Matthew ch 16-17

Now I'd like you to turn with me again to the Gospel of Matthew, but it's not 18. 16, wait. Matthew 16, and we're going to read a few verses, and we're going to start with verse number 1. Matthew 16, verse 1. The Pharisees also with the Sadducees came, and tempting, desired him that he would show them a sign from heaven.

He answered and said unto them, When it is evening, ye say it will be fair weather, for the sky is red. In the morning it will be foul weather today, for the sky is red and lowering. O ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky, but can ye not discern the signs of the times? And a wicked and adulterous generation seeketh a sign.

Verse 5. And when his disciples were come to the other side, they had forgotten to take bread. Then Jesus said unto them, Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees. And they reasoned among themselves, saying, It is because we have taken no bread.

Which, when Jesus perceived, he said unto them, O ye of little faith, why reason ye among yourselves, because you have brought no bread? Do you not yet understand? Neither remember the five loaves and the five thousand, and how many baskets ye took up. Verse 13. When Jesus came into the coast of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I the Son of Man am? And they said, Some say that thou art John the Baptist, and 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. Now look down the chapter a little bit, just for sake of time.

Verse 21. 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 the chief 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.

Now verse 27. Well, maybe we should read verse 25. For whosoever will give 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. Verily I say unto you, there be some standing here which shall not taste of death till they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom. Now the next chapter is very familiar, but verse 3 says, Behold, there appeared unto them Moses and Elias talking with them.

Then answered Peter and said unto Jesus, Lord, it is good for us to be here. If thou wilt, let us make here three tabernacles, one for thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elijah. And while he yet spake, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed him, and behold, a voice from the cloud which said, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.

Hear ye him. Now we've read quite a few verses, I'm not going to be very long, but we know that God will bless the reading of his precious Word with what we have already learned. When we come to a conference, there's one thing that we preach we try to do, more than one thing, but one good thing is we try to get young people interested in the Word of God.

Good to read the Word of God. I hope we're all reading the Scriptures, and particularly when you're young, because when you're younger, you'll find out when you get older, you can't remember things just the way you did when you were young. And the things that we learned, I was never really, really young.

When God saved me, I was 33 years of age, but still I can remember those early days. Things really struck, you know, and I enjoyed the Word of God. And we were all instructed and encouraged to get into the Word of God.

And then you wonder, but how am I going to read it? How do you really get something out of the Scriptures? Maybe you read a lot. Well, at first, you know, I read a lot. Halfway through the night, sometimes woke up with my Bible on my chest in the morning.

I don't know if it took a lot of it in, but the time would come. One of the elders, he said, you know, in about ten years, you'll be able to fit these things together. Well, I'm still trying to fit them together.

In five years, I was out trying to preach the gospel, but anyhow, that's another story. But now, when you read verses like this, just what do you really get out of them? And I like to see just how things are put together. They're not haphazard in the Word of God.

They're not always chronological, but the Spirit of God guided the writers. They were born along by the Holy Spirit, and things were put together. So when I read a chapter like what we have read, I say, you know, how do these things fit in? Here you have people that are talking about, they know what kind of a day it's going to be today, and they know what it's going to be like tomorrow, but how would that fit in? We're not trained to be weather forecasters.

If I was a weather forecaster, I'd go and be it over in Ireland, because you could be right most of the time, say it's gonna be rain with showery intervals, or something like that. But what I saw when I read this, what I thought about fitting it into the chapter, I thought, here's people, and they're just occupied with today and tomorrow. Now if you ever were in business, and you have to make decisions, and this would apply greatly to the elders in the assemblies, you don't just make decisions for the present.

You're not just interested in knowing what's happening right now, or what if I make this decision, how it will be right now. You look into the future. And they taught me, I work for a Jewish company, I'm glad they taught me a good work ethic, and they said, consider where it's going to lead.

And that's a tremendous principle in our lives, even for young people. Decisions you're going to make, don't just make them for today, don't just make them for tomorrow, but think of the future. That's the important thing.

Get your eye, where is this going to lead you? Well I hope that you'll get into the Word of God. Now the disciples, they didn't seem to realize this. The Lord is going to tell them now, don't be occupied with these little things in the world.

They're not really important. And they said, well you know, he must have thought we'd forgotten to take bread. We didn't get any food.

He said, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees, and you know the leaven of the Pharisees is hypocrisy, or ritualism, and the Sadducees would be rationalism, just looking at things just as they are, and not even considering the future. So they didn't understand. When he talked about the leaven of the bread, they thought, we have taken no loaves with.

The Lord said, don't worry about that. Do you not remember what I just did? I fed the thousands. I've got food for the thousands.

And again, get into the Word of God. There's food here for everybody, and there's a variety of food. It's not all potatoes, or not all meat.

