Tonight we're going to observe
the Lord's table together. I've entitled the message for
this morning, If Any Man Will Come After Me. I was reading this passage of
scripture this week. When I read verse 24, it just
struck me. If any man, the gospel is not for every man,
but it's for any man. Do you hear that? It's for any
man. If any man will, that's his desire. That's what he wants to do. If any man will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow
me. If I'm not deceived, What I want
more than anything else is to be a follower of the Lord Jesus
Christ. I don't care what happens as
a result of that. We were singing that hymn, let
goods and kindred go, this mortal life also, the body they may
kill, God's truth abideth still, his kingdom is forever. I want
to be a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ, no matter what
that entails. If any man will come after me,
that's his desire. If any man will come after me,
that's what he wants to do. Will you? Well, he gives three things to
do. If any man will come after me, if that's your desire, deny
yourself. Take up your cross and follow
me. Oh, how I desperately by his
grace want to do that. Now I realize. that the only
way I will follow him is if he first says, follow me. Do you know there is no instance
in the scripture where he said to somebody, follow me. And they didn't do it. Matthew, sitting at the receipt
of custom, tax collector. Christ said, follow me. He rose, forsook all, and followed
him. Deny yourself, take up your cross, willingly,
intelligently, knowing what you're doing, and follow me. Now, let's see what led the Lord
to make this statement. The first part of Matthew chapter
16 is about the dullness and the stupidity of the disciples. I do not say that by way of criticism
or accusation, but by way of identification. The dullness. and the stupidity of the 12. Look in verse 5. And when his
disciples were come to the other side, they had forgotten to take
bread. Now, previously, the Lord fed
5,000 with bread, and he fed 4,000 with bread, and they forgot
to take their bread. Then Jesus said unto them, take
heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees. They could be considered the
religious conservatives, the Pharisees, the religious liberals,
the Sadducees. He said, beware of their leaven. And they reasoned among themselves
saying, It's because we've taken no bread. Which when Jesus perceived, he
said unto them, O ye of little faith, why reason ye among yourselves
because you brought no bread? Do you not understand? Neither
remember the five loaves of the 5,000 and how many baskets you
took up? Neither the seven loaves of the
4,000 and how many baskets you took up? How is it that you don't
understand that I spake not to you concerning bread, that you
should beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees?
Then understood they how he bade them not beware of the leaven
of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees. You see, you put one work in
your salvation. it leavens its way through the
whole thing. A little leaven, Paul said, leavens the whole
lump. When Jesus came into the coast
of Caesarea, verse 13, Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying,
whom do men say that I, the Son of Man, am? Now, he was not asking
this for information. But he's going to lead them to
another question. Whom do men say that I, the son
of man, what are men's opinions of me? What is it you're hearing?
What do they say with regard to my person? Verse 14, and they
said, well, some say thou are John the Baptist and some Elijah
and others, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets. They put you
in some pretty illustrious company. But in every instance, this was
derogatory to the Lord Jesus Christ. To compare him to John
the Baptist? Or Elijah? Or Jeremiah, or one
of the prophets? Why, that's no different than
Peter saying, let's make three tabernacles. One for thee, one
for Moses, and one for Elijah. Christ is utterly unique. No
one can be compared to him. And what these men said was actually
derogatory. As high as these men may have
appeared, what they said was derogatory toward the Lord Jesus
Christ. Verse 15, then he gives this
question. He saith unto them, but whom
say ye that I am. Would to God that he would ask
every one of us individually that question right now, whom
say you that I, the son of man, am. Everything we believe is
predicated upon who he is. This is the issue. And this is the issue between
God and me, and God and you. Who is Jesus Christ? What do you say? Whom say ye, that I, the Son
of Man am? And Peter acted as the spokesman,
I believe, for all of them. He was always the first one to
speak. We love Peter, don't we? He was the first one to speak.
