We don't have much hair to do anymore. That's why they don't have the hairdo. I love you, brother. I look like I got a yarmulke on there. Oh, my. Well, they all said we needed it. Oh, boy, now I tell you. It's true. Matthew 16. I've been preached to, preached at. I haven't been preached over, because I'll tell you what, it'll break me over the cold. I guess that's kind of preaching over, Wow. I'm going to preach on something that at the outset, we're talking about encouragement and victory, at the outset it's going to seem like an oxymoron. But I believe it's the key to all we've been preaching about. And we'll see what the Lord does. Matthew 16 and 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. Some, Elias. And others, Jeremiah, are one of the prophets. He saith unto them, but whom say ye that I am? And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. And I say unto thee that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven. And whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Then charged he his disciples that they should tell no man that he was Jesus the Christ. 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. And he turned and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan, thou art an offense unto me, for thou savorest not the things that be of God. but those that be of men. Then said Jesus unto his disciples, if any man will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it. 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. And I want to preach from this text on identifying with the cross of Christ. Identifying with the cross of Christ. In our text, Jesus Christ lays out the cost of discipleship. There is the cost, of course, that Jesus paid for us to become His disciples. If you're here today and you've been saved by God's grace, you've been made the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. In other words, you had the righteous Christ put to your account. It is because of what Jesus Christ, and only because of what He has done. We know this from the text. Right here in the context in verse 21 it says, For from that time forth began, Jesus is showing to disciples how that he must go into Jerusalem and suffer many things of the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed and be raised again the third day. And so the cost of discipleship, first of all, of course, is what Jesus did for us. And that is, of course, the ultimate cost for you to be a Christian. You cannot be a Christian, you cannot be a child of God, you cannot be the recipient of God's grace apart, of course, from the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. But these first disciples did not understand the ramifications of Christ's work. This is a transition from the Old Testament into the New Testament. It is like going into the fog. It's like the darkness before the dawn. And so it's a dark period of time for their understanding. Concerning the work of the Lord Jesus Christ now they they knew who he was They knew that he was the prophesied one of the Old Testament. They knew that he is the Son of God That's the confession of the text, but they didn't know all the ramifications of the work of Jesus Christ But even in New Testament times as we live, we don't know all the ramifications of the work of Christ, do we? I mean after all that's one reason we have church, isn't it? The Lord left his church, so and left us his word and left us the Holy Spirit to teach us the depths of the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so we exalt Christ, we preach Christ, we're learning about Christ. I've been preaching over 30 years and I stand amazed at the new things or the depth of the things that we learn about the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. I'll come right back here. But in the book of Ephesians, we find this to be so. This wonderful truth that we're learning and the Apostle Paul's desire was that they might grow in this understanding of who Jesus Christ is and the depths of the work of the Lord Jesus Christ, the depths of the love of Christ and the depths of the atonement of Christ and the satisfaction that he made and what he had to go through to make that satisfaction. And there's not a preacher No matter how grand of a theologian he is that has come and scratched down all the way down to the depths of what Jesus Christ has done. Well, we just tried. And I think a lot of times we just got a little bit in the ground as far as we've gotten. But anyway, in the book of Ephesians chapter 3, we find that the whole of the Christian life is to learn of the ramifications of the work of Christ. That is his life work, his sinless life. You know, behind his death, you have the death of Christ. The death of Christ is nothing without that sinless life. But he has that sinless life and by his obedience and that obedience being transferred to us. I mean, all those truths we're learning more and more as we study the scriptures together. But in the book of Ephesians chapter three, this was the