Matthew 16. It says here in verse 1 that the Pharisees also were the Sadducees. These men weren't in total agreement,
but they represented two schools of thought among the Jews. They
were the teachers, rulers of the Jews. The Pharisees did believe
in the resurrection. The Sadducees did not. But they
came to the place where our Lord Jesus Christ was preaching, teaching. But they didn't come to learn.
They didn't come to be taught of Him. They came to find some
opportunity to expose him as a false prophet. It says the
Pharisees also with the Sadducees came in tempting, tempting, testing,
desired him that he would show them a sign from heaven, show
us a sign from heaven, something from heaven. Like when Joshua
made the sun and the moon stand still. I see something like that.
To prove that you're the Messiah, as you claim to be. To prove
that you're the Christ. Or a sign from heaven. Let's make some manna fall from
heaven, as Moses did. Or perhaps show us some thunder
and lightning from the mountain. where God gave the law and the
people fled from his presence. I see a sign from heaven. And
our Lord answered in verse 2 and said to them, Now when it's evening,
you say it'll be fair weather, for the sky is red. Red sky at
night, folks used to say, sailors delight. You look at the sky
and you see it's red, and that tells you, if you read those
signs, that it'll be fair weather. And then in the morning, you
say it'll be foul weather today because the sky is red this morning
and lowering. You can read that, can't you?
Those things have been handed down to you from your fathers.
Oh, you hypocrites. That's an awful thing to call
a fellow, especially a preacher, especially a teacher of the scriptures,
especially a man who has excelled so that they've made him a Pharisee
or a Sadducee, a member of the Sanhedrin, having multitudes
of people under his leadership. But Christ knew these men. He said, you're hypocrites, for
you can discern the face of the sky. But you cannot discern the
signs of the scriptures, signs of the times. Now you men, this
is what he's saying, you men should have been able, if you
weren't blinded by your tradition and blinded by your pride and
your form and your rituals, you might have easily discerned that
birth in Bethlehem. You can read the sky, but you
can't read scriptures. Because the scriptures plainly
said that he whose goings forth have been from of old, the Messiah
will be born in Bethlehem. Because when the wise men asked
Herod where the king was to be born, and Herod asked the Jewish
leaders, and they said in Bethlehem. Why didn't you read that? That's
what he's saying to them. You're hypocrites. You're reading
these signs and you ask for a sign from heaven, God's given you
many signs. Also, you would have known why Mary and Joseph went
to Bethlehem, why they were there. Because they're of the tribe
of Judah. David's tribe, Judah. And the
scepter will not depart from Judah till Shiloh comes. You
should have known. You should have read that. But
you're blind. You're hypocrites. You're hypocrites. You should have read the ministry
of John the Baptist. John the Baptist is dead now.
And you fellas, you fellas went to hear him. And the very words
he said are written in Isaiah. The forerunner of Christ will
come from the wilderness. A voice in the wilderness. You
asked him who he was and he told you he was a voice. You remember
that? You ask him, are you the Christ?
He said, no. Are you that prophet? No. Well, who are you? I'm a
voice in the wilderness. Crying what? Prepare you the
way of the Lord. That's what Isaiah said he'd
say. But you fellas couldn't read that. You couldn't read
it because you're hypocrites. You couldn't read it because
you didn't want to read it. You have a position to defend and
a doctrine to defend and a ritual to defend and you're not interested
in what God says. You're hypocrites. You should
have read that sign clearly. And then the miracles which our
Lord did, even Nicodemus, one of the key Pharisees said, you've
got to be from God. No man could do these things
except God be with him. I'll show you a sign. A wicked, listen, verse 4, a
wicked and adulterous generation seeketh a sign. But signs are
not for believers. Signs are for unbelievers. Isn't
that right? If you look at John chapter 10.
John chapter 10. This is what our Lord said about
John the Baptist. John chapter 10, verse 41. John
10, 41. It says here in verse 40, And went the way again beyond
Jordan into the place where John at first baptized, and there
he abode, and many resorted unto him. And they said, John did
no miracle. John the Baptist in his whole
ministering life performed not one miracle. But, this is what
he did. All things that John spake of
this man were true. John preached Christ. And everything
he said about Christ was true. These people that heard John
didn't need a miracle. They rejoiced in the Word he
preached. And then if you'll turn to 1
Corinthians chapter 14, the scripture tells us plainly that signs are
not for believers. Believers do not demand signs.
