and
slain. It was God's purpose. He had to die because the justice
of God demanded it. You see, he was made sin. The
sins of God's elect became his so that he was guilty. He deserved
to die. The wages of sin is death. Sin
was upon him. He deserved to die. Why must
he die? Because God is just. That's why
he must die. You know, this is a true story.
And I think it serves to give a little bit of an illustration
of the justice of God. There was a judge in somewhere in England that
was loved by the townspeople, a very just, fair man and everybody
respected him. And he had a son who was guilty
of some horrible crime. And he was caught red-handed
and justice called for his death. But the people of that town loved
this judge so much that they said, we're not going to punish
your boy. The next day, the bell was ringing in the village
and everybody came out to find out what was going on. And they
saw that judge's son hanging by the neck, dead. And that judge said with tears
in his eyes, nobody is above the law. Now that man was just,
wasn't he? impartial justice. The reason Christ must die is
God must punish sin. He can't let sin go unpunished. He would cease to be God if Christ
was not punished because Christ was made sin. Christ was guilty. Christ deserved to die because
my sin truly became His. He bore my sin in His own body. He deserved it. Why must Jesus
Christ be raised from the dead? Because the justice of God demands
it. Because sin was paid for. Because
iniquity was wiped out. And the very justice of God demands
the salvation of everybody that the Lord Jesus Christ died for.
Oh, the justice of God, the grace of God, the purpose of God demands
it. He was delivered for our offenses
and raised again for our justification. You see, there is an absolute
necessity, a must needs be in His glorious death. Verse 22, Then Peter took Him, After he
made this statement regarding his death, then Peter took him
and began to rebuke him, saying, Be it far from thee, Lord. My
marginal reading says, Pity yourself, Lord. Pity yourself. This shall not be unto thee.
Now, I suppose it could be said that Peter meant well when he
said this. You know, he did love the Lord.
He loved him. Remember when the Lord said,
Peter, do you love me? He said, Lord, you know all things.
I appeal to your omniscience. You know that I love your person. Peter loved the Lord. And he
didn't want the Lord to go through this. And you can understand
him saying, oh, Lord, not the cross, not you, not you. Why, you can't let this happen
to you. And we can understand Peter meaning well. When he said
this, Peter did not really understand the necessity of Christ's death
at this time. So he rebuked the Lord, said,
this shall not be unto thee, verse 23. But he turned to the
Lord Jesus and said unto Peter, get thee behind me, Satan. As well meaning as that might
have appeared. Our Lord says to Peter, get thee behind me,
Satan. Thou art an offense to me. You
don't savor the things that be of God, but the things that be
of men. Now remember, there's not a more
withering rebuke in all the word of God. And this was to an apostle. And he said to this apostle,
you don't have a mind for the things of God. You don't have
a relish for the things of God. You don't have a, an understanding
of the things of God. You don't have a taste for the
things of God. You have a taste for the things that be of men.
Now, remember, there is such a thing as the things of God.
The natural man receiveth not the things of God for their foolishness
unto him. They're spiritually discerned.
He can't receive them. Remember when those fellows came
up to the Lord and said, do we need to pay taxes? They were
doing this to tempting him. And he said, show me a coin.
And he said, whose image is on it? And they said, Caesar's.
He said, render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's and
to God, the things that are God's. You don't have a relish. You
don't have a taste for the things of God. The things of God is
his own glory. the exaltation of His Son, the
salvation of the elect, the kingdom of God. The things of God is
the death of Christ and the preaching of the gospel to glorify Himself. The things of God is the cross.
Now, may God give me the grace to say what I ought to say right
now. The cross. The cross of the Lord
Jesus Christ. That is the whole counsel of
God. Our Lord had just said to Peter,
there's a divine necessity in me dying and being raised the
third day. And Peter said, no, don't let
this happen. And so he rebuked him for it. He said, you're being
satanic in saying this. You see the cross. I heard one
man say, this is one of the most glorious things I've ever heard.
He said, the cross is the most God-like thing God ever did.
Isn't that wonderful? Calvary. Golgotha's hill is the
most God-like thing that God ever did. He manifested himself
in the cross. Now, Peter, in you saying don't
go to the cross, pity yourself. That's the things that be of
men. That's the pampering. That's the protection. That's
the promotion of the flesh. Now, remember that which is highly
esteemed among men is an abomination in the sight of God. Now, verse 24. Then, after he rebuked Peter
so sternly, then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will
come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow
me. Now would you come after Christ? Would you? come after the Lord
Jesus Christ? Would you follow in his steps? Would you be his disciple? Would you be a Christian? Would you know the Lord? What
am I to do? Well, our Lord tells us very
simply, if any man's going to come after me, and that's what
a Christian is, he's somebody who comes after the Lord Jesus Christ,
he is to deny himself. Deny sinful self. Deny righteous
self. Deny, renounce, disown, abrogate,
reject, disregard self. Self-righteousness. Self-promotion. Self-seeking. Self-interest. Self-centeredness. Selfishness. I got a new way to spell sin.