apostle Paul's grand desire in verse 14. He says, for this cause, I bow my knees unto the father of our Lord Jesus Christ. of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man. And here's for the grand purpose, that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith, and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able... Now, this is a strange verse here. may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and the length, and the depth, and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge." How can you know that which is beyond knowledge? Well, God, that's how you can know things that are beyond knowledge, as He teaches you them by His Spirit. and He gets you in there and He teaches it to you by providence. He brings things into our life as instruction manuals to teach us about Him and His faithfulness, His goodness, His love, His long-suffering, His gentleness, His meekness, all the things about Him that we might begin to know that which is really unknowable without Him. Anyway, to know the love of Christ with passive knowledge that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God. And of course, the fullness of God is that the Lord Jesus Christ, he's the fullness of the Godhead. But anyway, there is the cost that Jesus paid to make us disciples. And even though they did not and we do not. Now, never let us think, beloved, that we know everything. Right. We just don't know everything. That's right. You know, Rypatch Baptist Church is over 100 years old. I don't think there's anybody in here 100. Some of you may look like it, but you're not 100 yet. And so with our little time of being around on this place that the Lord's given to us, none of us, the oldest saint who's loved the Lord and served the Lord and been faithful and been in the Word and in prayer, there's still more you need to know. And here back in our text now, the Lord is beginning, beginning to give greater revelation to this New Testament church. These disciples who, now these are saved men. And these are the men others have left, and they're still tagging along with the Lord. And they've already said, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life. They're right with Him. He's their teacher. They're His disciples. These men have eternal life, and they have the Savior. They're intimate with Him, but He's beginning to teach them greater revelation. They are in Christ's schools. And Jesus, Jesus must suffer if they're to be saved. Jesus must suffer. He must go to His cross. If Jesus Christ is to be crowned, He must go to the cross. I mean, that's all there in the text. The kingdom, its power, its effects, they come through the cross. There's a cost, not only that Jesus had to go through, but there's a cost also in this text that you have to go through. See, the believer must pay a price as a disciple. Verse 24, Then Jesus said unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. Now, very clearly again, and I'm preaching to the choir for the most part, we know this is not the way you become a disciple. You don't become a disciple by doing what I'm going to be talking about. You do not become a disciple by taking up your cross. You can't become a disciple by merely following Jesus Christ. I mean, Jesus Christ, He could come and He did, and He is our example, but if that's all He is, say, okay boys, here's how it's done, now you do it. Well, none of us are getting into heaven. None of us are entering into the kingdom. None of us are going to be on the good side of the Lord God of heaven. None of us are going to do that just merely by Jesus being a good example. We know that truth. This is not how we become disciples. These men are already disciples. That is very clear in the text. And I mean true, genuine disciples. But this is the way, if you will, to live out your discipleship to the maximum. It's going to cost you, as we've already heard, you know, we've heard about victory this morning, but victory cost our Lord and it's going to cost you. It's going to cost you as well. So these are the demands of discipleship. And here Christ presses the truth of our identity to the cross of Christ. There is in our text an identity factor. And I read all of what I read, I started back up in the text because, you know, as Baptists we like, do we not like to Verse 18, upon this rock I'll build my church, and the gates of hell shall never shall open, and I prevail against it, and we can labor against the Catholics, and we can labor for the Baptists, and we can say this is the Lord's church, and all that's true. But there's a cross involved in all of that. And that's what we're talking about. And so there's the identity factor. You must identify with His cross. In our text, the His cross is your cross. In the text. He says in our text, in verse 24, if any man will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. That's your cross. The His cross, the His is you in that text. It's not him. However, however, it's still His cross. And it's like this, it's like