The Cross, the Conflict, and the Cost — Keith Malcomson

The Cross, the Conflict, and the Cost

I want you to turn with me here to Matthew chapter 16, Matthew chapter 16. I feel like we've got so much to communicate here today. So much to deal with. Matthew chapter 16. And this is almost like the continuing part of last week.

Last week we dealt with part 10. I will build my church. And I stopped because it was so important what the Lord was dealing with us. There's a continuation. There's part 11 of our series, Christ as the only foundation.

But this message, part 11, I was gonna call it falling and fighting on the foundation, but I just changed that. What I called it is the cross, the conflict, and the cost, three Cs. The cross, the conflict, and the cost.

If you remember from Matthew 16, and just before I do this, because I want people online to hear this as well, just the schedule for the coming weeks. Next week we're gonna have here is Brother Stephen Riddle from the north, from Dungannon.

He's an elder in a very good church up there in the north, a good brother. I want him to come down here for several years, and it just providentially hasn't worked out. So he's gonna be preaching here next Sunday, twice next Sunday.

The following week we're gonna have Pastor Paul Williams from England, from Wolverhampton. He's gonna be coming with his family, and he's gonna preach. That's the 28th he's gonna be preaching here. These are just wonderful brothers.

I went over, ministered with them in England, but they're gonna be coming here. We prayed for the right time for them to come and visit, and we really believe this is the right time. The week after that, on the 4th of Feb, we're gonna have a baby dedication of two babies here.

Not so much babies anymore, but growing. We're gonna have a baby dedication. On the latter part of February, beginning of March, I'm gonna be in America, the United States, preaching at a few different spots.

I'm keeping it limited, restricted, but I'll be meeting their brothers, sisters, never met them before, as well as old friends, which are like family that I haven't seen in over a decade. So please do keep all these things in prayer.

Christ Revealed as the Foundation

But this message here this morning, part 11, the cross, the conflict, and the cost. Let's read from Matthew chapter 16, reading from verse 13, Matthew chapter 16, and verse 13. When Jesus came into the coasts of Caesarea Philippi, he asked the disciples, saying, whom do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?

And they said, some say that thou art John the Baptist, some Elias, and others Jeremias, or one of the prophets. He saith unto them, but whom say ye that I am? And Simon Peter answered and said, thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.

And Jesus answered and said unto him, blessed art thou, Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee. But my Father, which is in heaven, and I say also unto thee, thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

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. Then charged he the disciples that they should tell no man that he was Jesus the Christ.

The Cross Revealed in the Gospel

From that time forth began, notice that word began, from that time forth began Jesus to shew unto his disciples how that he must go unto Jerusalem and suffer many things of the elders and cheap priests and scribes and be killed and be raised again the third day.

Then Peter took him and began to rebuke him, saying, be it far from thee, Lord. This shall not be unto thee. But he, that is Jesus, turned and said unto Peter, get thee behind me, Satan. Thou art an offense unto me, for thou savorest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men.

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. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it, and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.

For what is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? For the son of man shall come in the glory of his father with his angels, and then he shall reward every man according to his works.

Prayer for Grace in Spiritual Conflict

Let's pray together. Pray for yourself. Pray for one another. Pray for this church. Pray for those that are listening online. You can't even listen the word of God without God's grace. You can't even respond to the word of God rightly unless his grace, his ability draws near and touches your heart.

You wouldn't even come unto God like we dealt with last week. You could not have come. You wouldn't have desired to come unless the father had revealed the son unto you. There's nothing within you, too much rebellion, too much opposition, too much desire for this world or the urges of the flesh.

It's a miracle that you're sitting here. If you're sitting here saying, it is a miracle of God's grace, it's not natural. It's not that you just chose and others didn't want this. It's not that you had some special privilege or understanding or capability.

No, it's by the grace of God. It's by the power of God. Now let's pray together unitedly. We need his grace. I need his grace. I can't even speak. I can't even put my thoughts together unless the grace of God comes.

We need him here this morning. Father, we rely on you. We submit ourself even this morning. We resist the devil from a position of being submitted to you, to your lordship under the authority of your word.

Lord God, we realize we're in a ferocious and a horrendous battle with the powers of darkness. And oh God, we submit ourself to the only one who has true power, true authority, true grace, oh God, true mercy and compassion.

