Let's turn together to Mark chapter
8, Mark the 8th chapter. Mark has informed us of the doctrine
which our Lord Jesus Christ preached as he walked upon this earth,
taught his disciples and those who would hear him. He has told
us of the great miracles performed by our Savior. And he has told
us of those miracles, perhaps with less detail than the other
gospel narratives, but he speaks of more of the miracles than
the others do. And yet, as we think about our
Savior's miracles, those tremendous works performed by him, let us
never confuse the miracle works of Christ with the pretentious
self-proclaimed miracle workers of our day. We live in this day
of religious darkness and delusion, and men on every hand have a
doctrine of Christ, a God to preach, and multitudes everywhere
are flocking to these miracle crusades and these healing rallies
and such nonsense. The miracles performed by our
Savior don't even compare. They don't even compare to what's
going on in our day. When our Lord Jesus performed
his miracles, these numerous, numerous, numerous miracles.
I mean, these were not occasional things. These were numerous miracles
performed by him in cities wherever he went. They were performed
upon men and women who were known by their associates, known by
those around them to be in desperate need. When our Lord raised the
widow's son off of the bier as he was going out to his grave,
as he was being carried out to the cemetery, they knew he was
dead. There wasn't any question about
it. When Lazarus came out of the tomb, he'd been dead for
four days. They rolled the stone over his
tomb. They knew how long he'd been in there. When our Lord
healed the blind man, everybody knew he was born blind. When
he caused the lame to walk, the deaf to hear, those people were
known clearly to have been in the condition he said they were
in. Rather, the scriptures say they were in. And our Lord raised
them from the dead, opened their eyes, and stopped their ears.
straightened out their limbs, gave strength to their legs,
caused them to walk and leap and give thanks and praise to
God. When our Lord fed the multitudes, He did not take a basket of food
and feed a crowd like this. Lots of ways to explain that.
He took a little boy's lunch and fed thousands, fed thousands,
and they ate it. They tasted the fish. They tasted
the bread. His miracles, what I'm saying
is this. They were well attested. Everywhere he went, there was
no question that this man has power as God Almighty over the
elements of the universe. For he's God Almighty. And when
his enemies came to accuse him of false doctrine, came to accuse
him of being a blasphemer, came to accuse him of being satanic,
not one time did anybody ever question the validity of any
miracle he performed. Because they were past dispute.
Not like the religious con artists of our day. And I don't hesitate
to tell you they're religious con artists, and if you're duped
by them, you're more foolish than I think anybody sitting
here is. They're religious con artists. They're hucksters. They're
after your pocketbook, not to do good to your soul. They're
after something you can do for them, not something they can
do for you. Now, having said that, Mark spoke much of our
Lord's miracles, and the Holy Spirit would have us now to pause
and consider the meaning of the Lord's works and the meaning
of the marvelous, marvelous things that he did on this earth. Those
wondrous works which our Lord would not allow his disciples
to publish in the streets where they were performed, he would
not allow Israel to hear the declaration, are recorded for
us in the book of God and recorded for our learning and for our
admonition. These things were written by
the finger of God, not to amuse us, not to give us some points
of religious debate so we can argue with folks about this issue
or that. That's not the point at all.
but rather these things are written that you might believe that Jesus
is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you might
have life through his name. That's what John says concerning
all that our Lord did. These things are written. They're
recorded here by the finger of God and the book of God in such
an incontestable manner, in such an irrefutable way, that you
might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living
God, and that believing you might have life in Him, life through
His name. Now that's why I've come here
this evening. I really have. I guess there's
some pride and smart elegance and all that stuff involved with
it. I don't have to escape the reality,
the fact. that that's part of my nature.
But I gave up a long time ago trying to prove doctrine, folks.
I gave up a long time ago trying to defend the system of religion.
