Get Behind Me Satan (Sermon)

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Lord's Day message from February 18th, 2024 -Biblical Text: Matthew 16:5-23

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All right, we're just cruising through the service here. So I got an extra, what, seven or eight minutes here for the message.
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Not that I really need any extra time, I just usually take it if I need it.
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But since I have a few extra minutes, let's just kind of review what we've been looking at so far in Matthew's gospel.
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I think we had started, what was it, last December, I think, on a
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Wednesday night. We started on our Wednesday night Bible study, started Matthew, I think the first week in December.
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And of course, Matthew chapter one, the first, the way the book starts out is dealing with the
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Christmas story. So Matthew chapters one and two, that fit for the month of December.
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We were talking about all of the events around the nativity story.
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And I had said at that point that Matthew's gospel, the main theme, who remembers?
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What's the main theme of Matthew? It's highlighting Christ and his office as King.
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So Matthew is all about, it's mainly written to the Jews and it's focusing on Christ the
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King. So chapter one deals with his birth, his genealogy.
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Chapter two deals with the wise men. And then Matthew chapter three, we get into the ministry of John the
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Baptist. And if you remember, John the Baptist was the first prophet to show up in Israel in 400 years.
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I mean, this was massive. The whole nation was captivated by this strange man living out in the desert, telling the nation to repent because the kingdom was at hand.
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So all of the Jews were eagerly anticipating the coming of the
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Messiah, their King. And in their mind, the King would drive out the Romans, restore
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Israel's greatness on the world stage and all the rest. So that was the message of John, repent for the kingdom is at hand.
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And then in Matthew chapter four, before Jesus begins his public ministry, Jesus, of course, was baptized by John.
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That isn't recorded here, but Jesus goes out into the wilderness. Let's just focus on this for a moment,
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Matthew chapter four. If you're not there, I'll give you a moment to turn to Matthew four, but this is the temptation of Jesus in the wilderness.
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And Jesus was out 40 days and 40 nights without eating. He was fasting and that's when the tempter came to him.
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So Matthew chapter four, it says, then Jesus was led up by the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.
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And when he had fasted 40 days and 40 nights afterward, he was hungry. Now, when the tempter came to him, he said, if you are the son of God, command that these stones become bread.
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And Jesus answered, it is written, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.
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I mean, the idea that Jesus was gonna listen to Satan, like that wasn't gonna happen.
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Satan isn't gonna tell Jesus what to do. He's not gonna tempt him into doing these things.
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The second temptation, he tells Jesus, he brings him up on the pinnacle of the temple.
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And then verse six, he says, if you are the son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, he shall give his angels charge over you.
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Like you can't die, you came here to fulfill a purpose. So if you jumped off the pinnacle of the temple,
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God can't allow you to die without fulfilling your mission. So just do it, prove yourself as the son of God.
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And again, Jesus isn't gonna do what Satan tells him to do. So Jesus tells him in verse seven, it is written, you shall not tempt the
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Lord your God. And here's the temptation I want you to focus on. The devil took him up on an exceedingly high mountain.
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And he showed him in a moment of time, the kingdoms of this world.
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And Satan said, I will give all of this to you if you would just bow the knee and worship me.
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Again, Jesus was not about to do that. But what's Satan doing? He's offering
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Jesus the kingdom or the kingdoms of this world. And Jesus didn't take it.
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Jesus could have, I want you to remember this for the sermon going forward.
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Jesus could have in theory, received the kingdom without having to go to the cross or at least a kingdom.
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So with that said, turn in your Bibles to the gospel of Matthew chapter 16.
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And last week, we touched on this great passage where Peter makes his confession of faith.
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He says to Jesus, thou art the son of God, or thou art the Christ, the son of the living
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God. And this is a very important section of scripture. So this week, we wanna look at it a little more closely.
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We only touched on it briefly last week, because this is, yeah, very important.
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And it's important what happens next. Jesus tells Peter in verse 18, he says, you are
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Peter and on this rock, I will build my church. And we're gonna talk about that because that's been hotly debated throughout church history.
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What does that mean? Who is the church built on? But the title of the message is get behind me,
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Satan. That's kind of the big thing that happens after that, because Peter professes yet thou art the
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Christ, the son of the living God. And then the very next thing that happens, Jesus tells
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Peter, I have to go to Jerusalem. I'm going to be rejected.
