[00:00:01] Speaker A: Thanks for tuning in to the Met Church podcast. Here at the Met, we are all about connecting people to God and one another. If you have any questions or want more information about what's happening here at the church, then head to our
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[00:00:24] Speaker B: I'm so glad you are here. Thank you for watching online because I have a very dear friend of mine who is going to be speaking to our hearts this morning. His first time to be here, though I should have brought him here a long time ago. We've been friends for a long time. He pastored the Great First Baptist Church in Dallas for many years. He's authored over 50 books. He is now the chancellor of the Southwestern Seminary and has a worldwide ministry. His wife Susie was an enormous influence on Cindy's life and he is a great influence on my life. Would you join me in welcoming Dr. O. S. Hawkins to speak to us this morning? Love you, my friend. Glad you're here.
[00:01:06] Speaker C: Thank you, Doc.
[00:01:07] Speaker B: Yes, sir.
[00:01:07] Speaker C: Well, it's a joy to be here. Thank you for the privilege of being know. I live in Dallas since I pastored First Baptist over there for several years. But I'm a Fort Worth boy. In fact, I'm a poly boy from Fort Worth. And so we always learned to hate two things growing up over there sin and Dallas. And God put me over there in Dallas. So anytime I get an opportunity to come back to Fort Worth, I do it. So it's a joy to be here today with you and with Bill and I love him and thank God for the ministry. This is a miracle church. Hope you know that with all of its history. And we just rejoice in every victory God gives you like it was our own. Let's open our Bibles to Matthew 16 this morning. Hold it open there for a while.
Some time ago in my own devotional life, I was reading through the Gospels matthew, Mark, Luke and John, like I'd done hundreds of times over the decades of my Christian experience. But on this particular occasion, I saw something that I'd never seen before. Has that ever happened to you? You've read something in the Bible and all of a sudden something just jumps out at you and the Spirit of God quickens it to your heart and you see it and you know what it was?
It was the numbers of times that Jesus asked questions in the Bible. Now think about that. He wasn't just omnipotent and had all power and could walk on water and raise the dead. He was omniscient. He had all knowledge. He had foreknowledge, he knew everything. Yet he was always asking questions. But he had all knowledge. Never one time did he come up on a situation in one of those villages they passed through and say, whoa, I didn't see that one coming. Because he knew all things. He didn't come up anytime say, well, wow, that was a surprise. Well, that came out of left field. No, he had all knowledge and yet he was always asking questions. I was so intrigued by it, I counted them. There are 150 unique questions that escape the lips of our Lord. In fact, I eventually wrote a book called The Jesus Code. In the code series of devotionals, 52 scripture questions every believer ought to answer. I believe there are 52 questions in the Bible that all of us ought to be able to answer before we get to heaven.
I listed them all out there. 150 of them began to meditate on. Truth of the matter is, some people think that leadership is characterized by certain punctuation marks, whether it's in the home or the office or school or wherever. Some people think to be a really good leader, you ought to be characterized by the period, the command, the mandate, go here, go there, do this, do that, and just bark orders. Other people think that leadership ought to be characterized by the exclamation point, enthusiasm and optimism and expectancy and the ability to sway crowds and motivate people to adopt your vision. But more often than not, real God anointed and used leaders, wherever they are, are characterized by that symbol. When you think about it, that's bent in humility.
We call it the question mark.
Jesus asked questions.
I listed them all on legal pads, spent the next several days of my own devotional life just meditating on them. And the more I did, the more something dawned on me.
Every epoch of Christian history, from what we read about back there in the Book of Acts all these 2000 years until here we are meeting in this Bible believing church. Today, every segment, every epoch of Christian history has had a question from the lips of our Lord for whom and to whom it was particularly applicable. So much so that it became the question of their time, the question they had to answer if the church was to march through and march on. Take that first epic of Christian history you read about in the Book of Acts spilling over in the next generation or two of those early believers. They had a question from the lips of our Lord. That was the question of their time. It was the question Jesus asked in John 1338 when he asked this question will you lay down your life for my sake? Will you lay down your life for me?