There's a great variety of food in the Word of God. And the Lord will feed his people. And I hope you've been fed at the conference.

Hope you have had an appetite for the things of God. That's what we need. He always told us when we were children, if you're hungry, you're healthy.

And we can bring that right up to day-to-day. If you're hungry for the things of God, you're healthy. Are you hungry for them? You want to learn more, and not just more to have a head knowledge.

We've already heard that emphasized to us. It's something that's going to change our lives. That's what the Word of God is.

We want to be different. We want to go home another way, don't we? We don't want to just come and go like a door on its hinges. We want to learn the truths of the Word of God.

And the Lord says, now, I'm going to tell you what to be occupied with. He said, whom do the people say that I, the Son of Man, am? Oh, you're one of the prophets. You're Elijah, Jeremiah.

And he said, but whom do ye say that I am? And what did Peter say? Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And I think he's telling them, now, you need to be occupied with the Lord Jesus. Or we would say, you need to be occupied with the Lord Jesus Christ.

That's the important thing. That's what we have learned, haven't we, in this conference? Get our eye on Him. We get our eye on ourselves, we're going to be disappointed.

Get our eye on the Lord's people, that might be a little better, but not much. But get your eye on Him. Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.

These Pharisees and Sadducees, they thought they knew everything. And they really knew very little. And the Lord says, now, the whole thing, the teaching all surrounds me.

And you will notice, of course, maybe in this chapter, that there are three firsts. There's a first mention of the church. Upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against at the gates.

You know, it would speak of the authority. That's where the old man sat in the gate, the days of Ruth. And that's where Jacob saw the gate of heaven.

We've been reminded, the assembly, it's under the authority of heaven, under the authority of the Lord himself. So he said, there's a church that's coming. Now, this isn't the local assembly here.

We love the local assembly, but you know, there's a wider sphere as well. We shouldn't just be all one little, all assembly, or all the big picture, or all prophecy, or all. The word of God has a variety, just like food.

When you go down to the dinner, we just go and we eat, and we don't maybe realize it. Why, look at the colors. The carrots go with the peas, and so on, and they make it colorful.

They make it appetizing. It's not just all one big mix, like a dog's dinner. But we enjoy the things of God, and he said, there's a church coming.

Day of Pentecost, the birthday of the church, and there's nothing going to thwart God's purposes. Aren't you glad you're part of the church? All the authority of hell shall not prevail against it. God's plans aren't going to be thwarted by anybody or anything.

They're all taking place today. God's working behind the scenes. We don't see, maybe, the way he's working, and we don't understand always the way he's working, but we know he is.

And he said, here's something. What a revelation that was to Peter. You know, Peter, when the Lord said, but first of all, you know, I need to go to the cross.

Oh, Peter said, not so, Lord. Now, you know that's a contradiction of terms. You can't say, Lord, and say, not so.

And that's a little illustration, maybe, you have that in James, where James says, out of the same well, the same spring, you can't get fresh water and salt water. You need to be consistent. And here he is.

He said, not so, Lord. What about the cross? That's what makes these things dear to us. That's what we've heard.

That's what touches our hearts. It's the cross. We appreciate the majesty of the Lord.

And the more we appreciate his majesty, the more we should appreciate his lowliness. The more we should appreciate the cross. That's why we have a way in Exodus, in the Passover.

God says, take a little lamb. Maybe you wouldn't have minded slaying a lion or something like that. I'm not a hunter.

I, one time, I was in a place, in a motel, and they had a, they had a notice on the bathroom, no cleaning of birds in the bathroom. And I asked a man, what are you hunting in this place? Oh, he said, pheasant. I said, I think I'd rather hunt something like an elephant.

It'd be bigger, you know, you'd have a better chance of hitting it. He says, I don't hunt anything that fights back. Well, anyhow, here, he says, the cross is coming.

And to kill a little lamb, why? To touch your heart. There's no other animal I don't think that you could kill. Some people wouldn't mind killing your cats or some old dogs or causing trouble, but, but think of a little lamb.

God's emblem is a lamb. Russia has a bear. Britain has the lion.

We have the eagle. But God says, I have a lamb. And that's to touch your heart.

And the Lord was bringing this before them. Why? So they would focus on him. And that's the idea that I'm trying to bring across to you.

Get focused on him. Don't think of today or tomorrow, just in what you're going to do and how these things are going to work out. There's an eternity that lies ahead.

Get focused on what is in the, in the future, because the Lord says, you know, I'm coming again. He's going to return. Now, it wouldn't be the rapture here, as you know, but, but he still said, I'm going to come back.

And I'm going to reign. And he said, there's going to be rewards. Going to reward every man according to his works.

So he said, I'm coming. Behold, I cometh. My rewards are with me.