when Paul says, my gospel. What do you mean my gospel, Paul? And there are some people who go to seed on that and say, well, now Paul's gospel is different than Peter's gospel. And Peter's gospel was different than Christ's gospel. And they go on this tangent about those words. And that's just not true. There's only one gospel. It's only ever been one gospel. And that gospel has been revealed. And of course, has been revealed in stages, you know, truth upon truth upon truth. But the fact is, there's only one gospel. But Paul's gospel was Peter's gospel, was Christ's gospel because it's all Christ's gospel. He's the sum and substance of the Gospel. I can't preach that right now, but just to know from the Scripture, I believe that could be what was proven. But let's go to the book of Galatians to kind of bring this home about the cross, and then we'll get into what I want to look at from this text here about identifying with the cross of Christ. And for you to have a victorious Christian life, and Brother talked about it this morning, we're going to tell about what you have to do, what you have to do as a believer, to be on the side of victory. And it's going to sound like it's an oxymoron, as I said. Something's going to have to happen to you for you to be on the side of victory. And we're going to see that. But let's go to Galatians chapter 6, just a moment. Galatians chapter 6. The Apostle Paul, who was very acquainted with his cross, His cross, the cross that He bore. The suffering, the anguish that the Apostle Paul went through. So that you can have a Bible. So that there can be a Rye Patch Baptist Church. See, God uses men and means, and He used a man by the name of Paul. To bring us to the day where there is a Rye Patch Baptist Church. Now God could have done anything He pleased to do, but that's the way He pleased to do it. He uses those kind of things. And Paul went through great suffering, great anguish, so that we can be here today. In the book of Galatians chapter 6 and verse 14 it says, But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature. And as many as walk according to this rule, excuse me, this rule, peace be on them and mercy and upon the Israel of God. From henceforth, let no man trouble me, for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus. And so as I said, I'm gonna labor on that for just a moment. That is this identity factor that our cross really is his cross. Paul was bearing in his body the marks, not of Paul, but of the Lord Jesus Christ. And Paul didn't glory in his own cross, he had gloried in the cross of Jesus Christ. What he was bearing and how he lived his life, as Paul said in Philippians, for me to live is Christ and to die is gain. He lived his life for Christ, but how did he live his life? Well, he had to die. Paul had to die. And that's what we're going to get at. So our singular glory, that is, the value is Christ and his work on the cross. And his cross work kills us to the world and the world to us, and we identify with him. This is because he identified with us. You know, we sing a song sometimes, when He was on the cross, I was on His mind. But the Bible says, and this is where it comes from, in Galatians 3.13, He was made a curse. We know it. For who? For us. He wasn't made a curse for Himself. He had done no sin. This is simple truth that we know, that He identified with us. He was made sin for us. God's wrath was poured out on Him for us. He bore our sin and His body on the tree. It was my sin that nailed Him to the cross. So He identified with me. And so what must I do? Well, I must identify with Him. Identify with His cross. So we're called to learn of Him this way. I want to say a few things. First of all, I want you to notice that cross-bearing, the first thing, is it puts self to death. Now, as I said, it sounds like an oxymoron. I mean, you're talking about a preacher. He said, we got to have joy and peace and we have to, you know, we have this victorious Christian living, which is all true. But how do you have victorious Christian living? When you're dead. How can you live and be dead? Christ lives in you. Christ is magnified. When you have the mind of Christ, instead of the old stinking mind. When you think like Christ, instead of thinking like yourself. Instead of you thinking like Adam, you're thinking like the new Adam. That's what we're talking about. Instead of you thinking like the old man in the old man's ways, you're thinking about the new man in the new man's ways. So cross-bearing puts self to death. And the message of personal self-mortification is directly related in this text to Peter's self-ambition. Notice Peter in this text. You know, we just learned about Barnabas. Barnabas was a good man because to the degree in which Barnabas was dead. Christ shine through what was he sure what was going on in Barnabas's life. He was manifesting the love of Christ You know, we know what love is. We got a whole chapter in the Bible. He tells us what it is Over there in the book of first