Take your Bibles and turn with
me to Matthew chapter 16. Matthew chapter 16. I've got comments to make on
several verses from this passage. But in verses 13 through 18 is the account of that which
nearly everyone in here is familiar with. Whom do men say that I
the Son of Man am? And I dare say there's not a
person in here that's not familiar with that question. And Peter's
answer, thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. But how many here tonight can
tell me the circumstances surrounding the statement? How much do you
know about the situation that prompted the question? And how much do we know about
the overall status of the ministry of Christ to those he was talking
to at the time of this question? Brother Todd referred to this
the other night, and those questions came to me and I went home and
began to research this thing out and I felt led of God to
bring this message. These things happened at a time
in the Lord's ministry when the large crowds, you remember at
the beginning of His ministry how they just thronged one another
around Him. They saw the miracles that He
did and His fame was spread abroad. Never a man spake like this man. They were amazed with his gifts
and his abilities. His understanding of the Scriptures,
even as a child, astounded the scribes and Pharisees who'd studied
the Scriptures all their lives. And as a result of that, multitudes,
just untold multitudes, flocked around him to hear him. But each time, He stood and made
clearer and clearer the message he came to proclaim. The disciples
began to go away. The multitudes began to fade
away. And this was at a time when the
multitudes now, when the preaching of Christ only grew a few, his
ministry was coming to a close. And these questions he was about
to ask would sum up his ministry and define all the mysteries
and all the unanswered questions that men had asked him. Indeed,
the answer to these questions would soon prove to hold the
whole weight and worth of the gospel itself. And these questions then as well
as these questions now are the dividing place, the point of
division between the gospel of God and true believers and another
gospel and another spirit. The more I listen, I'm working
with some men and And they have foremen, and there's just a crowd
of men around there on the job site, and I listen to them talk
during the day. They talk, and they talk back
and forth, and some of them are religious. And they soon find
another with a similar religion, and they begin to talk back and
forth and feel each other out as to what they believe. And
they find this point of agreement, this common ground, and then
they become friends, and they sit, kind of reserve their questions
to that area where they have the common ground. And I listen
to them, and the more I listen to them, and I hear them in restaurants
sometimes, we'll go out to eat, and the people in back of me
or beside of me or in front of me, they'll be talking, and you
can't help but overhear their conversations. And the more I
hear And the more I hear people talk about the things of God,
the more convinced I am that my generation is totally ignorant,
totally ignorant of those things concerning Christ in the gospel.
They don't know anything at all. It's not that they're just missing
out on a few points. It's not just that they went
astray. They know nothing whatsoever of the things of God. There's never been an age when
religion has prospered as it is in our day. I was working
down in western Kentucky, and the farm that I worked on was
just a little ways from Garfield, Kentucky. That's a town of a
population of probably 45. And in that town was five churches,
five churches, 45 people, five churches. I'm telling you, we live in a
day when religion prospers. The land's covered with buildings
and cathedrals and synagogues and mausoleums and churches,
and yet in spite of their massive presence and in spite of their
massive influence, you can't turn the TV on on Sunday on a
regular channel without picking up some kind of preacher or preaching. channels completely devoted to
nothing but that, several channels, and in spite of their influence
on this generation, and in spite of their numbers, ignorance still
prevails. In fact, one might say that it
is their presence and influence that has generated the ignorance. And if you'll give this chapter
some study, you'll see that just before our Lord asked them this
question, whom do men say that I am, whom do you say that I
am? Before he asked them these questions, he cautioned them
about the leaven of the doctrine of the Pharisees and the Sadducees.
He said, beware of it. Beware of it. Why? Because they were blind leaders
of the blind. So the backdrop of this great
confession of Peter takes place in the midst of a people who've
been brainwashed with lies and deceits and false doctrine all
their lives. Do you realize that that's exactly
where God found us? And that's exactly to whom we
minister today. We've got the same situation. All this took place as his disciples
were falling away. They said, this is a hard saying.
Who can hear it? And many of them went back and
walked no more with him. That's the backdrop. That's what
was taking place. It took place as men were trying
to interpret his ministry by the bias of their own ideas and
concepts of God. Same thing happens today. You
begin to tell somebody, about God and tell somebody about Christ
and his sacrifice, and the first thing they tell you is, well,
that don't seem right. What's that got to do with it?