Now, most of us living where we live today in the culture, most of us, that's not going to be a question that we're going to have to answer. But I want to tell you something. If you weren't so blessed to have been born, if you'd been blessed in that first century world, in that early church, that would have been the question that would have been on your mind every day of your existence. Will you lay down your life for me?
And they answered the question of their time. Every one of those apostles you read about in the New Testament except John, met a violent, vicious, brutal, martyr's death. Some were crucified upside down. Some had their heads chopped off, spilling over. In the next generation. Polycarpus, the great pastor of the church at Smyrna, was burned at the stake. Ignatius, the pastor of the great missionary church we read about at Antioch, was thrown to the wild animals.
The Romans killed thousands upon hundreds of thousands of early believers because they answered the question of their time. Will you lay down your life for mice? Do you know what they did in Rome? They would take Christians and dip them in Tar while they were still alive, hang them on hooks on the corridors, the the cardo where the Caesar walked from his palace to the games and light them and set them on fire to meet a martyr's death just so the Caesar could have a lighted path to go to his games by the thousands. They met their deaths because they answered the question of their time. Will you lay down your life for my sake? And because they did is a part of the reason we're here today. Because the blood of all those martyrs became the seed of church growth, and the Church kept going to become the next epoch of Christian history. And another question rose that became the question of their time is the question Jesus asked in Matthew 22 42 when he asked this question, what thank you of the Christ?
Whose son is he?
That was the question of their time, because you see what had happened. A heresy had arisen in the early Church led by a guy by the name of Arius in Alexandria who began to preach and propound that Christ was not co equal and coexistent with the Father, but he was created by the Father. That controversy huge in the early church took them to a place called Nicea in 325 Ad. Have you ever heard of the Nicene Creed? It issued out of that Athanasius was the strong defender of the faith who stood up and argued and preached with power for the deity of Christ. And the Church established once and for all, yes, Christ was co equal of the same nature of the Father, God Himself, just like he said when he said in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. And they answered the question of their time. And the Church continued to march. And we get to the next epoch and we find the Church in a dark, dark period held in the clutches of the Roman popes.
And another question arose that became the question of their time. They had to answer it. It was a question of John 1140, where Jesus asked did I not say unto you that if you would believe, if you would be people of faith and faith alone, you would see the glory of God? And armed with the question of his time and the truth of the Book of Romans, a man named Martin Luther took his 95 theses and nailed them to the church door at Wittenberg. And that great faith movement we call the Reformation began to spread all the way through Europe, finally over to here because they answered the question of their time. And the church kept marching. And we come to another epoch and another question arises, luke 18 eight, where Jesus asked this question when the Son of man returns, will he find faith over the earth? In other words, Jesus said, when I come back, and I'm coming back, will I find the Gospel? I gave you all a commission to take the Gospel to the ends of the world. When the Son of man returns, will he find faith over the earth? And burdened by that question, men and their wives and kids by the name of William Carey and Hudson Taylor and David Livingston and Adoniram Judson and so many others left the comforts and confines of home and hearth for faraway places like Africa and India and China and Burma. And the modern missionary movement was begun. And they answered the question of the time. And it continues to this day as churches like yours and mine continue to support missionaries that go to the ends of the earth to share the Gospel. And the church kept marching. And then we come to the next epoch, the first part of the last century, and another question arises. This is the question he asked in John 667 when he asked this question will you also go away? And we watched as one mainline denomination after another after another after another went away from the doctrinal truths of the Word of God, founding principles of their forefathers to follow after Liberalism, her twin children of pluralism and inclusivism. But thank God there were churches started like yours and so many others around this world that said, we won't go. We'll stand firm on what the Bible says and on the truth of Scripture. And so now, today, we live in an epoch of Christian history.