S-E-L-F. Self. You can't follow Christ without
denying yourself. He must increase and I must decrease. You know, if you're a believer,
you find self-denial very attractive because you realize self is the
biggest problem you got. And you, every day I'm called
on to deny myself. And then next he says, let him
take up his cross. Now, would you follow Christ?
You're called upon to take up your cross. Now, what's that
mean? Most people when they talk about, well, I've got a cross
to bear, and they're talking about some kind of physical affliction or some
kind of problem in their life, and they say, that's my cross
that I've got to bear. No, that's not the cross he's
talking about. And everybody's got their problems
and afflictions, I realize that. But that's brought on us. We
don't pick it up. That's brought on us. But this is something
I'm willingly called upon to do. I'm supposed to take up this
cross. Now, what's he talking about
when he talks about take up your cross? He's talking about the
confession. of the cross, the confession
of what the cross teaches that's going to cause men to hate me
and reject me. That's exactly what he's talking
about. Picking up the cross that entails this confession of Christ
that will cause men to hate me and to reject me. And I'm to
take that up willingly. and actually counted as an honor
and a privilege if I'm allowed in God's grace to suffer persecution
for His sake. That's what that's a reference
to. Now understand, our lives, our personal lives,
I said this in Sunday school class this morning, our personal
lives ought to be such that no one can ever find fault with
us. Man of integrity, of morality,
of decency, of mercy. Oh, a life that exalts, that
reflects the glory of God in my conduct, in my attitude, in
how I conduct myself. Our lives ought to be that way.
They ought to, shouldn't they? They ought to. You know that.
That being said, if I am faithful, concerning what the cross has
to say, then I'm going to make enemies. And if I'm not making
enemies, the reason I'm not making enemies is because I'm not telling
anybody what I believe. It really is that simple. If
I preach the cross, If I stand for the cross, so before I go
on to talk about all the persecution we ought to be experiencing and
preaching the cross, let me remind you what the cross says. The
cross of the Lord Jesus Christ, God hanging on a cross, the God
man crucified. What's that say? Well, it tells
me the truth about me. I myself And you, I'm including
you in this bunch, we, us, all men are so evil that if God left
me to myself, I would be a murderer of Jesus Christ. That's the truth
about you completely. It shows the wickedness of man's
religion. I don't want to be identified
with human religion in any way because it's evil. It's devilish.
It's of the devil. There's no truth in it. The cross
tells the truth. I tell you, you talk about somebody's
religion that way and you find out how happy they're going to
be with you. You know, the cross, the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ,
it gives the truth regarding God, all of His attributes are
fully displayed in the cross. I see His holiness. He won't
let sin go unpunished. I see His justice. Oh, I see
His purpose. I see His wisdom, the way He's
made a way to be just and yet justify somebody like me. Oh,
I see the glory of God in the cross. Do you see the glory of
God in the cross? Do you see the divine beauty? the perfections of God that is
seen in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. His mercy, His
grace, His love. Oh my, in the cross I see salvation
completely. I see salvation in its eternal
aspect. Christ is called the Lamb slain
from the foundation of the world. And I see that my salvation,
my standing was completed and accomplished not only before
I was born, but before the world began. I was accepted in the
beloved. I was saved in the cross before
time began. Christ came to die. What he purposed
in eternity, he came to do in time. And my salvation was accomplished
in eternity because Christ was slain in eternity. Somebody says
it's as if he was slain in eternity. No, he was slain in eternity.
I don't understand that, but I believe it. I was saved in
eternity. I was saved when Christ came
and suffered on the cross. Now, listen to me real carefully.
Here's what I've saved. I was saved. I myself was saved
when Jesus Christ bowed His mighty head and said, it is finished. This is all that matters in my
salvation. It's what Christ did and how
God responded to what Christ did. Nothing else. You believe
that? Salvation utterly and completely
accomplished by what Christ did on the cross. He put away my
sin. They're gone. I don't have any
sin. Now in my experience, you know
what I'm saying? When I understand. When I believe. that my salvation
was accomplished by what Christ did on the cross. That's when
I'm saved and not before then. When I really believe that salvation
was accomplished by my Redeemer on the cross. You know what motivates
me? the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ.
That makes me say love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my
life, my all. My salvation was accomplished
without my works in any way. And that makes me give myself
to Him. I want to be His bond slave.
