Let us pray.
O Thou eternal and ever-blessed God, from
everlasting to everlasting God, who dwellest in light
that is unapproachable and full of glory, who
art holy, holy, holy, Lord God of hosts,
whose glory fills the whole earth, may we
draw near unto Thee with that reverence and
godly fear without which our professed approach unto
Thee is but mockery and abomination in Thy
sight.
Blessed forever be Thy great and holy name,
that though Thou dwellest in the high and
the lofty place, Thou dost condescend to dwell
with him also that is poor and of
a contrite spirit who trembles at Thy word.
And O grant unto us that as we
come here into the place where Thou in
honor dwells, into the place that can properly
be called Zion, of which Thou hast said,
This is my resting place forever.
Here will I dwell for I have desired
it.
O grant that we may find in this
place Thy manifested presence, Thy presence manifested by
the Holy Spirit through Thy holy word and
Thy presence manifested in the face of Thine
own Son Jesus Christ, the Lord, that we
may behold His glory, the glorious of the
only begotten of the Father, full of grace
and truth, that we may come to admire
Him, come to adore Him in that identity
that is His as the Son of the
living God, as the brightness of Thy glory
and the express image of Thy being, who
when He had by Himself purged our sins,
sat down on the right hand of the
majesty of Thy.
And O grant unto us that we may
have that true conviction of sin in its
gravity, in its guilt, in its defilement, and
in its power, so that the gospel of
Thy redeeming grace may be precious unto us
and that Christ may be precious unto us
as the one who came not to call
the righteous but sinners to repentance.
O may the light of the knowledge of
Thy glory in the face of Jesus Christ
shine into our hearts and may we by
that glory be so transformed that we shall
have in our own consciences the assurance that
we are heirs of God and joint heirs
with Jesus Christ, having the sealing witness of
the Holy Spirit in our hearts.
O grant this inestimable grace unto us and
therefore also have the outreach of hope that
as heirs of God and joint heirs with
Jesus Christ we wait for Him for His
glorious appearing when He shall be manifested in
the clouds of heaven with great power and
glory and when He will come to be
made manifest in His face and to be
admired in all them that believe.
Bless, O Lord, all Thy people.
Bless them in their affliction.
Bless them in their doubts and fears and
grant that these may be dispelled by the
power of Thy grace so that they may
be able to rejoice with confidence that neither
death nor life nor angels nor principalities nor
powers nor things present nor things to come
nor height nor depth nor any other creature
will be able to separate them from the
love of God which is in Christ Jesus
their Lord.
O grant that Thy church might be built
up that there may be added unto the
church daily such as are being saved that
in the desolation that characterizes our time in
the apostasy that is so rampant O let
the gospel go forth with its power, with
its regenerating, sanctifying, converting power bringing sinners from
darkness to light and from the power of
Satan unto God and grant, O Lord, that
this church may be instrumental in this community
of bearing a consistent and faithful and effectual
witness to the end that Thy great name
may be honored that the gospel may be
proclaimed in purity and fullness and power and
that multitudes may be drawn irresistibly by the
Holy Spirit into the fellowship of Christ and
into the fellowship of Thy people bless us
now as we wait upon Thee and may
we have Thy presence and Thy blessing for
Jesus' sake, Amen The
gospel according to Matthew chapter 16 at verse
22 we read, Then Peter took him and
began to rebuke him, saying, Be it far
from thee, Lord, this shall not be unto
thee But he turned and said unto Peter
Get thee behind me, Satan thou art an
offence unto me For thou savourest not the
things that be of God but those that
be of man It
was sin that brought contradiction into this universe
If there had been no sin there would
be no contradiction and no occasion for contradiction
for everything would have been after the pattern
of that perfection that God, that characterized God's
handiwork when he created it Now this contradiction
is the contradiction between good and evil between
truth and the lie between love and hate
between mercy and judgment between justice and injustice
and this contradiction began with the sin of
the devil and his angels and the sin
of the devil and his angels preceded the
sin of the human race because this contradiction
appeared first of all on the scene of
this world when the serpent as the instrument
of the devil said to the woman first
by way of insinuating doubt yea, hath God
said thou shalt not eat of every tree
of the garden and then it appeared in
blatant contradiction when the serpent said thou shalt
not surely die for God doth know that
in the day you eat thereof your eyes
will be opened and you shall be as
God knowing good and evil you see how
sin appeared in the contradiction of God and
it entered into the human race when the
woman acceded to that contradiction and believed the
tempter rather than God now this is the
essence of sin the contradiction of God it
is implied of course in that definition that
is given of sin in the scripture sin