There is a way that seemeth right unto man. The end thereof is
death, destruction. All man's ways are clean in his
own eye. So when our Lord said to his
disciples, whom do men say that I am, he wasn't asking what the
heathen idolater had to say. He wasn't asking what the Gentile
heathens had to say who worshipped animals and planets and snakes
and all these kinds of things. He was asking what men said who
professed to be children of God. What do they say? What do these
who have followed me and now have begun to leave? Whom do
they say that I, the Son of Man, am? Well, some say you're John the
Baptist, the forerunner. Some say Elijah. Some of them
say Jeremiah, Isaiah, surely one of the prophets. These religious
men were willing to give to Jesus of Nazareth the highest office
a man could attain in the church. Come on over. They enjoyed the
benefits of the multitudes when they came. They enjoyed the reputation
of the healings and things because they were there and a part of
it. But when our Lord began to make
these things clear and lay this foundation, they began to fade
away. They began to fade away. They
were willing to yield to Him the position of the forerunner
of Christ, the position of a prophet, the highest office in the church.
At one point, they were even willing to take him by force
and make him their king. Right after he took those few
loaves of bread and those few fishes and fed 5,000, they were
going to take him right then, Bobby, and run down that mountain
and establish the kingdom. He's the king. And he faded out
of their sight. Well, what does all this tell
me? It tells me that religion has always been willing to make
Christ a part of their worship. They always have. They were willing
then and they're still willing today to give him a prominent
place in their worship. We'll put his cross on our roof.
We'll hang his picture on our walls. We'll give him a prominent
place in our church. We'll put his image in our stained
glass and set him in the windows for the sun to shine through
and everybody can see. We'll use his names in our hymns,
and we'll celebrate his birth on Christmas and his resurrection
on Easter, and we'll set aside one day a week to commemorate
his ministry." They were always willing, and
they're still willing, to give him a part, a very important
part, in their worship. Let me tell you something. Here's
why the disciples quit following him. Here's the hard saying that
made him turn away. He who is all can never be a
part of anything. He's either all or he's nothing
at all. Whom do men say that I am? Well,
some say he's a great reformer, sent down to the earth to turn
men away from themselves and back to God. Isn't that what
they're saying? Some say that he's the possibility
of redemption, that his death has made salvation possible.
Some say he's the great example who shows us the way. Some say
he's the expression of God's love to all men. That's what
men say. What do you say? You see where
our Lord's going with this? Whom do you say that I, the Son
of Man, am? And in Matthew chapter 16 of
verse 16, Simon Peter answered and said unto him, Thou art the
Christ, the Son of the living God. Now, the Christ was set
forth as prophet, priest, and king. And if you'll go back into
the Old Testament and research those offices out, you'll find
out that God appointed a prophet And he just didn't have anything
to say apart from that man. He didn't just come into the
camp and pick somebody out of the crowd and start talking to
them. If he had something to say to Israel, he said it through
his prophet. He said it through his prophet.
And then he established the priesthood. And he appointed and anointed
a high priest in Israel. And everything Israel did in
the worship of God had to go through that man. Had to go through
that man. These officers were all inclusive. Everything God had to say, he
said through the prophet. Everything pertaining to God
in worship, he said through the priest. And he established a
king because they had no government, no rule. They were a people scattered. And he established a rule, and
he gave him a king to establish the kingdom. And to say that
Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ is to believe that he is the
fulfillment of all that the Messiah was set forth to be. And Jesus answered and said unto
him, verse 17, Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jonah. For flesh and
blood have not revealed this unto thee, but my Father which
is in heaven. And I say also 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. 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. What a glorious
revelation! What a gracious gift of love
and affection, what a reconciliation of peace to the heart. And then,
verse 21, our Lord called these disciples, they have the blessed
revelation, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. They've got the revelation, Merle.
