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Come together in the name, pray that we request today's message in our hearts. Pray this in the name of the Son, Jesus Christ. Amen. All right, amen. Matthew chapter number 16, this should be the last week that we're in chapter number 16. We'll have this all finished up today. But if you would, look at verse number 22. Matthew chapter 16, look at verse number 22. So the Bible says, Then Peter took him and began to rebuke him, saying, Be it far from thee, Lord, this shall not be unto thee. So right after Jesus starts mentioning the resurrection, mentioning the fact that he is going to depart from them, Peter makes this statement. Okay, look at verse 23. It says, But he turned and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan, thou art an offense to me. For thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men. So the title of the sermon this morning is, Are you a spokesperson for Satan? Are you a spokesperson for Satan? I guess we could also say, when you know more than God. So, obviously, Peter's saved here, born again. He's a disciple. And we need to look at how he went from being blessed, just a few verses prior, to being called Satan just a few verses later. We're going to break all that down. We're going to talk about why did Jesus say to Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan. What does that mean? Does that mean that Peter was possessed or something else? And what does that mean for us? And, of course, you see this all the time in your conversations with other people. You try to explain to somebody, you know, Hey, the tribulation is post. Or the rapture, rather, is post. We're going to go through the tribulation. We believe in a post-trib pre-wrath position on the rapture. You start to show people verses and they say, Not so, Lord. You start to show people that these Jews in the Middle East that hate Christ are not God's chosen people. They're not blessed. What happens? Not so, Lord. Not so, Lord. You show people, Hey, the Bible says once you're saved, you are always saved. What do people say? Not so, Lord. And obviously on that case, they're not saved. But how about this one? Sodomites can't be saved. Okay? It just can't be. Not so, Lord. Everybody can be saved. Even Jeffrey Dahmer. You know, on his deathbed. Everybody has a chance. All the way up to their deathbed. Okay? People do this all the time. People either willingly or knowingly or unknowingly rebuke God all the time. And it's not just boxed in to people that are lost. Okay? Saved people can do this. And that's what we're going to be talking about this morning. Very, very interesting study here. Okay? Because again, a lot of times we think, Well, we're saved. We got everything in the bag where we're good to go. But we can make mistakes. And when we make mistakes like this, it's satanic. Okay? And so let's break this down. So the first thing that I want you to see there in verse number 22. Look at what the narrator says in the beginning of the verse. It says, Then Peter took him. Okay? Peter took Jesus. So Jesus is preaching about the coming resurrection. Probably bringing up the prophecies and the things written by the prophets. And Peter's like, Whoa, whoa, whoa. Okay? I'm going to do some encouraging here. Okay, Lord? I know you're going through a difficult time right now. What have you? But hey, this just can't be. This is just not going to happen. Okay? What does the Bible tell us? What does the narrator say that Peter actually did and began to rebuke him? Hey, Peter, at this moment in time, I don't believe he's being malicious. You know, he's not a false prophet. He just, like all the other disciples, they want the kingdom in the here and the now. They don't want to wait for it. They're not interested in anything else other than getting out of Roman oppression and taking back the position that they once had as a nation. That is the thought. That is what they want. And what Jesus is teaching goes contrary to what they want. It doesn't sit well with their emotions. And the Bible is clear to tell us that that is a rebuke. Okay? There are a lot of well-meaning people out there that are saved that have different positions on prophecy. They're wrong. But at the end of the day, they are rebuking God. Okay? And we need to be aware of that. And we need to understand what that means for us. So if you would, back up to verse number 15. And we want to review some verses, really kind of explaining some things about Peter before we get into the main application here. Matthew chapter 16, look at verse number 15. So the Bible says this, and this will be a review for a lot of you, but it says, He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am? And we talked about this a couple Sundays ago. When Jesus asked the disciples, He's basically saying, hey, what are people saying about me? Who do they think I am? And there were different answers. And people were saying, well, some think you're Elijah. Some think you're the prophets. You know, things of this nature. And so He says, okay, but whom say ye that I am? Verse 16. And Simon Peter answered and said. So again, you've got to give Peter some credit. Peter pipes up. He's the first one to answer here. And he's correct. And Simon Peter answered and said, thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. Okay, correct answer. By a saved person, he gives the right answer. Now look at verse 17, that's what Jesus says unto him. 