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I'm going to die and then rise again on the third day. And I think Peter just hears the part that Jesus is gonna die.
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He said, no, that will never happen to you. And what did Jesus say?
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Get behind me, Satan. He basically says to Peter, you are acting as a mouthpiece for Satan.
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Why? Because Peter said no to the cross. Peter said no to the cross.
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He didn't want Jesus to go to the cross. And that was the devil's temptation that Jesus don't go to the cross.
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You can have the kingdom without the cross. So with those things in mind, let's read
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Matthew 16, five through 23. It says, now when the disciples came to the other side, they had forgotten to take bread.
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Then Jesus said to them, take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the
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Sadducees. And they reasoned among themselves saying, is it because we have taken no bread?
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But Jesus being aware of it said to them, oh, you have little faith. Why do you reason among yourselves?
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Because you have brought no bread. Do you not yet understand or remember the five loaves or the 5 ,000 and how many baskets you took up?
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Nor the seven loaves or the 4 ,000 and how many large baskets you took up?
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How is it that you do not understand that I do not speak to you concerning bread, but beware of the leaven of the
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Pharisees and Sadducees. Then it says, they understood that he did not tell them to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the
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Pharisees and the Sadducees. What was the goal? Just stop here for a moment. What was the goal of the religious leaders of Israel at this point in time?
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Pharisees, scribes, Sadducees, their goal was that people would not believe in Jesus.
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Israel has this choice, either follow the established religious leaders or believe on Jesus.
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So their goal was to prevent people from believing on Christ. Verse 13, when
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Jesus came into the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples saying, who do men say that I, the son of man am?
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So they said, some say John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.
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But he said to them, but who do you say that I am? And Simon Peter answered and said, you are the
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Christ, the son of the living God. And Jesus answered and said to him, blessed are you,
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Simon Bar -Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my father who is in heaven.
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And I also say to you that you are Peter and on this rock, I will build my church and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.
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And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.
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Then he commanded his disciples that they should tell no one that he was Jesus the
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Christ. And from that time, Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed and be raised the third day.
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Then Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him saying, far be it from you,
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Lord, this shall not happen to you. But Jesus turned and said to Peter, get behind me,
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Satan, for you are an offense to me, for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men.
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And may God bless the reading of his word. Okay, now, when people think, when we think of people that teach you can have the kingdom without the cross, the first people you should think of is the scribes,
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Pharisees, and Sadducees, right? Because there's people today that wanna prevent people from believing in Jesus, right?
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Have you met people like this? It's their goal that you not believe. It's their goal to prevent people from becoming
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Christians. But back then, this was the group trying to get people to not do that.
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They didn't believe people were saved by faith in Jesus. The religious leaders of Israel thought that a person was saved or they had eternal life based on what?
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How did you get eternal life according to them? Yeah, obeying the law of Moses.
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So you should be an Israelite, okay? That would be the main thing. Get circumcised and generally speaking, obey the 10 commandments.
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And that's still a lot of people's mindset today. If you're gonna go to heaven, you need to be a good person.
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You need to obey the commandments. So that's what the scribes and Pharisees were teaching.
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And usually, we've been seeing in the Gospel of Matthew that Jesus is sparring with this group.
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You know, scribes and Pharisees are like, they're almost like attached at the hip, it seems like. They're all always traveling together.
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But here in Matthew chapter 16, it's the Pharisees and the Sadducees. I talked about them last week.
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The Pharisees were sort of like the theologically conservative. They were the traditionalists.
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And the Sadducees were more of the theological liberals, denying the supernatural.
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So the two groups, the Pharisees and the Sadducees, they didn't get along. They spent most of their time opposing each other, but now they had a common enemy.
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And they actually came together in unity to oppose the ministry of Jesus of Nazareth.
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So both groups, the Pharisees and the Sadducees, which group was more correct than the other?
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I mean, both were bad. Both rejected Jesus, but which group had more of the truth than the other?
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Pharisees. Yeah, the Pharisees were far more accurate than the
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Sadducees. But both groups missed the mark. And they missed the mark because they didn't believe in Jesus.
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Like if you don't believe in the King, right? Jesus is the Messiah.
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He's the King of Israel. If you don't believe in the King, how can you have the kingdom without the
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King, right? Like the King is the essential part of the kingdom. But the
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Pharisees, they believed the kingdom of God was coming. They believed that at the last day, Jehovah would raise the righteous dead.