Corinthians 13 under charity Shared that puff of itself pep charity is giving it to think of no evil. That's how old Barnabas was wasn't he? Well, all he's doing is just oh, he's just Christ you're shining through his life. That's all that is Oh Barnabas is dead Oh, Barnabas surfaces every once in a while. That happened with Mark, you know? And, you know, Mark over here, he's kinfolk. And, you know, all these things come into focus. And, well, Barnabas got out of shape over there. But that's because Christ wasn't shining through. And Barnabas wasn't dying right then. That's why we got to die daily. He didn't take up his cross that day. He didn't nail it to the cross. But here in our text, let's get on to Peter now. Peter exerted himself in the purpose and plan and revelation of Jesus Christ. Notice here in our text, the Lord is teaching cross bearing and how that directly relates to Peter's self actions and accusations. Peter in the text denies divine revelation. The audacity of Peter. to tell the one who he just confessed, thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. So you don't know what you're talking about. The depths of audacity and the height of audacity. Peter, what are you talking about? Peter argues, he argues against the plain teaching of the word personified. You know, Jesus, is the Word made flesh, is God coming to flesh. He's the eternal God in human form. And he knows it all. And Peter says, now if Peter knew what he was saying, you know, sometimes we'll say, well, who? Well, I don't want to show your hand, but who? I mean, and here today, most of you would say that Jesus is the Christ, would you not? and that he is the son of the living God. You would say that, would you not? But how many times, oh, how many times have we said, no, not that way, Lord. It can't be that way. And that's because we can't figure it out or because we're too full of ourself or whatever it is about the eye getting in the way. And here, Peter's going to have to learn. And I'm going to tell you what, Peter, stick at it. Peter's gonna have to learn it here. He's gonna have to learn it again when a cock crows at him He's gonna have to learn it again when a sheep comes out of heaven He's gonna have to keep on all through his Christian life. He's got to learn Peter Get your mind out of it. Get your heart out of it. Get your will out of it. It's all about me Oh The Lord would teach us Peter argued about the plain teaching of God's Word and Peter here denies the Lord's need of suffering. Now you think Peter ever read Isaiah 53? I think he would have read Isaiah 53. They had a Bible, didn't they? I mean, they had their Old Testament Bible. I mean, he later quotes it, that's right. But he got Isaiah 53. I mean, Peter, if you just read Isaiah 53, you know who I am. He denies the clear teaching of what he's just been taught and what he confessed. See, self, self exerted self in the midst of revelation and blessing. You know, we've come to this wonderful meeting. It's been a wonderful meeting now, I'm telling you right now. There's going to be a temptation, however, for you to get in the way of all this revelation. That's your problem. That's my problem. Every Lord's Day, every Wednesday night, every special meeting, every time you go to your Bible and read it at your home, when you hear it on the radio, when you get on your phones and you listen to sermons preaching, so we get preaching, preaching, preaching, preaching, preaching, preaching, reading, reading, reading, reading, reading. What gets in the way of that? You? You get in the way of it. I get in the way of it. Peter and these other disciples had just received wonderful, wonderful divine revelation. There was the revelation about the person of Christ in this text. There was the revelation about the church of Jesus Christ in this text. There was revelation about the kingdom of God in this text. There's revelation about salvation in this text. And Peter, in essence, took all of that and just threw it right away. Well, say, well, preacher, now I'm a Baptist, I'd never throw away the church. You lying dog. Whenever you stand in the way of the Lord and his church, you've already done away with the doctrine of the church in practice. And we heard a message on practice, right? Not only do you have it, but what it's all about is when you live it out. But we don't live it out very well, do we? And it's just to be honest with ourselves. We just don't live it out very good. That's not very encouraging. No, it is encouraging because it gets what needs to get out, out. I'll tell you what, when you heat it up, you know, you take silver, you got to heat it up to get all the dross out of it. Well, that's, I mean, aren't you glad we got gold and silver and all kinds of things because it's been through the fire and then it gets the good stuff out. I mean, we get to have the good stuff that's left over of that. So there's where encouragement comes. There's revelation about the person of Christ here in this text, in Matthew chapter 