Believers are happy with the Word. They're satisfied with
the Word. They rejoice in the Word of God. They need no sign
except that which is written. Look at 1 Corinthians 14 verse
21 and listen to this. Paul says, In the law it is written
with men, Isaiah 28, 11 and 12, with men of other tongues and
other lips will I speak unto this people, and yet for all
that People speaking like, are these not Galileans? And yet
we hear the gospel in our own language. You know what they
said at Pentecost? Well, these men are Galileans. And yet we
hear the gospel of every man in his own language. That's what
Isaiah said would happen. Read on. And he says there in 1 Corinthians
14, verse 21, with men of other tongues and other lips will I
speak unto this people, and yet for all that Will they not hear
me, saith the Lord? They won't hear it. Wherefore,
these languages and signs and tongues are for a sign, not to
them that believe, not to them that believe, but to them that
believe not. Well, what do the people who
believe have? But preaching service, not for
them that believe not, but for them that believe. You see that? All these folks running around
smacking folks on the head and doing all this sort of thing.
That's not for believers. Believers do not need signs and
wonders and miracles. Believers feed on, feast on,
delight in, rest in the Word of God, preach the Word of God. If that's not clear to you, read
it some more. are not for them that believe. Tongues are not for them that
believe. They don't need signs and wonders. They believe God.
But prophesying, preaching, that doesn't satisfy the run-of-the-mill
religionists of this day. Show me a sign. These very fellows
here we're reading about, show us a sign. We're not content
with the Word of God. We're not content with the Scriptures.
We want to see some miracle. But it doesn't do any good. Though
one rose from the dead, Christ said, they won't believe. If
they hear not the word of God, believe not the scriptures, though
one rose from the dead, they won't believe. And watch verse
4 of Matthew 16. A wicked, a wicked and adulterous
generation seeketh after a sign, a miracle or something. No sign
is going to be given but the sign of the prophet Jonah. And
he turned around and walked off. Left them. What's this sign of
the prophet, Joe? Turn back to Matthew 12. He's
mentioned this before. Matthew 12. He mentioned this before to these
Pharisees. Matthew 12, verse 38. Then certainly the scribes and
the Pharisees answered and said, Master, we would see a sign from
thee. And he answered and said to them, an evil and adulterous
generation seeketh after a sign. There shall no sign be given
them but the sign of the prophet Jonah, the Scriptures. And you fellows have these Scriptures.
That's Old Testament Scriptures. They had all the old, from Genesis
to Malachi. The sign is the Scriptures. Now
read on. For as Jonah was three days and
three nights in the whale's belly, so shall the Son of Man be three
days and three nights in the heart of the earth." You should
be able to read this sign. Now you who are familiar with
the book of Jonah, you might turn over there for just a moment,
let me show you something. How was Jonah a type of Christ? How should they read this scripture
in Jonah and see it fulfilled in Christ? What's this? Jonah
chapter 1. You know the story. I won't take
the time to tell you. But Jonah was fleeing from the
Lord and hiding in the ship, and the ship was in a terrible,
terrible, terrible storm, about to sink. And then it flayed,
and they came down there and found him down there in the hole
of the ship. And they said, why aren't you
praying like the rest of us? Why aren't you calling on God?
Well, look. And he said to them, verse 9, he said to them, I'm
a Hebrew. I fear the Lord, the God of heaven,
which hath made the sea and the dry land. And then were these
men exceedingly afraid, and they said, Well, what have you done?
For the men knew he fled from the presence of the Lord, because
he had told them. And then said they unto him, Well, what shall
we do unto thee, that the sea may be calm for us? And the sea,
but the sea wrought was tempestuous, and he said, Take me up, and
throw me into the sea. And that's what our Lord did.