They know who He is. Now watch this. He began to show
unto his disciples how he must go to Jerusalem, and he must
suffer many things of the chief priests and the elders and the
scribes, and he must be killed, and he must be raised again on
the third day. And this is not what Peter had
in mind. That's just not what Peter had
in mind. He said, far be it from thee
to do these things. And he didn't say it in a malicious
way. He didn't say it in a mean way. He said it because he loved
his Lord. He didn't want his Lord to go
down there. He knew what those people were capable of doing.
He didn't want him to go down there. Far be it. He must go to the capital of
religion. He's got to go right into the
hornet's nest. right into that den of vipers. Peter knew where he was headed.
On several occasions, he, Lord, don't go there. Don't go there.
I think it was Philip that said to him, don't go there. Don't
go there. If we go there, there ain't none
of us coming back if we go there. They knew what they were capable
of. It's just not what Peter conceived
to be the ministry and mission of the Christ to be. He's got to suffer at the hands
of these religious leaders and teachers and be killed and raised
from the dead. What Peter had in mind was a
reformation of doctrine. He just thought they'd messed
up in their doctrine. That's why he questioned the
Lord when he talked to him in parables. Why are you belittling
Peter still? held out some hope for these
people. He still held out some idea that
their religious background somehow gave them ties with the Lord. He just kept holding that out,
and the more he did, the more the Lord warned them and warned
them and warned them. Peter just thought they needed a reformation
of doctrine, a reformation of government, and a reformation
of religion. What he had in mind had to do
with his standing on this earth. It had to do with what's taking
place right now. And everything he thought about
in connection with the Messiah had to do with earthly things.
Now listen to what Paul said over in 1 Corinthians 15. And I'm saying this, this is
exactly where mainstream religion leads its disciples to drink,
right here. Right here. In these cisterns, broken cisterns
that can hold no water. Just good intentions and empty
expectations. Earthly standings and earthly
blessings and earthly kingdoms and earthly government and earthly
situations and earthly ministries. Paul said the first man is of
the earth earthy. That's how he thinks. That's
how he lives. That's how he reasons. And it's
in every one of us. Every one of us. And as is the earthly, such are
they also that are earthly. As is the heavenly, such are
they also that are heavenly. And as we have borne the image
of the earthly, and we all have, we shall also bear the image
of the heavenly. Everything man says, thanks,
and does toward God is out of a twisted, deceitful, polluted
heart. And the Lord turned to Peter,
this blessed disciple. I don't know how much time. I
asked Larry back in the study if he knew how much time had
elapsed, and he said, I don't think very much. I don't either. The Lord had just declared this
blessed apostle, blessed of the Father, blessed art thou, Simon
Bar-Jonah, flesh and blood. This didn't come from earthly
reasoning. This didn't come from your religious
background. My Father, which is in heaven,
gave you this revelation. This same apostle, just a breath
away, our Lord looks him straight in the eyes, Larry, and says,
get thee behind me, Satan. Why? For thou art an offense
unto me. Now, Charles Spurgeon said this.
There is no other explanation for what our Lord said to his
beloved disciple than this, that he looked through him to him
that was standing behind him, whose spokesman Peter unknowingly
had become. Let me then be aware that if
I am not standing as the ambassador of Christ, then I'm standing
as the minister of Satan. That's what our Lord was telling
us. If I'm not being given the revelation
of God, then whose revelation have I got? Do you see what he's saying? One writer said this, the best
of men may well serve the devil's turn better than a bad one. Why? Because Satan's in the business
of religion. That's where he shines. That's
where he works. That's where he's the most active.
And without realizing what he'd said, the impulsive Peter was
about to deny the very foundation of redemption and reconciliation
to satisfy his own personal goals and ambitions and affections.
He took those things which appealed to the flesh and tried to apply
them to the things of God. That's Satan. That's his work.
It's the primary, now listen, it is the primary aim of Satan
in this world to take the revelation of Christ and make it somehow
offensive to God. That's what was going on here. It is his heart's desire to take
the glory of Christ and twist it and distort it and compromise
it until it's pleasing to men. but an offense unto God. And
he's a subtle creature whose experience and influence can
take the very essential, fundamental truths of the gospel and turn
them into a fleshly, worldly mess. And that's what he does. Why were these things so offensive?
