Matthew chapter 16 and verse
13. And I want to talk about emblems
of the church. Emblems of the church. Our Lord
said here in Matthew 16, 13, When Jesus came into the coast
of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples, saying, Who do
men say that I, the Son of man, am? And they said, Some, John
the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah, or one of the
other prophets. He saith unto them, But whom
say ye that I am? And Simon Peter answered and
said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And the
Lord answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona,
for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my
Father which is in heaven. And I say also unto thee that
the heart Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church,
and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." Now, when
our Lord Jesus said here that He's going to build His church,
He wasn't talking about building upon Simon Peter. There's only
one foundation in the Scriptures. Christ is that sure foundation,
that rock. And how in the world would He
ever build a church on a man? He never put any confidence in
His flesh. So when He talks about building
this church upon the rock, He's talking about building upon Himself.
Building the church upon Himself. And I wanted to, you know, in
the Scriptures, the church is a prominent place in the Scriptures.
And there are some who teach that the church didn't come into
existence until the day of Pentecost. But, you know, the Scriptures
tell us in Acts 7.38 that Moses, Moses was with that church in
the wilderness. There's a church in the wilderness.
And God's always had a church, always had a people. It's just
like when Elijah said, Lord, ain't nobody left but me. They've
torn down all your altars, killed all your prophets, and I'm the
only one left. Just go ahead and get a share
of me too." And the Lord said, I've got 7,000 that have to bow
to me to bail you in. And so you see, beloved, he's
always had a witness. He's always had a church. And
the church started, the first martyr of Christ's church, the
first martyr of the Lord Jesus Christ, was Abel himself, when
his own brother slew him. And he was the first martyr of
the church, the first of a multitude of the spirits of just men made
perfect. Now, it says here that Christ
built this church. And I want to be in this church
that Christ built. And I got some emblems that I'll
show you here in a minute that we're going to go through. But
this church, the scriptures tells us the church is a called out
assembly. Ecclesia, called out assembly.
A call people, he read it tonight, to the church which is Echorim.
He didn't address everybody in Corinth. He addressed the church
in Corinth, that called out assembly of people in Corinth. When he
wrote to the Philippians, he said to the saints which are
in Philippi, and there's this local assembly, and God calls
out this local assembly, and he said they're separated unto
the Lord Jesus Christ, and he does it by his gospel. And there's
one, there's several things about these people that's in this church,
this called out assembly. But everyone had the same spirit.
They all have the same spirit. We're talking about the Holy
Spirit. They all are saved by God's blessed grace, as not every
single one of them is saved by God's grace. They claim no merit,
they claim no worth, they claim no strength, they claim nothing
to tell. They say that salvation is by grace, and God saved me
by His grace. And they all believe the same
gospel. They all believe the same gospel.
I've got, and I've said this before, I've got no Armenian
brethren. I don't. Everybody that I consider to
be a believer believes the same gospel I do, and I believe the
same gospel they do. I do. And I'll tell you something
that's called out of simile, they all have the same father.
God the Father, one begat us. God the Father, one chose us.
And they all have faith, the same faith in the Redeemer. They
believe in Christ. They trust the Lord Jesus Christ
alone. And they all look and wait for
their Master to soon come again and take us all home. But I want
to look tonight, if God would help me, at several emblems of
the church from the Word of God. An emblem is an identity mark. An emblem is an identity mark.
And I have several illustrations I could give you. But the American
flag. There's a wonderful emblem. See,
an emblem is an object or a figure symbolizing something or suggesting
another object or an idea. When you look at a flag, American
flag, it suggests several things to you right off the bat. First
of all, when you see the stars and stripes, you say, that's
America. That's America. And then you
start seeing all that, and it says it stands for liberty? It stands for people that died
for it. It stands for all the states
that were admitted into the Union at particular times. The stripes
tells us how many people are here. And the stars, how many
states. And so, you see, it says so much
to it. And just like on certain cars, you can tell a car what
kind of car it is by the emblem that's on it. You don't have
to see. You see an emblem, you say, well,
I know what kind of car that is. And so an emblem, when you
look at something, it tells you what that thing is. And an emblem,
when we talk about that, when I look at these emblems, it will
tell you what the church is. Now see if I can make that good. First of all, this is the first
emblem. Look with me here in Matthew
11, I believe it is, or 13. No, Matthew 13, verse 45, excuse
me. Matthew 13, 45. Here's a beautiful emblem of
the church of our Lord Jesus Christ. He said in verse 45, here's the
first one. Again, the kingdom of heaven
is like unto a merchant seeking goodly pearls, who when he had
found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had
and bought it. So he's talking about here the
church being a pearl of great price. The kingdom of heaven
is like under a merchant man. Christ, our Lord Jesus Christ.
