Matthew 16, I'm taking the title
for the message from what is said in verse 21. Matthew 16,
verse 21, from that time forth began Jesus. And we know who this is, don't
we? The Savior, the one Son of God,
the Christ of God. The show unto his disciples.
He's saying that we need to be taught. We need to be taught. To show His disciples or to teach
His disciples how that He must go to Jerusalem. Did you notice
when I read over here in 1 Corinthians 15 where Paul said, For I delivered
unto you, first of all, that which I also received, how that
Christ died for our sin, according to the scripture. So it's saying
the same thing, how that he must go to Jerusalem, how that he must suffer many
things of the elders, he must suffer many things of the chief
priests and the scribes, these religious, self-righteous Pharisees,
and be killed, and be killed, and be raised again the third
day. Now you hold your place there, and the Lord says this
again, if you look over here in Matthew chapter 20, Matthew
chapter 20, the Lord again emphasizes this in Matthew 20 verse 17. And Jesus going up to Jerusalem,
took the 12 disciples apart in the way and said unto them, behold,
we go up to Jerusalem. The son of man shall be betrayed
unto the chief priest, notice the word shall, and unto the
scribe, and they shall condemn him to death and shall deliver
him to the Gentiles to mock, talking about the Romans, and
to scourge, they scourged him, didn't they? And to crucify him,
it's just not that he died, but he knew that he would die by
crucifixion. And the third day, be raised
again. The Lord Jesus Christ knew long
before he came here in the flesh why he came and what he was going
to accomplish. Now, I'm taking for a title what
Christ must do for us. He said, I must. This is a must.
This is not an option. Not an option. Our salvation
and our redemption and deliverance from all our sin All our sin
that has afflicted us, all our sin that has tormented us, all
of our sin that has condemned us can only be put away by the
Lord Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Upon His sacrifice, upon His
life, upon His faithful obedience even unto death, upon Jesus Christ
crucified, and risen, and ascended, and seated in the heavenlies.
in Christ Jesus. You remember how that happened?
When he had by himself purged our sin, he sat down on the right
hand of the majesty on high. He did it by himself, with himself,
and he obtained for us eternal redemption. Called his name Jesus,
he shall save his people from their sin. No doubt about this. It will be accomplished, and
it was. Now this must here is an absolute must. It's an absolute
must. This is the eternal, predestinated,
and decreed must. This must take place because
God, from the beginning, decreed that it must take place. We've
had on the radio for the last three weeks, they've repeated
the same message on the radio for the last three weeks. But
it couldn't be a better message to have repeated over and over
again. I didn't intend for it to go that way. But there in
Isaiah chapter 46, where it said, he's declared the end from the
beginning. From ancient times to things
that are not yet done, saying my counsel shall stand. I'll
do all my purpose. I've spoken it, I've purposed
it, I will do it. The Lord must have somebody out
there that needs to hear that message. Because I've sent three
different messages to the radio station and they keep playing
the same one over and over and over again. That's okay. Somebody
needs to hear that message. Maybe it's me. I listen to myself. I don't normally like to listen
to myself. I'm usually too critical. When I go back and listen to
a message I preached, I pick out here and here and here. You
should have said this. You shouldn't have said that.
I'm too much of a critic on my own preaching. And that's not
a bad thing. But this word here must. Remember
the Lord Jesus Christ, even as a 12-year-old boy in the temple,
told his Mama and his foster father Joseph, Mary and Joseph. I must be about my father's business. It's a must. I must be about
my father's business. Remember the woman at the well?
The woman of Samaria? Where the Lord said, I must need
to go through Samaria. She needed to meet the Savior.