Matthew 16, verse 23. Thou art an offense unto me,
for, here's the reason, thou savorest not the things that
be of God. You see, a gospel without a dying
substitute is an offense unto God. Did you know that? It's
an offense unto God. Thousands upon thousands are
coming down aisles this very night, coming down aisles with
tears in their eyes and with outstretched arms looking for
hope. And preachers are selling their
souls for gain and giving them a hope that's offensive to God. Giving them a substitute who
does not die. The gospel without a dying substitute
is an offense unto God. The gospel apart from a suffering,
obedient servant. and representative is an offense
unto God. It's an offense unto God. A gospel
with no clear purpose and no distinct goal is an offense
unto God. He doeth according to his will.
God doesn't do anything that he hasn't purposed to do. When
our Lord said, I must go to Jerusalem, He meant, I must go to Jerusalem. When He said, I must suffer and
die at the hands of these men, He's saying, this is the whole
counsel of God. And Peter's saying, no, no, no. In Hebrews, it says, where there
is no shedding of blood, there is no remission. God must be
just and justifier. Matthew 16, verse 24, Then said
Jesus unto his disciples, That's what I want to be. If any man will come after me,
let him, let that man, Be he an apostle? Be he a prophet? Or be he just a common man? If any man will come after me,
let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. Now here are three essential
things that follow this blessed revelation of Christ. And here's
what he's teaching Peter. Here's what he's telling these
disciples. If any man will come after me, let him deny himself."
What's he talking about? Well, first of all, he's saying
this, let him deny his sinful self. What got Peter into trouble? He tried to reason what the Lord
was saying through the reasoning of his sinful self. That's exactly
what he did. He leaned on the arm of the pledge. He reasoned with the arm of the
flesh. He took the power of earthly
wisdom and began to try to discern the things of Christ. He got
in trouble. Deny your sinful selves. The
Word of God is the foundation of faith. I was talking to a fellow at
work the other day, and he was asking me some things. And he
said, well, my preacher said this, and my dad said that, and
my aunt said this. And I don't think he really knew
what he believed, but he was telling me what everybody else
said. And I said, well, let me ask you something. Was any of
these people born in heaven? No. Then they don't know anything
at all about God. Ain't that what our Lord said?
No man has seen God at any time. Any of y'all born in heaven?
Any of y'all grow up on the streets of gold? Hearing the words from
the Master's lips? Anybody grew up there? No. We
don't know. We know nothing about God. Here's
what we know about God right here. Our Lord began to give them the
words of God. And what Peter did was rebuke
the Lord, and therefore he was rebuking the Word of God. The Word of God is the foundation
of faith. And then secondly, he's saying
this, let this disciple, this follower, whosoever, whatever
man, any man that's going to follow me, let him deny his sinful
self and let him deny his righteous self. Do not attempt to find
rest or consolation in something that we've done, are doing, or
hope someday to do. It just ain't there. Never look
for assurance in something that you don't. And God give me the
presence of mind and the spirit of humility when I'm confronted
with these deceitful feelings or religious men or heathens
making light of what we believe. Don't get tangled up in arguments
with these men. Just leave it here where the
Lord was tempted by Satan. You remember how he answered
Satan? It is written. He can go past that. Because
that's the answer of faith. It's written. You can't make
that man understand any more than you understood. You can
stand and talk until you're blue in the face and they'll just
stand and look at you like you're on another planet or speaking
French or something. They just don't understand anything
at all that you're saying. And they can't. But you can give
them the Word of God. And if the revelation comes,
that's where it's going to come from. It's going to come from
the Word. Don't deny your righteous self.
And I'm not saying... I know that there's a time when
we're called on to give an account for the things that we believe. Deny my righteous self and deny
my worldly self. How often do I look at some earthly
pleasure or comfort or security and I call it the blessing of
God? I hunt with a fellow down there and he's fairly well off.
He got into the real estate business and he used to work just like
I do, and he got out of it, and he started this real estate business
and went into partners with a man and made millions of dollars.