I gave up a long time ago trying to prove the word of God, argue
with men about the things of God. I'm here to preach. I'm
just a preacher. To preach to you the gospel of
God's free grace. And I do it principally for two
reasons. For his glory. And that you might
believe. Oh, I want you to believe that
Jesus is the Christ, the son of the living God, and believing
that you might have a life in him. For if you believe, if indeed
you believe that Jesus is the Christ, the son of the living
God, you have eternal life. Now, we had before us a conversation
which took place between our Lord and his disciples. Mark
specifically tells us by inspiration that this conversation took place
as our Lord and his disciples were walking along the way to
Caesarea Philippi. He says that he began to teach
his disciples by the way. And so if you're taking notes,
I've given this for the title of my message. A conversation
by the way. Just a by the way conversation. Kind of like if we were riding
in a car together, four, five, six, seven of us riding in one
vehicle together on a long trip and we began to chat about various
things and then we got down to something serious. and started
to teach us some things that are serious. And our Lord was
with his disciples, and now he begins to teach them by the way
as he speaks to them in plain, simple conversation. Now, there's
a lesson in that before you even look at the text. The Lord willing,
this weekend, or this week, many of you will have opportunity
to visit with family and friend as you celebrate a day of thanksgiving.
Now the last thing on this earth I want is a congregation full
of pretentious, pompous, religious hypocrites. I don't want you
acting religious. I can't stand for folks to act
religious. And I don't want you to be betting
holders trying to get everybody to make a profession of faith,
but I do want you to be faithful. And I want you to look for opportunity. Look for God to give you opportunity
to speak a word in season for the glory of his name concerning
the things of God to those around you. Seize the opportunities
God gives you. So many times people can be obnoxious
with religion. Don't do that. Don't do that.
But when opportunities put before you, like when God opens the
door and it's there, be faithful and speak truth. And as you have
opportunity to do good to one another, do good to one another
by giving good instruction concerning that which God in his grace has
done for you in Christ Jesus the Lord. Now, there are many,
many things to be learned from these verses that we're going
to look at this evening, verses 27 through 33 of Mark chapter
8. But Matthew Henry gave the essential
teaching of these verses in one sentence. He said, to be a Christian,
to be a Christian. Well, there are a lot of definitions
to that. But to be a Christian is to sincerely
believe that Jesus is the Christ. That's what it is. To be a Christian
is to sincerely believe that Jesus, Jesus of Nazareth, that
man born at Bethlehem 2,000 years ago, that man who performed these
miracles, that man who was crucified on a Roman cross outside Jerusalem,
that man who was buried and three days later rose again and is
seated at the right hand of God Almighty, to believe that he
is indeed the Christ. the son of the living God. That's
what Christianity is. Now, with those things in mind,
I want us to look at these verses together, and I want to show
you four things clearly taught in these verses of scripture.
First, we'll look at verses 27 and 28, and I want you to learn
this. Multitudes. Multitudes. Most people you know and I know.
Multitudes have very high, good opinions of who Christ is, but
they don't know him. Most folks have very high opinion
of who Christ is, have very high opinions about him, but they
just don't know him. Look here in verse 27. Jesus
went out and his disciples into the towns of Caesarea Philippi.
And by the way, he asked his disciples, saying unto them,
whom do men say that I am? Now, he wasn't asking because
he didn't know. He was asking to teach. He was asking so that
he would get their attention. He was asking so he put them
to thinking. And they answered, well, some
say John the Baptist. Some say that you're Elijah,
others say you're one of the prophets. Now there was among
the Jews a great variety of opinions concerning Christ. Almost everyone
thought that he was a very good man. Most everyone acknowledged
that he was a godly man, that he was a prophet, a great teacher.
Most people even believed that he was one of the dead prophets
raised from the dead. They thought now Elijah who was
taken to heaven or hell has come back now. John the Baptist who
was beheaded by Herod, he's been raised from the dead. Jeremiah,
that great weeping prophet who spent his days in bitterness
has now come as forerunner to the Messiah. All of those things
went through the minds of men. They thought this is a great,
great man. No question he performed miracles.