She needed to hear that message. I'm the water of life. I'm the
water of life. Now we know that we cannot deliver
ourselves from the curse of the law, can we? The law says, curse
it as everyone that contendeth, not in all things which are written
in the book of the law to do them. We cannot deliver ourselves
from the curse of the law. We cannot deliver ourselves from
the bondage of sin. Sin has a grip on us, and we
cannot break it. We cannot break it. Just in your
heart say, well, I'm never going to sin again. You just did. You just lied. You can't deliver yourself from
the bondage of sin, but He can, and He did. And we certainly
can't deliver ourselves from death. from death. One of these days, this body
that we dwell in, this tabernacle, is going back to the dust. And
we cannot give ourselves life. We cannot raise ourselves up
from the grave. But he can. He raised himself
up, and he'll raise us up in that day. But thanks being to
God, through our Lord Jesus Christ and his glorious redeeming work,
We have complete victory over sin. He put sin away by the sacrifice
of himself. We have the complete and total
victory over death. He said, I'm he that liveth and
was dead. Behold, I'm alive forevermore. We have the complete victory
over the grave. He's going to give us the new
body. He's going to fashion a new body like unto His glorious body,
and there we shall ever be with the Lord. We know the wages of
sin is death, right? The gift of God, the rest of
that verse goes this way, the gift of God is eternal life through
Jesus Christ our Lord. We can say with the apostle,
Thanks be unto God who has given us the victory through our Lord
Jesus Christ. Now remember our Lord had gathered
his apostles to himself. to instruct them privately on
the very vital matters of the gospel. And think about this. We have the recorded words here,
inspired and given of God, for us to read, study, meditate upon. What a privilege God's given
to us. What would you think the Lord Jesus Christ would say to
those apostles right before he went to Jerusalem to die. We
have it right here. We have it right here. He said,
I must go to Jerusalem. I must die. I must be raised
again. I must be raised again the third
day. Remember, the Lord had declared
to them, back in verse 18 of this chapter, the Lord had declared
unto them, I will build my church upon this rock foundation which
cannot fail, which cannot be cannot be removed. Verse 18,
Matthew 16, I say also unto thee that thou art Peter and upon
this rock I'll build my church and the gates of hell shall not
prevail upon it. Christ is that rock upon which
we rest, upon which we dwell, which from which we cannot be
moved. Christ is that foundation stone.
Other foundation can no man lay than that which is laid, which
is Christ the church, which is Christ the rock. This church
consists of sinners saved by the grace of God, called out
of darkness, and is built upon the person and work of the Lord
Jesus Christ. And we have that for us in this
chapter. The church of the Lord Jesus Christ is built upon that
foundation of His person and His work. Now who is He? Well
it says in verse 13 of this chapter, the Lord says that I am the Son
of Man. The Lord Jesus Christ was a real
man. He had no sin. He did no sin. But he was born of a woman and
made under the law. He was a real man. Flesh and
blood like we have without sin. He was a real man. It says in
the scripture, for as much as the children are partakers of
flesh and blood, he also likewise took part of the same. He took
not on him the nature of angels, but he took on him the seed of
Abraham. He was a real man. He had to
be a man, because God can't suffer, bleed, and die, but the God-man,
the Lord Jesus Christ, did. The Word was made flesh and dwelt
among us. And he's also called here in
this same chapter, He's called the son of the living God. You
see that in verse 16. That was Peter's confession.
Thou art the son of the living God. That is, he is God the son
who is the eternal one of God. God the son. Without controversy,
great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh. Who is the Lord Jesus Christ?
He's God. God, the God-man, the old writers
used to call Him the God-man. Son of man, Son of God, and He's
the living and true God. And then, this church is built
upon this foundation. He's the Christ of God. You see
that in verse 16? Thou art the Christ of God. The
Christ of God. He's the anointed Messiah, Son
of God, to accomplish all the redeeming work given to Him in
that covenant of grace. Remember, He told His disciples
on another occasion, He said, My meat is to do the will of
Him that sent Me, and to finish the work the Father gave Me to
do. And then He prayed in John 17, He said, Father, I glorify
Thee on the earth, I finish the work You gave Me to do. And then
on Calvary 3, what did He say? John 19 verse 30, remember, what
did He say? It is finished. Done. He accomplished all God's purpose
in putting away our sin and saving His covenant people. Now, that
gets us down to verse 21. Here is what the Lord Jesus Christ
tells His apostles that He must do. Not only does He tell them,
but He's telling us. He's telling us that these things
are a must. They're not optional. They're a must, an absolute must.