And Simon Peter answered and said, thou art the Christ, the
son of the living God. He's God's Christ. He's God's
prophet. He is the Word of God. He's God's
priest. That means if He brings you into
the Father's presence, you'll be accepted. You and I have to
have Him. No man comes to the Father but
by me. The only way I can come to the Father is by being in
Him. He's God's priest. He's God's king. You know what
that means? Right now, he is ruling and reigning,
exercising absolute sovereignty. He's king not only in word, he's
king in deed and in truth. He is king of kings and Lord
of lords. Thou art the Christ The son of
the living God, God's equal, the eternal son, the God of all
creation, Lord of all. That's who you are. That's who
you are. This is what we believe. Do you
believe this? That he's the Christ? Who so believeth that Jesus is
the Christ is born of God. That's what the Bible says. Do
you believe He's God the Son, the second person of the Trinity,
the Creator, the Lord of heaven and earth? Do you believe that
you're in His hands and your eternal destiny is up to Him,
that you have no control, that He has all control? Do you believe
that? He's the Christ, the Son. of the living God. Now look how
the Lord replies to that in verse 17. And Jesus answered and said
unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon son of Jonah, flesh and blood
hath not revealed it unto thee, but my father, which is in heaven. Now, if you believe this, this
brings joy to my heart. If I believe that Jesus is God's
Christ, the son of the living God, there's one reason I believe
that. The father himself has revealed
this to me. You can't figure this out. I
can't figure this out. We're totally dependent upon
him for revelation. If you believe the truth, if
I believe the truth, it's because God himself, the God of glory,
the creator of the universe has revealed it to me. Isn't that a reason to rejoice? Verse 18, and I say also unto
thee, thou art Peter. Now he just called him Simon,
son of Jonah. But now he says, I say to you,
you're Peter. You know what Peter means? Little
rock. Not big rock, little rock, little
stone. Thou art Peter, and upon this
rock, this big rock, I will build my church, and the
gates of hell shall not prevail against it. You're Peter, a stone, a little
stone, and upon this big stone, I'll build my church. A reference to the Lord building
the church upon Peter. This is not about Peter becoming
the first pope. That's foolish. He's not going
to build his church on Peter or me or you or any other man.
Aren't you thankful for that? He doesn't build his church upon
a man, a sinful man, a weak man. Upon this rock will I build my
church." Now, here's the first time we were reading the New
Testament, the word church. There's something called a church,
the church of the living God. Church is not a man-made institution.
Now, there are a lot of so-called churches that are man-made institutions
because what is requisite for a group of people being a church? The gospel has to be preached.
That's simple enough, isn't it? The gospel has to be preached,
and if the gospel is not preached, it's not a church. It's some
kind of institution, I suppose, but don't call it a church. There
is such a thing as the church. Husbands, love your wives as
Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for it. Feed the church of God which
He purchased with His own blood. We read in Hebrews 12 of the
General Assembly and Church of the Firstborn, whose names are
written in heaven. Now here's the church role that
I want to be on. Now this church, there's a universal
church, the Church of God's elect, and there's what we are here,
a local church. In the Church of God's elect,
do you know it never grows? And it never loses a member. That's the church I want to be
in. It never grows. It never loses a member. It's
made up of the elect of God, those for whom Christ died. The
church here on earth is always made of wheat and tares. And
I love the way the Lord said when he gave that parable of
the wheat and tares, when they said, well, you want us to go
rip out the tares? He said, no, leave them alone. If you try
that, you'll end up ripping out the wheat. We don't have enough
sins to be able to do that. I'm so thankful for that. My
job isn't to rip out tares. My job is to preach the gospel.
And the Lord will take care of all results. The church, the
church, upon this rock, Will I build my church? Who's the
one doing the building? Christ says, I'll do it. I'll
do it. This is my work. I will build
the church. And that's exactly what he did
when he walked upon this earth. He built the church. Upon this rock, I'll build my
church. What rock? This confession of me. Peter's
confession of me. This is the rock upon which he
builds the church, who Jesus Christ is. That's our message. Who Jesus Christ is. He's the Christ. He's the Son
of the living God. Now, let me give you an illustration
of the implication of that. Who Jesus Christ is. He's God.
I love saying that. Jesus Christ is God. He's the creator of the universe. He's God the Son. Now, here's
the implication of that. If Jesus Christ died for you,
you must be saved because of who He is. The very idea of Jesus
Christ dying for somebody and that person winding up in hell
anyway, that's a denial of His person. That's a denial of who
He is. That's not just doctrinal error,
that's a denial of the Son. He is God. He's incapable of
failure. And the gates of hell is not
going to prevail against this message. This is an invincible
and irresistible message. I don't have the ability to make
anybody believe. I can't save anybody. But I tell
you what, the gates of hell are not going to be able to hold
back his message when he preaches it. There may be somebody in
here resisting right now. I'm not a bit worried about you.
