In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the importance of understanding the "musts" of Christ. He mentions that although he could spend more time delving into the topic, he encourages the audience to refer to the Bible for a deeper understanding. The preacher highlights that while Jesus foretold and foreshadowed his sufferings, he now reveals the intricacies of his betrayal. However, the sermon points out that these outward facts do not address the sin question or the atonement. The heart of the Gospel, according to the preacher, is found in Mark 10:45, where Jesus states that he came not to be served but to serve and give his life as a ransom for many. This verse is seen as the central message of the cross.

Pick up the Bible you'll find in front of you in the pew, and turn with me to the 8th chapter of the Gospel according to Luke. New Testament, Matthew and Mark. And it's the Gospel according to Mark, pardon me. The Gospel according to Mark, chapter 8. We're reading from verse 27 to verse 38, to the end of the chapter. And on the Lord's Day morning, we all read together, taking your time from me. The 8th chapter of Mark's Gospel, verse 27. And Jesus went out and his disciples into the towns of Caesarea Philippi. And by the way he asked his disciples, saying unto them, Whom do men say that I am? And they answered, John the Baptist. But some say Elias, and others one of the prophets. And he saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am? And Peter answered, And saith unto him, Thou art the Christ. And he charged them that they should tell no man of him. And he began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders, and of the chief priests, and scribes, and be killed. And after three days rise again. And he spake that saying openly, and Peter took him and began to rebuke him. But when he had turned about and looked on his disciples, he rebuked Peter, saying, Get thee behind me, Satan, for thou savest not the things that be of God, but the things that be of men. And when he had called the people unto him, with his disciples also, he said unto them, Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow him. For whosoever will see it, his life shall lose it. But whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel's, the same shall save him. For what shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for it? Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him also shall the Son of Man be ashamed when he cometh in the glory of his Father with the holy angels. And God shall stamp his infallible word with his own infallible seal of blessing. Amen and Amen. We'd like to welcome you all to this service this morning. We have some visitors from Liverpool. We have some visitors from Germany. And we have some visitors from Dublin. And we would especially welcome our visitors to this house and this service today. May the blessing of God that maketh rich and addeth most sorrow be your portion as you listen to the word of God today. I take the promised Holy Ghost, the blessed power of Pentecost, to fill me to the uttermost. I take. Thank God He undertakes for me. And the people of God said, Amen. During these last Lord's Day mornings and on Wednesday evenings, we have been looking at a very vital and important subject. The musts that were spoken by Christ when He was upon this earth. If you turn over with me now to the 8th chapter of Mark's Gospel and to the verse 31, you'll read these words. And He, that is the Lord Jesus, began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected of the elders and of the chief priests and scribes and be killed and after three days rise again. We have looked at the must of the Lord's concern, the must of the Lord's career, rather, in Luke's Gospel, chapter 2 and 9. We have looked at the must of the Lord's confidence in Matthew 24 and verse 6. We have looked at the must of the Lord's conviction, Matthew 26, 53 to 54. We have looked at the must of the Lord's calendar, Mark 13, 10. We have looked at the must of the Lord's commission, Luke's Gospel, 4 and 33. We have looked at the must of the Lord's commandment, John's Gospel, chapter 3 and 7. We have looked at the must of the Lord's conception, Luke's Gospel, 23, 13 and 33. And we have looked at the must of the Lord's choice, Luke's Gospel, 19 and verse 5. All together, we come to the ninth one today, in Mark 8 and verse 31, the must of the Lord's condemnation. And He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected of the elders and of the chief priests and scribes and be killed and after three days rise again. Before this, the Lord Jesus had not uttered one word to His disciples about the cross. But notice this verse very carefully. He began to teach them. He began to introduce the message of the cross. He broke away from the other topics that He spoke about with such passion. And He came of His own passion for sinners upon the cross. And the amazing thing about this, this is repeated. Leaf over in your Bible a little farther to chapter 9 and verse 31. And it says, For He taught His disciples and said unto them, The Son of Man is delivered into the hands of men, and they shall kill Him. And after that He is killed, He shall rise the third day. And they understood not that saying and were afraid to ask Him. So the second time we read He again emphasizes His death. And then when we come over to chapter 10, We read in chapter 10 and verse 33, The Lord speaks again. And He said this, I read verse 32 for the connection in Mark 10, And they were in the way going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus went before them. And they were amazed, and as they followed they were afraid. And He took again the twelve and began. Note the careful words of the Spirit. And began. He took again the twelve and began to tell them what things would happen unto Him. Saying, Behold we go up to Jerusalem, And the Son of Man shall be delivered unto the chief