He willingly, our Lord Jesus Christ, gave himself to the Jewish
leaders to be crucified. He gave himself to the Roman
soldiers to be crucified. He was led as a lamb to the slaughter
willingly. He said, no man takes my life,
I lay it down. Jonah said, take me up and throw
me in the sea. Well, that's what they did. They
took him up, it says here in verse 15, So they took up Jonah and cast
him into the sea, and the sea stopped it raging. Our Lord Jesus
Christ gave himself into the hands of the Jews and the Romans
to be crucified. And they nailed him to a cross,
and when he was nailed to the cross, the wrath of God against
his people stopped. Jonah is a type of Christ. And
Jonah was swallowed up by the whale, the fish God had prepared. was in there three days and three
nights and came forth on the dry land. But even then, they
didn't see it. He told them that. He told them
this, and yet they didn't see it. So he turned to his disciples
in verse 5. And when the disciples, our Lord
left these Pharisees these religious leaders. They could read the
sky, but they couldn't read the Word. They could see the signs
that the sky gave forth in regard to the weather, but they couldn't
see Christ in the Scriptures. They couldn't see the Passover
lamb, the blazing serpent lifted up. All of these Old Testament
types and pictures are prophecies of Christ, His person and His
Word. You see how that works? Jonah
is a picture of Christ. And so his disciples, verse 5,
will come to the other side, and they'd forgotten to take
bread. And then Jesus said to them, now you take heed and beware
of the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees. And they reasoned
among themselves, saying, well, is this because we've taken no
bread? They connected the leaven, of
course, that you put in bread. 11 and so forth, make it rise
and so forth, I guess. And they connected that with
bread and they didn't have any and they thought he was rebuking
them. Which when Jesus perceived what they were thinking, he said
to them, O ye of little faith. You know, I was reading something
about this. Our Lord's rebukes are so tender.
He didn't say, O ye of no faith. They acted like that sometimes,
but he always said, O ye of little faith. That's tender, isn't it? Oh, you little thing. One reason
you're among yourselves is because you bought no bread. Do you not
yet understand? Now remember the five loaves
of the 5,000? How many baskets you took up? Remember we fed 5,000 people
with five loaves and two fishes? You remember that, don't you?
And do you remember the seven loaves and the 4,000? How many
baskets you took up? How is it then that you do not
understand, that I'm not talking to you about bread, that you
should beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees,
these blind religious people who can't discern the scriptures,
who don't study the scriptures. They don't seek the Lord in the
scriptures. I'm warning you about them. Verse
12, Then understood they how he bade them not beware of the
leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and the Sadducees. It was common for the Jews to
refer to leaven as corruption. Remember when they ate the Passover,
they were not allowed to have any leaven in the house. No leaven
in the bread, and no leaven in the house even anywhere, because
leaven is a type of corruption. And what our Lord is saying here
is the doctrine of these religious Pharisees is corrupt doctrine. And the reason it's corrupt is
because their doctrines are based not on the Scriptures, but on
the commandments and traditions of men. He said, you teach for
doctrines the commandments and traditions of men. Another thing,
their doctrine was not justification by grace alone, but justification
by the works of the law, the deeds of the law. And their doctrine
was not scripture alone, grace alone, and Christ alone. Their
doctrine was tradition. They were blinded by tradition,
free will, and our own works and deeds. Paul warned us about
this over in Acts 20. Our Lord's warning his disciples,
beware of the doctrine of the scribes and Pharisees. Beware
of the doctrines. of these traditional, legalistic,
self-righteous men. And Paul, in bidding farewell
to the elders of Ephesus over in Acts 20, he sounds a warning. And let me tell you something,
this is Paul preaching now to the elders of Ephesus, an august
body of men, that they were listening to him for the last time. He'd
never preached to them again. He said, you'll never see my
face again. This is his farewell message. And he takes the time
to warn them of our false preachers and teachers. He says in verse
28, in closing the message, Acts 20, 28, Take heed, therefore,
unto yourselves and to all the flock, over which the Holy Ghost
has made you overseers, to feed the Church of God. Feed, what
do we feed the Church of God? What does a shepherd feed the
flock? The children's bread, the scriptures.