And Lord God, I pray that even this morning that you would expose the works of darkness, every strategy of hell. Lord God, that you would expose it, that Satan wouldn't gain an advantage over us, but his lies would be broken.

Lord God, his strategies would be exposed to the light of your word. And father, bring us forth into the glorious power and the grace of our risen savior. My God, as we consider the cross here this morning, the conflict and the cost, Lord God, we pray that the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ would be made manifest in power in our lives.

We realize as we increasingly, oh God, Lord God, go that way of weakness and suffering and barrenness. We realize that the power is not in us, the ability is not in us, but oh God, it's in the power of the message of the Lord Jesus Christ, that he was crucified for us in our place.

And Lord God, it's the message of the gospel that brings power into these lives, that we might serve you in an honorable way. Bless us now, open our ears and our eyes, open our hearts, oh God. We rely fearfully upon you to move upon us now.

Christ, the Church, and the Cross

How fragile we are. Once when we thought we were strong, we found ourselves to be so weak, but oh God, we've never found you to be weak. Blessed be your holy name in Jesus' name, in Jesus' name. We said last week in Matthew 16 about these seas, I mentioned four last week, I'm mentioning five here this morning.

Last week we dealt with, in this chapter, we dealt with Christ, the Messiah. What you have is a divine revelation of Christ, given, revealed by the Father. It was the Father that revealed to Peter that he was the Messiah, the only Christ of God.

Then we also seen in the light of that revelation, that revelation was the foundation. And upon that foundation of the revelation of God the Father revealing who the Son is. You can't even understand who the Son is unless the Father grants you open eyes, open heart, power to come, power to understand.

Unless you're taught by the Holy Spirit, you don't even know who Jesus is. Academically, you can know. Intellectually, you can know. You can be taught by men. You can use all of your man-made power. But saints of God, when God teaches you who Christ is, when he reveals the Son of God, your life is changed.

You are absolutely, radically changed by the power of God. That's what Christ is, and it's that revelation. What did he say? Upon this revelation, upon this rock, this massive foundation stone, I will build my church.

We said that this chapter is the first time that Jesus mentions the church, and that's no accident. So you get Christ revealed by the Father. Then you have the church revealed, a vision of a victorious church against which the gates of hell shall not prevail.

But we're going further here with three other Cs. You have the cross, then you have the conflict, and finally the cost. These are the three things I'm gonna deal with here this morning. We have already seen the wonderful revelation of Christ, a glorious vision of a victorious church, but we're just about to now see the terrible conflict with Satan that those built upon the rock have to endure.

Don't tell me it's a picnic being built on the rock. It's not. You become a target. And we're gonna see a divine challenge to take up your cross and to follow the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 18, upon this rock, I, Jesus, will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

Not only an individual, but a church, the church, His church, built on this revelation, and it's the only revelation, not Peter, not a man, not a system, not an organization, a revelation of Christ. That's what you build your church upon.

God the Father says, that's where I will build my church. Jesus Christ, the Son of God says, I will. It was a prophecy. I am going to build my church. And right in the midst of this, He deals with a man called Simon Peter.

Simon Peter and the Flesh

Let me remind you something about Simon Peter. His original birth name was Simon, Simon. But remember, Jesus gave him not a different name in place of that, but another name added to that, which is Peter.

You're a rock I can hold in my hand. This rock is a foundation rock. I build my church on, and you're not that rock. I didn't call you that rock. I said, you're a rock upon which I can hold in my hand to build upon the foundation stone.

That's who you are, Simon Peter. And all through the scriptures, when you read Jesus saying, Simon, do you know what he's speaking to? He's speaking to the natural man, Simon. When he wants to rebuke him, get his attention, or he talks about his house, natural things.

He says, Simon's house. That's what's written in the Bible. So when you read about Simon's house, there's nothing spiritual about that. It's just natural. Or when Jesus is trying to make a point and say, Simon, you're in the flesh.

He says, Simon, doesn't call him Peter, because that name, Peter, is what God is building out of a man. And so his dual name is Simon Peter. Simon speaks about the old man, the natural man, the human man, or the fleshly man, or when you're acting in the flesh.

But when he calls him Peter, he says, you're the new man. This is the man that I'm building into my church. This is my building material. And so all of us in this room, I think, can identify with Simon Peter.

