A Disciple Speaking the Devil’s Words

There might be someone among us who has not yet put their faith in Christ and his gospel. Lord, if that’s the case, prick the heart of that person. Do not let them leave in peace and comfort. I pray that you would just strengthen us, guide us, help us. Lord, we look to you. Lord, we look to the subject of this passage and we want to see the things that you’d have us to see from it.

Be our teacher. In Jesus’ name we ask. Amen. You’ll notice in verse number 21, from that time forth began Jesus to show unto his disciples that he must go unto Jerusalem and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed and be raised again the third day. We might assume that, especially knowing the whole story, the beginning from the end, as we do from Scripture, that the subject of Christ’s suffering on the cross is a subject that would have been topics of his conversation from the very beginning, but it wasn’t.

But it was not. And the Lord waited until this point, Matthew chapter 16, until this point to begin, notice what it says, he began Jesus to show unto his disciples. He waited until this moment to begin to teach them something that they were not at all expecting. In fact, in the Jewish psyche, and we’ve seen it over and over in Matthew, in the Jewish mind the Messiah, the Christ, was someone who was primarily a political leader.

In the salvation, when Jesus spoke of salvation, what they heard was not salvation of the soul, but deliverance from earthly powers that were oppressing them and those kinds of things. And we’ve seen that over and over and over. And that philosophy is also part of the disciples’ thinking as well. But it is at this point that the Lord begins to rain on their parade and let them know that his end is not what they expect.

It’s interesting to me that he waits until this point because we’ve spent, again, in Matthew so much time building upon the foundation of, like we saw last Sunday, the identity of the Lord Jesus Christ. That has been something that’s been driven home over and over and over, from the miracles to the healings to all the different teachings of Christ. Everything he did, it seems there’s somebody that’s saying, who is this guy?

Who is this guy? And that’s what we looked at last Sunday. But that’s an important foundation to be laid because the truths of the cross mean nothing unless we first understand who it is that’s on the cross. If Jesus is just a guy that’s on the cross, even if he’s a really good guy, like again last Sunday, that’s not enough. He must be the very unique Son of God or else the cross means nothing.

His identity is the foundation of that. And that’s actually what, again, the context above this passage is what we saw, this establishing once and for all, this historical confession of Peter, of who Jesus Christ is. He is the Christ, the Son of the living God. But you know, many people ended up rejecting the Lord Jesus Christ. You remember the cross? And again, I know I’m repeating myself a little bit, but bear with me.

You remember at the cross, there were people who walked by and wagged their heads and sneered at the Lord Jesus Christ and said specifically, If thou be the Son of God, come down from the cross and we’ll believe you. Remember that? So the question of his identity was already there in their mind and to them, the Son of God, to them, let me say it like this, Jesus of Nazareth hanging on the cross was proof positive that he was not who he said he was, right?

Which is ironic because it’s actually the reverse. In Matthew chapter 12, Jesus said the sign of the proof of his identity would be the fact that he died on the cross and was buried and rose again. That is the one great proof that Jesus would give of his identity. But as it is, the people walked by and mocked him because he was on the cross, and that very idea is a part of the disciples’ thinking as well.

But by this point, in contrast to the multitude who would walk by the cross and sneer at the Lord Jesus, at this point, as we saw in verse 17, or verse 16 rather, in the same chapter, the question of who Jesus is has been settled. Among the disciples at least. It’s a settled question. And so he waits until that is a settled point. They get it. I know who this is.

Now they don’t know what’s going to happen with Jesus in the future, but they are convinced of who he is. They are absolutely convinced of who he is. So whatever he does from this point on, they might not like it, they might not understand it, but they know it’s right because of who he is, and that’s something that has been settled among them. You see the work of the Lord Jesus Christ upon the cross, his rejection by the elders of Israel and his being nailed to the tree was the cause for many to turn from him because he would not rule as they expected.

And so right on the heels of this great confession is the Lord Jesus goes into the next kind of phase. Phase one, who am I? Settled. Phase two, here’s what I’m about to do. Man, you look at verse number 21, Jesus began to show what he was going to do, how he was going to suffer and die on the cross, be killed, raised again the third day.

And what’s funny is when you look at the previous chapters to this point, you look at early part of Matthew, I do want to look at several of those, but when you look at it, it’s not there. There are no clear passages of scripture where the Lord tells anything about what’s going to happen to him prior to this. Let’s look at a few. There are a couple of hints.

