Looking at Luke chapter 9 this
morning, and at verse 18 down through verse 22 of Luke chapter
9, I'm entitling the message from what is said in verse 20.
The Lord turned to His twelve apostles unto them, and He said,
Whom say ye that I am? And Peter answering said, The
Christ of God. The Christ of God. Well, as we
read in Matthew 16, the Christ of God, the Son of the living
God. The Lord asked a direct question,
and Peter gives a direct, bold, and truthful answer. It is his
confession of faith, and I trust yours as well, the Christ of
God. That's the title of the message,
the Christ of God. Of course, we know that word
Christ means Messiah, but it means Messiah that's anointed
of God. He is the anointed Son of the
living God. He is God the Son. But if that
question were put directly to you, would you hesitate to give
any other answer? To that all-important question,
every believer can say of a truth with Peter that the Lord Jesus
Christ, He is the Christ of God. He is the Son of the Living God.
He is my Lord, my God, my Savior, my Righteousness, my All and
in All. To you who believe, He is precious. Now, when the Lord had said that
large crowd of people, we talked about that last week, 10,000
people or more, and they were all filled, and indeed, that
was a notable miracle. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John,
all four of the writers make mention of that miracle, a notable
miracle that was done among all the thousands of people. But
the thought occurred to me the other day, and oftentimes I think
about things after I preach the message rather than before. Well, I often say to myself,
why didn't you say that? Why didn't you say this? Or you
forgot to say that. But the thought occurred to me
the other day. The Lord of Glory feeds billions of people every
day all over this world right now, and has for hundreds of
years, yet the storehouse is still full. It's still full. But what is most sad, the great
multitudes who receive from His generous hand, don't recognize
Him, thank Him, or worship Him as the Lord, do they? Not at
all. Yet the Lord is gracious, long-suffering,
and merciful. And you know why He's merciful
to the unjust? Why He's merciful to the ungodly,
to the rebel? Because of His elect. He sends
the rain on the just. and the unjust. The only reason
other people are blessed in this world is because the Lord is
taking care of His church, taking care of His elect, taking care
of His people. He sends His rain, His sun, and
He brings springtime, harvest, seed time and harvest, year after
year. in a generous way, and yet men,
for the most part, are unthankful." Now, let's take a look at verse
18 of Luke 9, verse 18. And it came to pass, we know
every time we read that, we know it came to pass, because the
Lord brought it to pass, as He was alone praying, His disciples
were with Him, and He asked them, saying, Whom say the people? What do the people, what are
they saying? What's the rumor about in the town? Now, we find
the Lord here again alone with His disciples. praying with them,
teaching them, worshipping them together. What a blessed scene! And it came to pass as he was
alone praying with his disciples. Now, what a blessing to be alone
with the Lord and praying and worshipping together. This is
a blessed scene, is it not? But did you ever consider, this
is true, every time we meet together, in the name of the Lord Jesus
Christ to worship Him, the Lord is with us right now. You see, I don't see Him. He didn't ask
us to see Him. He said, believe me that I am
with you. He said, where two or three are
gathered together in my name, and we're gathered here in the
name of the Lord Jesus Christ, where two or three are gathered
in my name, I'm in the midst of them. The Lord's with us right
now, right now. He has also promised us in the
gospel to never leave us or never forsake us. You remember that
promise he gave to those disciples after he has risen from the dead
and just before he ascended into glory? He said, all power is
given to me in heaven and earth. Go everywhere and preach the
gospel to every creature and know this, he said, and lo, remember
this, I'm with you always. The Lord's always with us, always
with us. Where two or three are gathered
in my name, he said, I will be with you. And after praying and
after worshiping, he asked the disciples, what's the rumor going
around? Who do people say that I am,
that I am? Now the opinions and ideas of
unbelievers are always many and varied. And they answering said,
verse 19, well, some are saying that John the Baptist is risen
from the dead. John was that great Old Testament
prophet, son of God, the forerunner to identify the Messiah, the
Lamb. And some are thinking that you're
just John risen from the dead. But some say that maybe you're
Elijah that was to come. Or others are saying that maybe
Jeremiah, as Matthew mentions, or one of the old prophets is
risen again, maybe Elijah, maybe Elisha, or one of the old prophets,
Isaiah, maybe he's come back from the dead. You see, the opinions
and ideas of unbelievers are always varied, many, vague, and
always wrong. They have wrong ideas about the