And you see, he has the wealth. Now people say that we, that
Christ is the pearl of great price. What in the world could
we sell in order to buy him? So I've always viewed this pearl
of great price as the church. It's like that treasure that's
hid in the field. Christ buys the whole field to
get the treasure out of it. And he buys the pearl, the great
pearl of great price, which is his church. And the kingdom of
heaven is like unto a merchant man, and that's Christ. He come
into this world with the purpose of buying and paying whatever
price was necessary to redeem his people and to save his people
and to separate the people to himself. When they found our
Lord Jesus Christ, after they had missed him for three days,
they came back and found him talking among the lawyers and
doctors of that day. They said, what are you doing
here? And he says, wish you not that I'd be about my father's
business. That's what I've come here to
do. I've come here to deal with business, to do my father's business,
to carry out my father's will. And I'll tell you something,
beloved. He had the will. to pay the price. He had the
power to pay the price. He had the ability to pay the
price. And not only that, but he's the
only one who knows how priceless the pearl is. And he paid that
price. And he called it a pearl of great
price. And he purchased it. Purchased it with his own blood.
And to get a pearl, you go down into the deep, you go down into
the dark, you go down in the pearls made through suffering,
and our Lord Jesus Christ, He purchased this pearl, His blessed
church, and He purchased it with His own blood, and He purchased
it with His doing, He purchased it with His dying, and it says
that He sold all that He had. Did He not lay aside all of His
glory? Did He not make Himself poor?
that we might be made rich? Did He not make Himself to be
nothing in order for us to have everything? And so you see, beloved,
He purchased the church of God with His own blood. And that's
why the revelator, he says, come here and behold, I'll show you
the Lamb's wife. And she's adorned. She's adorned. And I'll tell you something,
beloved, pearls are for personal adoring. You know, when you wear
a pearl, it's for personal adorning. And God has helped us, since
we're the pearls, the pearl of great price, may we adorn the
doctrine of God our Savior and dress up the gospel of our Lord
Jesus Christ by our character, by our love for Christ, by the
way we carry ourselves in this world. Let me show you a second
one over in 1 Peter 2.5. First Peter 2.5. The pearl of
great price. That's a long message, just in
that pearl of great price. Boy, it's a whole message in
and of itself. I just skimmed it. Oh, my. He looks around and he
sees all these pearls. He sees all this wealth. He sees
everybody comes. Oh, look at this pearl. Look
at that pearl. But he's the only one who knew what the pearl was.
And that pearl was of a great price, great price. A price that
nobody could pay. And our Lord Jesus Christ, He
had the price. He had the price. He had the
price. And the price to pay for that
pearl, to pay for His church, to redeem His church. He went
into that darkness. He went in there where there
was great suffering. He went into the depths of the
darkness in order to redeem us and bring us up out of the death.
And He calls us the pearl of great price, calls us His people,
and God help us to adore His blessed holy name. And then look
what it said here in 1 Peter 2.5. You also as lively stones are built
up a spiritual house. Here, the church is called a
house. It's a house. A spiritual house. Now, when
you read about this, you know this is an emblem. They don't
call it a church. You're built up as a lively stone
to build up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood. It's a spiritual
house. You know, every one of us in
here, we're part of a house. We're part of a building. And
that building, the Scriptures tells us in Ephesians 2, 19,
that we are built upon the foundations of the apostles and prophets,
Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone. You see, when
you have a spiritual house, He's the foundation of this house.
No other foundation can be laid than that's laid, which is Christ
Jesus. He's the founder of the house and the builder of the
house. And you keep 1 Peter, and look in Hebrew chapter 3,
let me show you this. This is a blessing right here,
Hebrews 3. You know, he's the founder of
the spiritual house. He's the founder of the church.