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. Concrete proof that Peter is saved. He's born again. He's going to heaven. He's got the right answers here, okay? And so what we're going to eventually take a look at is how did he go from this to being called Satan? And can that happen to us? And of course, I think you already know the answer. Look at verse 18. He says this, and I say also unto thee. So he's still talking to Peter, but he's addressing the disciples. We're going to look at that here. But he says, and I say also 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. Now keep your place there in Matthew, but go to Ephesians chapter number two. Ephesians chapter number two. Now ever since I can remember going to church, there's always been a fight over this verse. There's always like debates on what this verse is saying here. Some people say that Jesus was looking at Peter and saying, you're the rock, you're the rock Peter, but he's pointing back to himself saying, but I will build my church on this rock. Okay, that's how some people interpret the conversation here. Whereas other people say that no, he's just talking about Peter because his name means stone, that he's talking about building the church on Peter or on the apostles, okay? And Catholics will run with this, and they'll say, see, this is proof that Peter is the first pope and all the subsequent popes after Peter are serving God. It's a bonafide certifiable position. Okay, that is not true. That is not what Jesus is saying. But I personally do believe that Jesus was saying on you, Peter, I am gonna build this church. Okay, Peter was an apostle, Peter was a disciple, and here's why I say that. And look, before we get started, either way you slice it, the church is built on Christ. He's the word, okay? So, I mean, you can't really be wrong in this, okay? But taking the position, obviously, that Peter was the first pope is definitely wrong. We all know that. There's no need to even go any further into that. Okay, we'll smash that another time. But Ephesians chapter two, look at verse number 20. It says, actually, back up to verse 19. Ephesians 2, 19 says this. Now, therefore, ye are no more strangers and foreigners. But fellow citizens with the saints and of the household of God. Now, honestly, that verse right there to a lot of Zionist Christians isn't enough to get them to say, not so, Lord, okay? But look at verse 20. And are built upon the foundation, I want you to remember that word, foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone. Okay, so there you go. Okay, so there you have it. You have the Apostle Paul telling the saints at Ephesus, also telling us, that the church is built on a foundation. And what's that foundation? It's the apostles and the prophets. It's the New Testament and the Old Testament. That is what that means. It's the word of God. It all fits together, okay? So there's nothing in the world wrong with reading Matthew chapter 16, verse 18, where he says, and I say also unto thee that thou art Peter, his name means stone, and upon this rock I will build my church. He's going to build it on the words that he gives his apostles and the commission that he gives his apostles. There's nothing wrong with saying that at all. And obviously the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Now go back to Matthew chapter number 16. So verse 19 says this, and this is another one that gives people a lot of trouble. Verse 19, 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. Okay, that verse there is also a source of great controversy and confusion for a lot of people, and one of the reasons for that is a lot of people will begin to read the Bible. They'll say, well, I'm going to start in the New Testament. I'm just going to start in Matthew. They make it maybe all the way through, or they make it this far, and they're like, yeah, I don't understand this, and they just give up, and they quit, but I'm going to explain to you what this means, and what you have to understand is Jesus, yes, he's talking to Peter, okay, but he's also addressing all the apostles, all the disciples, so for the answer, what does this mean? What does it mean to bind something on earth and for that to also be bound in heaven? What does it mean to loose something on earth and to have that also loosed in heaven? Well, for the answer to that, as well as the keys to the kingdom of heaven, go to John chapter number 20. John chapter number 20, and let's get the answer. So John chapter number 20, we're going to begin reading in verse 21, and this is obviously after Jesus has died on the cross and was raised from the dead. He's been resurrected. He is appearing to the disciples, and he's teaching them things, so we're going to pick it up during that time frame, John chapter 20, look at verse number 21, so the Bible says this, Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you, as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you. Verse 22, And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost. Okay, so what you have to understand is, prior to this point, the Holy Ghost did