Lord Jesus Christ in that day, And people have the wrong idea
about the Lord Jesus Christ in this day as well. Some say John
the Baptist, some say Elijah, some say Jeremiah, Isaiah, Elisha,
another prophet, Elijah. Nicodemus said, remember what
he said? He said, we know you're a teacher
come from God. But what Nicodemus the Pharisee
did not know that he was God who was the teacher come among
men. The Pharisees, they said of him,
he's a winebibber and a gluttonous man. He's a blasphemer. They
said, well, you know, he's really the prince of devils. He's Beelzebub. You see, error has many voices,
doesn't it? Truth alone has one abiding voice. People left to themselves and
to their own thoughts worship and serve the creature rather
than the Creator. The opinion and natural reason
and human wisdom of fallen sinners will never arrive at the truth,
will never believe the truth, because their carnal mind is
enmity against God, because their carnal mind and natural man receives
not the things of the Spirit of God, even though many use
His name today in religion, don't they? I mean, everybody in this
county, this meeting, somewhere in a building, is using the name
Jesus Christ. But what the sad thing is, they've
got another Christ. They've got another gospel. They
use the name of the Lord Jesus, or Jesus, they refer to Him as
Jesus the co-pilot, Jesus the man upstairs, or my buddy, but
they are ignorant of the true Christ of God. They're ignorant
of His person. Jesus Christ, He is God Almighty,
and they are ignorant of His redeeming work. They say that
He died to put away All the sin of all men. If men meet certain
conditions, then He put away your sin. Well, my friend, that's
not true. The Lord Jesus Christ and His
redeeming work is effectual to His elect, to His church, those
for whom He died. They're ignorant of who He is
and they're ignorant of what He did. His redeeming blood is
effectual. There's nobody going to perish
for whom the Lord Jesus Christ died. Jesus of Nazareth is the
Christ of God. There is no other Savior. No
other name given among men whereby we must be saved. There is no
other Lord. Matter of fact, The Apostle Paul
put it this way. He's given him a name which is
above every name, that at that name every knee will bow, every
tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of
God the Father. God has made Him both Lord and
Christ. Now, verse 20 and 21 of Luke
9. The Lord then, after hearing
the rumors, He said unto them, But whom say you that I am?"
Now he got right personal, didn't he? I believe he stuck his finger
right in Peter's face. Who do you say I am? Peter answering
said, the Christ of God, the Son of the living God. And he
straightly charged them and commanded them to tell no man that thing. Whom say ye that I am? Well,
He is the great I Am. He is the same I Am that spake
and spoke out of that burning bush unto Moses. I Am that I
Am. You say, well, is it that important
that you believe that the Lord Jesus Christ is God, the eternal
I Am? Remember what He said in John
8, 24? If you believe not that I Am, you'll die in your sins. Peter didn't hesitate. He said,
the Christ of God, the Son of the living God. Thomas later
answered in John 20, 28. Thomas answered and said, and
to Him, my Lord and my God, my Savior. Hold your place there
and turn to another confession. Turn over here to John chapter
6. John chapter 6, verse 66. John 6, 66. From that time, many of His disciples
went back and walked no more with Him. When they heard Him
say, No man can come to Me except the Father which sent Me, draw
him. Now some of the old commentators think this just follows after
feeding those 5,000, where it says there, From that time, many of His disciples
went back and walked no more with Him. Some of the old commentators
think that those 5,000 men that were mentioned there that He
fed, they just got up and walked away from Him. When He said,
No man can come unto Me except the Father which sent Me draw
him. Then the Lord said in verse 67 of John 6, He said unto the
12, You want to leave? Will you go also? Go away? Simon Peter again answered him,
Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal
life. We believe and are sure thou art the Christ, thou art
that Christ, that Christ, the Son of the living God. Is that your confession? Thou
art that Christ of God. We believe and we are sure thou
art that Christ of God. And now beware of false Christs.
The Lord said in the latter days, there'll be many false Christs.
Don't believe the false Christ. You see, this is a confession
of saving faith. Peter did not ask the opinion
of others with no hesitation, no reservation, but rather boldly
and quickly revealed what is in his heart. The Lord looks
on the heart, you're the Christ of God. You are my Savior, the
Son of the living God. God the Son, the Word was made
flesh and dwelt among us. The Lord Jesus Christ is indeed
the Christ of God. And that means the anointed Messiah,
promised of God. To Him give all the prophets
witness. He is the anointed One of God. Now remember, let's turn and
look at it one more time. Look back at Luke chapter 4.