And another question has arisen from our Lord. That is the question of our time. Just as much as that first epoch had to answer the question will you lay down your life for me? Here is the question of our time. I'm totally convinced it's. In Matthew 16, verse 15, Jesus asked this who do you say that I am?
We're living in a culture that says he's just one of many ways.
This is the question of our time. This idea of the exclusivity of Christ. He said, I'm the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father unless he comes through me. That smacks in the face of everything most people are learning in public schools and all sorts of cultural places in America. But it's a question of our time. Who do you say? Not who do you think?
Who will you profess? Who am I? It's a question of our time.
There are only two kinds of ways to make decisions.
You'll make a decision on one or two ways.
Pardon me. Some people make their decisions on the basis of public consensus.
In other words, they won't decide on an issue until they get the consensus of what everybody wants to do. This is political season. It just shows up more in politics. But a lot of politicians won't take a stand on an issue till they put their finger in there, get all their polling data in and seeing what everybody else is saying by public consensus. Then they'll lead that way. Some people lead their homes that way. And that's why kids are in charge of some homes today and they're in havoc.
So some lead by public consensus.
There's another way to make decisions that's by personal conviction that down deep in the fiber of your being. You have some convictions about what's right and what's wrong. And you make your decisions that way come what may. Now, it was at that very point that we come to our text in Matthew 16 when Jesus took the disciples away from the Galilee and crowds they've been down there immersed in multiplied thousands of people. There were 5000 people fed that little boy's sack lunch, you remember. But that was 5000. Andross is the Greek word. It means male or husbands. When you count all the women and children, there must have been 15, 20,000 people there. They had been immersed in those crowds, expending themselves physically and emotionally and spiritually. And he walked them away from there 20 miles to the north, all the way up to the headwaters of the Jordan River, to the foothills of Mount Hermon, and he got them around a fire one night. We read these words in Matthew 16, beginning in verse 13 when Jesus came into the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, who do men say that I the Son of man? Am. You see that question in verse 13?
That's a question of public consensus.
What's polling data showing y'all been down there, you've been listening?
Who do men say that? You know, a lot of people never get out of verse 13. You know why? Because what men say is more important to some of you than what God says.
Isn't that a tragedy? That's a question of public consensus.
And so they said, well, some say you're John the Baptist, some say you're Elijah, some say you're Jeremiah, some say you're another one of the prophets. And look at verse 15. He said, but wait just a minute. Here's what I want to know. Who do you say that you see that? That's the question of personal conviction.
What about you? Not public consensus, personal conviction. And God bless Simon Peter. Nobody in the Bible gets ragged on more than Simon Peter. We call him Boastress and we call him Prideful, and we call him all these things and he denied the Lord all this stuff. The rooster goes, but God bless him. He's inspired. Here. The Holy Spirit. And he makes the great confession and he says, I know who you are. You are the Christ, the son of the living God. So two brief points, and I'm through in just a few short minutes. First of all, in verse 13, I want us to look at this question of public consensus. So he gets them up there at Cesarea Philippi, and he says, who do men say that I am? And they get a little Holy Huddle and they start talking to one another and they start pulling out their notes and their polling data that they've gotten. One of them speaks up and says, well, they're saying, you're John the Baptist.
Now, John the Baptist had just lost his head. I mean, literally had it chopped off. And some are saying that the spirit of John the Baptist has come back in you.
Another one said, that's not what I've heard. I've heard them say that you're Elijah, the man of prayer. They had seen Jesus do so much by prayer. By the time they got to Matthew 16, another spoke up and said, no. They're saying you're Jeremiah.
You have the book of Jeremiah in your Bible. But if you had the original parchment upon which Jeremiah wrote from right to left in Hebrew as he was writing that every page would have big circles of tear stains on it because he was the weeping prophet. They would later see Jesus weep at the tomb of Lazarus. They'd see him weep on Palm Sunday road they said, Some are saying you're Jeremiah. And then another spoke up and said, no. They're saying you're just another one of the prophets, just not as great as the last one, Muhammad. That's what our Muslim friends tell us today.