No question he's a good man. No question that he's a man who
goes about doing good, teaching good, and giving an example of
good. They all had good opinions of him. Not one of them, except
for the Pharisees, and they only because of envy, not because
they really thought so. Not one of the Jew outside the
religious leaders who were jealous of the attention he was getting,
spoke or even hinted that there was anything evil or sinister
about him. They all had a good opinion of
him. They all had a good opinion of him. But they didn't know
him. They didn't know him. They just
didn't know it. Religious, yes, but they didn't
know him. Go to church every Sunday, yes, but they didn't
know him. Acknowledge good things about him, yes, but they didn't
know him. Eat the fish that he multiplied. Eat the bread that
he broke. Experience the miracles performed
by his hand, but they didn't know him. They didn't know him.
Things are pretty much the same today. Christ and his gospel
are just as commonly misunderstood and unknown in our day in this
20th century, in this God-fearing society in which we live, in
this Bible-built society, in this religious age in which we
live. Most of the people that we know, almost everyone knows
the name of Christ. Most of our relatives and neighbors
and friends go to church with some regularity. They're not,
you know, overly religious. They're not fanatics about religion,
but they go to church and they tip their hat toward God. And
they go into churches that are named after Jesus and built in
Jesus' name. And they've got stained glass
windows and expensive ornaments all decorated and honored to
Christ in his name. And they celebrate holy days
in his name. They do great things in his name.
But they don't know him. They don't know him. Pastor, how can you say that? Just talk to him about it. Just
listen to what he says about him. Just listen. The Christ
they describe, the Jesus they talk about, the God they speak
of, no more resembles the Christ of Scripture, the God of Scripture,
than a watermelon resembles a Cadillac. I mean, there's just no similarity
whatsoever. None whatever. People sing, oh
how I love Jesus, but don't know who he is. They don't know anything
about who he is, where he came from, what he did on this earth,
why he did it, where he is now, or what he's doing now. They
just don't know. They just don't know. They talk about him being
God, but they don't know what God had in mind. They talk about God. They say
that Jesus is God. Jesus is Lord. Bumper stickers
everywhere. Jesus is Lord. But they don't
have the slightest idea of what a Lord is. They don't have any
idea what a sovereign is. They don't have any idea what
a monarch is. In our day, we live in these free democratic
societies. Those are societies where nobody
rules. Those are societies where everybody
expresses things his own way. Everybody is his own law and
makes a law unto himself. They don't know what a monarch
is. When we think about a monarch, we think about that silly old
woman over in your country. She wears a crown, and she's
got lots of money, and she's got lots of palaces, and she's
got lots of castles, and lots of property, and people, they're
just ooh and ah when she comes by. But she's got no power. There's no power. And I think
about God that way. He's big and rich. And if you
bend his ear the right way, he might condescend to help you
out. But he doesn't have any power. When we speak about Christ,
the Christ of Scripture, we're talking about a man who is himself
the eternal God, who sits today in human flesh, upon the throne
of absolute dominion, Lord of everything. He rules you, buddy. He got you in his hand. He has
his way everywhere with everybody all the time. They don't know
anything at all about the incarnation. I was talking to a fellow recently.
Been in church all his life. Been in church all his life.
Conservative Baptist church all his life. Talk to him a little bit about
the incarnation. And I could tell by the glazed look in his
eyes, you know, just just kind of hollow, empty, like nothing
going on in there. I could tell he didn't have the
slightest idea what the incarnation is about. Never tell such thing. You mean, you mean Jesus is God? Are you saying that he really
is God? No, the book says he is. You
mean God came into the womb of a virgin and assumed a human
nature and is really a man? Oh yeah, that's it. Jesus Christ,
who is God, the eternal son, in order to redeem and save his
people, took upon himself humanity, but more. Bob Pottser, he took
humanity into union with his divinity as much as your own
body, soul, and spirit are one person. He took humanity into
union with divinity permanently, so that now, today, That man
who is God, having suffered and died for our sins, has satisfied
the justice of God and sits upon the throne of glory. And there
is one in heaven who is God of all. And yet, blessed be his
name. He's a man who's touched with
a feeling of our infirmities. He's a man who feels what we
feel. A man who's been where we've been. A man who's walked
where we walked. A man who knows what we experience.