I want to show you those. Matthew chapter two is where we’ll begin and then we’ll be at Luke for one passage and then back in Matthew. Matthew two, verse number 11. Now Matthew two is probably familiar to you because that’s of course talking about Jesus’ nativity, but in Matthew two it says this, verse 11, talking about the wise men. And when they were coming to the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother and fell down and worshiped him.

And when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh. Now we know from other passages of scripture that myrrh was a spice that was specifically used as an embalming spice, even for the Lord Jesus. So no, did these wise men understand what they were doing in the symbolism? I don’t think so. I think they were giving valuable things to the Lord Jesus because they recognized who he was, but even in that recognition of who he was, there’s a hint of what’s about to happen, of his purpose.

He is God in the flesh, the gold, frankincense, worthy of worship, which is what the frankincense involves, and then the myrrh indicating his death. Go if you would to Luke chapter 2, verse 34. This of course is when they presented the Lord Jesus at the temple. Actually probably this was chronologically before the one in Matthew, but we won’t worry about that too much. Luke 2, verse 34, they’re in the temple now with the baby at his dedication at eight days old and Simeon blessed them and said unto Mary his mother, behold, this child is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel and for a sign which shall be spoken against.

See that? The rejection is the thing that the Lord Jesus is introducing to the disciples. 35 says, yea a sword shall pierce through thy own soul also that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed. Simeon hints at something very bad that’s going to happen to Mary’s son that’s going to pierce her soul, but again not clearly articulated. Look back at Matthew chapter 10. Matthew chapter 10, verse number 38.

Another little hint prior to where we are in Matthew 16, verse 38 says this, or I’ll read 37 to pick up the context, he that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me and he that taketh not his cross and followeth after me is not worthy of me. I thought, I think I actually mentioned it, we’re in Matthew 10 asking myself what in the world did they think when they heard that?

Because when they heard that in Matthew 10 they had no bearing at all of what the Lord Jesus was talking about, cross? I mean I’m sure they understood that, but how that related to the Lord Jesus? He’s just using an example from the things they had seen in their world, their society, but that was a hint because he’s going to repeat that in Matthew 16 again, but the last one I want you to see is in Matthew 12.

If you would look at Matthew 12 and verse number 40. Matthew 12, verse number 40. I mentioned this a minute ago. Says this, for as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly, so shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. Again a hint. Now we’re in Matthew 16 again. As you can see that is the sum total of the hints prior to this point.

The Lord is about to take these disciples by great surprise and really to disappoint their false expectations of glory down here. Because in fact as we’ll see it later on, maybe tonight, their expectations of glory were not well founded at all. You see the Lord Jesus had not yet openly discussed his destination, but I want you to understand something here that his destination, what he says in 21, how he would be killed and raised again the third day is really the whole of why Jesus came into the world.

That’s really what it’s all about. The thing with Jesus, the way the world has characterized the Lord Jesus as a philosopher type, a guru, a Judaic guru who healed people and showed compassion and we know he did that. We don’t make a lot of that, but the way he’s presented as basically wanting to give everybody a better life and having compassion on people is not the whole of his life.

In fact everything up to this point has really prepared the way with his disciples for what he’s about to tell them, which is, this is why I came into the world. This is it. So I want to say something. The Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ came into the world to die on the cross for sinners. The Lord Jesus Christ came into the world to rise from the dead for sinners.

The Lord Jesus Christ came into the world to provide salvation for dirty sinners. It was not to just make our life better. It was to make our eternity better. That’s far more important than this life. And anybody that tries to re-characterize or redraw the narrative of why Jesus is here, why Jesus came is doing great disservice to the gospel. I actually saw something on social media the other day.

I think it was like a paid advertisement from a Bible publisher, I think it was. But it claimed it was a graphic and it had, it was a graphic about the book of Matthew and it had these circles, these various sized circles all over the page talking about the book of Matthew. And the graphic was describing a study that had been done in Matthew and where they categorized the different parts of Jesus’ ministry to give you an idea of what he spent his time doing.

So the idea was there was a circle with 21% of Jesus feeding and there was a circle of 15% of Jesus casting out demons and there were circles of different sizes to represent those percentages. And the biggest one was something like 42% and it was a circle that represented Jesus healing. When you look at that, and I understand the graphic and what they’re getting at, but when you look at the graphic it presents what I think is not exactly an accurate picture.