Now, you see what's happening here.
They and we are living in a world where what men say has become more important than what God says.
That's where we are today. That's where we are in so many of our lives, where our kids are living in a world today where what men say out there is far more important to most people than what God says in here.
I saw it this morning.
I read Dallas Morning News and Fort Worth Star Telegram every morning.
Not in that order, because I'm a Fort Worth boy.
Do you know what I noticed in there again today?
There's an opinion section.
Well, I thought, why in their conviction section, why didn't Bill Ramsey or some pastor before? Why don't they ask them to write a conviction section every day about what God is saying about what's going on in the Middle East, what God is saying about what's going on in our neighborhoods in this city? You know why? You know why you have an opinion section. You don't have a conviction section. Simple. Because people are far more interested in what men say than in what God says.
Now, what happens when your culture is like that, like ours? It gives rise to two things. One, pluralistic compromise. We call it pluralism in our theological jargon. In other words, the pluralist says we're all going to heaven. We're just going on different roads. And so Hindus go on one road, and Muslims go on one road and Buddhists go on one road, and our Jewish friends go on one road and Mormons go on one road and Catholics go on one road. Jehovah Witness going one road. We evangelical. We're all going the same place.
There's just a plurality. That's where you get the word pluralism of ways to get there.
That's what happens when what men say becomes more important than what God says. It gives way to pluralism, pluralistic compromise. It also gives way to political correctness. And in our theological jargon, that's inclusivism.
The inclusivist believes that everybody's included in the atonement. God's. A god of love. There's no hell. Everybody's going to heaven. Borders right there at the border of universalism.
Why should we be concerned about those two things? Pluralism, what does it do? It affects our doctrine, what we believe, our message. If you believe there are all these different roads to get to heaven, what difference does it make about the doctrine of the virgin birth of Christ or his sinless life or his vicarious death or his bodily resurrection, or his ascension or his soon coming again?
None of those Christological doctrinal truths matter.
If you believe that, it affects our doctrine, what we believe, our message. What does inclusivism do, this idea that everybody's going to go to heaven anyway?
It affects our duty, how we behave, our mission. Because if we believe that everybody's going to heaven anyway, there are two things you don't need in the church anymore. You don't need evangelism. You don't need missions if everybody's going to heaven. So this question in verse 13 is not a question for Bible believers. It's the question of public consensus. What men say becomes more important than what God says. It gives rise to those things. But that's not the question of our time. It's not the question of public consensus. Finally, in verse 15, it's the question of personal conviction. So Jesus looks at him and says, but who do you say that I am? You see, there's the question of personal conviction. What about you?
Who do you say? You see, there's an alternative to pluralism and inclusivism. You know what it is? We call it in theological jargon, the exclusivity of the Gospel of Jesus Christ simply means what Jesus said in John 14 six I'm a way, I'm a truth. No. What do you say? I am the way, I am the truth. I am the life, and no one comes to the Father but by me.
Wow.
That's what Jesus said.
This is the question of personal conviction. Who do you say that I am?
Back to Caesarea Philippi. When Jesus asked that question, it was emphatic in the language of the New Testament. And by that it means he just put the emphasis on the you put it at the front of the if you'd been listening to how he answered that, asked that question, here's what you would have heard. What about you, you and you? You and no one else? What about you, you and you alone? You and you only? Who do you say that I am?
And Peter answered, and it's beautiful in the text because he does the same thing. He puts it in the emphatic sense, and he puts the you at the front. And Peter said, you Lord, and you alone. You and no possibility of anybody else. You and you alone are the Christ ho Christos, the one and only Messiah anointed one the Christ you're the Christ, the Son of the living God. I wish I could bring Simon free. What motivated Simon Peter, who made that great confession, to die his martyr's death? Tradition tells us when it came time for him to die, he was crucified upside down because he said he wasn't worthy to be crucified like Christ. And that's why you go in a liturgical church, you see the marks of the apostles. His is an inverted cross symbolizing the way he died. What motivated Simon Peter to die a death? Did he die a death like that because he believed in pluralism? There are all these different roads that went to heaven. People don't give their lives for that.