He's the builder of the house. He's the builder. And you know,
Zechariah says this, that when this house is built, he says
they take that topstone and get ready to put it up there and
they go shouting, grace, grace, onto it and set the topstone
on. The first stone is of grace,
and the last stone is of grace. And they put it up there with
a shout. But look what he said here in Hebrews 3. Wherefore,
holy brethren, the takers of the heavenly calling, consider
the apostle and high priest of our profession, Jesus Christ,
or Christ Jesus, who was faithful to him that appointed him as
Moses in all his house. He was faithful to him. For this
man, Christ Jesus, this apostle, was worthy of more glory than
Moses, just as much as a person who built the house has more
honor than ours. Now, when you go and look into
a house, and he built a beautiful house, and you look at that house,
and you say, oh my, beautiful, beautiful, who built this? That's
the first thing you'll say, who built this? That's the first
thing, who do it? Who are your builders? And that's
what he's telling. He has more honor than the house
that's been built. For every house is built by some
man. Somebody's got to build it. But
he that built all things is God. And Moses was verily faithful
in all his house as a servant for a testimony of those things
that we're talking about right now. But Christ, as a son over
his own house, Whose house we are. Whose house we are. We are. So you see that the church is
a spiritual house. Back over here in our text in
1 Peter 2.5. He's the founder. He's the builder.
And though he built the house, he's worthy of more honor than
the house because he's the one that built the house. And he
was faithful to build the house. And, oh, beloved, then he says,
here not only are you built up a spiritual house, but you're
living stones. Now, I'm going to tell you something,
and I'm going to show you this. These living stones were chosen
and prepared for this building before the building was ever
started. I'll prove that to you. For any stone was ever laid in
that building, it was prepared before it was ever put in that
building. I'll show you that. Look over First Kings. And you
know we were chosen in Christ, but look in First Kings, chapter six. Oh, that's such a blessing
right here. So many things in the scriptures. Chapter six and verse seven.
Now they're building They're building this house. They're
building this temple. And we're living stones. You
know, you ever seen a living stone? Well, that's what we are.
We're living stones. Stones that are alive in a house,
built up a spiritual house. But look what it said here in
verse 7. And the house, when it was in
building, was built of stone, made ready for where it was brought
there. So that thou was neither hammered,
nor axed, nor any tool of iron heard in the house while he was
in building. You get everything ready. I want
everything ready. I don't want to hear a hammer
beat. I don't want to hear an ax. I don't want to hear a saw.
I want everything ready when that house, I'm going to put
that house together and everything's going to be ready for that house
put together. And so that when that house is put together, nobody
could say, I've done this and I've done that and I've done
the other thing in this. He said, I don't want to hear
no work done in it. When it's done, said everything will be
done before the house is done. And that's the way we are. Christ
chose us. There ain't nobody built this
house but Him. You ever hear any axes? You ever
hear any saws? You ever hear anybody with a
hammer? Hear them breaking rock? Oh no. Christ prepared this building
and put it all together. And I'll tell you, I'll tell
you something, beloved. He put every stone in the building just
exactly where it's supposed to be. Exactly where it's supposed
to be. And oh, not only, look back over
here, not only are we living stones in this spiritual house,
but we're a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifice.
Everything about this house is spiritual. Living stones, chosen,
prepared for the building. To offer up spiritual sacrifices?
Ain't that what it says? Acceptable to God by Jesus Christ? Oh, beloved, oh, that's only
one way. You know, we can't offer any
physical sacrifices to Christ. We cannot offer any. God doesn't
accept the things of men's hands. Look in Hebrews, back over in
Hebrews 13, 15. We can't sacrifice. We can do something for somebody
else, and God would call that maybe a sacrifice, what we do
for somebody else. But we cannot offer Him, in ourselves,
any physical sacrifice. And that's why I call them spiritual
sacrifices. And look what He said here in
Hebrews 13, 15. By Him, by the Lord Jesus Christ,
Therefore, let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually."