is transgression of the law the law of
course is the transcript of divine perfection and
it is therefore the transgression of that which
is the transcript of divine perfection and therefore
the contradiction of God and because sin offers
contradiction to God God must offer contradiction to
it and that belongs to the very holiness
the perfection of his being to offer contradiction
to that which is the contradiction of himself
now this contradiction which sin offers to God
appears in our text we might not suspect
it but it appears in the very indictment
that our saviour brought against Peter when he
said thou savourest not the things that be
of God but those that be of man
that is, thou mindest not thou hast concern
for not the things of God but the
things that be of man and that is
what our first parents did when they fell
at the beginning they began to mind the
things of the creature rather than of the
creator they became preoccupied with human things instead
of being completely absorbed in the divine will
now here is the question what is the
governing pattern of all thought it is a
question that each one of us must ask
it is a question that the most sanctified
of you must ask of yourself what is
your paramount interest what is your paramount interest
is it the things of God is it
the interest of his glory of his kingdom
is it the interest of his counsel or
is the governing pattern of thought that which
is dictated by your own imagination is the
governing pattern of all thought that which is
dictated by human things or is it dictated
by the supreme entity God's glory and kingdom
this is a question that comes to me
and here my friends is after all a
criterion by which we must interrogate our own
consciences our own hearts and our own minds
do we mind the things of man or
do we mind the things of God you
see our savior was holy harmless, undefiled and
separate from sinners there was no sin in
him and because there was no sin in
him he was completely governed by the things
of God and it was just because of
that contradiction that there was between himself and
between sinful men that he brought the indictment
against Peter thou mindest not the things of
those that be no contradiction appears in this
chapter in another way or in other ways
and appears in most striking ways or most
unbelievable ways contradiction Peter had
made the great confession to Sariah Philippi thou
art the Christ the son of the living
God and there was the corresponding benediction blessed
art thou Simon Barjona for flesh and blood
hath not revealed it unto thee but my
father who is in heaven and there is
not only the corresponding benediction on Jesus part
but there is also the corresponding investiture 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 just observe the elements of
the situation the confession the benediction and
the investiture and then what a contrast a
very short time after Peter began to rebuke
Jesus rebuked the person whom he had confessed
a very brief period a very brief time
before then began to rebuke the person whom
he had confessed thou art the Christ the
son of the living God and when he
confessed him as the son of the living
God he confessed him in his divine identity
as equal with God and as himself God
and is it possible you might say that
in a very brief period of time Peter
began to rebuke to rebuke the Savior be
it far from thee this shall not be
unto thee presumptuous rebuke and then
you have the corresponding response on the part
of the Savior and what a contradiction between
the benediction that Jesus had uttered a little
before then blessed art thou Simon Barjona and
now get thee behind me Satan thou art
an offense unto me because thou savorest not
the things that be of God but those
that be of men so you see these
two elements we may focus attention upon for
a little while first the contrast in the
case of Peter between noble confession and presumptuous
rebuke and then second the contrast between Jesus'
benediction blessed art thou Simon Barjona and the
devastating reprimand get thee behind me Satan what
a stumbling block well then first of all
you have the contrast or the contradiction in
the case of Peter between confession and presumptuous
rebuke it might seem impossible for Peter to
entertain such contradictory sentiment and remember the word
separated by a long period of time because
we read in this chapter you see after
the great confession of Peter of Tiszares at
Philippi from that time forth began Jesus to
show unto his disciples how that he must
go unto Jerusalem and suffer many things of
the elders and chief priests and scribes and
be killed then Peter began to rebuke him
so there was not much of an interval
and we might think it impossible for Peter
to entertain such contradictory sentiment within such a
brief period of time and then there is
even the more staggering the staggering question or
apparent impossibility the different sources from which Peter
derived his inspiration when he said thou art
the Christ the son of the living God
it was from God the Father that he
was inspired and actuated and when he said
this shall not be unto thee it was
from Satan he was inspired and actuated and
could there be within such a brief period
of time the inspiration and the actuation of
such diverse sources God the Father in all
his immaculate holiness and majesty and Satan in
all his unspeakable malignity and iniquity it