They know good things about Jesus. And when they talk about the
incarnation, they don't have any idea. You really believe
that Jesus Christ is God? Yes, sir. And he became a man
so that he might make a substitutionary sacrifice for the satisfaction
of divine justice. And having done so, justice is
satisfied. Thou shalt call his name Jesus,
the angel said to Joseph. Jesus, Jehovah says. It's the same as the Old Testament
word Joshua. Joshua was named in anticipation
of the coming of Christ into the world because Joshua was
the one who would bring Israel whom Moses by the hand of the
law led out of Egypt but could never bring into Canaan. Joshua
delivers the people into Canaan's fair and happy land. So the Lord
Jesus Christ Jehovah saves comes and he has come and called Jesus
for he shall Without question, he shall, effectually, by almighty
sovereign power, by himself, save his people, every one of
them, from their sins. It's done. That's what it is
to believe that Jesus Christ is God. That's what it is to
believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God. Now
I've said all that because I want you to understand, vague ideas
about Christ are common. Few, few people know Him. Salvation is not taking the name
of Jesus to your lips. Salvation is not using the name
of Jesus when you finish your prayers and say, in Jesus' name.
Salvation is not just having vague notions about this man
who lived 2,000 years ago who did something somehow that has
something to do with somebody's salvation. No, no, no, no, no.
Salvation is knowing. Look at John 17. Look at John
chapter 17. I want you to see this. John
chapter 17. Without the knowledge of Christ,
there is no eternal life. Apart from knowing Him, there
is no salvation until you know Christ. You're dead in your trespasses
and sins. John 17 verse 3. And this is
life eternal. This is it. This is Christianity. That you quit drinking and smoking
and cussing and chewing and go to church every Sunday. No. This is life eternal, that you
have a creed and stand by it. No. This is life eternal, that
you have a great sensational feeling that gives you a tingling
sensation from the top of your head to the soles of your feet.
No. Well, what is it? That they might know thee. The
only true God. Ain't but one. Ain't but one. How do you know Him? And Jesus
Christ, whom thou hast said. Now that's it. That's it. Oh,
may God be pleased to allow you to find no rest for your soul,
no peace for your heart, no quietness for your conscience. until you
come to know that Jesus is the Christ. And you can say of him,
my beloved is mine and I am my beloved's. Secondly, all true Christians know, believe
and confess what I've just been talking about. All true Christians
know, believe, and confess that Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ,
the Son of the living God. Look at verse 29. The Lord Jesus said, who do men
say I am? And they gave him the opinions of men. And now he said,
but who do you say I am? What's your opinion about this?
What's your opinion about this? Who do you say he is? You listen
to me preach all the time. What do you think about this?
I mean, really, what's your opinion concerning Christ? What think
ye of Christ? And Peter answereth and saith
unto him, Thou art the Christ. And he charged them that they
should tell no man of him. When you consider this confession
itself and the circumstances in which it was made, Peter's
confession was a remarkable confession of faith in Christ. I recognize that Brother Peter
doesn't need my defense. He's seated with the Lord in
glory. And the papists make far too much of him. They think he's,
you know, head of the church and the Pope succeeds him and
all that nonsense. But most folks make Peter a whole
lot less than he is. Peter was a remarkable man, a
man of remarkable faith. He had lots of weaknesses, faults,
and failures. We're going to look at one in
just a minute. But Peter was a man of remarkable courage,
a man of remarkable loyalty, remarkable faithfulness. When
he said, I'll die with you, he wasn't lying. He was speaking
too proudly and too elegantly, but he did die with the master.
He was confessing exactly what he was prepared to do. And Peter
here makes this confession. against all the current of modern
opinion in his day. There wasn't a religious leader
anywhere who agreed with what he was saying. Nobody. None of
the Jews, none of the scribes, none of the Pharisees, none of
the chief priests, none of the teachers, none of the elders.