Yeah, when we read Matthew we do see that Jesus spent a lot of time healing people, we do see that. But the graphic gave the impression that that was, in other words, the biggest circle, obviously therefore was Jesus’ main purpose because it has the biggest circle. That’s not true. That’s not true. This is Jesus’ purpose. And here’s the thing, if this is Jesus’ purpose, although he had other things that he did, other signs he showed, other characteristics he demonstrated, here’s the thing, if we miss this purpose while chasing after the other, we have missed it all.

If we miss the reason Jesus came into the world because we’re chasing some reason for which he did not come into the world, some sort of physical benefit that we might have, we have missed everything that matters. Even think about it, even the people who were recipients of Jesus’ compassion, who were healed, must receive this message or else they perish. See, this is the whole of Christianity.

This is what it’s about. Why did Jesus come into the world? He came into the world because sinners needed a Savior. Sinners needed a substitute. A Savior had to die and He had to be a just Savior and He had to be a worthy Savior and He had to be a sinless and impeccable Savior. It wasn’t just about compassion. It wasn’t just about making our life better.

It was about our soul’s eternity and our relationship to God. Getting healing doesn’t make you right with God. It doesn’t. The Lord’s delivering you out of a bind, out of a difficult place in your life. I’ve had that happen to me and I’m thankful for it, but that is not the same as being delivered from sin and its penalty. So you have to have the main thing that Jesus came to offer.

You missed that, you missed it all. You missed that, you missed it all. The Lord also has to deal with their false expectations. At some point He’s got to pop their balloon, let them come back down to earth. Now look at verse number 22. Then Peter took him. So think about what Jesus has just finished saying. He’s just finished saying, I’m going to suffer, I’m going to be rejected, I’m going to be killed, and I’m going to be raised again the third day.

Think about what Peter is just, where Peter has been just in this context. Verse 16, verse 17, verse 18, all the things that have happened we saw last Sunday. In this context, we see that Peter is a believer. Now follow me here. Peter is a believer. He rebukes the Lord Jesus for what we know now to be the key purpose. His primary mission was to die as a substitute, the Lamb of God, taking away the sin of the world.

That is why He came. That is His purpose. He could heal people all day long and that would not take care of their sin problem. That was His purpose. And yet Peter is trying to hinder Him from His purpose, from the most important mission that He had. But Peter was a believer. He was a sincere believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. We saw it in verse 15, 16, 17, 18, etc.

And we saw from those verses above this that He made a historical confession, a confession that if you know anything about the Bible you probably know Matthew 16, Peter’s confession. It is the foundation of Christian theology, Peter’s confession. Peter was not ambiguous. He was clear-eyed. He had a clear and a sincere faith. He knew exactly who Jesus was. He and the other disciples, Judas, not counting Judas, they had a very keen understanding of who Jesus was.

Their faith was real. It was sound. Not only that, but Peter had just been given special authority. Remember verse 19? Going back to Sunday, I will give unto thee, Peter, the keys of the kingdom of heaven and then the binding and the loosing. I won’t rehash that, but that was special authority that was given to Peter, which he then exercised, we saw in the book of Acts.

But despite all of this, his confession, his faith, his sincerity, despite all of that, here in verse 22, Peter finds himself on the wrong side of the Lord Jesus Christ. Contrary, a hindrance actually to the Lord Jesus Christ and a hindrance to the will of God. It reminds us that, listen, our faith can be sincere. We can have the right doctrinal statement. We can have the right confession.

We can have strong faith. We can have a role in the church even, like Peter had, an official position, whatever the case might be. That is absolutely no guarantee that we do not find ourselves on the contrary end of the will of God. This is the warning from this passage about Peter. The thing is, despite verse 23, the Lord says to Peter, get thee behind me Satan.

Besides that, I don’t think the Lord is calling Peter Satan. I don’t think he’s trying to say, you have the devil in you. I don’t think he’s trying to say it all. There was another disciple that had the devil in him. You know what that disciple was doing? He was extorting money. He was stealing from the disciples’ offerings, basically. There was the devil among the disciples. We’ve seen that already.