The word of God, that's the children's bread. Feed my sheep, he said
to Peter. Feed my lambs. You elders, you
feed the church. Bathe yourselves in the word.
Saturate yourselves in the word of God. Study the word of God.
Write the divine at the word of God. And when you get up to
feed my people, Feed them the Word of God. They live by the
bread of the Word. Faith comes by hearing the Word.
Comfort by hearing the Word. Grow. Desire the sincere milk
of the Word that you may grow. Feed the church which you purchase
with his own blood. Verse 29, listen, I know this,
that after I'm gone, after my departing, shall grievous wolves
enter in among you, not sparing the flock, and also of your own
selves, men will arise, speaking perverse things. Why? To draw
away disciples after themselves. Therefore watch, watch, set a
watch. Remember that by the space of
three years I cease not to warn you every day, every night with
tears. Now brethren, I commend you to
God and to His Word, and to His Word, the Word of His which is
able to build you up and to give you an inheritance among all
them that are sanctified. Now, I have coveted no man's
silver, gold, or apparel. That's where the preacher starts.
I'm looking for nothing from them, all of it from him. God will meet my needs. I'm his
servant. If he doesn't meet my needs,
it's evident I'm not his servant. I coveted nothing you have, except
that you believe God and believe his way. So beware of the doctrine
of the Pharisees and the scribes. All right, now verse 13. So when
Jesus came to the coast of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples,
saying, Whom do men say that I, the Son of Man, am? He calls
himself the Son of Man. In fact, he is truly a man. Jesus
of Nazareth is a man. Genuine, bona fide, born of a
woman, subject to all the characteristics, infirmities, temptations of the
flesh, flesh and blood, Jesus of Nazareth is a man. I'm the
son of man." In fact, he is a man. And secondly, the scriptures
call him the son of man. The very first prophecy concerning
his coming into the world is in Genesis 3.15. And he's called
by God the Father himself, the seed of a woman. He'll be born
of a woman. And when someone's born of a
woman, it's a human being, that's the only kind of product the
womb can produce is a person like her, a man. That's exactly right. And he's
called in Psalms 8, the Son of Man. In Psalm 80, the Son of
Man. Now watch and I want you to turn
to Daniel. In Daniel 7, listen to this. Daniel 7, 13, I saw in the night
vision And behold, one like the Son of Man came with the clouds
of heaven, and came to the Ancient of Days, and they brought him
near before him. And they were giving him dominion
and glory and a kingdom, that all people, nations, languages
should serve him. His dominion is an everlasting
dominion, which shall not pass away in his kingdom, that which
shall not be destroyed." Who in the world is that? Well, this
is some more things these men should have been reading. They
read these scriptures every day in the synagogue. But nobody
ever gathered around and said, now who is this? Could this be
that Jesus fellow, son of man, born in Bethlehem, where he who
is going forth from of old is supposed to come? of whom the
forerunner John the Baptist talked when he said, Behold the Lamb
of God. We're too busy with our religious
traditions to get into this. It requires too much work. Son of man. And then, not only
in fact, not only in Scripture, but in appearance, he was a man.
To the people of this world, he was only a man. They said,
Well, we know him, he's the carpenter. no beauty about him, we should
desire him when we shall see him. He's a man of sorrows, acquainted
with grief, we hid, is it, where our faces from him. He's despised,
he's rejected of men, away with him, crucify him, and I'll have
this man reign over us. Well, our Lord says, whom do
men say that I the Son of Man am? Let's see what the disciples
answer. Verse 14, and they said, Some
say you're John the Baptist, some say you're Elias, others
say you're Jeremiah or one of the prophets. Natural men can't really agree
on who he is. They can't agree on who he is.
Their answers are all different. And that's true out here among
all these denominations of sects and cults. Some say you're this,
some say you're that, others say you're this. They're all
saying something different. But let me tell you, error, error
always comes in multiple choices. Two is always one. Now you write
that down. Error always comes in multiple
choices. Error can never agree. A thousand
errors can walk together because they are willing to disagree.