There wasn't a man in a synagogue anywhere who would stand up and
say what Peter was saying. The whole religious world around
him, the entire secular world around him, the learned folks
among the Jews and the learned folks among the Gentiles, the
nobodies among the Jews and the nobodies among the Gentiles,
everybody who was anybody spoke contrary to what Peter was saying
here. But Peter says, thou art the Christ. And Matthew gives
us a more detailed acknowledgement of this confession. He says,
thou art the Christ. And this is what I mean by it.
You're the son of the living God. Thou art the Christ, the
Son of the living God. What a bold confession. When
Peter makes this confession, he had nothing to gain and everything
to lose by doing so. His faith was not shaken by opposition. His confidence did not waver
before powerful men. He believed that Jesus of Nazareth
is indeed the Christ. What does that mean? He's the
one who is the promised Messiah. This book spoke about a king. We looked at Psalm 22 this morning. Psalm 23 talks about the King
of Glory coming in. That's the Messiah, the Christ.
It speaks about the seed of Abraham. That's the Messiah, the Christ.
It speaks about the seed of David, the King. That's the Messiah,
the Christ. It speaks about the one who is like Solomon. That's
the Messiah, the Christ. This book talks about one who
is to come, who will be King forever, reigning upon the throne
of David, reigning in Zion forever, Lord of Lords and King of Kings.
And Peter said, that's the word. You're the man. You are the Christ,
the promised Messiah. To say that thou art the Christ
is to say, Lord, this is what we're saying. This is what we
believe. This is what we've come to know. You are that prophet
of whom Moses spoke when he said, the Lord God will raise among
you a prophet like unto myself, him you will hear. You're the
prophet, the prophet spoken of through all the Old Testament
who would come and teach us who we are and who God is and bring
us the way of salvation, showing us how we as sinners can be brought
to God. When he says, thou art the Christ,
he says, Lord, you're the priest represented in all those priestly
tithes. You're the priest like Aaron, and the priest like Levi,
and you're the priest like Melchizedek. You are the priest. This is your
office, a prophet and a priest and a king. He says, thou art
the Christ. He says, you're the son of God.
You're the son of God. We believe. that you are God
coming human flesh. We believe, Lord, that you are
God, the second person of the blessed Trinity, everlastingly
blessed, son of God. Erring and unstable as his faith
sometimes was, Peter was a man of strong, exemplary faith. He believed the record God had
given of his son. Now that's basically what faith
is. To believe the record God gave
of his son. Now, God had not given quite
as full a record in Peter's day as he has today. But lay what
God had given, Peter believed. He believed the record God had
given concerning his son. Do you? Do you? Believers do. They have the word
of God. established in their hearts.
They bow to it. They believe it. People talk
to me all the time, say, well, you know, just long as a man's
sincere, that's all that counts. No. No, I'm sorry. That's not what counts. That's
not what counts. I said, I'm sorry. I'm not really sorry.
I'm just kind of trying to be nice. But that's not what counts.
That's not what counts. What counts, Rex, is do you believe
the record God gave concerning his son? And if you don't, you
don't know him. If you don't, you don't have
eternal life. It doesn't matter how religious you are, doesn't
matter how zealous you are, doesn't matter how much you double tithe,
triple tithe and quadruple tithe. Doesn't matter how often you
go to church, how often you pray, how much Bible you've memorized.
Doesn't matter how high opinion other men have of you. If you
don't believe the record God gave of his son, you don't have
eternal life and you don't know Christ. Let us Follow this faithful
disciple's example. Christ and his doctrine has never
been popular, especially in the religious world. We must be prepared
to go with him outside the camp if necessary, and it will be.
We must go outside the camp of the religious world with Christ
bearing his reproach. and say contrary to all the religious
world, this Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, this man who is God
in human flesh, this man who went to Calvary and by his blood
accomplished redemption, who shall save all his people from
their sins infallibly and everlastingly, this man. He is Christ our God. He is our Savior. Well, you'll
never win any popularity contest that way. Not interested in that,
but I'm interested in knowing Him. I'm interested in you knowing
Him. I recall years ago, I was standing
in a bookstore, killing a little time right across the street
from where I worked. I had about a 10-minute break.