But that’s not the case with Peter. Peter was not the devil. Peter was a sincere believer, despite the fact the Lord calls him Satan. He refers to him as Satan. We’re going to get to that in just a minute. But it does tell us that the devil can absolutely be tinkering with real and sincere people of God that have a heart for the Lord and want to do the will of God and know who Jesus is and are born again and our sins are forgiven, and yet the devil is tinkering in their life.

That is exactly what’s happening in Peter’s life. Notice Peter, verse 22 again. Then Peter took him and began to rebuke him, saying, Be it far from thee, Lord, this shall not be unto thee, revealing Peter’s expectation of Christ. He wanted the expectation of glory, deliverance. Listen, there’s Christian groups that are thinking like this, that even though this is all past, they’re looking for the glory. They’re looking for some earthly glory here and now, rather than a spiritual awakening.

They want to see an earthly awakening. But notice verse 23, and this is the core of what I want to say this morning. But Jesus, he turned and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan, thou art an offense unto me. So think about that for a minute. The Lord Jesus was offended. The Lord Jesus was offended that Peter was trying to stop him from going to the cross.

Let that sink in. Jesus is offended that Peter is trying to stop him from going to the cross. You say, why would anybody want to go to the cross? Here’s why. Because that was his father’s will. And see the Lord Jesus was offended at anything that sought to stop him or hinder him from doing the will of God. It was his enemy. So much, he calls it Satan, right here.

He says, thou art an offense unto me, for thou savrest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men, to savor. This is why Peter finds himself in this place. So let’s look at this for a minute. To savor means it’s the idea of smelling something. Like Thanksgiving’s coming up, right? You’re going to go into the house, wherever you’re having your meal, and you’re going to walk in, and you’re going to smell the turkey, and you’re going to smell the dressing, and you’re going to smell all these things, and you’re going to smell the savor.

You’re going to savor that event. I hope you do. That’s what it’s talking about here. Savor means to like something, to find it agreeable. In fact, take a peek, if you would, at Colossians chapter 3. I want to show you a connecting passage to help us understand exactly what’s going on with Peter here. Colossians 3, verse number 1. Colossians 3, verse 1. If you then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ setteth on the right hand of God.

Verse 2. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. That matches, I know it sounds different, but it matches the idea of setting one’s affection. Your mind and your heart is on that thing. Your eye is set at it, savoring the things above, not on things on the earth. You see, the Bible says in Matthew 16, verse 23, Jesus says that Peter’s mind and heart were set upon in desirous of the things of men, not of the things of God.

And Peter is a believer. This is what I want you to see, is what we’re reading here is not some false teacher, some wolf in sheep’s clothing that’s coming in and trying to mess with God’s, no, no, no, this is God’s people. This is God’s child. This is a man of God. This is a faithful servant of God who is, who finds himself with his mind in the wrong place.

His affection in the wrong spot. His savor, not on the things of God, but on the things of men. And what does that mean? Even though that’s all true, Peter was a believer. He was not thinking, and in this context, what are the things that be of God and the things that be of men? The things that be of God in this case, you know what it’s talking about?

It’s talking about the cross. And the things that be of men in this case, what’s it talking about? It’s talking about Peter’s aspirations for glory in Christ’s kingdom. That’s what he’s thinking about. I want that glory. I want that power and that rule. I want that approval. Or in this case, thinking about the cross, maybe it’s the ease, it’s the comfort to desire, set one’s heart and mind upon those things by contrast, the things that Jesus would suffer.

And his affection and his mind and where his mind was set is the thing that drove his decisions. It’s the reason he said, verse 22, which is, he says, be it far from thee, Lord, this shall not be unto thee. Why? You don’t want to suffer? That’s hard. You don’t want a life of difficulty? You don’t want to carry a cross? Think of the shame. What about the glory?

What about the rule? What about the kingdom? What about the approval? But see, Jesus says those are the things of men that men seek after. But our Lord, he only sought to do the will of his Father, whether it was glory or whether it was suffering. The will of God and only the will of God. And that should be the marching orders for every Christian. The will of God and only the will of God always.

You see, Peter did not just have misplaced priorities. No, no, no, no, no. Don’t misunderstand it. We might think, oh, well, you know, I just want to live a life of ease and I want to live a life of no discomfort and I want to live a life of, you know, of power, approval, or whatever. Whatever are those things related to man? We think, well, you know, it’s just misplaced priorities, but it’s really not because of what the Lord says.