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And that's why they wanted, many of them wanted to be buried in Jerusalem so that when the resurrection happened, they're right there where the action is.
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Actually, I think it's on the Mount of Olives. There's one hill in Jerusalem. It's just tombs. It's just graves just going up the side of the mountain.
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The Jews wanted to be buried there because yeah, when they get resurrected, Jerusalem is where it's all gonna happen.
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So that's where they wanted to be buried. So that was kind of the mindset of the Pharisees, the traditionalists, who believed there would be a resurrection.
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The Sadducees though, they didn't believe in an afterlife. So if they had any concept of the kingdom of God, they believed that you could establish it right then and there.
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We can establish sort of our own kingdom because of our own good works and whatnot.
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But where both groups really missed the mark is that they didn't see Jesus as playing any role in the kingdom.
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So the point of all of that is to say this, there will always be people who try to cut
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Jesus out of the equation. They want to have their religion, their spirituality.
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They wanna have a kingdom, heaven, whatever, but they don't want Jesus being part of it.
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And that's what the religious leaders were doing. That's why Jesus says in verse six, beware of the leaven of the
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Pharisees and Sadducees. Now, what is leaven? Do you have any leaven in your home?
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Yeah, it would be in the kitchen, right? It's yeast. So leaven is yeast, and typically it's used for baking bread.
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So when Jesus says to his disciples, beware of the leaven, automatically they start thinking in terms of bread, right?
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What did Jesus mean though? Well, he's talking about their false teaching. He's talking about their false doctrine.
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So, but they have food on the mind. And you remember going back to the sermon from last week, remember when
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Jesus fed the 4 ,000? And they're like, well, how are we gonna get food to feed such a large multitude?
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And Jesus had just fed the 5 ,000 before that. So they were really lacking faith.
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And I think they have this on their mind. Like they don't wanna make the same mistake. So they're just thinking in terms of food, and they hear leaven.
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Okay, he must be talking about food, because they don't wanna have a repeat of last time where they weren't trusting in Jesus to multiply the food to feed the multitudes.
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But in verse 13, once Jesus shows them, hey, I'm not talking about bread.
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I'm talking about their false teaching. They don't believe in me. So beware of them.
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So who does believe in Jesus at this point? It's not the Pharisees, not the Sadducees.
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Who believes in him? The disciples. The disciples. Okay, that's where we get to verse 13.
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One of the most important passages in all of the Gospel of Matthew. So in verse 13,
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Jesus asked his disciples, saying, who do men say that I, the son of man, am?
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That's something that you could ask a person. Who do you say, who do you think
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Jesus is? This is like the most important question. If you really believe that Jesus is forever linked to eternal life, to heaven, this is the most important question.
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So he says, who do men say that I, the son of man, am? Now, the term son of man, you see that in your
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Bible. Son of man is sort of a hint. He's giving them a hint. Because son of man, it's a messianic title, refers to deity, but it's also a human title.
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So in the book of Daniel, the son of man was a divine figure. But in the book of Ezekiel, Ezekiel's called the son of man.
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It's just a reference to a human being. So the term son of man could go either way.
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Could refer to his deity or his humanity. Of course, Jesus' humanity isn't in question at this point, is it?
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I mean, were his disciples denying, was anyone denying that Jesus was a human being? That's not really the issue at this point.
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The issue is Christ's deity. So he wants to get out of them a profession that he is divine.
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That's what really matters. So they get a little hint, verse 16, because he says, okay, who do you say that I am?
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In verse 16, Simon Peter answered and said, you are the Christ, the son of the living
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God. And it's like, finally, they got it. They understood that Jesus is
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God's son. Built into that is the equality that Jesus has with the father.
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Philippians chapter two, if you take notes, you can write this down. Philippians 2, five and six says, let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God.
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What's Paul saying? Jesus, it's a fancy way or roundabout way of saying
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Jesus is equal with God. Well, how can Jesus, a man, be equal with God?
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Because he is God in the flesh. So Jesus was equal to God in that as God's son, he shared that same divine nature.
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That's why Peter's confession of faith is such a big deal. He's not just saying you're the king of Israel, because a lot of people believe that.
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He said, you're the son of the living God. You are God incarnate.
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At which point, Jesus says, you didn't figure this out on your own.