The Purpose of the Cross Revealed

I've got three points here I wanna give to you from Matthew 16, and we've already dealt with two. Number one here, the purpose of the cross revealed. In Matthew 16, after having revealed Christ and revealed a vision of the church from God's perspective, not man's.

See, men turn the church into a social club, a rehab, entertainment, songs. That isn't his church. His church is victorious over the powers of darkness. That is his church. That's what it looks like. It is a church on a battlefield, and the gates of hell are attempting to come against that church.

Don't tell me it's entertainment. Don't tell me it's a social club. Don't tell me it's about sports or worship or some style or ministries. It is a battlefield. Where you find the church, there's a real warfare.

But this is my first point, the purpose of the cross revealed. Look with me at verse 21 here. It says, from that time. Really note that from that time. He says this exact time, this day, this hour, this conversation.

From this time forth began Jesus. So he began something. He began to say something, teach something he hadn't done before. This is the first time. What did I say? It's the first time he mentions the church.

No, it's the first time he's gonna talk about his death by crucifixion. His first time, the cross, the death that he explicitly says, I'm gonna die. The first time he reveals to Peter and the disciples.

It's no coincidence that he gets revealed as the Christ. Then he talks about the church. And the next thing he talks about immediately is the cross. And so here you have the purpose of the cross revealed.

From this time forth began Jesus to show unto his disciples. Notice who he's showing it to. The word show means to open up, to reveal, to share, to explain. He begins, he hadn't done it before. This is just months before his death.

He has ministered for over three years, preaching, healing, doing miracles, talking about the kingdom. Crowds of 10 ,000 plus gathered to hear him teach. But do you know what now? Now he begins. You know what he's saying?

There's a whole change coming in this ministry now. I am the Christ, the Messiah. I'm the fulfillment. This is the foundation stone. I am the foundation of everything God is gonna do from here on. I'm gonna build a church.

There was nothing like it in the Old Testament. Some people say the church was there all through the Old Testament. That's not true. There's a prophecy. I will build upon this revelation, upon who I am.

The Father revealed who I am. That's where I'm gonna build the church. And now immediately he begins, he reveals the church, and immediately he leads you to the cross. How that he must go on to Jerusalem.

He's teaching his disciples to show his disciples, his taught ones, that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things of the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed. This is the first explicit mention of him saying, I will be killed.

Three years of ministry. He never mentions it. Or you'll see here he does, but he doesn't. And be raised again the third day, an explicit teaching of his death and resurrection. I'm going to Jerusalem.

Do you see what's happening here? He speaks of a victorious church that's gonna prevail, stand against, overcome, withstand the onslaught of the gates of hell. Stratagems, plans, temptations, assaults.

Hell itself coming against the church, but it shall not prevail. Is it any wonder he then immediately begins to reveal the cross? I'm gonna die. I'm gonna die. You see, after revealing his person, now he begins to reveal his work.

There's some Christians, they wanna stay with this person. I love Jesus. I am intimate. I'm just Jesus conscious. But they're not conscious of the work that he'd done on the cross. They know very little about the cross.

Well, I'm just saved. I believe in the grace of God. I'm forgiven. But do you know the power of the cross? You see, some have a Christ without the work of the cross. They think of Christ separate apart from this bloody sacrifice on the cross.

They say, that's gory. That's horrible. Of course it is. Of course it is. And so you have here the first mention of his suffering and death on the cross. Was he say, I must go to Jerusalem. The word must there is the Greek word dei, dei, I.

Must, I must. This is what it means, to bind or to tie something. In other words, he said, I must go to Jerusalem, suffer and die. I am bound. I am tied. I am under a necessity. Remember, it says he set his face as a flint towards Jerusalem and no man could move him.

I must go to Jerusalem. I've gotta go to the cross. I've got to. If this church is gonna be built, it's got everything to do with the cross and my death and my suffering. I've gotta go there. And so this word must, it actually means this binding.

Do you know that Greek word must is the root of the word doulos for servant or slave in the New Testament. A doulos is a bond slave. You're a doulos. Well, this is the core word of that, to be bound, to be tethered, to be tied.

You're not free. You don't have your own way. You're gonna find in this Christian walk, the more you walk with Christ and follow him, the less it's about your will and your desires. You're bound. You're absolutely bound on a course.