These things must happen. As it says there, let's read
it one more time. From that time forth, the Lord
began to show unto his disciples how that he must go to Jerusalem
and suffer many things of the elders, chief priests, scribes,
and be killed, crucified, and raised again, not the second
day, not the fourth day, the third day to fulfill all scripture. These things must happen because
they were ordained of God, right? Decreed of God by the unchanging
eternal purpose of God from all eternity. Remember when we studied
the revelation? The Revelation is all about the
Lamb, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lamb in His glorified, sacrificial
character. In chapter 13, it talks about
the Lamb of God slain from the foundation of the world. The
foundation of the world. Now, how's that going to come
to pass? God decreed it in eternity, and
it will come to pass. What God purposed in eternity
must come to pass in time. because God is unchanging in
his eternal purpose. What God purposed in eternity
must come to pass in time. In the fullness of time, God
sent forth his son, Galatians 4.4, born of a woman, born under
the law, to redeem them that were under the law. Peter, later
when he fully understood the gospel, how Christ must die,
how Christ was risen again the third day, and he preached at
Pentecost, him being delivered by the determinate counsel and
foreknowledge of God, you have taken and by wicked hand have
crucified and slain the Lord of glory, but the Lord raised
him up from the dead. Peter then knew what the Lord
was talking about right here, didn't he? Then he was ready
to declare that message. Then he was ready to magnify
the Lord Jesus Christ. What God does, he does according
to his eternal, unchanging purpose. Everything God does, he does
on purpose. Shall not the judge of all the
earth do right? Every sinner he saves, he saves by purpose. And his purpose is eternal purpose.
He worketh all things after the counsel of his own will. So God's
purpose these things. These things must come to pass
because the Scripture, the Old Testament Scriptures and the
prophets had declared that it should come to pass. You remember
we read just a moment ago how that Christ died for our sin?
How? According to the Scriptures.
How that He was buried, raised again the third day according
to the Scriptures. Everything the Lord did, He was
fulfilling everything written of Him in the Old Testament.
The Old Testament says someone is coming. The Lord Jesus Christ
came, the gospel declares what he has done for us, putting away
our sin by the sacrifice of himself. He died for our sin according
to as God had written in the word of God, exactly so. These
things must come to pass. because the holy justice of God
demands complete, total satisfaction. God's gonna save sinners, but
he's not gonna save sinners apart from his holy law being honored,
apart from his justice being satisfied. God's gonna show mercy,
but not at the expense of his justice. That is the wisdom and
glory of the gospel, is it not? How God can be just, and justify
the ungodly, how God can be a just God and a Savior in the Lord
Jesus Christ and Him crucified. These things must come to pass
in order to secure our salvation. The Lord Jesus Christ, we studied
it in the book of Hebrews, didn't we? The Lord Jesus Christ is
called the surety the guarantee of all our salvation. God who spared not his own son,
but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also
freely give us all things? These things must come to pass
because Christ is the surety of the covenant. He's the surety
of the everlasting covenant. You remember the God of peace
that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus Christ, that great
shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the everlasting
covenant. You see, these things... Christ
crucified is not an accident. He just didn't bump into a bunch
of angry religious men that day. Determinative God. Determinative
God. How He must suffer many things
of the chief priests, scribes, and elders, and be raised again
the third day. The Lord Jesus Christ must go
to Jerusalem to suffer at the hands of wicked men, but more
importantly, to suffer at the hands of a thrice holy God. It was a wrath of God that fell
upon the Lord Jesus Christ. We see the wrath of men too,
don't we? But I've often said this to you,
and you remember this statement. It wasn't what men did at Calvary
as our hope. I mean, they did their wicked
deeds to the Lord. They beat Him and hounded Him
and hailed Him and nailed Him. But it wasn't what they did.