He says, get thee behind me, Satan. You see, the Lord Jesus is taking this outlook of Peter, this way of thinking of Peter, and he’s identifying it. Because now this outlook of Peter, his desire for glory. And how can you fault Peter? How can you fault Peter for wanting to participate and share in the glory of Christ when Christ is the King? Wouldn’t that be wrong? Right?

But it is. Why? Because it is not God’s will. And that’s the thing he longs after. And because of that longing, because his mind is off, because he is missing the mark, he’s actually saying the words of the devil. You know, the things that be of men, like the Lord is describing here, even though they are very natural, are in direct opposition to the will of God, in this case.

You know, you think about a man that might go to the mission field. How is a man going to go to the mission field if he savors the things that be of men? If he’s looking for a life of ease and comfort, a life of approval, a life of peace and comfort, a life of approval, a life of pats on the back, a life of all... How is he going to get that?

So basically, there might be a young man or a young woman who has his heart, maybe is thinking the Lord’s called them to go to a mission field and give their life in some just nondescript, some hole-in-a-wall place around the world, and yet there’s a voice in them that says, but what about all that I’ll miss? What about the food that I like and my family? What about the comforts that I enjoy?

How hard it’s going to be over there? Those people are not open to the gospel, but those are the things that be of men. How is a man going to go to the mission field like that, thinking like that? He’s not. And when he doesn’t, Satan is in the corner, gleeful, because there are people on that mission field who will not hear about the Lord Jesus Christ, and he is thrilled at that.

What is the source? What is the root? What is the origin? It’s a guy who, for him, the will of God is to go, and he will not, because his heart is set on the things of ease and comfort. And that is not just kind of an extreme example like that. What about someone who, how can someone be willing to suffer reproach for Christ’s sake if our mind is on the approval of men?

People saying nice things about us. I’ll tell you, that’s one reason people don’t evangelize right there. They’re afraid of the negative feedback they’ll get. They’re afraid of the negative feedback. They’re afraid people are going to say ugly things to them and think ugly thoughts of them. And you know what? And so long as our mind is on the things of men, we won’t. You know what? People will not be confronted with the gospel.

People will not be, will not hear about the Lord Jesus Christ clearly. And ultimately it is satanic. Because that is his job. That’s what he’s doing. He’s seeking to oppose the gospel. I could just give over and over and over, example after example, but let’s rush to the end. Verse 23 says this, but he turned and said unto Peter, get thee behind me, Satan. Thou art an offense unto me.

What was Satan’s desire? Now stop for a minute and just help me think through this. At this point, what was the devil’s desire and goal and intention for the Lord Jesus Christ? What was it? Exactly. It’s to stop that cross. It’s to stop it. Now that might seem counterintuitive because you do see Herod trying to kill baby Jesus, right? In Bethlehem. You do see that. And Herod is definitely the devil, right?

Probably, probably in a very real sense. But you do see him trying to destroy the baby Jesus. But at this point, because of what Jesus says in verse 23, we know that the devil’s goal is actually to stop the Lord Jesus Christ. You might think, well, he’s going to the cross, he’ll kill him and maybe he’ll get satisfaction. Maybe that’s true partly. But in this case, he’s trying to stop Jesus from getting there because the Lord Jesus Christ has identified this is the will of God and it is his goal to hinder and stop the accomplishing of the will of God.

That’s what he’s trying to do. That’s his whole purpose. He has set himself as the enemy of all things that God wants. His plan, his thought, his desire was to prevent the Lord Jesus from going to the cross and therefore from fulfilling the mission that his father gave him. Now the question I want you to see from this is how is the devil accomplishing that in this moment?

Do you know how he’s doing it? He’s doing it through one of Jesus’ closest disciples. Think about this. Satan is at work and the means he’s using is one of Jesus’ closest disciples to try to thwart the cross. This is not even using Judas. He’s using Peter. Now you might think that he’s using Peter and that means that he’s in Peter again. He’s not inside Peter. The devil doesn’t possess Peter like he did Judas Iscariot.

But the devil is tinkering with Peter and altering his affections and altering his heart and toying with him to get his mind and his heart on something that is not the will of God. What’s the end result? The end result is here now Peter, the closest disciple to the Lord Jesus Christ, is saying the words of the devil. It’s like Peter said, it shall not be so Lord and the Lord is as if the Lord turns around and says, who said that devil?