Someone says, you can just do whatever you want. You can go in the world. No, I can't. You can have an easier life. Oh, I know I could. You bet I could have redesigned the whole thing a lot better, but I am bound.

Hey, I'm in Limerick. I came to Limerick. I'm staying in Limerick. Do you not realize that's a binding, a purpose, where you go, I must, I have to. It's the way of the cross. It's the plan of the cross.

Jonah and the Sign of the Resurrection

Now, Jesus did refer to his death before. Listen to this in Matthew chapter 12, verse 40. And this is what he says. For as Jonas 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.

Here, Christ is not explicitly saying that he's gonna die and rise again, but he does it in clothed language. Only later, when you understand what he's saying, do you go, it's obvious. Jonah, three days, three nights in the belly of the earth, then he'll rise again.

You understand that, but he is teaching in veil. He's not explicitly saying, I'm gonna die and rise on the third day. And so in Matthew 12, before Matthew 16, he gives them the sign of Jonah. That was the sign.

Or what about in chapter 16, verse four? A wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign. There shall be no sign given unto it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas. And he left them and departed.

At the beginning of chapter 16, he's speaking about his death in veil terms, types, pictures, patterns of the Old Testament. But now to Peter and his disciples, he begins to show them, I'm gonna go to Jerusalem.

I'm gonna suffer. I'm gonna die. I'm gonna rise again on the third day. This is clear teaching. Do you know why he's revealing this now? Because he's revealing, I'm about to build my church. I'm gonna build my church.

On what foundation do you think it is? Just a simple revelation. Oh, I know Jesus is real. I know he's alive. I have communion with God. You better be sure that revelation of Christ leads you to the cross.

The Blood of Christ as the Church’s Foundation

Because I tell you in this foundation, it's not just about the person of Jesus. This foundation is the work of Jesus. His blood was shed at Calvary. He bore your sin and transgression. His righteousness was imputed to you at Calvary.

He provided a robe of righteousness. The powers of darkness were broken. There on the cross, the law of God was nailed to that cross. Don't you realize the foundation upon which the entire church globally, worldwide, for every generation for 2 ,000 years has been built upon this?

Yes, it's Christ, but let me reveal who that Christ is. Many in the church today, their Christ has no form, no doctrine, no clarity, no cross, no blood, no suffering. Their gospel is Christless and it's crossless.

They speak of a Christ who never suffered, a Christ who didn't know what it was to weep over the souls of men. We read again, Jesus in John 2, 19. Jesus answered and said unto him, destroy this temple, speaking about his body, and in three days I will raise it.

See how veiled it is. Then in John 3, 14, and as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up. All veiled statements, but not in Matthew 16. He began, Peter, I've just revealed the foundation.

I've revealed to you what this is. The Christ is the foundation. Now I'm revealing the church that's gonna be built. Now he leads them directly to the cross. I'm gonna show you. When you cross-reference Matthew 16, you read the same story in Mark chapter eight.

Listen to what it says. And he began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected of the elders and the chief priests and scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again.

And he speak that saying openly. This is the first time, first time he mentions the church, first time he mentions his death and resurrection explicitly. There's a connection here and he sees Christ, the church, now the cross.

He's revealing what it means to follow him. He's revealing how he is gonna build the church. It's impossible to build a church if this is not in the foundation. If Jesus' blood, if his death, his suffering is not on the foundation, you've got no foundation to build the church upon.

Many are building the church upon a wrong foundation. They have created a personality, but there's no cross. But a Christ without the cross would be an utter impossibility. It would be deity or divinity without blood, human shed blood, but divine blood.

It would be holiness without compassion. It would be the call to perfection without the means to accomplish it. It would be a Christless, sorry, it would be a crossless Christ and it would be a bloodless gospel.

It would be a crossless and a crossless Christ would be impossible to follow. You could never follow Jesus Christ if he had not already gone to the cross and suffered for you and died for you and bore your sins.

What's the Bible say? God so loved you, he loved you that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him. If you don't have at the center of your revelation a bleeding, dying Christ, that's why it's Lord's Day each Sunday.

We actually remember the Lord's death. We break bread together as oft as you come together, as oft as you do it. You should be doing this often, frequently. You know why? Because of this, he can build a church.

We are a church here, why? Not because of a preacher, not because of ministry, not because of all of our activity, not because we're nice folk. You only have a church here for one reason, the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ.