God's going to bust the door down and he's going to save you
by his grace. That's the way salvation works. Won't you open
up your heart to Jesus? No, he'll bang the door down
and he'll reveal himself to you if you're one of his. The gates
of hell are not going to prevail against the glorious message
of the gospel. Who Jesus Christ is. He's the Christ. Aren't you thankful? If he's the Christ, there's hope
for somebody like me or you, the Messiah, the Deliverer, the
one who saves. And because he's the Son of God,
he's got the ability to do it. He's got the ability to save
you. And I say also unto thee, thou
art Peter, and upon this rock I'll build my church. The gates
of hell shall not prevail against it, and I'll give unto thee the
keys of the kingdom of heaven. And whatsoever thou shalt bind
on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt loose
on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Now once again, this is used
to teach of the power of the Pope. He's got the keys of heaven. What if your salvation was dependent
upon me? Oh, I'd save everybody in here.
That's what I'd say, and I'd mean it to. I'd save everybody
in here. Nobody in this room's gonna be
damned. I'd save everybody in here. But cross me one time too
many, You're in trouble. And if my salvation's up to you,
I'm in worse trouble when it comes right down to it, as far
as when we get caught. The point is, the keys of the kingdom is the
gospel of Christ. He is the key of the kingdom.
He's the key that opens the door into heaven. If you find binding in this message,
if there's no liberty in this message to you, there's no, you
don't hear this message as gospel, it'll be bound to you, you won't
enter heaven. But if you find liberty, freedom
in the message of the gospel, Christ the key of the kingdom,
if you see entrance into heaven by him, by him. you're gonna enter heaven. And
the door will be opened to you. We have that key in the preaching
of the gospel. This isn't just Peter that has
that key, me and you have that key. The gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ and he is the message that opens up heaven and it shuts
up heaven to anybody who comes any other way. I am the way,
the truth, the life. No man cometh to the Father but
by me. Then, verse 20, then charged
he his disciples that they should tell no man that he was Jesus
the Christ. Now, why is that? You know, that's
in the New Testament a lot. That's there at least a half
a dozen times where you do something, you say, don't tell anybody.
Well, here, number one, because they weren't ready to preach
the gospel. Peter didn't really understand, and we're going to
see that in a moment, and they weren't really ready to preach
the gospel. And for another thing, most of
the times when the Lord says this, it's to let us know, He's
not trying to draw a following. He's not trying to get people
to believe, well, if I do this, then maybe they'll follow me.
He charged them to tell no man at this time. They weren't ready
to preach yet anyway, and we're going to see how that's true
in this next verse. Verse 21, from that time forth
began Jesus to show unto his disciples how that he, what's
the next word? Must. It was absolutely necessary. how he must go into 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. Now that word must is the key
to understanding that scripture. Why? Must he go to Jerusalem? Why must he be nailed to the
cross? Why must he be killed? Why must
he be raised from the dead? Now, let me give you two answers,
and they're the same, really. Number one, it's God's purpose.
He came to die. That's his reason for coming.
He said, my hour has come, my hour to die. He's the Lamb slain
from the foundation of the world. The universe was created for
this. This is God's purpose in all
things. That's why he must come and live
and die and be raised. Number one is God's purpose.
Number two, the justice of God. The justice of God. Why did Jesus Christ die? Because
God is just. You see, God can do this. I mean,
you can't do it, but God can do this. God can take my sin
off of me and place it in his son so that he bears my sins
and becomes guilty of the commission of my sins. And the reason he
died is the justice of God demanded his salvation. Why was he raised from the dead?