We read in the book of Revelation, but he said, he's coming in the glory of his, of his angels. And then when we come into the next chapter, remember, we, you know, the Bible wasn't written in chapters. We have a little illustration of the kingdom.

He said, I'm coming. This is what he's talking about. I'm coming.

And I'm coming to reign. Now, we don't miss this because before we come into chapter 17, remember, whosoever will save his life will lose it. We live our lives just for selves.

Just for the present. And maybe the immediate future we're going to lose it. It's going to be nothing for God.

But he said, and if you lose your life for my sake, if you live your life devoted to him, as we've heard from Romans chapter 12, a devotion to the Lord, he said, you're going to have a life that's worth living. And he said, because the Lord's coming in, but he said, I should read this verse again, or quote it. What is a man profited if he gained the whole world and lose his own soul? What shall a man give in exchange for his life? It's a waste of life he's talking about.

And I want to emphasize that because when we come into chapter 17, we have a beautiful picture of the kingdom. Now, you know, it's a, it's a, I would say it's a perfect picture because there, there are seven individuals brought before us. There's Peter, James, and John.

And I would suggest to you that they're a picture of the little remnant of Israel. Yeah, they're in the world. But then when we look a little higher, we see Moses and Elijah.

Now I'm sure you know that Moses was a man that died and Elijah was a man that didn't die, was caught up into heaven. So you could see that that would be a little picture of the church and those that have gone before and those that will be alive and remain when the Lord comes. And of course, the Lord in the midst.

I've heard a little bit about that, but he's going to be in the midst then. Now what, how do we fit Moses and Elijah into this? And we know the picture of the church, but I've also thought of them as individuals. What shall it profit a man if he gained the whole world and lose his own soul? What about you, Moses? There are men like Moses, men like Paul.

I tell you, they lost a lot, but if you ask them, they likely would say it was nothing. For the excellency of the glory of Christ Jesus as Lord, Moses gave up the throne and everything that was associated with it, everything. He says, I'd rather be associated with a group of slaves than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season.

Gave up all the riches of Egypt. I tell you, that was a lot, isn't it? And as well as that, you know, he represented the law and he had written about all the offerings and so on. And I think we can bring that right to the fore.

And then you have Elijah, man, he was a tremendous man. He wasn't afraid to stand for the things of God, even when he didn't know there was anyone else. There were 7,000, but he didn't know.

And he stood and made fun of these people, the prophets of Baal and the groves and so on. Made fun of them. But there's something else I think we can learn from it, and it's this.

When Peter said, let us build here three tabernacles, three booths, he was thinking of the Feast of Tabernacles, that the kingdom was going to be set up right there and then. It had come to the end of the journey. He had forgotten all about the Lord telling him about they're going to kill him and so on.

I think he did anyhow. That's the way it appears to me. But he says, you know, it says a bright cloud overshadowed them.

And what happened? They saw no one save Jesus only. That's tremendous. Moses, you represented the law.

And that's what the Pharisees and all, they were occupied with the law and the traditions and so on. But he says, you know, that's come to an end. It's going to be no more sacrifice.

I'm the sacrifice, get your eye on me. What about the prophets? Why, they were all pointing forward to the Lord. First of all is death, men like Isaiah and so on.

And they said, you know, we don't need that. God who at sundry times in a diver's manner speaking time passed unto the fathers by the prophets hath in these last days spoken unto us in son. So that's where I want to leave you.

And I hope I have shown you that when you study your Bible, just consider these things. How do they fit together? I always get a big sheet of paper and write things down as I go along. And then have a good look at them later and you can see maybe how, oh, I can see now how that fits in with that.

But I'll tell you the most important thing is the end result here. What is it? Get your eye on the Lord Jesus Christ. He's coming.

You're going to have part in the kingdom. When Moses wrote, when Peter rather wrote about this in 2nd Peter chapter 1, he didn't write anything about Moses and Elijah, didn't even mention him. You know why? He had learned a lesson.

He saw the Lord himself. Got his eye on him. And that's what we would like you to do as you leave the meeting.

And that would give you a thirst to learn more about him. That's what we want to do. And not just learn Paul.

He said, I want to learn about him in an experiential way. And what that means is, I want to live like him. I don't even want to reach the resurrection by the easy pathway.

The Lord didn't reach it. I just want to be like him in every way. There are great costs involved.

What's your problem, man? You want the world? Lose your life? Or do you want to live a life that's valuable? A life for him? Who is it that's close to him in the kingdom? I'm applying it. Moses and Elijah. The men that were willing to give up everything.

Nothing else really mattered. And for us it should be the same. Get our eye on the Lord Jesus Christ.

We see no man saved, Jesus only. And we get our eye on him. We'll be like him day by day.

So may the Lord bless his word to us with what has gone before and with what will follow for his name's sake.