One of the fellows Shelby went to church with all her life,
raised in her hometown. He was older, you know, and I
was just a little nobody. He came over to me and saw me,
I was reading something, I forgot what it was now, but he brought
some piece of trash over and he said, you know, Don, you ought
to read this. He said, that'd bring your theology into line
with the way people are thinking. And I handed it back to him,
I said, Alan, I'm not interested in getting into line with anybody
except the Christ of God. That's all. That's all. And I'm not interested in trying
to get men and women to somehow be attracted to this man or be
attracted to the ministry of this congregation. I'm interested
in the men and women of this generation being taught who Jesus
Christ is. That's our business. That's our
responsibility. That's what we must do. We must
make him known. God give us grace to do so. And
I'm telling you that as we do, God will call out his elect here
and there. He'll call them out. Just waiting for him to do it. Just waiting. Running into folks
all the time. We ran into somebody today. Bobby
and Judy and Shelby and I were having lunch. The fellow watches
and listens. Bobby said, well, why didn't
he come to church? Well, when God calls, he'll be
around. When God calls, he'll be around.
What you going to do in the meantime? Just going to go on preaching.
Go on preaching, making the truth known. And when God makes men
to see who Christ is, they'll quit worshiping stumps, totem
poles, and imaginary gods. They'll come down and worship
Christ. They're worshiping. Thirdly, look at verse 31. Our
Lord tells us that there was a necessity for all that he did
as our suffering, sin atoning substitute. Now, Before we read
this 31st verse, try to get the setting. Our Lord's walking along
with these disciples who believe that he is the Christ, the son
of the living God. They believe the record God had
given, and they believed as much as they had been taught. But
these disciples somehow were expecting. They were just anticipating. They were full of anticipation
that soon, any day now, any day now, our Lord was going to push
aside this air of humility. He was going to push aside this
poverty and this willingness to be a servant. And he was going
to establish a kingdom. And he was going to settle a
kingdom and settle a throne in a Jewish kingdom where men would
everywhere, everywhere acknowledge the Jews as God's people and
he would be king forever in Zion. They were expecting that to happen
right now. Even after he was dead, buried and risen again,
they said, Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom
to Israel? They still hadn't learned. They were still looking
for an earthly kingdom. They were still looking for an
earthly Jewish monarch. They were still looking for Christ
to be established as king in Zion in a physical sense rather
than a spiritual sense. Now then, with that in mind,
let's suppose you're walking along and you're listening to
the master and any day now you expect him to just kind of push
aside these poor man's garments and see him sitting on a throne
with a crown on his head and a scepter in his hand and gorgeous,
gorgeous kingly apparel and everybody in the world bowing down before
him. And this is what he says, and
he began to teach them. That the son of man must suffer
many things, and be rejected of the elders, and of the chief
priest, and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. What? What are you saying? Has it come to this? We've left
houses and lands and mothers and fathers and brothers and
sisters here. We've left our jobs, we've left
everything come follow you. And you're telling us you're
going to be put to death. Rejected, despised, and put to
death. He said, not only are these things
going to happen, it must come to pass. The Son of Man must
suffer these things. Was he suggesting somehow that
there was some hellish, demonic, dark, gloomy power out there
somewhere that would come and seize him, whose power he could
not resist? Nonsense. Was he saying there's
a necessity that I suffer these things and die in this manner
to leave a normal example of self-denial and self-sacrifice
and love and kindness and charity and faithfulness? No, no, no. Well, why does he say these things
must be brought to pass? Because they were decreed by
his father in eternity. This is what he agreed to in
the covenant of grace. This is what was predestined
and that which God predestined from eternity must come to pass
in time. They must come to pass because
these are the things declared in the Old Testament prophets.
In the types and symbols and ceremonies of the law, in the
demands of the law, in all those things set forth in the Old Testament
scriptures, they were declaring that there must be a suitable
sacrifice made for sin by which God and man can meet together
represented in the mercy seat. There's got to be atonement made.