not indwell believers, but yet was still obviously active in the world and things of that nature, and we don't have time to deeply get into that. You just have to understand that, but at this moment in time, Jesus gives them the indwelling of the Holy Ghost, which represents what? Power, okay? Jesus told the apostles, he said, After I'm gone, and after I'm resurrected, I'm going to send you the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, and the Comforter will call into remembrance everything that I taught you, and all those things that I want you to teach other people. Okay, and so this is the beginning of that moment, and what you have to understand is, back in Matthew chapter 16, what did Jesus tell Peter and the apostles? He was going to give them keys. He was going to give them the keys of the kingdom of heaven. Well, here you have it. I'm going to explain it here in a minute, but look at verse 23. Whosoever sins ye, remit. They are remitted unto them. And whosoever sins ye retain, they are retained. Okay? Now, what in the world does that mean? What does remission mean? It means cancellation of debt. Now, this can get confusing, and I'm not going to spend a lot of time on this. I'm just going to try to break this down very quickly. We'll do another study on this in the future. Okay? In the Bible, in the King James Bible, you can have the word remission or remit, which means the total complete cancellation. Or you can have the word forgiveness. Okay? Now, did Jesus die for the forgiveness of sins? Obviously, yes. Okay? Did he die for the remission of sins? Yes. Remission is the stronger of the two. Okay? When you do a study on that word remission, remember what Jesus said at the Last Supper? Okay? He said, this is my blood. You know, take you drink for the remission of the sins. The cancellation of the debt of the world in reference to his coming sacrifice, which would be himself. So, remission is a complete cancellation of the sin debt. That is what that is referring to. And so, what he's saying here, whosoever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them. So, here's a question. Okay? Do I have the power to go up to somebody and say, hey, I'm going to forgive you of all your sins you've done today. No, I don't have that power. Okay? Catholic priests think they have that power. Okay? But they don't. Jesus already did that. So, that can't be what this means. So, what does it mean? Well, what happens when you go to somebody and you preach them the gospel, they hear, they receive, they believe, they put their faith and trust on Christ. Well, what happens? Well, they enter into the kingdom of God. Obviously, they understand they've got that free gift of salvation, which has the remission of sins attached to it. And so, therefore, they are blessed. But what happens when they reject it? And you say, okay, well, I'm done with you. I'm not going back to that neighborhood. I'm not going back to that town. Okay? I'm not going to go to the pride parade and preach the gospel. Where their sins are retained unto them. Okay? That's basically you saying, hey, you know, you're done. I have given you opportunity. I have given you a chance. Okay? You're done. And so, verse 23 really is the answer to Matthew chapter 16 and verse 19. Both sentences are pretty much perfectly matched. Think about the timing here. Jesus said, I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven. Meaning what? Not yet. Meaning soon. Meaning eventually. Okay? That is fulfilled in John chapter number 20. Okay? And what was given? The Holy Ghost. Okay? The Holy Ghost, which is what? The power of the gospel message. The power of the word of God. Has anybody in here ever seen somebody who you found out later was not saved give the gospel? Okay? You ever been soul ending with somebody and they're giving the gospel and it's just like, there's just something not there. There's just something missing and you can't quite put your finger on it. And you find out later that that person never believed. They believe in all kinds of weird stuff. Okay? What you're seeing or what you have witnessed in that situation is a person that has been just basically regurgitating words and there's no power behind that. There's no Holy Ghost. They don't have the Holy Ghost because they themselves are not saved. You may not have ever experienced that. I've been doing this a long time. I've seen that a few times in my life. And so what is this binding and loosing thing? Okay? Well, it's exactly what you read here in John chapter 20 in verse 23. When you go out and you preach the gospel and somebody gets saved, hey, they're saved now. They're saved in heaven. They're always saved. Understand what you do in the kingdom of God is literally what you're doing in the kingdom of God in heaven because they're connected. Okay? You're, I mean, think about it. When a person gets saved, do they get everlasting life now or do they get it at the end of their life? Do they get it after death? They get it now. Okay? When a person gets saved, you are entered, you are placed into the body of Christ in this moment. You are literally the kingdom of heaven. You're just on earth. You are literally connected to the kingdom of God, to everyone in heaven. The only difference is location. You're here now