That's not our hope. It's what God was doing at the
cross. This is God's sacrificial lamb. It pleased God to bruise
him in our room and in our stead. The Lord Jesus Christ suffered
once for our sin, the just for the unjust, that he may bring
us unto God. We can't come any other way.
than by Christ and Him crucified. That's why He said He must go,
and He must die, and He must suffer. The Lord Jesus Christ
must die for our sin according to the scripture. He must be
killed because sin demands death. What does a broken law demand?
The soul that sinneth, it shall die. The law of God demands a
guilty must die. That's what happened at Calvary.
That's why he died. God made him to be sin for us. Guilty, guilty at charge. God made him to be sin for us
who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of
God in him, in him. You see, he must suffer. He must
not only suffer, but die for our sin. Remember, he is a lamb
of God. As John says of him, Behold the
Lamb of God. Behold the Lamb of God. What
does the Lamb of God do? Behold the Lamb of God that taketh
away our sin. He took it away by bearing it
away in His own body on the tree. He bare our sin in His own body
upon the tree. That is, He must shed His blood
in order to redeem us with His blood. He redeemed us from the
curse of the law being made a curse for us. He shed His blood. And
shedding His blood... Now His blood is just not ordinary
Jewish blood. He was a Jewish man. But His blood had no sin. His blood is the blood of God. God bought the church with His
own blood. Didn't it say that? Acts 20 verse
28, He bought the church with His own blood. The Lord Jesus
Christ redeemed us with His precious blood. We're redeemed not with
the silver and gold, but with His precious blood. The Lord
Jesus Christ died my death and we were crucified in Him because
we're one with Him. Remember these Remember this
about the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ, and when I say the cross
of the Lord Jesus Christ, talking about his atonement for our sin,
talking about his sacrificial death for our sin, how he was
wounded for our transgression, bruised for our iniquity, and
the chastisement of our peace is upon Him. First of all, remember
these three things God planned the cross, right? He planned
the cross. He is the Lamb slain from the
foundation of the world. He is the Lamb slain. Peter put
it this way when he said, we are not redeemed with corruptible
things as silver and gold, but with the precious blood of the
Lord Jesus Christ, who was verily foreordained before the foundation
of the world, but was manifest for you in these last times,
who by Him do believe in God, that raised Him from the dead,
and gave Him glory, that your faith and hope might be in God."
So He was a Lamb foreordained before the foundation of the
world. God planned the cross. God planned the cross. Not only did He plan the cross,
but He presided over the cross. He presided over the cross, didn't
He? God the Father? Pilate, you remember, Pilate
said, he thought he was in charge that day. He said, don't you
know I have power to release thee or I have power to crucify
thee? Remember what the Lord said?