They give their lives because they contend that there's only one way to eternal life and they won't recant. And they say that Jesus alone is Lord, and he gave his life for that. I wish I could bring him out here on this platform right now. That big old fisherman, rough, callous handed fisherman peter say peter testify to these people about the message of Christ. He'd say the same thing to you. He said in the first letter he ever wrote. Galatians, the first chapter of that letter. And when he said this, should we or some angel from heaven?
No, he'd say the same. That was what Paul said. He'd say the same thing to you. He said in Acts 412, neither is there salvation in any other, for there's none other name under heaven given among men whereby you must be saved. Since I mentioned Paul, let's bring him out. A little bent over Jew. Bring him out here. Every bone in his body had been broken. He had been stoned at Listra and left for dead shipwrecked at Malta, beaten with a cat and nine tails no matter how many times, and get him out here. And what motivated Paul to die his martyr's death? He was beheaded outside the city gates of Rome. How vicious are these people and ISIS and Hamas that would decapitated those little children's heads? That's the way Paul met his martyr's death.
He had his head chopped up. What motivated him to lay his head out on that chopping? But did he give his life because he believed in inclusivism? Everybody's going to be saved anyway. Why would anybody give their life for that?
He insisted that Christ was the only way to eternal life. And if I ask him to testify, he would say to you what he said in Galatians first letter he ever wrote.
Should we or some angel from heaven preach any other gospel to you, let him be accursed. I wish I could bring John out here. He didn't die martyr's death, only apostle. But over 90 years of age, he was exiled on that alcatraz of an island called Patmos. And just say John testify. He'd say the same thing to you. He said in First John in his Gospel of John, he'd say, he that hath the Son hath life, but he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. That's some of you. And the wrath of God abides on him. You know when we say that Jesus is the only way to eternal life, you know what we're called?
Narrow minded.
Look, I've been a conservative Baptist all my life. A lot of people think that we're so narrow minded that a GNAT could stand on the bridge of your nose and peck out of both eyes at the same time. That's pretty narrow minded. But you know what? That is the nature of all truth.
All truth is narrow. Don't ever forget this. Mathematical truth is narrow.
Two plus two equals okay, so at least somebody here knew it. Four.
You know, when I was back there in first grade over at D. Macro elementary in Polly, and I'd put five on that test, that teacher would take that big old red pencil, put an X on it, but it used to tick me off, I was so close. Missed it by one. Couldn't she cut a little slack? And she couldn't. Why? Because mathematical truth is narrow.
What about scientific truth?
It's the most narrow truth of all. You say what do I mean?
Water freezes at what, 32 degrees Fahrenheit. Now it's starting to get cool here in North Texas. You get a glass of water and put it out on your porch when it's 35, 36, 37 here in a few days, and sit there and wait for it and watch it till it freezes. And something else will freeze over before that water does. You know why water freezes at 32 degrees fahrenheit. How narrow is that?
All truth is narrow. Historical truth is narrow.
Booth killed Abraham Lincoln in the Ford Theater in Washington, DC. Didn't stab him in the back in the Bowery in lower Manhattan.
All historical truth. Geographical truth is narrow. We're bordered Oklahoma by the Red River, not the Sabine River. So why should we be surprised that theological truth is narrow? That Jesus said, Enter in what by the narrow way?
Because straight is the gate and narrow is the way that leads to life.
And few there be that find it.