God says that praise is called a sacrifice. To praise Him, He
said, is a sacrifice. And do it continually, that is,
the fruit of our lips giving thanks to His name. We use our
words, we use our lips, we use sacrifices of thanksgiving and
praise, and God calls those sacrifices. How can the world, can our words
be called a sacrifice, our praise be called a sacrifice? But God
says they are because they're spiritual. Now look over in Hebrews,
I mean, excuse me, Philippians chapter 4, just a moment. Look
what Paul told the Philippians over here. In Philippians chapter
4. You know, we offer sacrifices
praise and thanksgiving with love, and they're made acceptable
to God only through our Lord Jesus Christ. And I'll tell you
something, beloved, a man's acceptance or rejection depends upon the
sacrifice. And everything you know that
if we offer any sacrifices, we do it by Him. We offer spiritual
sacrifices through the Lord Jesus Christ. There's not anything
we can say, not anything we can do, not any praise we can offer,
not any thanks we can offer, not any prayer we can offer,
that the only way it's acceptable is acceptable through the Lord
Jesus Christ. That's why anybody that wants
to pray to another God, to another Jesus, or to Allah or somebody,
God and Allah is not the same person. Pray to a priest, pray to a rabbi,
and they're not the same person. God will not, I'm telling you,
if we're going to offer a sacrifice, that's why we say, we ask it,
O Father, in the blessed name of your Son. Whenever we say,
Lord, I give praise unto you, God accepts that praise, and
that's a sacrifice, He considers it, because we're offering it
in the name of Christ. That's a mystery to me, but still
yet it's so. Because he says it so. Look here
in Philippians 4.17. He's talking to the Philippians
here now. Not because I desire a gift. You know, I don't want anything
from you all, but I desire fruit that may abound to your count.
He says, whatever you do, I want it to be on your count. But I
have all and abound. And I am full, having received
of Aphroditus the things which were sent from you," now listen
to him, "'an odor of a sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable,
well-pleasing to God.' And since you sent this sacrifice, this
sweet savor, He says, look what God will do for you. But my God
shall turn right around and supply all your need according to His
riches in glory in Christ. So it's a pearl of great price. It's a spiritual house. And then
look over with me in 1 Timothy 3.15 and see what it is here.
1 Timothy 3.15. Church is a pearl of great price,
a spiritual house, and here it's called a pillar and ground of the truth. Paul told Timothy here in 1 Timothy
3.15, but if I carry that thou mayest know how thou
oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the
church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth."
The church, pillar, and ground of the truth. Everybody knows
what a pillar is. It holds something up. Holds
something up. And not only that, but it's the
foundation of the truth, the ground of the truth that holds
it up. And it's the truth that holds that pillar up. So what
it tells us here, that we support and sustain the truth. That's
what the church is. The church is the pillar and
ground and upholder of the truth, supports and sustainer of the
truth. Now, I'll tell you something, beloved, the church, the church,
God's blessed people, wherever they may be, called out assembly,
whether they're down in Benidorm tonight meeting, whether they're
meeting up in Kingsport, Tennessee, or whether they're meeting somewhere
down in Georgia, Alabama, or down in Florida, wherever there's
called out assemblies meeting, the church, every member of it,
was begotten by the truth. We talk about the pillar and
ground of the truth. If you're going to hear the truth, you're
going to hear it through God's blessed church, through His people.
That's the way it's always been. He says, being born again, I
could turn there and show you this, being born again, not a
corruptible seed, but incorruptible by the word of God. By the word
of God, which is the gospel, which is preached unto you. James
1.18 says, by his own will begat he us with what? The word of
truth. Our Lord Jesus Christ said, I
know my sheep, and I know them, and I call them, and I give unto
them eternal life. Sanctify them, Father, through
thy truth. Thy word is truth. And like Ray
Rogers said this morning, he says, nobody is saved apart from
the gospel. You may believe a thousand things
before you ever hear the gospel, hear the truth. But when you
hear the truth, if you hear it, God gives you an ear to hear
the truth. You say, that's it. I'm not looking no place else.
I'm not searching no place else. I'm not asking for anything.
I've heard the truth. I've heard the truth. And you
know, when you hear it, and there's folks in here and say, now, they
call the truth that we say, oh, I don't believe that. That's
not the way I believe. Well, then they don't believe
the truth. The church is the pillar and ground of the truth.
Well, we're here as long as we exist here at Lantana Grace Church.
And Ed said this, he said, God, as long as when we first built
this building, we've all moved in here, remember Ed said, as
long as this building stands, may somebody preach the grace
of God in it, the truth of Christ in it, and the day that happens,
may God cause it to be burnt down. And I believe that too. You know,
I hope I'm dead and in my grave before anybody ever get in here
and not preach the truth. The truth. Know the truth, and
the truth will set you free. And what are some of the truths
that this we uphold? What are some of the truths that
we uphold? Well, we believe the truth and
uphold the truth about God. We make no apologies for God.