Why must he be raised from the dead? Because of the justice
of God. You see, he completely satisfied all the claims of God's
justice against everybody that had sinned against him that he
represented. And God was so satisfied with him, so satisfied with what
he did, sin was so completely put away, that the justice of
God demanded him to be raised from the dead. Verse 22, then Peter took him. You know, I imagine Peter thought
by now, maybe he does have a little bit of authority. I mean, he
did mention my name. He didn't mention John's name
or Peter's name or James's name. I'm the guy. I'm the guy. He remembered the Lord saying,
thou art Peter. And upon this rock, I build my
church. Maybe he got confused and thought
he was talking about him. So what does he say? Verse 22,
then Peter took him and began to rebuke him. Now, one thing
I'm sure of, nobody has any business trying
to rebuke the Lord. And Peter was way out of line
here. And I can see where Peter would
have got that way because if the Lord said, thou art tawed,
I'd be filled with self-importance and
filled with thinking that I'm somebody and I'm sure Peter was
thinking that as well at this time. I'm sure he heard what
the Lord said about him and he was feeling pretty good about
himself. And Peter took him and began to rebuke him saying, be
it far from thee, Lord, this shall not be unto thee. You see,
Peter had a different vision. He had a vision of Jesus Christ
being the king of Israel, and he was the top aide in his cabinet.
He thought, this is not the way I thought it would be. Don't
talk about death. Don't talk about being crucified. That's
messing up my vision of myself. How am I gonna be the aide to
somebody who's dead? Don't talk like this, Lord. Be
this far from thee, Lord. Don't talk like this. Peter was
looking for a political kingdom. at this time. He did not understand
that the Lord's kingdom was not of this world. You remember when
the Lord said, my kingdom is not of this world. If it were,
my servants would fight and you couldn't beat them, but I wouldn't
be delivered. But now my kingdom is not from hence. But Peter
at this time is thinking about a kingdom where he's going to
have a position of authority and recognition. So he says,
don't do this Lord. Verse 23, But he turned and said unto Peter,
get thee behind me, Satan. Now can you imagine how that
took the air out of Peter's sails? Get thee behind me, Satan. Can a believer come under the
influence of Satan like that? Peter did. And it could happen to me, it
could happen to you. Get thee behind me, Satan. Thou art an offense unto me. I can just see Peter getting
smaller and smaller, having the Lord talk to you like that. Thou
art an offense unto me. For thou savest not the things
that be of God, but those that be of men. Now in your speech,
Peter, you're showing you don't, you're not thinking right. You're
thinking of the things of men rather than the things of God. And that is when he gives this
statement, looking at all of his disciples. Then said Jesus
unto his disciples, if any man will come after me, let him deny himself. Take up his cross and follow
me. Now, as I said at the beginning
of this statement, or this message, if I'm not deceived, this is
what I want to do more than anything else. I want to be an out-and-out
follower of the Lord Jesus Christ. And as far as what all that entails,
if my life ends up being rotten
as far as me is concerned, I don't care if I'm a follower of Christ.
I want to be a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now he gives three things to
do. If any man will come after me,
and that's what I want to do, I want to come after him. Let
him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. Let him deny himself. That man in the mirror, deny
him. Young's literal translation says,
disown him. Let a man disown himself. My biggest problem is self. Self-righteousness. Self-interest. self-promotion,
self-indulgence, self-absorption, self-sufficiency, self-confidence,
self-esteem, self-defense, self-justification, self-vindication, self-assurance,
Self-love. Self-obsession. My self-narrative. Let me tell you about myself. It's called self-ish. Selfish. Selfish. Deny self. Disown Forget about yourself. Lose sight of yourself. Disown yourself. Now, here's
what will take place if I ever deny myself. I'll take up my
cross. These two things go together.
Well, actually, these three things go together. Denying yourself,
taking up your cross, and following the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, if
I deny myself, I'm going to willingly, intelligently, and I'm not talking
about IQ right now, I'm talking about knowing what I'm doing.
I'm gonna willingly, intelligently take up my cross. Now, when most
people think of the cross I have to bear, that's not what the
Lord's talking about. Well, my cross is loneliness,
or my cross is lack of health, or my cross is whatever cross
people think is put upon them, and it's a difficult thing. But
let me tell you this, you don't take that up, it's laid on you.
Whatever the Lord's put your way is laid on you. It's not
something you take up. When he's talking about taking
up your cross, Lord hadn't even been crucified
yet when he said this. But the cross is eternal. The
message of the cross is eternal. He's called the Lamb slain from
the foundation of the world. He's talking about willingly,
intelligently taking up the message of the cross regardless of the
consequences of doing that. Take up your cross. It's something like this. Paul
the Apostle said God forbid that I should glory save in the cross
of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now that's taking up your cross.