You don't have any power over me except it be given to you
of my Father. God presided over the cross of
our Lord Jesus Christ. God provided or presided over
the cross. He was in charge that day. You
remember in the book of Acts where it said that Herod and
Pontius Pilate and the Jews and the Gentiles were gathered together
for to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined afore
to be done. You remember that, Acts chapter
4? were betrothed against thy holy
child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate,
and the Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were gathered together. Now Herod and Pilate, they hated
each other, and we know that those Jews hated the Roman soldiers,
but they all gathered together against the Lord Christ to do
whatsoever thy hand, thy counsel, determined before to be done. So God planned the cross. God
presided over the cross. He was in charge that day. God's
always in charge over all things. And most importantly, God participated
in the afflictions of the cross. God afflicted his dear son. You
remember, it pleased God to bruise him. We know what pleased Pilate. Romans, the Gentiles, but it
pleased God to bruise him. Jeremiah writes about it. Is
it nothing to you, all ye that pass by, behold and see, if there
be any sorrow like unto my sorrow, which is done unto me, done unto
me, wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me in the day of his fear and
anger? Why is God angry with His Holy
Son? Because our sin was laid upon
Him. God cannot look upon sin with favor. God participated
in the afflictions Awake, O sword, Zechariah 13. Awake, O sword,
against my shepherd, against the man that is my fellow, sayeth
the Lord of hosts, smite the shepherd." You see how these
things were all... That's why the Lord said, I must,
I must. Has to be. We have no salvation
without Christ and Him crucified, do we? The Lord Jesus Christ
must also be what? Raised from the dead. raised
from the dead. Now how important is that? His
death is important, right? But what about if he died and
was not raised again? We're in trouble. If he's not
raised up from the dead and ascended and seated, we have no mediator,
we have no advocate. We have no intercessor, and we
have no salvation. Our preaching is vain, and we're
yet dead in our sin. That's how important His resurrection
is. He was delivered for our offenses,
right? Romans 4, 25. Delivered for our offenses. Raised
again because He justified us. Because He got the job done.
He was raised again from the dead. Death had no claim on Him
because He put away our sin. The Lord Jesus Christ must be
raised from the dead to declare what He accomplished was successful. All through the book of Acts,
the apostles declared the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. All
through the book of Acts. If you read the preaching and
the sermons in the book of Acts, they always talk about, you killed
Him, you crucified Him, God raised Him from the dead. Acts 3.15. Peter said, you killed the prince
of life, whom God raised from the dead, we're all witnesses. You see, his resurrection, his
resurrection is a guarantee of ours, isn't it? Our Lord said,
because I live, you shall live also. If Christ be not raised
up from the dead and seated and enthroned in glory, we have no
hope of salvation. None. Now, look at the next verse. Then Peter took him, this is
Peter, laying hold of the Lord Jesus Christ, and he began to
rebuke him. Now can you imagine such a thing? It shows you how weak and sinful
we all are. Peter took him and began to rebuke
him, saying, Lord, be it far from thee. As the marginal reference
says, pity thyself, be it far from thee. This shall not be. unto thee." Can you imagine Peter
saying that? This shall not be. Peter, not
fully understanding all that the Lord had said, started to
rebuke the Lord Jesus Christ. Our Lord strongly asserted that
these things must be, Peter foolishly said, this shall not be. He's
thinking as a man, isn't he? He needs to be taught of God.
We're going to see that in just a minute. Remember this same
Peter, this is the same Peter who said, at this same meeting,
confessed Jesus Christ to be the Christ, the Son of the Living
God. You remember? When he asked him, Peter, whom
do you say that I, the Son of Man, am? Whom do you say that
I am? Peter answered and said, Thou
art the Christ, the Son of the Living God. This is the same
man who said on another occasion, When the Lord said to those apostles,
when the multitude walked away, will you also go away? Simon
Peter answered and said, Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast
the words of eternal life. We believe and are sure Thou
art that Christ, the Son of the living God. And yet Peter here,
not fully understanding the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, began
to rebuke the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, we're no different than
Peter. Our understanding of Christ and
Him crucified is, to those who are perishing, the cross of the
Lord Jesus Christ is foolishness. We don't have any right understanding
of what the Lord Jesus Christ was accomplishing until He reveals
Himself unto us and why He dies for our sins according to the
Scripture. Now look at verse 23. I'll let
you go with this. But our Lord turned and said
to Peter, you get thee behind me, Satan. Now that's a powerful
statement, is it not? He said, you're on the side of
the arch enemy of the gospel. You're taking sides with the
enemy. You're siding with him. Satan didn't want Christ crucified
for the sin of God's people. Satan thought if he could prevent
the death of the Lord Jesus Christ, that he would prevent the salvation
of any sinner. Get behind me, Satan. Thou art
an offense to me. Thou savourest not. And that
word savourest has the meaning of you're not minding the things
of God, or you're not understanding the things that are of God, but
you're thinking like a man. The carnal mind is yet enmity
against God. You see how even Peter needed
to be taught, how Peter needed to have his understanding opened.