The truth is singular, always singular. All of their answers
are wrong. He's not John. He's not Elias. He's not Jeremiah. He's not even
one of the prophets. He's deep out there. He's not
one of them. I know he's not one of the prophets
because all the prophets came talking about him. He came talking
about himself. If you believe not that I am
he, you're dying a sin. He's not one of them. He's the
he. I am he. And then verse 15, our Lord didn't
even answer. When they told him some say this,
some say that, others say this, he didn't even answer them. He turns to the disciples then
in verse 15, he says, But whom say ye that I am? What do they leave out? Son of
man. The world sees him only as a
man. The disciples see him as God
Almighty. I am. Moses said to the one who
spoke to him out of the burning bush, but if I go to the people
of Israel and say, God sent me, they're going to ask, what's
his name? What shall I say? And the Lord God said, you say,
I am that I am that sent thee. Our Lord is using that same word.
Whom do you say that I am? Well, three things about their
answer. Simon Peter answered and said,
Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. Their answer
was unanimous. They had one man speak for them.
He spoke for every one of them. He spoke for every one of them
over in John 6 when our Lord said, Would you also go away?
Peter spoke for all the group and he said, To whom shall we
go? We believe and assure thou art
the Christ, thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. That's
unanimous. And let me tell you this, outside this little circle of
believers, Jesus as Nazareth was described in many ways, but
to all believers, one way. He's the Christ, the Son of the
Living God. His name is Wonderful Counselor, the Mighty God, the
Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace, and there's no doubt
about it. Men talk of divisions in the church. Divisions in the
church and in the churches. Well, let me tell you something.
There are divisions in the churches of men, but there's no division
in the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. Absolutely none. Absolutely none. They're united
in one faith, one Lord, one baptism, one Holy Spirit, one gospel,
one God and Father, and every one of them are taught by one
Spirit and they believe the same things. Write it down. This is
unanimous. There are no divisions in the
Church of the Lord Jesus Christ. regarding who he is, what he
did, why he did it, and where he is now. Not at all. Oh, we
may differ on church government and how many times a month you
ought to take the Lord's table and disciplines and all this
sort of thing, you know, but not on him. Not on him. Every one of them sang the same
song, unto him who loved us and washed us from our sins in his
own blood. and hath made us kings and priests
of our God, unto him be all the glory, preeminence, praise, honor
forever." He's our Lord and Master, no division. The answer they
gave was unanimous. Secondly, the answer they gave
concerned vital things, not foolish things. It had to do
with his deity, the Son of God. There are three that by record
in heaven, the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, and these are
one. Jesus Christ is God Almighty. That's right. It regarded His
deity, it regarded His office. He is the Christ, the Savior,
the Redeemer. No man cometh to the Father but
by me. There's none other name under heaven given among men
whereby we must be saved. Other foundation can no man lay
than that which is laid. He that hath the Son hath life. He that hath not this Christ,
the Son of God, will never see life. He that believeth on the Son
hath everlasting life and shall not come into condemnation. He
that believeth not on the Son, the wrath of God abideth on him. God does not love him. God's
wrath is upon him if he does not believe Christ. That goes
for your mama and daddy and brother and sister and cousins and nieces
and nephews and everybody else. He that hath not the Son hath
not the life. Don't try to tell them to do. That's not right. It's not honest
to be dishonest with people. That's just so. This answer is
unanimous, who he is. This answer has to do with the
vital things. This answer has to do with you.
Whom do you say that I am? It's not, it's not whom did you
hear somebody else, whom do you, you say? Who is it? I want to hear it, he said, from
you. I want to hear it from you. And then the answer is final.
This answer is as changeless as the throne of God. Here's
where I began to live when I found out who He is. Bowed to Him. Received Him. That's when I began
to live. And that's how I live now, on
Him. Christ in you. That's the hope of glory. And
that's how I'm going to die. It's as final as the throne of
God. Here's where life begins. Here's where life closes the
door on this earth and enters glory. He that believeth that
Jesus is the Christ is born of God and will never die. And he'll
never deny his Lord. When Peter said that, our Lord
said something to Peter. Verse 17, And Jesus answered
and said, Blessed art thou. I blessed you all. I blessed
you all who know the Lord, or rather are known of God. He knew
you before you knew Him. Before I formed thee in the belly,
Jeremiah, I knew thee. I knew thee. You know God, but
rather you're known of God. Simon, you're blessed. Blessed
is the man God chooses and causes to approach unto Him. Blessed
is the man to whom God will not impute sin. Blessed is the man
to whom God's revealed Christ in the gospel. Blessed are you! Blessed are your ears as they
hear, your eyes as they see, your heart understands. Blessed
are you! But I'm going to remind you of something, Peter. Listen. Blessed art thou, Simon
Bar-Jonah, Who's that? He said, you're still the son
of your daddy. That's exactly what he said.