doing the twofold mission of the church. You're edifying one another and you're evangelizing the lost. That's the difference. Obviously, if you go to heaven, there's no need for that because you're in heaven. You can't come down here and talk to people. Okay? So, real quickly flip back to Matthew 16 and look at verse 19 again. Jesus said, and I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven. Okay? And that key there obviously are the oracles of God. It's the word of God backed by the Holy Ghost. You see that fulfilled in John chapter 20 verse 22 when Jesus breathed on them and gives them the Holy Ghost. And obviously, you read through the book of Acts, what do you see? The Holy Ghost taking that word and just pushing it through the world. Verse number 19 again says, 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. So when you go out and you give somebody the gospel and they believe and they're saved, they are literally a citizen of heaven. Okay? And that's so important for us to understand because there are so many people out there that teach, well, you know, you put your faith and trust in Christ and you got to do the best that you can until the very last day and then you get your golden ticket and you can go to heaven. That's how most people view salvation. That is false doctrine. When you're bound on earth, you're bound in heaven and he says, whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. And just for review, go back a few chapters to Matthew chapter number 10. Matthew chapter number 10. Also, another very important point, okay, go to Matthew chapter 10. So when people come to you with this whole Peter's the first pope thing, this Catholicism type doctrine, you need to remember, maybe write this down in your Bibles, Matthew 16, John chapter 20. Okay? And what you want to understand is that yes, the narrative, the scripture here in Matthew 16 is written where Jesus is specifically talking to Peter, but if you notice when you read through John chapter 20 that Jesus is addressing all of them. Okay? Remember, it wasn't just Peter that got the keys. It wasn't just Peter that got the Holy Ghost. It was all of the apostles. Okay? And obviously, I mean, we could take that a step further and take that individual through the book of Acts. I mean, all the way up to the Gentiles when the Holy Ghost fell on them. Okay? And you could really show them and begin to teach them the fact that that doctrine is false, that Peter was not the first pope. Okay? Peter was just an apostle. But going back to further proof of what Matthew 16, 19, John 20, 23 is talking about, look here, Matthew chapter 10, verse number 14. So again, this is the mission trip that Jesus sent the 12 on where he told them to go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel and to preach the gospel unto them. Now, look at verse 14. He says, And whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear your words, when ye depart out of that house or city, shake off the dust of your feet. So again, when you go knock a whole neighborhood or you go knock a whole entire apartment complex and people just are not interested, don't want anything to do with it, you know what? That is not your fault. Your attitude and my attitude is we just let it go. We just shake the dust off of our feet. We don't take those offenses that those people put on us to the next building and to the next neighborhood. Okay, because that is not going to do us any good. But verse 15 says, Verily I say unto you, it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for that city. So what Jesus is saying, hey, when these people reject wholeheartedly like that, you are free and clear to not go back. Their sins are retained unto them. Okay, they have lost the gospel. They have lost their opportunity. And you're not obligated to keep going back and trying to force it down their throat. Okay, you have permission to move on and to go somewhere else and to neglect that place. Now in today's day and age, there's apartments where I've been to and I'm like, I'm not coming back here for five years. Okay, I wouldn't say there's any apartment complex here where I'm like, I'm never going back there again. Now there's some that never want us to come back again, but we're going to go back either way. Okay, now there's one like on Franklin. Franklin and right before you get to Orchard, Franklin and Philippi, there's these apartments. I've been to them like three times and they're absolutely trash. Horrible. Okay, and I put them on the list. I'm not going back for five years. That's how bad it is. It sucks. Five years. But you know what, in five years, think about how many people will have moved out and stuff. But I have that right. You have that right. Because we've gone there year after year and it's just like, no, get out of here. I'm calling the cops. Seriously, no, get out of here. I'm calling the cops. No, get out of here. I'm calling the cops. I mean, it's like three doors in a row. I mean, that's what you're going to get throughout the entire thing. But in five years, I'll give them another chance. But you know what? I'm not going to lose rewards for that. Okay, I mean, there's plenty of other doors, plenty of other people, plenty of other receptive areas that we can go to and preach the gospel. So