Let me just close by saying I see a crowd like this and I think of that grand and glorious day when all the redeemed of all the ages of all time, we read about it in the Book of Revelation. Every tongue and tribe and nation and people are all gathered together around the throne of God, praising the Lord and in that great worship service in heaven. And all of a sudden, I look, and here come the patriarchs of the Old Testament abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph. And here they come marching by. I've written books about leadership of them. And now I'm looking at them, and they come marching by, but I'm not one of them.
And then I look, and here come the sweet psalmist of Israel, David. And Asoph the sons of Korah, I memorize so many of those psalms. They've been such comfort to me in times of need. And those psalmists, they come marching by, but I'm not one of them.
And then I look, and here come a bunch of people, their shoulders back, their chest out, the prophets of the Old Testament, ezekiel and Daniel and Isaiah and Jeremiah and Nahum and Zephaniah and Zechariah and Obadiah and all the prophets of the Old Testament, and they come walking by, but I'm not one of them.
And then I look, and here come a group of people. The glorious apostles of the New Testament, james and John, the sons of there's Andrew and Peter. Peter wouldn't even have been there if Andrew hadn't found him. And Nathaniel, without Guile and Bartholomew and all the glorious apostles, they come marching by, but I'm not one of them. And then I look, and here's a bunch of people come marching by. The martyrs of the church, all those people we've talked about, peter and Paul and Polycarp and Ignatius and Perpetua, that young mother put to death in Carthage. And you have an English Bible you're reading. And there's Tyndale, he died, was burned at the stake because he translated that Bible into English. And there's Hus and there's Savannah Rola, burned at the stake in Florence. And all the martyrs of the church, they come marching by, but I'm not one of them. But then I look and I behold a multitude of people which no man can number. Who are these? These are they whose robes have been washed white in the blood of the. Lord Jesus Christ. And I, and those of you in this room who know Christ belong to that glorious throng of the redeemed. Look and live, wash and be clean. There's a fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins, and sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains. God has a brand new beginning for some of you. You can begin the great adventure for which Christ has called you by making joining Peter and making the great confession.
It's not only the question of our time. For some of you, it may be the question of eternity. As Jesus asked, who do you say that I am? And you'll make that decision on the basis of either public consensus, more concerned what other people might think about you or personal conviction.
The Bible says that Jesus looked at Peter and he said, blessed are you, Simon Barjona, because flesh and blood didn't reveal that to you. But my father in heaven. That's the Holy Spirit knocking at your heart's door, pulling at your heartstrings, saying, come, you blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you. Jesus is the only way to eternal life. Enter now. Enter through the narrow way, because straight's the gate narrows the way that leads to life. And you can meet him today in the free pardoning of your sin. Father, we just pray that you'd seal these words in our hearts today as we, each individually in our own way, come to face this question who do you say that I am?
[00:32:29] Speaker B: Just before we dismiss and as your heads are bowed, I want to give you an opportunity, if you've never placed your faith and trust in Christ, to do that before we leave. As a small boy, I answered that question in my dad's church. I resolved that issue very young in life. I decided that I believe that Christ was the only way to heaven and I received Him as Savior and he completely changed my life. And I'd hate for us to walk away from a place like this after hearing a message like this and not give you that chance to just settle that once and for all and say, I know who he is. He is my savior. He's my lord. So let me lead you in this simple prayer before we leave this morning. And if you've never trusted Christ, what a beautiful moment, what a wonderful time it would be for you to do that right now. Let's pray together. Father, I ask for my friends here today and many watching online who may never have trusted you as their personal Savior, that this might be the moment in their life where they finally settle that once and for all. Give them the courage right where they are to pray a simple prayer like this and just say lord Jesus, with everything I know about me, I now trust all that I know about you. Come into my heart. Forgive my sin be a reality in my life, and I'll give you praise and thanks for I ask this in Jesus name. Amen.
[00:33:52] Speaker A: Thank you so much for tuning in today. If you have any questions or prayer requests, please contact us by visiting metchurch.com so that we can follow up with you this week. We look forward to seeing you next week.