is well for us to consider this and
I fear that my limitations are such that
I cannot elicit from this or even by
way of exposition or by way of suggestion
all that is involved in it but I
shall I don't think it's useless to mention
a few lessons that we should derive from
this the contradiction in the case of Peter
between holy compassion and iniquitous rebuke and
the first lesson is this that in the
people of God and Peter was a man
of God in the people of God there
is the morally and the religiously contradictory and
that's the explanation of it that's the only
explanation of this apparent impossibility that there is
even in the people of God the morally
and religiously contradictory and because there is in
them that which is morally and religiously contradictory
you have, can have contradictory sentiments you can
have contradictory actions and you can have contradictory
sources of inspiration and instigate it
is for our warning and also for our
consolation that the Apostle Paul was inspired by
the Holy Spirit to give us his own
autobiography and you find it in Romans 7,
14 through 25 I say warning but also
consolation what does the Apostle say I know
that in me, that is in my flesh
dwelleth no good thing for to win is
patent with me but how to perform that
which is good I find not I live
light in the law of God after the
inward man but I find another law in
my members O wretched man
that I am who shall deliver me from
the body of this dead and even in
the final word of that autobiography is placed
by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit on
record so then with the mind I myself
heard the law of God but with the
flesh the law of sin there is the
explanation of Peter's contradiction and the Apostle Paul
has given us in very brief summary his
own autobiography of this contradiction for our warning
but also for our consolation that when we
find this contradiction in the people of God
and when we find it in ourselves we
must remember that it is a necessity arising
from the fact that there is a two
-fold law in our membership that we are
warring against but a second lesson is this,
that Peter on this occasion when he took
our Lord aside apparently and began to rebuke
him was actuated by what he considered as
very high and noble and worthy motive to
a certain extent he was actuated by love
for Australia and as far as he was
concerned he was actuated by what he considered
to be the highest and noblest and worthiest
motive and oh what a warning these very
motives however high and noble and worthy they
were in the esteem of Peter himself these
very motives induced diabolical opposition to the counsel
and will of God think of it offered
diabolical opposition to the highest wisdom the highest
counsel the highest will of heaven and it
teaches us this great lesson not to measure
by our motives but to test our motives
by that which alone is perfect revealed will
of God the law of God oh what
a lesson we are so liable to think
that because our motives appear to be worthy
resort to all sorts by which to force
in what a devastating against the
deceit of the human heart and
the third lesson that we may derive from
this contradiction in the case of Peter is
that we may attain my beloved friends to
the summit of noblest comfort and momentarily lapse
into the deepest unfaithfulness let us never put
our confidence in past achievement let us never
even put our confidence in the divine investiture
with high office Peter attained to a great
height of noble confession when he said thou
art the Christ the son of the living
God with Jesus corresponding benediction and also
Jesus invested I will give thee the keys
to the kingdom of heaven whosoever thou shalt
bind on earth shall be bound in heaven
of course Peter was the spokesman of the
apostles Peter when he received the benediction received
what belonged to all of the apostles and
when Peter received the investiture it wasn't for
himself alone but as the representative of the
apostles but what high office was accorded to
these apostles but here is the great lesson
that we may never trust in achievement of
the past and we may never trust even
in God's investiture of us with high office
because our only request at any moment is
complete reliance upon the grace and the wisdom
and the power of God and whenever our
thought gets focused upon even that which God
upon that benediction that God has bestowed upon
us and upon that very office with which
he in that very moment in
that very moment see how confident Peter was
in his past achievements when he said though
all should deny me yet would it was
Peter that denied me with cautiousness what a
lesson for us that our reliance moment by
moment now
we come to the next contrast that appears
in this chapter the contrast in Jesus' responses
and we might well say it's impossible it's
even impossible in the psychology of our Lord
himself for him to have given such benediction
to Peter and such investiture with Peter devastating
question yet behind me Satan thou art an
offence unto me for thou savourest not the
things that be of God but those that
be of men apparently impossible and that apparent
impossibility is only accentuated in our Lord's case
there's an explanation of the contradiction in the
case of Peter between noble compassion and dispunctuous
reprimand because there was in Peter that which