You're still Simon, the son of Jonah. Bar is the son of. You're
still an earthling. You're still flesh and blood.
You're still born of a woman. You're still born in sin and
conceived in sin and shaping an iniquity. You still got a
rotten human nature that's hanging around because you're going to
deny me in about another few days. So never forget, you're
still Simon Bar-Jonah. That's right. Paul called this
the body of this death. Who's going to deliver me from
the body of this death? This Simon Bar-Jonah. Thank God
I have that victory in Christ. But Peter, don't forget, you
come up with a beautiful statement there. But here's the second
thing he said, flesh and blood didn't show that to you. Simon
Bar-Jonah, Simon, son of your daddy, flesh and blood didn't
reveal that glorious truth to you. You didn't learn that in
school or in Sunday school. That's right. I heard it in Sunday
school a long time before I ever believed it. You did too. You learned it when the Holy
Spirit of God took what they taught you and revealed it to
you. That's when you learned it. Now,
you remember that. You're still Simon Barger. You're
blessed. You know the truth. The truth sets you free. But
you're still the son of your daddy, and flesh and blood didn't
reveal that to you, but my Father revealed that to you. My Father. No man knoweth the Son but the
Father, and he to whom the Father will reveal. And he that believeth
on the Son is born of God. miraculously, supernaturally,
born of God. My Father, my Father revealed
that to you. I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven
and earth. You hid these things from the
wise and prudent, and you revealed it to babes, because even so,
Father, it seemed good in your sight. All things are delivered
unto me of my Father. And no man knoweth the Father,
but the Son, and no man knoweth the Son, but the Father, and
he to whom the Father will redeem him. That's so. And I say unto you,
verse 18, I say unto you, listen, I'll get you to go home, Mr.
Mohn. I say unto you, you're Peter. I told you who you were
by nature. I'm going to tell you who you
are by grace. You're a little stone. You're a rock. You're
a rock. You're a rock, a stone, because
of your firmness and your solidarity. You're a living stone in a living
temple laid there by the hand of God, Jesus Christ being the
chief cornerstone. You're a stone. You're a rock. You're a rock. My father gathered
all these living stones from every tribe, kindred, nation,
tongue of the heaven and built a temple. Jesus Christ himself
being the chief cornerstone. You're Peter, you're rock, you're
stone. And upon this rock, I'll build
my church. On Peter? Oh, gracious. Look down at verse
21, just a few minutes later. Listen to this fella, Peter.
He's like all the rest of us. In verse 21, from that time forth
began Jesus to show his disciples how he must go to Jerusalem and
suffer many things of the elders, chief priests, scribes, and be
killed, raised again the third day. And Peter took him aside
and began to rebuke him. He said, far be that from thee,
Lord. Don't go to the cross. Here's
the foundation of the church. How in the world did people ever
come up with that kind of idea? How in this world? And then a
little while later, he's sitting by the fire denying he even knows
him. I'm glad he's not the foundation of this church. Oh, we'd be in
a mess, wouldn't we? What Christ is saying here, Peter,
on this rock I'll build my church. What did Peter just say? Thou
art the Christ, the son of the living God. That's the foundation
on which this church is built. Christ himself being the chief
cornerstone. He's the founder. Other foundations
can no man lay. Paul said, I've laid this foundation.