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The father revealed this to you. So this is the key. If you don't hear me say anything else for the rest of the message, hear this.
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This is the profession of faith that saves. Not that I believe
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Jesus was a guy in history, or that even I believe he died on the cross. I believe he died on the cross for sin and rose again the third day.
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You realize even Satan believes that? Satan knows that's true. He believes it.
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Now he's not trusting in it. He's not loving it. But the profession of faith that saves is that you understand that Jesus is
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God's son, who died on the cross and rose again. And you are trusting in that for eternal life.
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You're trusting in him completely. That's the profession of faith that saves. And again, there's all sorts of people who wanna kinda cut that, get rid of that, cut
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Jesus out of the equation. These are sort of, maybe you might call the Christian -ish. Okay, Christian -ish, dash
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I -S -H. The Christian -ish cults say the Jehovah's Witnesses and other groups who will deny
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Christ's deity, they'll say he's not God. He's not God in the flesh. And there's all sorts of people who wanna deny the divinity of Christ.
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This is, again, this is the profession of faith that saves, that Jesus is the son of the living
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God. Now, I just wanna equip you with something, because if you ever talk to somebody, who's had
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Jehovah's Witnesses knock on your door? I think most everybody has. And most
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Christians simply don't answer or no thank you, have a nice day or something. But if you ever engage with them, and I don't suggest that you do this, but here's some things they might throw at you.
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Maybe an unbeliever, an agnostic might say this. So here's an answer.
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They might say, oh, you're a Christian. You believe that Jesus is the son of God. Well, what about in the
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Bible where it says that Jesus had a God? You realize that it says that Jesus had a
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God? Jesus believed in a God, right? How can
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Jesus be God if he had a God? Okay, that's one question they might ask you.
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What about the other statement where Jesus says the father is greater than I? So you just said that Jesus is equal with God, or actually
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Paul said that in Philippians 2. Jesus is equal with God. Well, why did Jesus say the father is greater than I?
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So let me let you get an answer. Okay, go for it. Because at the time he was also fully human.
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Amen. So in his relationship as a human, in his relationship with God, the father is greater.
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Like my dad sitting right there. Now we're equal. Like as human beings, we have equal value, right?
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We're equal as people. But in our relationship, who's greater? He's always gonna be greater in our relationship because he's the father, he's here, and I'm the son,
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I'm down here. So that's the same with you. And whoever your father is, you're equal in value as human beings, but in your relationship, the father's greater.
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Well, that's the way it was with Jesus. The father was greater. And of course, in his incarnation,
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Jesus is a man. The father is greater, but Jesus is still equal with God.
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So that's not a contradiction. And also this idea that Jesus had a
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God, right? Let's turn to Hebrews chapter one, because I want to equip you with some arguments in case anyone throws these things at you.
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Hebrews chapter one, it's true, Jesus did have a God and God the father was his
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God. But do you realize, well, let me ask you this.
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Does God the father have a God? Well, let's just look at scripture, okay?
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Hebrews chapter one, we'll start in verse, let's start in verse six.
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So it says, when he, again, brings the firstborn into the world. So when
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God the father brings Christ into the world, he says, let all the angels of God worship him.
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And of the angels, he says, who makes his angels spirits and his ministers a flame of fire.
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But to the son, he says, I want you to understand what's happening here. Who's he?
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God the father. So God the father is speaking to the son. Look at what he says, your throne, oh, what?
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God, capital G. The father saying to the son, he says, your throne, oh
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God, is forever and ever. And a scepter of righteousness is the scepter of your kingdom.
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You have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness. Therefore, God, your
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God has anointed you with the oil of gladness more than your companions.
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Okay, now you can go back to Matthew 16, but just to point that out, that according to God the father,
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Jesus is called God. Did Jesus have a God? Yes, but Jesus is
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God according to God the father. I hope that doesn't give you a headache or confuse you, but all of that to say this,
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Jesus is God in the flesh. I mean, that's the most important thing that you need to take away from Matthew 16.
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That's what Peter's saying. You are the Christ, the son of the living God. Son of God means
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God in the flesh. Okay, so because of this, this is how evangelicals or Bible -believing
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Christians or whatever you wanna call us, just Christians maybe, this is how we can say that Jesus is the only way to God.
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Why? Because he's the only God that exists. Jesus is the only God out there.