Make no apologies that He hated Esau and He loved Jacob. We make
no apologies that He chose us in Christ before the foundation
of the world. We make no apologies that God
saves whom He will and passes by some. That if He elects some,
that means He passes by others. That means, beloved, that if
He sets His affection on some, that means He hates others. If
He is going to call some, He's got to leave some sitting by
themselves. And we make no apologies. I'm
not going to apologize for God and for being God. And we know
and uphold the truth about man. What is man that thou art mindful
of him or the sort of man that thou visit him? Man in his best
estate is altogether vanity. Man, oh man, what is he? What is he but a despicable creature? that God had created him upright,
and what did the first thing he start doing? Seeding out many
inventions. And oh, there's not a just man
on the face of the earth. And oh, beloved, in sin, we tell
the truth about sin. Sin's not what you do, sin's
what you are. Sin's is what you commit, because
sin is what you are. Sin is nature. Sin makes babies
cry. Sin makes little girls tell lies. Sin makes husbands turn against
their wives, and wives against their husbands. Sin is a horrible
thing. And Paul said sin is so bad,
we said it's exceedingly sinful. And we tell the truth about that. We uphold those truths, don't
we? And oh, what about the Lord Jesus? Oh, we uphold the truth
about Him. One Savior, one Mediator, one
God, one salvation, one shedding of one blood, the Lord Jesus
Christ, God and man in person. And I tell you, the truth we
uphold is right here in verse 16. And he said, You're the pillar,
and without controversy, this is what you're upholding here.
Great is the mystery of Godliness. We're going to uphold this truth
right here. And we're the church, we're going to uphold this. We're
the pillar of this. We're going to make this thing
stand up there, and we're going to hold this truth up. God was
manifest in the flesh. He wasn't part God and part man.
He was God, and oh, He's as much God when He's a man, and as much
man as if He wasn't God, but still He's God and man, and He
was God, and He's a man, and He's a man! And justified in the Spirit,
Everywhere he went, the Spirit gave evidence that this is the
Messiah. The Spirit gave evidence that this is the Christ. The
Spirit gave evidence that this is the Master. The Spirit gave
evidence that this is God manifested in the flesh. And angels, he
said, oh, they watched him do a miracle and said, oh, do you
think that's something? Wait till you see the angels
come down and ascend upon the Son of Man. And oh, here's a great mission.
And they went out and started preaching this to a bunch of
Gentile dogs like us, who worshiped idols and worshiped heathens.
And preached unto the Gentiles. And here we landed! And they
believed it! Some of them believed it! Paul
said, Oh, as soon as you put it far from yourself to the Jews
that you don't want the Word of God, I'll turn to the Gentiles.
And the Scripture says the Gentiles heard him gladly. And all we
have believed on in the world, and some of us believe on Him. There are some people that believe
this, and received up into glory. That's the truth we uphold. Oh,
beloved, we uphold the truth of God's absolute sovereignty.
You know, men hate absolutes. This is the day of relativity.
And what do they call this? What's that emblem we were talking
about today that's on that car? Black coexist? Coexist. And that coexist, as you know,
got the gay and lesbian symbol in it,
it's got the cross in it, it's got the Muslim thing in it, it's
got the Jew-Buddha in it, and it's got all these different
emblems in it of all these different religions, and we're all supposed
to coexist. I can't do that. I'm not going to. God don't coexist
with them. They all just get together and
have fun. But we can't do that. Error can walk hand in hand,
but truth can't walk hand in hand. How can two walk together
except they be agreed? You can't even walk with God
if you don't agree with Him. Ain't that right? You can't even
walk with God if you don't agree with Him. But men ain't absolute,
but I have three absolutes that I know of. God's an absolute
soccer. Christ is an absolute Savior.
And man's an absolute sinner. And if God wasn't an absolute
Savior, it would be no help for nobody. And if Christ was not
an absolute Savior, I mean absolute Savior. Making no effort at it. They didn't try, didn't make
it possible, didn't open the door, didn't give us a shove
in the right direction, tugging at our heartstrings. No, no.
No, no. And man's an absolute sinner.
That's why we have to have a sovereign who's got the power to give us
life. We have to have a Christ who
has the power to put our sins away by the sacrifice of himself. We believe in God's sovereign
election, and that election is unconditional. Christ's successful
atonement for our sins. It was successful. Was my sin
put away when Christ died? Was all of the Church of God's
sins put away once and for all when Christ died? That's the
Church and pillar ground of the truth. He didn't try to put me and sins
away. And, O Beloved, we uphold this
blessed truth, that the Spirit shall take all of God's elect
out of this world. In the day of His power, He makes
His people willing. And we uphold this blessed truth,
that the Shepherd will bring all whom He died for, saved to
glory. He said, All that the Father giveth me shall come to
me, and him that cometh to me I'll know, and no wise cast out.