As a master builder, I've laid this foundation. You boys better
take heed how you build our home. Because I've laid the right foundation,
Christ. And the gates of hell will not
prevail against us. I told you there's no divisions in this
church. This is a church of the firstborn. This is a church whose
names are written in heaven. This is a church only made up
of believers. This is a church which he loved
and purchased with his own blood. This is a church without spot
or wrinkle, without a division, without discord. His church. And I'll give you the keys of
the kingdom of heaven. What are these keys? It's the
gospel. It's the gospel. I'll give you the keys of the
kingdom of heaven. Let me show you a couple of verses. In Luke
11, let me help you with this keys of the kingdom. In Luke
11, verse 52, verse 52. Our Lord's rebuking these religious
Pharisees and he says in Luke 11, 52. Woe unto you lawyers. You've taken away the key of
knowledge. You enter not in yourselves, enter where? Into the kingdom
of God, into heaven. And them that are entering in,
you hinder, you take away from them the key. Who's the key?
Christ. Christ is the key. He opens and
no man shuts. He shuts and no man opens. And
he's giving to these disciples and to this disciple and to you
disciples the keys of the kingdom, which is the gospel. It opens. It opens. the gates of heaven,
the kingdom of God. The gospel is the key. I give
you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatsoever you bind
on earth, we're bound in heaven. What binds them? Blessed be the
tie that binds our hearts in Christian love. Fellowship of
kindred minds is like to that above. It's the gospel. What
makes us one family? Christ. What makes us brothers
and sisters? What gives us all the hope of
eternal glory? Christ Jesus. And you enter that
fellowship, that your fellowship, our fellowship with the Father
and with the Son, and we desire that your fellowship be even
so. That's the keys. And it's bound here on earth. That's where the work is done.
Nothing's going to be done spiritually for a man after he's dead. It's
on this earth. And what's bound here? Bound
in glory. And what's loosed here? be loosed
in eternity. I have every hope of meeting
every believer I've ever known in glory, but I don't have hope
of meeting every person I've ever known in glory, because
we're separated on earth. We're separated by the gospel,
by Christ. That man doesn't love Christ.
He doesn't know Christ. Then we're loosed. loose, and
that which is loosed here by that gospel will be loosed there. And what's brought together here
by Christ will be eternally joined together. Is that not right?
You know that it is, what Christ is saying here. He's not giving
Peter the power to absolve people of sin and grant to them indulgences
and all this sort of thing. That's not in any man's power
or prerogative. That's Christ's business. We
preach the gospel. That's our responsibility. I
won't preach the gospel. And then here's a strange thing,
and I started just to leave this off because I knew my time would
be up, but I can't let you go without mentioning verse 20.
Then charged he his disciples that they should tell no man
that he was Jesus Christ, the Christ. Now this is a temporary injunction.
He told them, he said, Don't go around here telling them I'm
the Christ, and this is a temporary injunction. Later they did, later
they were, that's the commission he gave, go into all the world
and preach the gospel to every creature. But right now, these
men weren't ready. These men weren't prepared to
preach or declare any great issues because, I just showed you Peter
a few minutes later, didn't want him to go to the cross. Well
if the Christ doesn't go to the cross, he's got no kingdom. Peter's
got no message. The Lord never sends a man to
take a message that he teaches in the message. He never sends
a man to prepare the way for him unless he prepares the man.
And these fellows aren't ready. That's so clear. You're not ready
to go out here and pop off about this. And secondly, they were
still debating where the kingdom was going to be, in heaven or
on earth. They were still arguing about
who was going to sit on his right hand and left hand. go out here
and deal with these issues. And thirdly, our Lord knew this,
that they'd stir up the Romans and stir up the Jewish leaders
and there'd be a concerted effort to kill him before the cross. He knew that. So after his death
and resurrection, turn to Acts, I want to show you something.
After his death and resurrection, The Lord gave Peter, the Apostle
Peter, a platform with Jews from all over the world there, all
the religious leaders, and let him preach and declare that Jesus
is the Christ. He had a message to declare. Look at Acts 2, the Apostle Peter
talking here. Verse 36, Therefore let all the
house of Israel know assuredly that God hath made that same
Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ. He's got a message there. He's
the Christ. I know it. He's the Christ. What an awesome responsibility
to declare who He is, what He did, why He did it. and his great preeminent position
now.