again, the important point to remember here, go back to Matthew 16, is that the kingdom of God on earth is obviously connected to the kingdom of God in heaven. It's one and the same, just different locations, different missions. So clearly, what I see going on and taking place here is Jesus is talking about giving the gospel, okay? When you preach the gospel to somebody and they accept, they believe that, they're saved, they're placed into the body of Christ, it's a done deal, it is forever. So let's continue on here. Look at verse number 20. It says, then charged he, his disciples, that they should tell no man that he was Jesus the Christ. And we've covered that in the past. So let's go to verse number 21 and start talking about how to make sure we never become a spokesperson for Satan. So verse 21. From that time forth began Jesus to show unto his disciples how that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed and be raised again the third day. Now we took a look at a lot of these things that were written in the book of Zechariah a couple of weeks ago and very powerful stuff. So this stuff is written, this is very serious here. Jesus wants the apostles to get this message and to understand it. But look at verse 22. So remember, just not too long ago, verse 17, Jesus said, blessed art thou Simon Bar-Jonah. A few moments later, verse 22, then Peter took him and began to rebuke him saying, Be it far from thee, Lord, this shall not be unto thee. Okay. Verse 23. But he turned and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan. So again, we got to figure this out. We got to solve this here. There's something for us in this. How do you go from being blessed to all of a sudden being addressed as Satan? Okay. Very, very scary when you think about that because we've already established the fact that Peter's saved. Peter, along with the apostles, are getting the keys. They're getting the Holy Ghost. It's a done deal. Okay. Done deal. But what does God think about his children, again, when they knowingly or unknowingly get it wrong, get things wrong? Well, look at the verse again. But he turned and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan. Now look at this. Thou, okay, that thou there refers to who? To Satan, to the devil. Thou art an offense unto me, for thou savor'st, not the things that be of God, but those that be of men. I mean, this verse here, you could literally spend an entire sermon on. Okay. Because you get some attributes unto the devil. Number one, obviously, he's an offense unto God. Number two, he does not savor the things that be of God. He savors the things that be of men. So when you enter into a church or you belong to a church or maybe you're around people who say that they're Christian, but all they can do is literally just savor the things that be of men. Just foment the mouth and just everything is about this life, this Joel Osteen, Stephen Furtick, you know, type gospel, where it's just you can have your best life now. Okay. When you get around that type of crowd, but yet they still have religious lingo. Okay. You can have some discernment and understand, wait a second here. These people savor not the things that be of God, which specifically he's referring to the word of God, which he's trying to teach the apostles. Right. Thou art an offense unto me, for thou savors not the things that be of God, but those that be of men. So the first thing that I want you to understand right here in this passage is when we get it wrong, okay, like Peter did, when it goes against the narrative that we have in our minds, it's atanic. It is 100% satanic. Okay. And the reason why Jesus addresses him as Satan is probably because Satan was literally standing right behind him. I do not believe that Satan can possess a believer. You don't see that in the Bible. Okay. But Satan does influence believers. And here is a crystal clear example of that. You don't have to turn there, but in 2 Corinthians 2, Paul's addressing a situation where a person was thrown out of church. Okay. And this person had begun to get things right and is very sorrowful. And Paul is talking about how they need to bring the guy back in, give him another chance, and basically just help this guy out unless he becomes just basically overwhelmed with sorrow. Okay. Just gets his life completely destroyed because the guy has shown repentance. He's shown signs that he can come back. And let me just read this verse for you. 2 Corinthians 2, 11 says, Lest Satan, so this is what Paul's saying, let this guy back. Okay. Because he's followed the steps. Lest Satan should get an advantage of us for we are not ignorant of his devices. Okay. So for the unbeliever, for the person who's rejected Christ or what have you, or just floating along through life, they can be possessed by a devil. They can become demonically possessed. I've seen this. I believe I've seen people possessed in their life. You know, there's been some strange stuff. You go soloing long enough, you're going to question some people, especially when they come out and they're just like barking like a dog. And it's just like, what? Like, how are you acting like this? And you have like two Mercedes Benz in your driveway and you clearly make a lot of money. Okay. I'm just saying. But to the