And now he's just, you know, and when I talk to him, he says,
there's nobody else on this earth blessed the way I am. And he's
a drunk. How easy it is to look at these
earthly things and call them blessings of God, and they may
not be blessings. They may be curses. Money is
not always a blessing. In fact, I think most of the
time it's a curse. And I'm not saying that we shouldn't
thank God for successful businesses and good health or adequate incomes,
but I am saying this, that we're missing the mark completely to
transform the revelation of Christ into worldly, fleshly things. Let me show you something over
here in Ephesians chapter 1. You don't have to turn over there.
I'll just quote it for you. It says, Blessed be the God and
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all
what? Spiritual blessings. There's the blessing. There's
the blessing. The blessing is in knowing the
Christ. The Lord was quick. to tell Peter,
blessed art thou, at the revelation of Christ. Blessed is the man
who can see Christ. He may not discern what the Christ
is all about, but he can see Him. At least in part, he can
see Him. He can recognize Him, and that's
a blessed man. That's a blessed man. These are spiritual blessings,
and they're all in Christ. Deny our willful self. We're
not our own. We're bought with a price, Bobby.
We didn't choose him. He chose us. He's the Lord. We're just the disciples. And
we follow him. Isn't that what he said? We follow
him. We're to deny ourselves. And
then we're to take up our cross. And I looked at this a long time,
and the Lord's been teaching me some things about this. What
is this cross? It's mentioned over and over
and over and over in the New Testament that we take up our
cross. What in the world's he talking
about, take up our cross? He died on the cross. What's
he talking about, take up our cross? Well, the cross is the
way of redemption. It's his suffering and his death.
It's those things he had just declared to us. I must go to
Jerusalem. I must suffer, and I must die,
and I must be raised from the dead the third day. The cross
is the way of redemption. The way is not good intentions.
It's not sacrifice and service. The way is not decisions and
commitments. Christ is the way, and the way
of Christ is the cross. That's what he was telling them.
And then secondly, the cross is the ministry of the disciples.
Paul said, I'm determined to know nothing, nothing else. There
is nothing else. We don't gather, Mother's Day
is coming up and we're not going to gather and recognize the oldest
mother, I hope we don't, the oldest mother and the youngest
mother and have all these penny marches and all this nonsense
that goes on in religion. We're not going to do that. We've
come to that place where we see, Merle, this whole thing is about
the crucifixion of Christ. It's about the accomplishments
of Christ and the glory of Christ. And there's no good news apart
from the cross. We're not called of God to reform
the world or feed the world or clothe the world. We're called
to preach Christ and Him crucified. And I know this. The cross is
the manifestation of God's affection to His people. God commendeth
His love for us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died
for us. And our affection for Him is
known by how we respond to that cross. That man who responds
to the love of God in the crucified risen Redeemer will show that
affection by his determination to point others to it. He'll
never get over it. He'll just keep saying, there
it is. You want bread? Right there. Go here. See him. Preach Christ. One lady told
Scott Richardson years ago, she just couldn't take it anymore.
She came to all the meetings and he'd stand up and he'd preach
Christ over and over and over. After a while, she just couldn't
take it anymore, and she was just all red in the face. And
she met him back by the door, and she said, all you ever preach
is Christ, Christ, Christ. He said, well, somebody please
put that on my tombstone. What a blessing. What a blessing. To take up your cross is to walk
in this world according to all that His cross stands for and
all which it has accomplished. Paul said to the Galatians, God
forbid that I should glory save in the cross of my Lord Jesus
Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me and I unto
the world. You know what that says? Paul said the believer. What
he's saying is the believer looks on this world the way Israel
looked on the Egyptians standing on the other side, under the judgment of God, washing
up on the seashore. And this world views the believer
the same exact way they viewed the Son of God on that cross,
despised and rejected of me. A nutcase. Just a nutcase. An imposter. One who deserves what he gets. So we're to deny ourself, take
up our cross, and follow him. Follow Him as He is the revelation
of God. Follow Him as the supreme example. Follow Him in all of His ordinances. Follow Him by seeing Him as all
we need and all we desire. Follow Him. Our Father, we ask that You take
these words And we know that in the power
of this place, that's all they are, just words. But that in these words, you
take your word and your message and your revelation and burn
it into our hearts for Christ's sake. Amen.