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This is why Jesus will say in John 14, verse six, "'I am the way, the truth, and the life.
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"'No man comes unto the father except through me, "'because he is the only
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God there is.'" To reject Jesus is to reject the only
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God in existence. This is why Peter would later say in Acts 4, verse 12, "'There is no other name under heaven given among men "'by which we must be saved.'"
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This is why you can't cut Jesus out of the picture. This is why the
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Pharisees could not have the kingdom without Jesus. Does that make sense?
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All right, now let's look at verse 18. We get into this controversial statement. We got the profession of faith down.
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We understand what Peter is saying. If Peter wasn't saved up until this point, he's certainly saved now.
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And I would just add to that, it's important that you, maybe there has been a time, days ago, weeks ago, months ago, where you resolved in your heart,
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Jesus is, I believe in Jesus. Well, that's wonderful. You need to tell somebody.
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You need to speak it out loud, okay? All those who call upon the name of the
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Lord shall be saved. So even if you believe it in your heart, that's not enough. You need to vocalize it, okay?
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And that's what Peter did here. But as for this statement in verse 18, Jesus says, you are
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Peter on this rock, I will build my church. We need to spend a moment on this because this has been a huge issue within church history.
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So let's read it, 18 and 19. Jesus speaking. He says, and I also say to you that you are
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Peter. And on this rock, I will build my church and the gates of Hades or hell shall not prevail against it.
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And I give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven. And whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven.
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And whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Now, why is this controversial?
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This is something that you should know throughout church history. It's been controversial because for 1500 years, the
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Roman Catholic Church has claimed that the rock on which the church is built is who?
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Peter. They will say the church is built on Peter and therefore Peter is the first Pope.
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Basically, this is Jesus elevating Peter to the office of Pope.
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Now, that's not actually stated anywhere in the text, but that's been the claim throughout history. The church is built on Peter.
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Now, if you were to ask me, who's the church built on? To me, the obvious answer would be
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Christ. That Christ is the rock, or there's that song, the solid rock, right?
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We sing that song, on the Christ, the solid rock I stand. The church is built on Christ.
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But what's being said here? Basically, if you look at it, there's a play on words here.
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So what's the location they're at? Caesarea Philippi, right? So it's believed that at this location, there was this large rock face, something like a ledge or a cliff.
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And you can just imagine maybe the disciples and Jesus having this conversation with this rock ledge in the background.
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That may be a part of the play on words. The other part of the play on words is Peter's name.
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Most of you know this, that the name Peter means what? Cephas, which is translated rock.
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So Peter is called the rock. So then it's natural, at least that some would be confused, that it might sound like that Jesus is saying the church is built on Peter.
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But let's just read through this again. I'm gonna show you something that you wouldn't see in your English translation.
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This is in the Greek language. It just clears all of this up. So it says, Jesus answered, verse 17, answered and said to him, blessed are you,
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Simon Bar -Jonah, that is Simon, the son of Jonah, for flesh and blood is not revealed this to you, but my father who is in heaven.
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And I also say that you are who? Peter. Now in Greek, the word is petros, and it means a small stone.
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So it could be like something like a rock that I could hold in my hand and toss.
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Peter is the rock. He's a small stone. But then Jesus says, and on this petra, this large immovable rock,
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I will build my church. So in other words, you are Peter, the small stone, but on this petra, this large immovable, maybe the stone face, the ledge, on this large rock,
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I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Point being, he isn't actually referring to Peter.
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Jesus could have been pointing to the stone ledge. I tend to think Jesus was pointing to himself.
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Either way, how is the church spread today? If we wanted our church to grow by 50%, in order for that to happen, you would need to get, however many people here, you would need to get that number of people to profess that Jesus is the
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Christ. You would need to get that profession of faith out of them, and they could join the church, and then we'd be double in size.
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That's how the church spreads. That's how the church grows, when a person makes the profession of faith that Jesus is the
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Christ, the Son of the living God. That is also how a person is saved. Whether or not someone goes to heaven eternally, according to the
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New Testament, it depends on whether or not they believe in Jesus. But, I said the title of the message was,
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Get Behind Me, Satan. So let's look at this last section. So we dealt with the profession of faith.
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We dealt with Peter. He is not the rock, by the way, in Peter's first epistle, 1
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Peter 2, he refers to himself as a small stone. We're all just small stones being built up into a spiritual house.