believer, the devil's goal is to get an advantage over you, to get some kind of power over you. And he does that through influence, does that through whispering in your ear, having his minions whisper into your ear, things that are not true, things that you should focus on, that you shouldn't be focusing on and things of that nature. So number one, understand that it's satanic, either way. So when we say, oh, no, no, I'm not going to be here for the tribulation. I'm out of here. You can stay if you want to. You're basically saying not so Lord. Okay. I'm sorry, but on some level that is satanic. Jesus would say, get thee behind me. Okay. The devil has an advantage over those people because if, you know, if you've never been to a church that teaches a pre-tribulation rapture, okay, you may not understand this. So let me just break it down for you real quickly. There is on some level a lot of complacency because they're just constantly being bombarded with, we could be out of here any moment. Okay. And when that attitude sets into your heart and into your mind, there's this complacency that can take over because you're just like, ah, you know, I'll go tomorrow if we're still here. I missed a chance. He, you know, whatever. We may not be here. You know, I'm not going to prepare my family and myself for the harsh realities that are coming. Like the fact that the government is constantly trying to come after us to take our guns, to take our rights, to take our ability to preach the gospel. And it just, I mean, it's completely molested your mind. You know, if the government had their way today, it would be illegal for us to meet here. And they would basically make it punishable by death for you to misgender somebody. Okay. I mean, look, we need to knuckle down and start teaching people, Hey, these are the evils that are coming upon this world because there's coming a man who literally will be possessed by Satan. And he's going to literally rule the earth for a certain period of time. And you know what? We don't want to see people get offended. And so we want to tell you the truth. Get ready, get your mind right. It's legal right now to go out. So I mean, therefore it is easy. So why aren't we doing more of it? That's what needs to be talked about. That's the issue of today. But the devil looks back and says, ah, you know, I'm going to study these people out here and I'm going to whisper in the ear and just gets you to twist a little bit. Okay. And he might even say, well, Hey, Peter's not like blaspheming here. He's not preaching a false gospel. I mean, you can tell by the conversation, you know, Peter just was told that he was blessed. He had the right answer. You know, you can be right on the gospel and wrong on other doctrines. You know, it happens all the time. There are things that all of us are probably wrong about in our Bible reading. But what we have to understand is that when we're clearly shown something from the Bible, and you're clearly taught something by the Bible, we need to go with that and we need to follow that and not resist and push back because not only is it satanic, but if you look at the verse again, verse 23, it says, thou art an offense unto me. That's offensive to Christ. You know what? The pre-trib rapture is an offense to Christ. Rejecting once saved, always saved is an offense to Christ and it's satanic. Saying people can be saved that lust after children is an offense and it's satanic. And the list goes on and on. A so-called pastor who gets up in front of a congregation and tells you, tells his people, that these Christ rejecters over in Israel are the apple of God's eye. That is satanic and an offense unto God. He calls them the synagogue of Satan. Can you get more clear than that? You know what I mean? But not so, Lord. We have church after church after church. Christian after Christian after Christian. Not so, Lord. Not so, Lord. You tell people, hey, you know God hates people? Not so, Lord. Not so, Lord. Go read Matthew chapter 7 when he's throwing people into hell because they rejected him. And by the way, these are professing Christians. Guess what? Throwing somebody into hell is not a loving act. It's an act of hatred. And it's justifiable. It's righteous. And Christ says, this is my standard. Leave on me or you're done. That's how it is. There's one way. The Bible says that Jesus is the only way, the only truth in the life. There's no other way. But you have Christians today. Not so, Lord. The guy over in India who's never heard the gospel, he's going to get grafted in. That's satanic and that's an offense. Okay? And people don't like to hear that today, but that's the truth. That is what you're seeing here. Peter simply said, hey, he's thinking to himself, I like this idea that we're going to have a physical kingdom here. We've got the Messiah. We're going to boot the Romans out and we're just going to push on. When he was told, hey, that's not going to quite be how it is, he didn't like it and he's thinking to himself, I've got to encourage the Lord here. This just isn't correct. I've got to tell him, hey, hey, no, no, this isn't how it's going to be. Not so, Lord. He's not being malicious. He's not being evil. It just goes against his narrative. It goes against what he wants. And when you open the Bible, there