Luke chapter 4. When He asked for the book of
Isaiah to be delivered unto Him, He found a place where it is
written, In that day, they didn't have
chapters and verses, but in this day, it would have been Isaiah
61, Luke 4, 18. The Spirit of the Lord is upon
me, because he hath anointed me. He's the Messiah. The Spirit of the Lord hath anointed
me as a God-man mediator to preach the gospel to the poor. He hath
sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliberate to the captive,
recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are
bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord. Now, we see
the fulfillment of that in Luke chapter 7. Remember? When John,
being in prison, sent his disciples to ask the Lord Jesus Christ,
are you the Messiah or do we look for another? You remember? Luke chapter 7. Verse 21, in that same hour He
cured many of their infirmities and plagued and of evil spirits,
and to many of them that were blind He gave sight. There's
the fulfillment of what He said He was anointed to do as the
Christ of God. Verse 22, the Lord Jesus answering
said unto them, this was John's disciples, you go and tell John,
John the Baptist, what things you have seen and heard, how
that the blind see, lame walk, Lepers are cleansed, the deaf
hear, the dead are raised, the poor have the gospel preached
to them. Blessed is he whosoever shall
not be offended in me." He is the Christ of God. He is the
anointed of God. There is no doubt about that. He is anointed in all of His
office. Now, you know His threefold office, don't you? prophet, priest,
and king. No one in the Old Testament ever
held all three of those offices. But as the anointed Messiah,
as the Christ of God, He's prophet to reveal the testimony of God,
the gospel of God into our heart. Remember the Lord said in Matthew
16 when Peter confessed thou art the Christ you remember what
he said? Flesh and blood didn't teach you that reveal that to
you, but my father which is in heaven He is anointed prophet
to reveal the testimony of God the gospel to our heart He said
these things from the wise and prudent and revealed them under
babe's even so father So it seemed good in thy sight and he is anointed
in What's the second one I said? He's a prophet. He's the priest,
right? To redeem us from our sin. That's
what the priest of God does. He represents us before God. You see, God is so holy, He won't
do business with me. I'm too sinful. I have to have
a mediator. I have to have an advocate for
me. And the Lord Jesus Christ, as
my Great High Priest, is my advocate, mediator, intercessor, who gave
Himself for us to redeem us with His own blood. Aren't you thankful
that He is the Great High Priest? that dealt with your sin, that
reconciled you unto God. You see, He is the Messiah. And
when we say that, the Christ that's talking about all of His
threefold office, prophet, priest, and what's that third one? He's
the King. He's the King. Now, He's not
Lord and King by something we have done. People in religion
say, well, make Jesus your Lord. My soul, that's impossible. God
beat you to it from eternity. God has made Him both Lord and
Christ. He is the anointed King to reign
over us with absolute power and with undisputed absolute sovereignty
and with absolute wisdom. Everything He does for us, He
does with absolute wisdom for our good and His glory. The Father hath given him power
over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many
as thou hast given to him. Let every one of us make this
same bold confession of faith, Jesus Christ is my Lord, to the
glory of God the Father. Jesus Christ, He is my anointed
prophet, priest, and king, and He is God my Savior to put away
my sin by the sacrifice of Himself. Do you have any other hope? No. My soul? No, sir. Christ is all
of our hope, isn't He? As a matter of fact, He is our
hope. Salvation is in a person. Now,
I want to make mention of this because I know you're wondering
what does it mean here in verse 21, when He straightly charged
them and commanded them to tell no man that thing. Well, there is a time to be silent. And there is a time to speak. At that particular time, it was
a time the Lord commanded them to be silent on this issue, that
He was the Christ. You see, because remember they
wanted to come and take Him and make Him to be King? You see,
the Lord Jesus Christ, He must go to Jerusalem and He must suffer
many things. So He's saying, right now at
this time, just be quiet. He commanded them to be quiet.
You see, there's a time to speak and there's a time to be quiet.
He later sent them after the resurrection, He later sent them
into all the world to preach the gospel to every creature.
Remember in Acts chapter 2 verse 36 what Peter said? That same
Jesus whom you crucified, He's both Lord and He's the Christ. Now's the time to speak. You
see, that time and that day was a time to be silent. And today
in which we live is the day to speak, isn't it? To preach the
gospel, to lift up Christ. Now, look at verse 22. saying, the Son of Man must suffer
many things, be rejected of the elders, and a chief priest, and
scribed, and be raised again the third day." Now, did you
save your place in Matthew 16? If you saved your place there,
turn over to Matthew 16. That's why this Bible has two
ribbons. A primary and a secondary, okay? This is a secondary. Matthew
16, verse 21. From that time forth began Jesus
to show unto His disciples. He had to show this unto them. He had to teach them this. He
had to give them understanding how that He must go to Jerusalem. Now, they're thinking, Lord,
they hate you down there. I mean, that's the hotbed of
persecution. I mean, the Pharisees, they despise
them. And you're going right down to
Jerusalem, right down to the temple. Remember what he did?