This is in the foundation. That's why when he talks about the church, the gates of hell will not prevail against it. All hell's plans to destroy it will not work. You know where he's gonna take you next?

The cross, the cross, the bleeding lamb, the sacrifice at Calvary following Christ would end in hopelessness if he had not gone to the cross. Despair, fear, defeat, or worse still, men would create a Christ of their own imagination.

Remember later Paul in Acts chapter 28, he says, speaking to the elders, the Ephesian elders, take heed therefore unto yourselves and all the flock over the which the Holy Ghost has made you overseers to feed the church of God, which he has purchased with his own blood.

What is the church? What is the real church? It has been purchased, a price was paid, his blood. You don't have a church without the blood. Why have we removed the blood from songs and from our prayers and from our preaching and from our worship and our evangelism?

You don't have a church without the blood. If you remove the blood, if you emphasize Christ, if you talk about his power and his deity, his divinity, his exultation, but you don't preach the blood. If you don't keep your eyes on the blood, since you don't have a church, the gates of hell will prevail.

A bloodless church is no church at all. The real church you can identify, it's washed in the blood of the lamb. I can identify a real Christian. You know why he stays near the blood? I know where I came from.

I know what washed away my sin. I know what lifted me up out of the ditch. I know what made me part of the church of Jesus Christ. Do you see on this revelation, this foundation stone, he's gonna build an entire church.

It's not foundations, not only a revelation of a person, it's a revelation of his work. That's why he had to, he began to teach openly, clearly. You've got to understand this. If we are gonna build a overcoming church, a victorious church, a triumphant church, a pure church, if we are gonna build that here in Limerick or out across the world, you know what we need to do?

We don't only reveal the Christ and reveal the church, we've got to reveal the cross. We've got to reveal the power of the cross. There's an old hymn we sing often here. There is a fountain filled with blood.

People argue, say, people don't understand the word fount. Rewrite it throughout the old songs, they can't understand fount. Per me, uneducated failed all my exams but understood the word fount and it's picture language.

This was a hymn sung at Charles Spurgeon's funeral. Listen to one of the verses. I always rejoice when I sing this verse. It's so dynamic about the church. Not only the church now, but what the church will be.

Listen to the words. It's about this blood. Dear dying lamb, thy precious blood shall never lose its power till all the ransomed church of God be saved to sin no more. What a dynamic hymn. These are the songs of Zion.

We're marching to Zion, the city of God. And you know what? We sing songs like this. I've been redeemed by the blood of lamb. You know the real church, it's redeemed by the precious blood of the lamb.

You want to know what the power is over hell, over demonic powers, over powers of darkness. You want to know where the real power is? It's not in some special teaching. Well, God's revealing to me the power over limerick.

It's suicide. It's free masonry, blah, blah, blah. You don't get the apostles once doing that. They preach the blood of the Lord Jesus. That's where the power is against the gates of hell. Hell cannot prosper when a church is redeemed and it knows it's redeemed.

The Message of the Cross as the Power of God

Listen to the apostles preaching all through the New Testament, Christ and him crucified in 1 Corinthians 1 -18. For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness. Sinners are people in the church who aren't really Christians, but they like to call themselves Christians because they want all the benefits.

Do you know what? The gospel, the preaching of the cross is foolish to them. They don't even understand that. But unto us which are saved, it is the power of God, the preaching of the cross. What is it?

It's power, power. It's not theology. It's not intellectual understanding. There's power. There's dynamite, okay, I'll use the word. Listen, it says preaching of the cross. The word preaching there is the Greek word logos.

And the word logos is not talking about a style, raising your voice, proclaiming out loud. Not talking about a style of preaching. The preaching of the cross is the logos of the cross. The word logos means the expressed mind of God through the spoken word.

In other words, it's the message of the cross. What is the power of God? The message of the cross, the substance of the message, the contents of what you preach. That's why I'm very careful what I preach.

I want a biblical gospel. I want to preach the cross. I want to open it up and explain it and teach it scripture after scripture. You know why? The contents of the message of the gospel is very important.

There's one of the biggest ministries in America at the moment, and its leader and founder has fallen into immorality. It's all being exposed and opened up. And they are the biggest ministry of prophetic ministry worldwide.