Are we any different? We're not any different at all.
We need to be taught of God, don't we? You're taking side
with Satan against the very reason and cause that I came into this
world. The Lord Jesus Christ came to give His life a ransom
for many. Turn over and let's read that.
Turn over to Matthew 20. The Lord Jesus Christ came to
give His life a ransom. You see, Matthew 20, verse 28,
Even as the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to
minister and to give His life a ransom. He came to give His
life. He said, no man takes my life
from me. I have power to lay it down. I have power to take
it again. This commandment have I received
in my father. He gave himself a ransom for
many. Christ crucified is not some
patchwork idea that was put together after Adam sinned against God.
Before there was a sinner, the Savior stood as the lamb slain
as the surety of the eternal covenant of God. Adam didn't
sin and fall, then God had to reconfigure. Well, that plan
A didn't work. Now, plan B, it was always plan
A. It was always plan A. Before
Adam fell, the Lord Jesus Christ stood in that eternal covenant
of grace to satisfy the offended justice of God for us. Without
Christ's sacrifice for our sin, we would have no atonement. We
would have no salvation. Without Christ crucified, we'd
have no justifying righteousness imputed to us. Those who deny
the effectual sufficient atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ don't
understand the necessity of Christ crucified. They do not savor
or relish the things that are of God. The Apostle Paul writes
this in Ephesians chapter five, walk in love as Christ also has
loved us and has given himself for us as a sacrifice to God
for a sweet smelling savor. The sacrifice of Christ is a
sweet, aroaming, satisfying favor unto, savor unto the Lord Jesus
Christ. The gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ, Paul writes, thanks be to God, which always causes us
to triumph in Christ and make it manifest the savor of his
knowledge by us in every place. It's a special thing. Those who
deny The sufficient sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ are
perishing in their sin. Perishing in their sin. Now let
me just close by reading these verses. Verse 24 and following. Further instruction. If any man
will come after me, let him deny himself and take up my cross
and follow me." Now, he's not talking about taking a wooden
cross and dragging it down the street. That's not what he's
talking about. He's talking about taking up the cause of the gospel,
the cause of the gospel, the greater cause of the gospel,
God's glory, God's mercy in Christ. For whosoever will save his life
shall lose it, but whosoever will lose his life for my sake
He'll find it. For what is a man profited if
he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul? What would
you give? What would a man give in exchange
for his soul? We should value nothing more
now than we will value it in eternity. That's right. Set your affection on things
above, not on things of this world. For the Son of Man, verse
27, shall come in His glory of His Father with His angels. Here He's talking about He's
coming back. He's not even left, and now He's talking about coming
back. Notice He uses the word shall. He said, I'll go away
to prepare a place for you, and if I go away, I'll come again
and receive you to Myself that where I am, there you may be
also. And He's going to reward every
man according to his deeds, according to his works, according to what
Christ has done for us, or according to your own puny efforts and
merit. We are judged in Christ upon
His righteousness, upon His work. Those who do not believe the
gospel will stand before God in their puny works and hear
Him say, Depart from Me, I never knew you. Verse 28, Verily I
say unto you, There will be some standing here, Right here, he's
saying, in their day, which shall not die, shall not taste of death,
until they see the glory of Christ coming in his kingdom. Now, I
don't think he's talking merely about his second coming. He's
talking about those who are living in that day, his elect, who must
hear the gospel and be called out of darkness in his marvelous
light before they die. God will send them the gospel
and give them faith to believe. And they'll see the glory of
the Lord Jesus Christ. I believe that's what he's talking
about. Okay, Lord bless his word.