He drove them out. Suffer many things of the elders
and the chief priests and the scribes. Who was his chief persecutors? The religious Jews. It wasn't
the Gentiles. The religious Jews were his chief
persecutors. And be killed and be crucified. and be raised again the third
day. And Peter took him and began
to rebuke him. Now Peter at this time didn't
fully understand what was going on, saying, Be it far from thee,
Lord, this shall not be unto thee. But he turned and said
to Peter, Get out of my way, get behind me. You're inspired
by Satan, you're inspired by the flesh, the sinful flesh.
You're an offense to me, thou savorest not the things that
be of God. but those things that be of men."
So we know right away that the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ
is of God. This is God's Lamb, God's sacrifice
for sin. The Lord plainly tells the reason
that He came here among men as God manifests in the flesh. This is a faithful saying and
worthy of all acceptation that the Lord Jesus Christ came here
to save sinners, didn't He? to die for sinners, to die for
His bride, to die for His church. Husbands, love your wives. Ephesians
chapter 5, remember? Husbands, love your wives, even
as Christ loved the church and gave Himself for the church,
His bride. He came to secure her salvation. He came to redeem and establish
and to build His church. Remember we read in Matthew 16
verse 18, I will build my church in the gates of hell, shall not
prevail against it. He came here to establish his
church upon the foundation upon which he laid, which is Christ
Jesus the Lord. God had laid in Zion for a foundation,
a stone, a tried stone, a precious cornerstone, and that foundation
is the Lord Jesus Christ. So He came to redeem His bride,
He came to establish His church, He came to secure everlasting
salvation for His people. He's able to keep us from falling,
and to present us faultless before the presence of God's glory with
exceeding joy, you remember, to the only wise God our Savior,
to secure their everlasting salvation. Now when I say that, I mean this,
the Lord doesn't save His people and then they get lost again.
He saves those who are lost, and when He saves them, when
He saves them, He saves them with an everlasting salvation. I give my sheep eternal life
and they shall never perish. Our security of salvation is
found in Christ. Can He perish? No. Where are you? In Him. He is
my assurance. He is my security. Salvation
is based upon His faithfulness, His performance, not mine. Nothing
and no one can prevail against the church of the Lord Jesus
Christ. He said, even the gates of hell shall not prevail against
the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, has anybody ever
asked you this question? What church do you belong to? I want to know where you go to
church. What church do you belong to? Next time someone asks you
that, tell them the church of the firstborn. What is that? That's Christ. You see, we are
His body. He is the head. We belong to
the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven.
That's pretty secure, isn't it? Now, I want to close by considering
four things about what the Lord says here. It's recorded in Matthew
16, verse 21. And it's the same thing as given
in Luke 9, verse 22. I want us to consider four things
about the atonement that we see here. And when I mean atonement,
I mean the blood sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ, whereby
He bought us with His own blood. He loved the church and gave
Himself for His church. Here in His love, not that we
love God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the atonement,
the sacrifice for our sin. Now, Matthew 16, 21. Four things. I'm going to give them to you
quickly, but very, very importantly. The first one is this. We see
the sovereignty of God arranging and ruling over everything concerning
the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. God planned the cross and presided
over the cross. Notice He said, the Son of Man
must go to Jerusalem and must suffer. Now, is there any other
way? No other way. No other way. Given among men, whereby we must
be saved. We see the absolute sovereignty
of God ruling over all things concerning Christ and Him crucified. We can say with assurance and
according to the Word of God, the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ
is no afterthought, is it? No afterthought. We read in Revelation
13, the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. Before Adam was
created, before creation itself, the Lord Jesus Christ stood as
the atonement for our sin. You see, before there was a sinner,
there was a Savior. Before sin entered in, the Lord
Jesus Christ stood as a surety of that everlasting covenant,
the surety for His elect. surety of that everlasting covenant. So we read when Peter preaches
in Acts 2.23, him being delivered by the determinate counsel and
foreknowledge of God, you have taken and you have by wicked
hands have crucified and slain the Lord of glory, but God raised
him from the dead. Now who was in charge that day?