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1 Corinthians 10, Jesus is called the rock. So no, Peter is not the rock on which the church is built.
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But after Peter makes this great profession of faith, Peter is on, he's probably on like a spiritual high, right?
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He has just reached that pinnacle of his spiritual life. I'm the one who actually said it.
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All the other disciples, they are too. I'm the one who said, he is the Son of God. I figured it out.
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Of course, it's because God the Father, but. Peter's, he's reached this point.
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Jesus now figures they are able to handle a little more truth. It's at this moment,
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Jesus shares with them, you know, the bomb that's gonna change the rest of their lives.
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Notice what Christ says. Well, it says in verse 21, from that time,
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Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders, the chief priests and scribes, and be killed.
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And I think that's where they stopped listening. They just heard Jesus is gonna die and be raised the third day.
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And then Peter says what? Lord, this will never happen to you. Peter actually pulls
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Jesus aside and starts to rebuke the Son of God. This is not a good idea, by the way.
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Rebuking the Son of God is never a good idea. And I just, you know, I think this is kind of funny.
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Let's entertain the thought for a moment that Peter is the first pope, which he's not, okay?
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In his first act as pontiff, he rebukes the Son of God, and then he gets accused of being the mouthpiece for Satan.
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I mean, I just find that, you know, yeah, you get it. But this statement, get behind me,
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Satan, why does Jesus say that? Was Peter actually Satan? No, no,
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Peter's not Satan. Jesus isn't just saying this to make Peter feel bad.
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It's just an insult. No, Peter is actually being used. Satan did not possess.
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We don't believe that Christians can be demon -possessed, never mind possessed by Satan himself.
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So Peter is not possessed by Satan, but do you realize Satan can still influence you?
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Do you realize that certain things can come out of your, if you give the devil a foothold, and this is what
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Peter is doing, Peter is denying the Bible. He's denying biblical truth. Jesus says something to him,
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I'm gonna die, and Peter says, no, you're not. Peter's denying biblical truth.
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He has given the devil a foothold, and when we do that, things that come out of our mouth can actually be maybe inspired by,
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Satan is not the right word, but you can actually be used as a mouthpiece for the devil.
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This is what Peter is saying. Jesus, you're the Christ, you're the
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Son of God, you should have the kingdom without the cross. See, when
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Peter says this, Jesus immediately, he knows where this is from. He knows where this message originated.
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It originated back in Matthew four, when Satan said the same thing.
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I will give you the kingdom. You don't need to go to the cross. You don't need to be out here fasting in the week.
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You don't need to be serving God and denying yourself. You can have the kingdom without the cross.
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Jesus knows where this message originated. That's why he says, get behind me,
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Satan. And just to finish, as an application, there are myriads of people today who will tell you a similar thing.
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You can go to heaven, you don't need Jesus. You don't need to deny yourself. You don't need to go to church and worship.
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You don't need to do any of this. You can go to heaven without Jesus. You can have the kingdom of God, so to speak, without the cross.
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Have you ever been told that? We know there are religions and even churches that teach that.
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You can have heaven, you can have the kingdom without going through Christ, without the cross.
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So, in conclusion, if you are ever tempted to follow after a false gospel, that you can get to heaven by your own good works, or that you can get to heaven by being a good person, or you can get to heaven or have eternal life by any other means.
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Today, the next big thing might be artificial intelligence, or who knows what they're gonna come up with next, that you can preserve your life or sort of live on through eternity by some other method.
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If you're ever confronted with that temptation, know the source, be able to identify where that message originates.
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It's not with God, it's with Satan. So you can say, when somebody tells you, you don't have to believe in Jesus, you don't have to worship him, you don't have to believe the gospel, at least my response is gonna be, get behind me,
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Satan. Let's close. And Heavenly Father, I just pray that each person would recognize there is only one true
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God, one Lord, one Savior, one baptism, one gospel, and one path to heaven.
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And Lord, if there's someone here who has never placed their full trust in Jesus as the
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Son of God, maybe there's somebody today or somebody listening later on who they believe
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Jesus lived, they even believe he died on the cross, but they never really understood that he is
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God incarnate. Lord, I realize there's nothing that I can say, nothing that I can do to convince a person, but if they come to that understanding, it will be because you,
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Father, you open their eyes just as you open the eyes of Peter. Lord, I pray that you would save many souls in the days to come as we await