16. And it says, Jesus asked this question. And it's good to ask questions. I mean, if you have a good intent in it, it depends what you're looking for in that, hunting around for. And Jesus, when he asks questions, he's hunting around for the right thing. You know, when God, and he already knows the answer to the question. You know, these, I always tell our folks back home, these atheists and agnostics, you know, when God comes in the Bible and he asks a question, they say, see, God doesn't know. You idiot, of course he knows. You think he doesn't know? Of course he knows. You don't know. Just like when he said over there to Adam, he says, Adam, where art thou? God didn't know where Adam was. Of course he did, but Adam didn't. And they know what they're saying. He knows what they're saying about him. And so that gets you thinking. Well, that gets you thinking about the Bible and prophecy. I mean, is this really Elijah? Is this really Jeremiah? I mean, is this one of the prophets? Who is this guy? Is this John the Baptist raised from the dead? I mean, who is this guy we're talking about? And he said, well, then he said, now who do you say I am? Well, he already knew the answer to that question too. They gave a good answer. And then the reason they gave a good answer is because God gave them the answer. I mean, after all, Rypatch knows some truth around here. I think y'all know some truth a little bit, don't you? Well, come on, you know something, don't you? I mean, y'all are not a bunch of... I mean, you know something about the Bible, don't you? Do you know you're saved? Do you know who saved you? Do you know, to some degree, how you were saved? Do you know about your sin nature? I mean, you know a few things, don't you? They knew some things. But the reason that you know things, I know things, and they knew things is because of this text. See, this will take your pride out. See, that'll get you out of the way. Now, I know how it is, because I've been a Baptist for a long time. And I preach this back home now. They know I preach this stuff back home. The only truth you have ever known that's God's truth. People talk about my truth. God's truth. is by divine revelation. Whatever doctrine you know about God, you know the person of God, the nature of God, the existence of God, all the things about God that you know about God and everything you know about any truth that you ever know and even the things you think you know. It's because it's in God's book and God the Holy Ghost revealed it to you. He says, My Father in heaven, here, He's revealed it to you. Revelation about the person of Christ, revelation about the church. Who would be the church builder? Jesus. You know, preachers, sometimes they want to be church builders. Yeah. Go ahead. You're barking up the wrong tree. I mean, you can build your own church if you want to. But when you get finished, that's all you're going to have. That's right. Yeah. So you had to get out of the way. That's right. Not only you have to get out of the way, But you gotta die. Now this is hard for preachers. I know, I'm one of them. It's hard to die. Dying's not fun. You know, I went through cancer, y'all know that. I've always wanted to die. Some say, but did you have faith to live? I had faith whatever God's gonna do, He's gonna do. I had that kind of faith. I believed that he would do with me what he wanted to do with me. And I prayed that he would leave me here. There was something in me that wanted to go and something in me that wanted to stay, you know? But I'll tell you this about it. Dying's not fun. But I'll tell you what, it does something to you. It really does. When you're dying. Or at least you think you're dying. It makes you look deep inside. It makes you look deep into heaven too. We as preachers and church members need to realize whose is the church. In the Rye Patch Baptist Church, you know, there's names in here I don't know. I know the Longs have been here a long time, you know, that's some of the family name in this church and different ones I just thought just popped in my head. But you know whose church it ain't. It's none of your church. It's the Lord's church. So that means, you know, that means that you got to die and when you got the scripture, you got to die and surrender to that. Whatever's told in the scripture. You got to get out of the way. Sometimes it's going to be hard to get out of the way. Sometimes we like to do things and that's not what Well, you know, there's, you know, there's this liberty thing and liberty has its place, but it's not all liberty. That's right. And I'm just trying to say this. It would be Jesus that would build the church and sustain the church, and he would be the one that indoctrinated the church. I mean, it's his church. That's right. It come out of revelation about the kingdom and the kings of authority and power in that kingdom. Who had the keys? Jesus had the keys to the kingdom. The only thing that Peter and the other apostles became were ministers of the keys. He