Glorying nowhere, and I mean publicly too. Glorying only in
the cross, preaching the cross. Now let me tell you the message
of the cross real simply. If you can hear this, when Christ
died on the cross, There were two other men dying beside him.
One was saved, the other was lost. What was the difference between
those two men? The man in the middle, the cross
of the Lord Jesus Christ, that man who was saved, The Lord had
taken his sins upon himself and put them away and he gave that
man his very righteousness so he could boldly enter the kingdom
of heaven. The man who wasn't saved, it's all his fault he wasn't
saved. He can't say, well, the reason I'm saved, I'm not saved
is because Christ didn't die for me. The reason you're not
saved is because you're sin. God left this man to himself as an
act of his justice. Right and holy is his name. The
difference between the two men, it was not because one was better
than the other. It was not because one could do more in the kingdom
of heaven. It's not because one was more sinful or less sinful.
The difference was the work of Christ on his behalf on the cross. Is that the difference between
you and a lost man? Let's say the person beside you is lost and you're
saved. What's the difference? Jesus
Christ, the cross of Christ. And we take that message willingly and we follow him. Now, what
do you do when you follow somebody? First time I went to Mexico,
we went to downtown Mérida, and I'd never been in a third world
country environment like that. It was downtown, it was an old
Walter, but all of a sudden he was gone. I didn't know what to do. Where
am I? Where am I? You see, I took my
eyes off of him. I learned. When you were around
Walter, if you wanted to get anywhere, don't take your eyes
off of him. Because the moment you take your eyes off of him,
he'll be gone. Now, he was a missionary in Mexico. But the point is,
when you look to Christ, don't take your eyes off of him. Don't
look down at your feet. It won't do you any good. Don't
look at somebody else to see how they're following him. Well,
how are they doing? Don't look backwards at your
experience. That's no good either. Your experience,
you don't even know if it was real. What am I to do? I'm to follow Him. How? By looking only to Him. Looking unto Jesus. Not looking at yourself, not
looking at others, not looking backwards. Looking unto Jesus. The author and the perfecter,
the finisher of our faith. For, verse 25, whosoever will save his life,
if that's what you're about, saving your life, saving yourself by way of salvation,
preserving your life, keeping away from the offense of the
cross, doing what you can to protect yourself, And those two
things really go hand in hand. When somebody does not follow
the Lord Jesus Christ, they're seeking to save themselves. If
somebody is seeking to save themselves, they've got other agenda. For
whosoever will save his life shall lose it. And whosoever
will lose his life for my sake shall find it. For what is a
man profited? And these are the words of the
Lord. 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 a soul? Now, let's say I reach all my
goals, my career goals, my family goals, my educational goals,
my financial goals, whatever goals I have. And I have a hundred
years of a nice life. And I die and go to hell. What
would that profit me? What would it profit me if I
gained the whole world, the praise of the world, the
prosperity of the world, the prestige of the world, the
pleasure of the world, the power of the world, and had a long
life? and still lost my soul. Now when you come and when I
come to die, and I know it's about over, I'm not going to be thinking
about my preaching. I'm not going to be thinking about the things
I've done. The only hope I'll have at that time is the only
hope I have at this time, that Christ died for me. May God deliver us from looking
anywhere else. Verse 27, For the Son of Man
shall come in the glory of His Father and with His angels, and
then He shall reward every man according to his works. Now the
only way I can understand that is the gospel. If He's going
to reward me according to my works, just my works, I ain't
going to heaven. Neither are you. But if the works
of Christ are my works, He's going to reward me according
to my works. Verily I say unto you, there
be some standing here which shall not taste of death, Do they see
the Son of Man coming in His kingdom? Some of you will not
taste of death until you see who I am. And when you see who
I am, you know what you're going to do? You're going to willingly
deny yourself. You're going to take up your
cross and you're going to follow me. May the Lord enable us all
to do that. Let's pray. Lord, would you, for Christ's
sake, say to each person here, follow me? Lord, say to me, follow me. Lord, enable each one of us to
come after thy son. Enable us to deny ourselves,
to take up our cross and to follow thy blessed son. In his name
we pray. Amen. Rich, come close again. Let's stand and close with hymn
number 17. 17, Come Thou Fount.