I'm the servant of the living Christ. The cross is what we
glory in. Paul said, God forbid that I
should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. I don't
find any comfort. I don't find any rest in anything
but the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is
crucified unto me. Oh, the glory of the cross. Have
you seen the glory of the cross? Now, if you have, you'll pick
it up willingly. Willingly. The greatest honor I can have
in this life is to suffer shame for his name. And that's what,
that's a reference to this picking up of the cross, taking the cross
and following the Lord Jesus Christ. We take it up willingly
following him. Now let's go on reading verse
25. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it. And whosoever shall lose his
life for my sake shall find it. If we refuse to do what is said
in verse 24, to take up our cross and follow him and deny self,
if we refuse that to make our lives more comfortable, we will
not be saved. That's what he said. But if we lose our life for his
sake, we'll find it. For what is a man profited? Listen
to this question, verse 26. For what is a man profited if
he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul? Or what
shall a man give in exchange for his soul? What if you got
Everything this world has to offer. And you didn't have Christ. What good would it do you? And yet, if you have Christ and
you have nothing else, what do you have? You have all things,
don't you? Now, what a question. What would
a man give in exchange for his soul? What would it profit you
if you gained the whole world and lost your soul? Verse 27.
The Son of Man shall come in the glory of His Father with
His angels. Oh, hasten, Lord, the day! He's going to come in great glory
and everybody's going to know exactly who he is. He's going to, he's going to
come as lightning lights in the midnight sky. Everybody's going
to see him and they're going to know who he is. He's going
to come in all this glory with his holy angels in power. And
look what it says. And then shall he reward every
man according to his works. That means a couple of things.
It's a couple of things. First of all, The works of the
Lord Jesus Christ are my works. What he did, I did. If he did it, I did it. Did he keep the law? Yes, he
did. You know who else kept it? I
did. Because what he did, he did as
a representative. When he died, I died. When he was raised, I was raised.
And I'm gonna be rewarded according to my works because my works
are perfect. Put my life on a screen. Read
every thought that's ever gone through my mind. It's all without
fault before God. Because the righteousness and
merits of Jesus Christ is my personal righteousness before
God. I'm going to be rewarded according
to my works at the return of the Lord Jesus Christ. And you know what is evidence
of that? My works here on earth. That's the evidence of it. Here's an example. Somebody says, how do I know
that you really believe what you're preaching? Because I'm
preaching it. That's how. There's evidence in there. If
I didn't preach it, I wouldn't really prove I didn't really
believe it. I believe what I'm preaching
and I prove it by preaching it. It's your works on earth that
will give evidence denying yourself. Denying yourself, taking up your
cross and following the Lord Jesus Christ. That is what proves
whether he's really done anything for you. He says in verse 28, verily,
I say unto you that there be some standing here, which shall
not taste of death till they see the son of man coming in
his And I have no doubt that that's a reference to the day
of Pentecost when the Spirit of God brought the kingdom of
heaven with power. Now let's turn to Acts chapter
2. This is what he's referring to.
Beginning in verse 22. You men of Israel, hear these
words. Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved
of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs which God
did by him in the midst of you as you yourselves also know.
Him being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of
God, you have taken and by wicked hands have crucified and slain.
whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because
it was not possible that he should be holden of it, for David speaketh
concerning him. I foresaw the Lord always before
my face, for he is on my right hand, that I should not be moved.
Therefore did my heart rejoice, and my tongue was glad. Moreover,
also my flesh shall rest in hope, because thou wilt not leave my
soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine holy one to see
corruption. Thou hast made me to know the ways of life, Thou
shalt make me full of joy with thy countenance. Now, men and
brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David.
He's both dead and buried, and his sepulchre is with us unto
this day, therefore being a prophet. And knowing that God had sworn
with an oath to him that of the fruit of his loins, according
to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne,
He, seeing this before, spake of the resurrection of Christ,
that his soul was not left in hell, neither his flesh did see
corruption. This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we are all
witnesses. Therefore, being by the right
hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise
of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this, which you now see
and hear. For David has not ascended into the heavens, but he saith
himself, the Lord said unto my Lord, sit down on my right hand
until I make thy foes thy footstool. Therefore, let all the house
of Israel know assuredly that God hath made this same Jesus
whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ. Now, when they heard
this, they were pricked in their hearts and said unto Peter and
to the rest of the apostles, men and brethren, what shall
we do? Then Peter said unto them, repent. and be baptized every
one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins
and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost for the promises
unto you and to your children and to all that are far off even
as many as the Lord our God shall call. And with many other words
did he testify and exhort saying save yourselves from this untoward
generation. Then they that gladly received
his word were baptized and the same day there added to them
about three thousand souls. May God deliver us from savoring
the things that be of men, but to savor the things of God. Let's
pray.