still retains the power of the keys. And salvation. See, how would Peter and the other apostles be saved? How would their sins be atoned for? Well, I mean, Roman Catholicism says In a matter of speaking, that the priests do that kind of stuff. But that's not what this text teaches. Christ said, I'm going to have to die. And he does. So I say this. The message of personal mortification was directly related to self-ambition. The Lord's churches have no place for self-ambition. If it's about you, get right or get gone. As I said, this would not be the last time that Peter would struggle with inserting himself in God's purpose, in God's plan, and in God's revelation. This was a constant battle See, this is personal. This text is very personal. It was a constant battle that Peter, whom the Lord would make a great apostle out of, by the way. And whom the Lord would use. I mean, can you imagine preaching a sermon and 3,000 people be saved? They would, probably would. 3,000. And not only saved, but added to the church. Could you imagine that? But that didn't just come. Peter's got to be dealt with. Peter's got to be talked to. Peter's got to be preached at. And Peter's got to die. Peter, he doesn't say Peter, he says Satan. The Lord never called you Satan. It's interesting, you know, Judas was the one that You know, went and hung himself. The Lord doesn't even call Judas Satan. But He called His own true disciple who had a good confession. He calls him in this text. I didn't make it up. The Lord's not being too hard on Peter either. In this time, He's saying, Peter, you have to die. You have to die. Your thoughts have to die. Get this in verse 23. Get thee behind me, Satan, for thou art an offense unto me. Oh, that we would know. That we would know when we offend our Lord. It's a good thing to know. It's a good thing to be sensitive to the Lord's of feelings. You know, our God is not a wooden stone that doesn't have fillings. See, you have fillings because you are creating the image of God who has fillings. Now, I know theologians can go and they say, well, God doesn't really do this or doesn't really do this or that or the other. But I'm telling you what, the God of the Bible has fillings. He has a heart. He has a will. He has a mind. He has understanding. He's moved. God has feelings. Our God is a God that understands and knows. And sometimes, even God-called, spirit-indwelled, regenerated believers who make good confessions can be an offense to God. Now I'm not talking about justification. I mean, I know my good legal standing, there's no jeopardy in that. But I can tell you what, beloved, I know me well enough to know that old Troy Shepherd gets in the way enough to offend God. If that doesn't fit into your theology box, you know what, I'm sorry, it's wrong. It's just the wrong box that you've got checked there. Why? Because it says right here that he was an offense. An offense unto me, and here's why. Thou savest not the thing, you don't, listen, you're not hungry for what God's hungry for. You know, Jesus, whenever he was over there with the Samaritan woman, and those disciples come around, stooping their nose and say, you know, we got some vittles and all this kind of thing, you know, and they're surprised that he's talking to that. Can you believe that he's talking to that Samaritan woman? Can you believe that? The audacity of Jesus to talk You know how warm she is and what her background is and what race she was and all that kind of stuff. That's the idea of that peck. And you know what Jesus said? He said, my meat, that's hungry. That's what you eat. My meat is to do the will of Him that sent me. Oh, that we'd be hungry, hungry. to do the Father's will. Well, Peter was hungry for what men want. He says, for thou savest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men. How do you know what's of God? He began to teach them. The Lord of heaven, the great teacher, at this time, in the personification of the prophet, right? Prophet, priest, and king. In his work as the prophet, the mouthpiece, the eternal word. He'd been teaching them. He'd been teaching what God wanted for them. He had been teaching them what God wanted for him. You know, the man Christ Jesus is talking to the Son of Man. The Son of Man has got to go through all these things. You know, it's easy to talk about the modernists and, well, we can talk about them. And they ought to be talked about. As they deny the blood of Jesus Christ and the work of Jesus Christ. You know, all the things that we are led today, really in a post-modern world, so we're all beyond that. We're seeing the results of that now in churches and denominationalism. But the fact is, is that even we, as orthodox as we are, can be too modern, too self, in our thought. And this is going to be his obstacle. Let me show you in the book of Matthew 26. This is not going to be the end of Peter here. He's not going to get it all right in this one lesson. Some would say, well, I heard the preacher preach that before. Well, maybe