are a lot of things that go against what you and I want. Okay? This is the test of all time. There are so many pastors today of Baptist churches in America and throughout the world. They have the right Bible. They have the right gospel. But you tell them that you listen to Pastor Anderson or you tell them that maybe, hey, I'm just here in town, but I go to faith. Or you tell them you come to this church and they find out who I am. You know? Guess what happens? They don't want you there. They want you out. But when their people come here, we're like, hey, great to have you. Oh, you're pre-trip? Okay. Do you want to go soul-wanting? Do you want coffee? Do you want tea? You could come here as much as you want and I'm not going to harass you. You might get offended, but I'm not going to throw you out. I'm not going to try to run you out of here. Okay? You see that difference there? There is a difference. Now, there are some exceptions. I have this one guy that has emailed me recently and he's got this prison ministry. He works with people and he sent me some books. He's a dispensationalist, but he's got the right gospel, he's got the right Bible, and he just contacted me and said, hey, I know that you and I are different on a lot of these things and I know people don't like you very much because I looked you up. He said, he says, you know, I'm working with this lady and would you be willing to help out? He's like, I've contacted and he listed all these Baptist churches, which all of you have heard of, in the Treasure Valley and not a single one will take it. And I was like, I'll do it. Okay? I'll take it. You know? And so I've been trying to help out too and understand where he's been discipling this person and how to step in. You know? I don't care. You know? But he's the exception. You know? He's obviously a squared away guy. You know? He's obviously, what that taught me is that this guy's heart's in the right place. Yeah. Yes. He's got some different doctrines that we don't agree with, but hey, you know, if we could work together, let's do it. You know, I'm willing to work together to disciple, to edify somebody, you know, as long as we're both clear on where we stand on prophecy and things like that. Now, obviously, I wouldn't have him come here and preach a sermon on the pre-Trib rapture. You know, don't put words in my mouth, but I'm just simply saying here that those things that go against the Bible, that go against the word of God, I mean, they're an offense. Okay? Especially when it's like internal, when you're like, man, I really don't want that to be. Okay, because these pre-Trib guys, man, when they hear that it's after the tribulation, the rapture takes place after the tribulation, boy, they get so mad, they get so offended, and they're, man, just, I'm going, but you can stay here. That's the funniest one of all. You know, that's like their biggest one. I'm going, but you can stay here. It's like, it's like here's the thing. If you're right and I'm wrong, then I'm double blessed. I was prepared here. I preached the gospel like I was going through it, but I was wrong, and I got raptured. Oh no, I went to heaven. Like, why is that so bad? But if you're wrong, pre-Tribber, oh boy, you got a lot of catching up to do when things start going bad, don't you? You know? So it just cracks me up, but honestly, all of us, man, all of us have found ourselves as Peter in Matthew chapter 16, verse 22, saying, not so Lord. I've been reading the Bible and I'm like, not so Lord. I'm like, that cannot be, but I know it is. And there's this wrestling match because we all have the flesh. Okay? We all have a certain way that we like and want things. And so that does answer the question, what can lead to this type of mentality? Okay? Well, it's when our emotional and just worldly wants supersede what Christ wants and what the Bible says, you know, then you can get to this state of mind where you clearly reject what's clearly being preached from the Bible. Okay? Jesus said, you know, very clearly that he's going to go to Jerusalem, suffer many things of the chief priests, of the scribes, and he's going to be killed. Okay? And they're just like, hold on. Like you can't die. This is not going to happen here. Okay? So again, the whole reason for that is very simple. It's because it didn't fit Peter's narrative. It didn't fit the apostle's narrative. Now, obviously, after the resurrection, of course, when they understood, they're like, okay, this is how it is. They didn't get offended. Notice after the resurrection, Peter wasn't like, I'm still really upset. Just like, oh, this is what it meant. Okay, cool. And they went out and they turned the world upside down. Right? And that's what you have to understand when you're faced with a situation like Peter, when the Bible's telling you something that's clearly violating what you want and what you want to do. Okay? When you get to that point and you can override that and say, you know what? I'm putting the word of God above how I feel above that. Man, you too will turn your world upside down. You will turn this world upside down. It is what we have to understand. I mean, think about who Jesus is. When John the Baptist introduced him, he said, behold, the lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. We