There's got to be a Passover lamb. There's got to be a crucified
substitute. These things must come to pass
because it's demanded by the justice of God. Justice must
be satisfied or God cannot forgive your sin. Justice must be satisfied
or God cannot be gracious to you. Justice must be satisfied
or you can never be accepted of God. But more than that, our
Lord says these things must come to pass because I desire it. You remember how the Lord spoke
when he took the bread and wine and established the Lord's Supper,
ate the last Passover? And it was the last one. We don't
celebrate the Passover. I get a little bent out of shape
when I see folks who claim to believe the gospel of God's grace
talking about observing the Passover. We don't observe Passover. We
don't observe Sabbath days. We don't observe Old Testament
rituals. We're here to observe the Lord's
Supper tonight. But when our Lord took the bread and wine,
he said, with desire, have I desired to eat this Passover with you.
He said, I've been looking forward to this. Had this on my heart a long time.
What's he talking about? This is the last one. With desire,
I've come to this place, to which I've come. where I will now sacrifice
myself for your sins, for the glory of God, to satisfy the
justice of God, for the saving of your soul. And he, for the
joy that was set before him, the joy of seeing his sin. The joy of seeing of the travail
of his soul with satisfaction, the joy of seeing us with him
in glory. He endured the cross, despising
the shame. Our Lord spoke these things openly,
plainly, clearly, and distinctly. You remember a few weeks ago
when Brother Clark was here, he spoke about preachers preaching
in code. You know what that is? Most of
you've heard it. You might not know what it was,
but a lot of fellows preaching code. They got the doctrine up
here. But they don't have enough backbone,
spine, or courage. They don't have any faith, is
what it is. They don't know God, is what it is. And because they
don't know God, they don't have any backbone, they don't have
any spine, they don't have any courage. They're not men, they're wimps,
they're hirelings. And so they know the doctrine,
but Man, if I come right out and say this, that's gonna tear
the church up. That's gonna get deacons mad
at me. That's gonna cut into my pension. That might get me
fired. So they preach in code. And so
if you know the code, you know what they're talking about. But
if you don't know the code, you don't know what they're talking about.
And that way nobody gets upset. Nobody's offended. Our Lord didn't
preach in code and neither do his servants. He spoke plainly.
He said, the son of man must suffer many things. He must be
rejected by the Jews, by the Scribes, by the Pharisees, by
the chief priests. He must be put to death. He must
rise again. That's as clear and plain as
nose on your face. They understood what he was saying.
And yet, there was a sense in which they didn't. Look at the
next thing. Peter in verse 32. The Lord spoke to them and said
that he must suffer these things, and he spake this saying openly,
and Peter took it. Now, I can picture it. I can
picture old brother Peter. I can just see him. He takes
him by the arm, pulls him aside, and he said, now, Lord, you don't
have to worry about those boys. We'll take care of you. You don't have to fret about
them coming to get you. We'll take care of you. Don't you worry about, don't
you worry about those things. We're here, we're your disciples.
We'll take care of you. None of this ain't gonna happen
to you. He rebuked him. But when he turned about and
looked on his disciples, the Lord looked at Peter and he rebuked
Peter saying, Get thee behind me, Satan, for thou savorest
not the things that be of God, but the things that be of men.
Now here's the fourth lesson. There is in every true child
of God a strange, unexplainable mixture of grace and infirmity,
strength and weakness, faith and unbelief. great knowledge
and great ignorance in every one of us. Peter attempts to stand in the
Lord's way, acting from the highest of motives. Now just, I don't have any question
at all. Peter, he did this with zeal
and with love and with sincerity. He said, now Lord, this is not
going to happen. This is not going to happen.
And when he did, though he acted with zeal and with love, with
devotion, with commitment to Christ, he brought upon himself
the sharpest rebuke that ever fell from the Savior's lips upon
one of his disciples. Get behind me, Satan. You don't
know what you're doing. You're acting according to the
principle of flesh, not spirit. You're acting by your own judgment,
not by the Spirit's guiding. You're acting because you savor
the things of the flesh, not the things of God. Now learn
why these things are written. The best of God's saints, while
we live in this world are but poor, fallible, sinful creatures. We frequently, we frequently
misjudge our own motives. And even when our motives are
right, our judgment is often wrong. Understand that? Even when our motives are right,
our judgment is often wrong. Therefore, don't be too severe
on your brother. Don't be too quick to sit in
judgment on one another. Learn this as well, as long as
we're in this world, our highest attainments of knowledge. We
think we have learned. We think we've arrived. We think
we've achieved. We get upset and fuss and red
face. We can talk to folks and disagree
about almost anything. Almost anything except doctrine.