Pilate thought he was in charge, didn't he? He said, don't you
know I have power to crucify you or let you go? You remember
what the Lord said? Corrected him, didn't he? You
don't have any power over me except what I give you. 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. So we see the sovereignty, the
absolute sovereignty of God over all events concerning Christ
and Him crucified, right? Second thing is this, we see
why the Lord must suffer and be killed. Why must He suffer? Why must He be killed? Why must
He suffer unto death? He became obedient unto death,
even the death of the cross. We see why He must suffer. We see why He must be killed.
One word. S-I-N. Sin. The wages of sin is death. Jeremiah
lamented, 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
to me wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me in the day of his
fierce anger. The soul that sinneth must die. What happened at Calvary? What
happened at Calvary? The Lord Jesus Christ died because
of our sin, our guilt was laid upon Him, and the wrath of God
was upon Him because of our sin. This is why He must suffer! Being guilty of our sin and having
our sin charged to His account, God has no alternative but to
punish our sin and to punish Christ, His beloved Son, on our
behalf. You see why He must suffer. The
third thing we see is this, Christ dies as the sinner's substitute. He had no sin of His own. He
did no sin. He knew no sin. But listen to
the Scripture. He bare our sin in His own body
on the tree. Isaiah said, the Lord laid on
Him the iniquity of us all, for the iniquity of His people. Christ
also suffered once for our sin, the just for the unjust, that
He might bring us unto God, 1 Peter 3, 18. God made Him to be sin
for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in Him. He was rejected, despised, a
man of sorrow acquainted with grief, wounded for our sin, bruised
for our iniquity. He was rejected that we might
be accepted in the Beloved. You see, He dies as a sinner's
substitute. This is why He said, I must go
to Jerusalem. I must suffer. I must be killed. There is no other way for God
to be just. satisfy His own law, and to justify
the ungodly than to pay the sin debt of God's covenant people."
The sin of a certain people, His elect, His church were laid
upon Him, and He made full satisfaction and effectual redemption for
their sin. He dies as a sinner's substitute. He's my substitute. Here's the
fourth thing I want you to see about Calvary. Why he must go
to Jerusalem. Why that he must suffer. Why
that he must be killed. And, what's the last one? Be
raised again from the dead the third day. Now remember that
scripture in Romans 4.25? He was delivered for our offenses
and raised again Because He justified us. How did He justify us? With
His own blood being justified freely by His grace through the
redemption that is in the Lord Jesus Christ. So we see in the
resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, what do we see? Satisfaction,
don't we? Is God Almighty satisfied with
the death? and resurrection, the redeeming
work of the Lord Jesus Christ? Absolutely. How do we know that?
God raised Him up. He lived among men in that glorified
body 40 days, and after 40 days, He went to glory. They watched
Him ascend. I've often thought about that.
They watched Him ascend, and He ascended to glory, and He
sat down on the right hand of the throne of God. Whoever that
is, The body of the Lord Jesus Christ, the resurrected body
of the Lord Jesus Christ is on it. Why? He satisfied God, didn't he?
Substitution, learn two words, substitution and satisfaction.
The Lord Jesus Christ satisfied God's law and justice on behalf
of His people. He shall see the travail of His
soul and shall be satisfied. His resurrection is a declaration
of our salvation and our deliverance. He must be raised up the third
day. You remember 1 Corinthians 15?
Yet there be no resurrection. We're yet dead in our sin, and
we have no hope. But thank God we have a risen
Savior. He said, I am the resurrection
and the life. I am He that liveth and was dead.
Behold, I'm alive forevermore. Revelation 118. And have the
keys of hell and death. I'm alive forevermore. He said,
because I live, you shall live also. You see, this is every
believer's confession of faith. Right here. Right here. Every
believer's confession of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and
Him crucified. That is the faith of God's elect. He must suffer. He must be killed. He must be raised again. That
we might be raised again in Him. That we might have salvation. Who do you say that He is? Who do you say that He is? Don't
answer me, answer yourself. Who do you say that He is? can say without reservation,
He is all my salvation. That's what Simeon said, Lord
let me die in peace, my eyes have seen Thy salvation. We can
say with Peter, He's all my desire. We can say with Paul, He's all
my hope, a good hope through grace. And we can say again,
He's all my righteousness. all my righteousness before God.
That's our confession of faith. That was Peter's and that's mine. And I trusted it's yours by his
grace. Okay.