need to remember that and understand we should never be in a position to where we're rebuking him. Okay? Where he's saying, hey, I really want this for my children. I need you to edify one another. I need you to evangelize the lost. Okay? When you say that and you understand that and you make those things your priority, you know what? You're not gonna be this spokesperson for Satan because literally that's what Peter became in an instant. And notice how subtle it was. Notice how quick it happened. Just like a blink of an eye. Simon Barjona, you're blessed. You know, my father in heaven revealed that to you, proving you're saved. You're good to go. It's like a couple minutes later. Get thee behind me, Satan. You know? Just that quick, that fast. And so we're almost done here. I just wanna really quickly just again say this. You know? This really comes on us when we take our careers and look, we all have jobs. You know, we have to focus on our jobs. We have to make money to support our families. We have goals to pay. We have goals and things like that. There's nothing wrong with that at all. Okay? But when those things take priority over everything that God wants you to do, it's like, you know, because there's people, we talk to them all the time. We knock on the doors. They're like, you know, oh I would come but I worked on this. Cool, we got Wednesday. Well, I work Wednesdays too and I get off like right at like four o'clock and it's at seven and I got dinner. You know, it's like, get thee behind me, Satan. You know, it's like there's three times you can come. I mean, can't you come a little bit? You know, can't you just help us out a little bit? Nah, you know, maybe in the future I will. Okay? I'm just saying, okay, when our focus is on our careers or possessions or security of the world, rather than what Christ did for us and what Christ has for the world, we risk becoming a spokesperson for Satan. Okay, and so really the solution is so simple. It's to just dig deep down in your gut, grab some intestinal fortitude, okay, and put your priorities in the correct position. What God says over how you feel, over what you want, there's plenty of hours in the day, there are plenty of hours in the week for you to have some relaxation, for you to do the things that you know that you need to do, but there are also plenty of hours in the week for you to go out and preach the gospel, for you to read the Bible, for you to pray for somebody, for you to send somebody an encouraging text message, something of that nature. There is time in the week for us all to do that. Now, I get bad with this text message stuff sometimes because I've got the church phone on my phone, I've got my phone, and right now they're not really there's people doing some interesting things to the church number, but whatever, I'll get to it eventually. The point being again, we just got to make sure that we have our priorities straight, when we say, hey, you know, I understand what God desires from his children. The two-fold mission of the church is very simple. It's taking care of each other and soul winning, edifying the brethren and evangelizing the lost. That's how I like to put it. When you can just understand that that is the goal, that's the priority, you know, you're going to risk, you're not going to risk becoming a spokesperson for Satan. You're going to be less and less than this. Again, you know, a lot of us, the reason why you're here today is because you hold the Bible above every other book above everything and you know, you believe it from front to back. You're going to have less opportunities for this. What you need to do is to take that mentality and take that back and try the best that you can to put that on other people, to explain to them, hey, actually, there's a story in the Bible and here's what you're doing right now by you saying all this, by you don't have time, you don't have time to read the Bible for five minutes, you don't have time to pray really quickly for you, you don't have time, whatever, or this whatever false doctrine is. Literally what you're saying is that you're allowing the devil to get an advantage over you and you can show them some of these verses. You could take them to this conversation in Matthew 16. We'll get down to verse 19. If they have questions, you know how to answer those in John chapter number 20. You can say, hey, here's how all this fits together and here's what you need to do. You need to realize that Peter very quickly went from being blessed to being called Satan. Why? Because the devil was standing behind him whispering and influencing him and for a split second got an advantage over him. It can happen to us because none of us are greater than Peter. We give Peter a hard time but Peter was the first one to step out of the boat. Peter was the first one to answer. Peter was a great man of God and yet, you know, sometimes we as believers can get this attitude that we're somehow better than he is and that is definitely not the case. So we're going to end there. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Thank you so much, Lord, again for the great truths that you bring to us week after week. I just pray that you bless the fellowship after the service and the soul winning today. In Jesus' name I pray, amen.