Almost anything else. The man alive, we're so confident,
arrogant, we got things down right, anybody questions, don't
you question me. Our highest attainments of knowledge,
highest, are ignorance. Ignorance. Now I'm telling you,
I speak for myself and I'm speaking for you, and I hope you understand
what I'm saying. Our best understanding of our
God is so indescribably less than he is. Our knowledge of
him is just ignorance. Our best understanding of this
book, the most diligent study we've got, is just ignorance. Just ignorance. Don't imagine
that you've got it all fixed up. Don't get the notion you've
got everything figured out about God and his ways. Just don't
do it. And thirdly, Let us learn, as God's children in this world, because of our sin, because of
our ignorance, let us learn not to entertain high thoughts of
ourselves. Let no man think too highly of
himself. Whatever we know God taught us,
Whatever we have, God gave us. Whatever faith we have, God gave
it to us. Whatever knowledge we have, God
gave it to us. Whatever understanding we have,
God gave it to us. So don't think too highly of
yourself. And fourthly, Oh God, teach me this. Let us
be charitable and gracious toward our erring brethren. Someone wrote to me one time
years ago and said, when do you think we ought to break fellowship
with a man? No, he said, when do you think we ought to break
fellowship with a brother? And I wrote him back and said,
never. Never. I've had lots of men over the
years write to me and say they're gonna break fellowship with me
and I regret it because of this issue of that, this doctrine
of that, this thing of that. Can't have anything to do with
you anymore. You listen to me. You listen
to me. Grace Baptist Church, men and women of God, listen
to me. Don't you ever slam the door of fellowship in the face
of a man or a woman who knows God. Don't you do it. Don't you do it. Preacher asked
me one time about what things to observe at the Lord's table.
He said, don't you think we ought to fence the table? I said, what
do you mean? Keep folks from taking the Lord's supper? He
said, yeah, some folks aren't worthy. I said, yeah, but God's
people are. He said, aren't you afraid that
you might give the bread and wine to someone who's not worthy?
I said, two things. One, that's not my responsibility.
And two, if it were my responsibility, I would rather give the bread
and wine to 10,000 who aren't worthy, who don't know Christ,
than to keep it from one who does. And I would rather, I'd
rather be mistaken in the area of leniency. And I was mistaken
about him. I'm sorry. I'd rather be mistaken
and err on the side of leniency ten million times rather than
err on the side of severity one time. Do you understand that? Let's be gracious and kind and
gentle and lenient. Practice what you read just a
little while ago. Practice it. Practice it. What do you do when
a brother goofs up? What do you do when he's out
of step? What do you do when he doesn't
seem to be as faithful as he ought to be? What do you do when
he doesn't seem to have the kind of commitment and devotion he
ought to be? Well, I know him, he doesn't know God. Brethren, if a man be overtaken
in a thought, ye which are spiritual, Restore such a war in the spirit
of goodness. Considering yourself, because
tomorrow you're liable to be just like it. You're liable to be in the same
shape. You're liable to do the same thing. Lest thou also be
tempted. Now, I have a question for you. What think ye of Christ? What think ye of Christ? Has God taught you to believe
that He is the Christ, the Son of the living God? And I'm telling
you, flesh and blood haven't revealed that to you. But my
Father, which is in heaven, by his spirit, his gospel. And if
God's given you such faith, this bread and this wine is set before
you. And our Lord says to you who
are redeemed by his blood and saved by his grace, eat this
bread and drink this cup, all of it. in remembrance of me. Amen. Ladies and gentlemen, the deacons
will serve the Lord's table. May you assist him, if you will,
please.