They have the biggest staff of any Christian ministry in America. They were affecting the globe. They could promote people to pray worldwide like no other ministry I know of. But you know what? It gets exposed.

You know what people are saying now in that ministry? He never preached the gospel. Older believers, they went to him, tried to explain, what about the cross? What about being born again? It's like he couldn't understand.

But he could preach about everything else, and you'd be convinced he's born again. But he would not preach repeatedly this foundation. I tell you, I know what I'm doing. When I preach the cross and talk about the blood and deal with the righteousness, the free gift of his righteousness onto us, I know exactly what I'm doing.

So this message, this spoken, expressed thought of God concerning the Christ, it is the power of God. You young Christians in here, you want to walk in the power of this? Study the word of God. Get a revelation of the cross.

His blood, stay there. Don't move on and say, oh, I'm moving on to special revelations and ministries and call-ins and what I'm going to do. You better stay at the cross. You better understand the message of the cross.

It's disaster, not two. And in 1 Corinthians 1 .23, but we preach Christ crucified. Not Christ, Christ crucified. Our message isn't just about the person of Jesus. People preach Jesus, Jesus. The New Age preaches Jesus.

The charismatics preach Jesus. The heretics preach Jesus. Joyce Meyer preaches Jesus. All the ministries and heretics of the day, every single one of them preach Jesus. I'll tell you what, they don't preach the cross.

Not like this book reveals. It says again in 1 Corinthians 2 .2, Paul's speaking for I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ and him crucified. Have you determined to know nothing in this church, in fellowship, in prayer, in your marriage, in your friendships, apart from Christ and him crucified?

Between me and you ought to be Christ crucified. In our fellowship, in our relationship, I ought to remember sitting at that table. You watch over your words. You watch over your fellowship. Is Christ crucified there?

Or is it mere dirt, mere trash to be forgotten, dropped in the waste paper bin? I hope not. It says in Galatians 6 .14, but God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, we're not into biblical doctrine or the cross.

We're into Christ. Go back to scripture and test every single word. It can sound spiritual and it could be anti-biblical. Oh, we don't worship the Bible. You're scared of the Bible, that's why. You don't want to be hemmed in, corrected, judged, tested.

And so you say we're, I can't get my words out today. Bible idolatry, that's what they call us. The ecumenical mixture coming in. They started this. Says you believe in Bible-olatry. You worship the Bible.

No, I speak about the Bible like Jesus speaks about the Bible and Paul and Peter and the rest. Oh yes, I hold it with great reverence and respect. I do, I do. I submit to its statutes. I believe in its authority.

But Paul says, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ by whom the world is crucified unto me and I unto the world. I would hate to see the church apart from the cross. Christ is not gonna build a church unless it's on this foundation.

Satan’s Unrelenting Conflict Against the Church

The revelation of who he is. The father revealing the son. But the son immediately takes you to the cross. The son immediately says, I will die. I will suffer. I'm going to Jerusalem. Hell hates us. Number two, watch this very, very carefully.

This is my second title. Satan's unrelenting conflict against the church. If you know that Jesus, the Christ, the Messiah that was prophesied from Genesis three all the way through to Malachi was standing here and he's just said, I'm gonna build a church and the gates of hell will not prevail.

If they're built on this foundation and then you begin to teach on the cross, if you were hell, what are you gonna do? I know what I would do. I'm a strategist. I'm a military thinker. I think like that in the church.

I'm a strategist. I've got a strategy, a plan. I'm thinking all the time, how can I make that person a better Christian? How can I win them for Christ? How can I stir them? How can I provoke them to love?

How can I make them go on there? That's what I ask. I don't always have the answers, but that's my thinking. Lord, help me. Show me as a preacher, as a shepherd, help me. The second point, Satan's unrelenting conflict against the church.

Look at verse 22 directly after this. Verse 21, he begins to preach openly the cross, his death, his resurrection. But look at the very next verse. Then Peter took him. Notice what I'm gonna teach you.

Satan's unrelenting conflict against the church. What does this attack look like? How does it come? Who does it come through? Does the devil appear with hordes of darkness, with wings, with hooves, with pointed ears, with pitchforks?

Look at the attack right at the beginning. Christ is only revealed. I am going to build my church. And you know how I'm gonna do that? It's me dying, suffering, bleeding. That's how I'm gonna build a church worldwide in every generation, in every town, every city, every village of the world.