I thought I heard the voice of the devil, but it was actually his own disciple. I want to tell you something brothers and sisters, listen please. A man that is, a man or woman as the case may be, that may be a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. But we can absolutely say the words that the devil bids us. And I’m not speaking with hyperbole here. I’m saying saying words that Satan intends to use to thwart the will of God.

In other words, we can have the thoughts of the devil in us. And where does that come from? Where does that come from? It’s not because the devil is in us. You’re a child of God. I’m a child of God. No, that’s not the reason. It is because we are motivated by the things of man. We might say kind of by extension, by the things of the flesh.

I want to tell you something. Please hear me. And if you’re married, if you’re a married child of God, you ought to know this is true. The flesh, our flesh, this wicked nature we have, can turn us into absolute raging monsters. It absolutely can. Can I at least get a nod that you all know what I’m saying is true? Because I know it’s true of me. It can turn us into a raging monster.

And what ends up coming out of our mouth is purely satanic. Because the devil is tinkering with us. He’s tinkering with us. And before we know it, we’re saying things that are the very words that he wants to hear, the very words that he wants to use to hinder the will of God. And what does it come from? It doesn’t come because we’re holding seances or got our hands on Ouija boards.

No, no, no, no, no. It comes from our just regularly walking in the flesh. Just the regular life, what everybody considers to be normal, we’re walking according to the flesh, not according to the spirit. And the result is the will of the devil is done. And the will of God is hindered and thwarted. The result is the same. You see the will of God for the Lord Jesus Christ was not filled with ease, nor shall it be with us.

The path of ease was a satanic path. You see this? The path of ease was the satanic path. And you know, the people of God, us, we are not people that are always thrilled about the will of God. Even if we know the will of God, that doesn’t mean we’re thrilled about it. I just want to remind us that just like Peter was a good man who had a strong faith, right doctrinal beliefs, great confession in the verses above, and yet because his motivations were off, because he’s walking according to the ways of man, according to the ways of flesh, he is so far off at this point, such that the Lord Jesus hears the work of the devil, the words of the devil coming out of the mouth of his own disciples.

And that ought never be. But it is so easy for us to fall into that trap, to where we’re casting stumbling blocks before other people, because we’re not walking with the Lord. It ripples out like that. And it hurts and it hinders the will of God in other people’s lives. And oftentimes we don’t even know what’s happening, because we’re just reacting. That’s what we’re doing, we’re reacting.

We’re not worshipping the devil, that’s for sure. So we’ll say this, I want to go to one passage and we’ll be done. Anything, anything that is designed or influences us against doing the will of God as recorded in Scripture is satanic in origin, no matter what method he uses to bring it to pass. Look at Ephesians 6 and we’ll be finished. Ephesians 6.

Verse 10. Finally my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. Now you might think the wiles of the devil, we’re talking about Ouija boards and seances. We’re not. The fact that the word wiles is in this passage tells us that it’s not readily evident how this is happening.

It is not obvious how the devil’s words are getting into our mouth, but they are. That’s why they’re a wile, they’re a strategy, they’re a trick. Verse 12. Stop there. You know what you ought to read there from Matthew 16? Peter. Peter. It really wasn’t about Peter. That’s not what this is about. It’s not about my satisfaction, your satisfaction. This is really about, this is really a big struggle between the Lord God Almighty and his enemy the devil.

The devil’s contrary desires. That’s really what we’re talking about here. This is not about whether I’m walking in the flesh or you’re walking in the flesh. The devil will use that every day of the week if we let him. There’s a bigger battle going on and people are affected by that and the will of the devil or the will of God is being done or not done based upon how we are responding in our walk with the Lord.

Whether our heart and affection is set on the will of God unlike Peter or whether we’re walking in the spirit or not. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day and having done all to stand.

Brothers and sisters, the example of Peter in Matthew 16 and what the Lord says to him is an example of the devil using flesh and blood to speak for him. And it’s so easy to slip into that, into the devil’s toolbox. Pick us up and use us. We have to walk with God. We have to stay close to him. We have to savor the things that be of God.

We have to set our heart and affection and our mind on doing the will of the Lord and staying close to him and strictly following his written word. Stay there in love with him. Our affections like the affections of the Lord Jesus Christ. Let’s pray together.