priests, And unto the scribes, And they shall condemn Him to death, And shall deliver Him to the Gentiles, And they shall mock Him and scourge Him, And shall spit upon Him, And shall kill Him, And the third day He shall rise again. And then, amazingly, we turn to verse 45 of the same chapter. And He returns. But this time, for the first time, He talks about the objective of the cross. His first three mentions are a description of what was going to happen in Jerusalem and at Calvary. But now He comes to the heart of the matter. And in verse 45 of the tenth chapter, He has this to say, For even the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, But to minister and to give His life a ransom. That brings us to the very heart of the cross. Turn back to the first mention in chapter 8 and verse 31. Where it says, He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things, And be rejected of the elders and of the chief priests and scribes, And be killed, and after three days rise again. There we have the cross foretold. The first time in the history of Christ's ministry, He began to tell them what He was really on earth to do. Yes, He came to show forth God's love. He came to do great miracles among them. He came to reveal the will of God. He came to give those wonderful parables. But the heart, the objective, the climax, the whole point of His coming was to suffer. The Son of Man must suffer many things. He came to. The Lord Jesus Christ in these passages always refers to Himself under the title, Jesus Christ was the Son of God. But by His birth, via the virgin's womb, He took into unity with His Godhead as the Son of God, our humanity. God cannot suffer, but God as the God-Man, as the Son of Man, can suffer. It is impossible for anything to hurt God. He is immune from all hurt. He is immune from all attack. He is the glorious being of Deity. But when Christ became the Son of Man and took into unity with His Deity, our humanity, and was made, listen to it, the Holy Spirit tells us in the book of Romans, He was made in the likeness of sinful flesh. It does not say He was made sinful flesh, but He was not. He was the sinless, spotless, harmless, crimeless Son of God. But He was made like us. Why? That He might endure the pain. That He might take the curse. That He might drink the terrible judgment cup. That He might cry out, hanging stark naked in the cross of shame, Is there any sorrow? Lend unto my sorrow. Jesus Christ on the cross showed that the Son of Man must suffer many things. If you look at this text, this first text that introduces from the lips of Christ the cross to His disciples, you will notice that all these descriptions add something. The first description said He would suffer many things. And it is introduced with the word, must. For if Christ did not suffer, you would have been damned forever. And nothing would have given you a way of escape from the darkness of everlasting woe in hell forever. But Christ came to endure our hell. He came to take our place. He came to feel the whip and the pain and the agony and the death throes in order to save you. In order that you might be redeemed. And so it says here, as it foretells His suffering, He is going to be a rejected Christ. Jesus Christ has come to this house today. Let me ask you a plain question. Is He a rejected Christ? As far as you are concerned. Because Christ and you have a relationship. And the relationship is that you have rejected Him. The first thing that Christ says about this cross, He is going to be rejected. He is going to be the rejected Christ. Men are not going to fly in their tens of millions to the cross. You know what they are going to do? They are going to pass it by. That is what Jesus said when He was on the cross. Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by? I would ask you a question today. How many times have you passed by and you have never lifted up your eyes and said, Christ who died was for you. He suffered. Was it for me? For me alone? The Savior left His glorious throne. The dazzling splendor of the sky. Was it for me? It was. Yes, all for me. O love of God, so great, so free. O wondrous love, I shout and sing. He died for me. Look again. Be rejected of the elders. The mass of the people. The mass of the political world have rejected Christ. The elders of the people. The religious world has rejected Christ. He is going to be rejected of the chief priests. And you will notice the legal world rejects Christ, the scribe. All of these worlds that make up this one wicked world of ours. The elders, the chief priests, and the scribes reject Him. But rejection leads to something else. It leads to killing Him. And have not only rejected Christ, but with wicked hands they took Him and nailed Him to the cross. But in all these passages of Scripture, please note, there is an afterwards. And what is the afterwards? And after three days He will rise again. Peter was a leading man in the apostolic band. And when Peter heard this first intimation by Christ of the cross, what did he do? Look at verse 32. He turned on Christ and rebuked the Son of God. Peter changed, transformed by meeting this Savior. The coarse, blaspheming fisherman that he was. Peter rebuking the Son of God. Why? Because the devil had entered into him. And if there is one thing the devil hates, it is the cross. Because at the cross, the devil's head was smashed. And Jesus Christ found a way. A ransom He found at dark. And what did the Lord say to him? Get behind me, sin. The world rejects Christ. But sin, in all His hideous, hellish, horrible hatred, is the cross. That is why we must be preachers of the cross. That is why we must sing, Jesus keep me near the cross. That is why we must say, with the Lord Jesus of I be lifted up. I will draw all men unto me. The only drawing power in all the world that can draw man from the broad road to hell. And the darkness of their sins and the bitterness of the chains that sin brings is