he preached it again because you didn't get it the first time. I mean, maybe he's lazy and wasn't studying. That's also possible. I mean, come on, right? Or maybe he didn't have time. Or maybe the Lord just laid it on his heart to say that they need this. And the Lord will take care of that because he's the master of the servant, right? Anyway, Matthew 26. Peter didn't get it all that first time. Matthew 26 in verse 31. This is coming out of the Lord's Supper. Now, I love how things work in the Scriptures. These are not isolated things. This is a church. They're met together. The Lord has instituted the supper and they're leaving the supper place and they're going on about, well, they're going to. He's going to say, arise, let's go on. And so he's teaching them around this wonderful time about the impact of the new covenant. And he says to them this, 2631. Then said Jesus unto them, All ye shall be offended because of me this night, for it is written, that's the Scripture, I will smite the shepherd and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered abroad. But after I am risen again, I will go before you into Galilee. And then Peter said, instead of saying, Amen, Lord, you know what you're talking about, the Scripture's right, and I believe the Scripture, and I believe that you're a good interpreter of the Scripture, He didn't do that. I mean, he wasn't amen like y'all were a few minutes ago. Peter answered and said unto him, though all men, John, James, Bartholomew, though all men shall be offended because of thee, yet will I never. Words have meaning. Those are big words. All and never are very big words. I was counseling somebody the other week, and I said, because this woman kept on saying, he always does this, and always does that, and always does this. And I said, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. I wasn't that, I was a little bit nicer in counseling. Inside, I said, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Outside, I said, well, you might want to think about the word all and never. Those are big words. And Peter said, oh, by her mouth, Peter, he said, all, all, all and never. Though all men shall be offended of thee because of thee, yet will I never be offended. And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, that this night, it's not how to wait a few weeks, Peter. This night, this night before the cock crow, Thou shalt deny me Christ. Peter said unto him, he wasn't done. This is a stubborn mule. I mean, this is a good Baptist right here now. Peter said unto him, though I should die with thee, yet will I not deny thee. And in bad leadership, Everybody said, amen, neither will we. Likewise, also said all the disciples. But you know who was right? The Lord was right. And do you know what needed to be done to Peter? Peter needed to die. When you come to the house of God and you have the word of God, Or you're in your study, or in your recliner at home, or in your rocking chair, or at your table, and you're reading the Word of God. And the Word of God says, that's you right there now. And you know how, that's how the Holy Ghost works. You know what I'm talking about. Holy Ghost said, now that's you. Sometimes you say, sometimes you will say that sister so-and-so. Sometimes the Holy Ghost will say that sister so-and-so. You gotta distinguish between the two. But I'll tell you what, a lot of times, most of the time, I'd love to go sit down. That's you right there. When I was sitting here and hearing some of this preaching, that's you Shepard boy. I'd love to go sit down. Of course now I'm wondering what you're going to do about it. Well that's the big question. I'll tell you what you do about it. You get that crossbow and you lay your hands over here and over here and you kill that thing. You see, Crosbury put sin to death. And Peter needed to die. All those statements there that Peter made against the Word of God, against the revelation of God, against the purpose and plan of God. They all had to die. Before Peter could really be used. Cross bearing puts self to death. Cross bearing puts sin to death. How did Jesus Christ put our sin to death? I mean, does the Lord just say, Hocus Pocus, Kalamazoo, all your sins are gone forever? God doesn't do it that way, does He? No, I'll tell you what God did. God became you to save you from Him. He did that, didn't He? And then, God poured out His wrath. That I deserve all of it that I deserve and I'll tell you what that's enough right there The magnitude I don't even know the magnitude people talk about, you know When you come under the weight of sin or the guilt of sin that you know You got to know your sinner and you got to know the weight of sin. Listen I yet today don't understand the weight and the guilt of my sin. I know it's bad. I Know it's really really bad. I Learned about how bad it is often Old Booger sticks himself up all the time. Paul said, that's sin that dwelleth in me. He's talking about the nature. It's there. And then he rises his head up and says, I'm