I have entitled this message,
Get Thee Behind Me, Satan. Try to put yourself in Peter's
shoes for just a moment. When he who his 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 slant. 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. You're God the Son. 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 opposite. 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. You're God's King. The person and work of
Christ. 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. 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, soon
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. And 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 have not revealed it unto thee,
but my Father which is in heaven. Now you listen to me real careful.
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 believe 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 to you. 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. It'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? Of course not. We wouldn't build
it upon 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. 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 the God. What else
has to be said? 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 Am, 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 that 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 pride or 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. Now, 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 behooves 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. 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. 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.
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, 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 high priest 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 his
place, for all they that take the sword shall perish with the
sword. Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father, and he
shall presently give me more than twelve legions of angels?
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 hoped he their understanding that they might understand the
Scriptures. And he said unto them, Thus it is 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 sins 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 Him with wicked hands and 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 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 it 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 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 received 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, attempting him. And he said, show me a coin and
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 godlike thing God ever did. Isn't
that wonderful? Calvary. Golgotha's Hill is the
most godlike 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've 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've got. And you. Every day I'm called
on to deny myself. And then next, he says, let him
take up his cross and 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. 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 count it 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 thankful, 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
you about 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 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
name crucified. What's that say? Well, it tells
me the truth about me. I, myself, and you, I'm including
you in this much, 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
evil. 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 like the devil. There's no truth in it. The cross
tells the truth. I think if you talk about somebody's
religion that way, you find out how happy they're going to be
with you. Here 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? 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 was 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 why I was 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? 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 stuff, if we refuse that to make our life 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 bought 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 soul? What would a prophet do if he
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 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 and power. And look what it says.
And then shall he reward every man according to his works. That
means a couple of things. First of all, the works of the
Lord Jesus Christ. from 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 going to be rewarded according to my works because
my works are perfect. Put my life on the 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 kingdom. 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 behold nothing. 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 is 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 to the Father the promise
of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this which you now see
and hear. For David is not ascended into the heavens, but he saith
himself, The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou in my right hand,
until I make thy foes thy footstool. Therefore let all the house of
Israel know it sureth, 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 David gladly received his
word and 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.