the cross. The cross must be preached. It must be defended. It must be proclaimed. It must be emphasized. There is no other way of salvation but in the cross, by the cross, through the cross. I could go on and speak of the foretelling of that text. But let's turn over to chapter 9 and verse 31. And they departed thence and passed through Galilee. And He would not that any man should know it. And He caught His disciples and said, The Son of Man is delivered into the hands of men. No mention the second time of the scribes. No mention the second time of the chief priests. No mention the second time of the elders. We are now down to the people. The people. Now what did the people do? The Lord Jesus tells us here. And here we have not His sufferings foretold. But His sufferings foreshadowed in this verse. For this brings us to the dark passage from Gethsemane to Gabbatha and Gabbatha to Golgotha. Where Jesus died. And Jesus Christ in His death. What happened? The Son of Man. There is the title again. Is delivered into the hands of men. And they shall kill Him. But there is an afterward. And after they have killed Him. Something happens. He shall rise the third day. Jesus Christ was put to the cross. Because of the rejection of all the world that we know. The world of politics. The elders. The world of church. High priests. And the world of education. The scribes. They all unite against Christ. But in this second. Foreshadowing the cross. Oh it is the ordinary people. The people that He had healed. The people He had blessed. He had raised their dead. He had cleansed their palsied and their lepers. He had taken away their ailments and pain. And yet that same Christ by those same men. Were delivered to the cross. And the sufferings of that cruel tree. But let's turn a little further. Let's come to chapter 10. And verse 33. And what do we read there? We read there. That Jesus was going up to Jerusalem. And He had told the disciples. What? That in Jerusalem. He was going to be taken. And by wicked hands. He was going to be crucified. Why were they amazed? They were amazed because Christ. For the first time in scripture. Is in a hurry. And it says here. If you look at it. Carefully. Abide on. In verse 33. It says. Jesus went before them. The word in the Greek text is. He raced forward. All the disciples were holding back. They did not like what was going to happen. In Jerusalem. They did not understand it. And they were holding back. And Christ is going forward. He says. I have a baptism to be baptized of. And how am I straightened. Until it is accomplished. The baptism of the tree. If you look at this text again. You will notice they were amazed. And then they were afraid. But Christ hastened on. And He took again the twelve. And began to tell them what things would happen unto Him. And here we have more things. Here we have the foreshowing of the cross. Things He had never mentioned before. Mark it carefully. Behold we go up to Jerusalem. And the Son of Man shall be delivered unto the chief priests. And unto the scribes. And they shall condemn Him to death. Who condemned Him? The chief priests in the house. Who delivered Him to the Gentiles? It was His own people. The Jews that delivered Him to the Gentiles. And they shall mock Him. It does not say here that the chief priests are doing the mocking. It is the Gentiles that are doing the mocking. For it was in Pilate's judgment hall. He was mocked of the soldiers. It was in Pilate's judgment hall. He was spit upon. It was in the place called Calvary that they killed Him. How accurate was the Son of God. He foretells His sufferings. He foreshadows them. And now He foreshows them. Revealing the very intricacies of how He was going to be betrayed. But in all those texts of scripture I have read to you. There is not a word about the sin question. Not a word about the atonement. Not a word about the substitutional aspect of that great and wondrous happening. These were the outward facts. The things that you could see. That the natural eye could see. But there is something beyond that. And when it comes to verse 45. For the first time He tells you the heart of the gospel. And He said, I am not a Lord. I am a servant. I did not come to be ministered unto. I did not come to be served. I came to do the serving. And what to do? To give! What to give? To give His life. The blood of the flesh is in the life. The life is the blood. To give His life what? A ransom for the many. There is the heart of the gospel. There is the meaning of the gospel. There is the objective of the gospel. There is the aim of the gospel. Why was He treated thus? In order that on that cross He would pay the ransom. What is a ransom? A ransom is a amount of payment made to set a person free. The man is taken away. He is chained. He is jailed. He is in prison. He is hidden. He is concealed. But the ransom price finds him. The ransom price opens the doors of the prison cell. The ransom price breaks the chains. Sets the prisoner free. His blood can make ten thousands clean. Hallelujah! His blood atones for me. Here. Here is the sufferings foreordained from all eternity. He was to be a ransom for many. It doesn't say the ransom for all. For all men will not be saved. But He is a ransom for all who put their trust in Him. And every soul that believeth shall have everlasting life. God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. That whosoever believeth on Him should not perish but have everlasting life. We will come again to this subject of the musts of Christ. We can only touch it. We can't take time to get down to it. I could go on and preach ten sermons on some of the things I have seen in these texts. But go to the Bible. Look again at these texts. And if you want the recordings, they've all been recorded. And in fact I'm preparing to put these sermons into a book. Because I believe there's truths here we need to re-emphasize again in this day of apostasy. And to touch it.