here again today, boy. What am I going to do about him? Well, I'll tell you what, as far as my justification is current, Jesus Christ just nailed all that right on the cross. I'm justified pretty by his grace and the poor wrath of God was poured out on him there on the cross. And it took the death of Christ to put sin to death. And Peter understood this. After it all happened, we read that in first Peter, don't we? And that's a wonderful book because of that. I mean, it's a wonderful book anyway, but just because of that wonderful truth that we can see that Peter wasn't looking through the clouds anymore. In the darkness of night, he began to see his Lord as He really was. And the depths of that in 1 Peter 2, verse 24, the scripture says there, His own self bear our sins in His body. Our sins are on the truth. His own self. He bare my sins, our sins, in His body on the tree. So Peter got it. He got it after self-denial, after restoration, but he got it. You know, there's depths in that I won't be able to preach of course, but you know the story, how the Lord restored him. You know, when he was there, and he did just what he said he was going to do. He talked about the sovereignty of God and the free will of man. And I tell you, it's all right in that passage. God didn't make old Peter go warm himself by the fire, or curse him out, or lie about it. He did all three. Believers can do bad things. And then he made him deal with it. And he made him deal with it this way. Lovest thou me, lovest thou me, lovest thou me. It's nothing that some of you don't know. And after he restores him, he teaches him great truths. You see, cross bearing has a purpose. And that's to put your sin to death. Your cross bearing has a purpose. You see, you have to die. You have to die. Colossians 3, I'm going to close. There's so much that this text has to offer us. But when you live, Christ is not magnified in your body. You're magnified. You won't have victory. You just won't have it. Now, I want you to have it. And God wants you to have it. He really does. That's why we have a book. There is a way for you as a believer to go from victory to victory. And that is, you have to mortify. You have to hate your sin. See, what you have to do is you have to see sin Not as the old nature sees it, but as God sees it. You have to call it what God calls it. You have to fill it. Colossians, I'll close with this one. You know this theme of the conference comes out of Colossians. And Christ is the all in all in Colossians. He's the preeminent one. But he's already preeminent. We just need to see that. Peter didn't see that. And you know, when I go back to that text and think about Peter, you know, Peter meant well. I believe he meant well. But again, it's not about what Peter thinks. Dear sister, dear brother, you may mean well, but if you're in the way, you're in the way. We all get in the way, ain't no doubt about that. Colossians 3. If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sits on the right hand of God. Do you claim that your life is hid with Christ in God? You're seated in heavenly places in the Lord Jesus Christ? He's got you tucked away in his righteousness? Don't you believe that? What you doing about it? Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory. And because of that, mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth. And in case you don't know what they are, he's going to give you a list of them. Yeah. You have to go figure this stuff out. It's right here, black and white. Fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry, for which things sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience, in the which ye also walk sometimes. when you lived in them. But now, you also put off all these. Anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth, lie not one to another, seeing you have put off the old man with his deeds and have put on the new man, which was renewed in the knowledge after the image of him that created him. where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision or uncircumcision, barbarian, civilian, bond or free, but Christ is all in all. You've got to die for Christ to live. You have to die for Christ to manifest Himself in your life, in the life of this church, in the life of your ministry. Listen, beloved, Your way of thinking has to die. You have to take it. And you've got to take that cross up. And you, you have to do this. You have to mortify. Listen, it's not somebody else's job for them to mortify your deeds. To mortify means to slay, to kill. You've got to kill them yourself. Through the power of Christ, through the power of the Holy Ghost, that's over in the book of Romans. Through the Lord Jesus Christ, based upon His work, because He loves us so much, I mean, all those truths are there. But you're responsible to do it. And when you're in the way, Christ does not glorify. His revelation is hindered. His purpose is hindered. His plan is hindered, at least in the eyes of men. May God bless you, my brother.