was religiously impolite how are we to explain
this in the case of our Lord well
there are one or two lessons here and
there's a grand jury what is the first
lesson well it is just the lesson of
our Lord's immaculate faith it is
the lesson of truth our Lord you see
reacts to each situation in perfect equity in
faithfulness to truth because He is the faithful
witness and if our Lord had been as
it were had been as it were unduly
sympathetic if our Lord had refrained from giving
this withering reprimand there would have been a
defect because our Lord responded, reacted to each
situation as truth and faithfulness demanded and He
said to Peter Blessed art thou silent bar
Jonah for flesh and blood doth not revealed
it unto thee He was responding in the
perfectly in a perfect manner to that which
was the fruit of the Father's grace and
you could say it with all reverence because
this was the fruit of the Father's grace
He could not have but responded He could
not have He could not have responded otherwise
and with complacency and benignity and Peter took
Him and began to rebuke Him He was
instigated by Satan and you see His faithfulness
demanded the corresponding rebuke the corresponding condemnation the
corresponding reprimand and try to catch something my
beloved friends of the grandeur of the contrast
in the case of our Lord it is
the contrast that faithfulness demands and you can
see it all along in the witness of
our Lord the contrast you
have it very eloquently inscribed in Luke 6
verses 20 to 24 form in which our
Lord's sermon on the mount is given in
the gospel according to Luke turns to His
disciples and He says blessed ye poor for
yours is the kingdom of heaven the kingdom
of God blessed are ye that hunger now
for ye shall be filled blessed are ye
that weep now for ye shall laugh then
you turn uttered in what you might call
the same breath woe unto you that are
rich for ye have received your consolation woe
unto you that are full for ye shall
hunger woe unto you that laugh now for
ye shall mourn and weep woe unto you
and all men shall speak well of you
for so did their fathers to the false
prophets you see the contrast the contradiction indeed
between blessing and woe but that is what
faithfulness demands this is faithfulness in the case
of people blessed that there is silence that
shall not get me behind this there is
no compromise the faithful my
friends He will be that to you if
you are His whom the Lord loves remember
will be Savior to you but
then there is another lesson here in this
contrast that there is in the response of
the Savior how different of our Lord to
people when Peter denied Him in the palace
of the Isles the Lord had warned Peter
do you remember Peter denied Him
the Lord heard it
was the look of tender comfort it was
the look of of the powers of the
unattended of the Isles what
is the reason for the difference between the
loving look and the withering the devastating I
think there is much here for our instruction
when Peter denied His Lord it was
a temptation that was directed to Peter himself
and Peter succumbed no more but when
Peter took Him and began shall not be
unto thee what was the temptation you see
Peter was now the instrument of a plea
directed to the Savior Himself He was the
instrument of a plea that would have turned
the Savior from the counsel and will of
which He came into the world and that's
the reason for the difference the contrast between
the look of compassion in the palace of
the High Priest and the devastating reprimand on
this occasion but Jesus was now resisting with
all the vehemence of righteousness with the temptation
directed to Him by Peter as the instrument
of temptation to turn fear my
friends you have the grandeur of the Savior's
coming He came down from heaven not to
do His own will but the will of
Him to do it He said again therefore
does my soul because I lay down my
life no man taketh it from me but
I lay it down myself I have power
to lay it down and I have power
to take it again I have a baptism
to be baptized with and how am I
straightened until it be accomplished and consequently the
plea of this disciple whom He loved had
to be resisted with all the vehemence of
that devastating reprimand oh it was a plea
to the highest counsel of God oh
with such a plea get thee hence thou
art an offenser to me for thou savourest
not the things that be of God but
those that be of men and can you
see can you not see in this in
this very question how marvelous our Savior should
be one moment of that ministry given
to people in the act of the role
of this particular man now
in conclusion may I invite you in
this particular disclosure of the glory of Christ
the Apostle Paul says you know that we
beholding at last the glory of the Lord
are transformed into the same image from glory
to glory you
and I would all let us meditate
let us meditate upon the
revelation that is the glory of the Lord
as we
meditate prayerfully and deeply this
whole more formed
image we see in this chapter
perhaps in an unsuspecting disclosure to an ink
of relief he gave
to the action O Lord our God do
thou grant that Christ may be precious to
us that we may see that we may
get a glimpse of that which is unsuspecting
who came who came into the world who
is the brightness of God's glory who is
the image of the invisible by the renewing
of our mind that we may prove what
is that good and that's in Jesus name
Amen