And, O Beloved, him that cometh to me I'll lose, and him that
hath come to me I've lost none of them, not a one of them. I'm
not left to one of them. Oh, bless His name. So that's
the church is the pillar and ground of the truth. And then
let me quickly, go quickly back over to 1 Peter chapter 5 and
verse 2, and I'll be done. It's so simple. These things are so simple. I'm
not telling you anything you don't know. But I'll tell you
these truths. And I'll tell you something else
about the truth. God's people, these people that's in this church,
they love, they receive the love of the truth. I mean, they love
the truth. The truth tastes good to them.
The truth gives fire to them. The truth gives strength to them.
The truth makes them strong and makes them
adamant and makes them fearless and makes them comfort and comfort
in what they believe. Oh my, we love the truth. We receive the love of the truth.
Then as a flock, look here at 1 Peter chapter 5. Peter says, The elders which
are among you, I exhort who am also an elder and a witness of
the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory
that shall be revealed. Feed the flock of God, which
is among you, taking the oversight, not by constraint, but willingly,
not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind." So we're considered
here as a flock. The church is a flock. And as
a flock, flock is she. Here we are. As a flock, we're
utterly and absolutely dependent. You know, and as a flock, it's
as a shepherd. You know, the flock, we're dependent.
We're dependent on the shepherd. You know, as the good shepherd,
our Lord Jesus Christ died for them. I'm the good shepherd,
and I lay down my life for the sheep. And then, as the great
shepherd, He lives for us. Now, God of peace hath brought
again from the dead that great shepherd of the sheep, the Lord
Jesus Christ, through the blood of the everlasting cross. As
that great shepherd of the sheep, He lives for us right now. And
Peter says, look down here in verse four, and when the chief
shepherds shall appear, as the chief shepherd, you shall
receive a crown of glory that obtained it not away. And as
the chief shepherd, he's coming again to get them. He's coming
after them. You see, beloved, it has this
flock and depend upon the shepherd. We know the shepherd. And a stranger
we won't follow. I know my sheep and they know
me. And a stranger they will not follow. God's sheep will
not follow a stranger. What are we dependent upon him
for? Well, we're dependent upon him for life. The good shepherd
gave his life for the sheep. We're dependent upon him for
feed, for food. The Lord's my shepherd. He maketh
me to lie down in green pasture. He does it for shelter. He takes
us in and out of the fold. He has to protect us from enemies.
There's wolves in sheep's clothing out here trying to get us. There's
hyenas that want to come in. And so, we're dependent upon
Christ for food, for shelter, to protect us from our enemies.
And sheep are clean animals. Clean animals. They're harmless. A sheep cannot hurt you. Not
old goat can. But there's a world of difference
between sheep and a goat. And God don't take goats and turn
them into sheep. No, sheep are clean animals. Sheep are harmless
animals. Sheep are helpless animals. And
sheep are followers. They're followers. And they're
useful. They got lots of use. Get wool,
meat, food, a lot of wonderful things from them. But beloved,
how in the world do you get in this church, this pearl of great
price, this spiritual house, this pillar and ground of the
truth, this flock that's dependent? How do you get in? Well, by birth. You can't get in no other way.
You've got to be born into it. That's what we say all the time.
If we're going to have a church, if we're going to have a local
assembly, we're going to have to raise them, because God doesn't
seem to be sending people in. And we have. We've raised a church
right here. How many kids have been born and started raising
up here, and they've become believers, and more and more of them are
going to be believers? We've got so many young people
here that come here on Sunday. I believe that some of them,
one of these days, in the next three, four, five years, a lot
of them will make a profession, and they'll confess their faith
in Christ. But how do you get in this church?
By birth. God's got to come and quicken you. Give you life. Then
He's got to call you. And the Holy Spirit brings you.
Now, joining the church isn't the same as being in the church. Joining a local church is not
the same as being in the church. Sincerity won't get you in. But
if you are a member of this church, you are sincere. Works won't
get you in. But if you are a member of this
church, a pearl of great price, this spiritual house, this pillar
and ground of the truth, this flock, if you are a member of
it, you will have good works. But neither one of them will
get you in. Sincerity won't get you in, but once you're in, you'll
be sincere. Works won't get you in, but once
you're in, you'll have good works. Don't you agree with that? I
hope that's a blessing to you. I really do. Our Father, O Lord Jesus, our
blessed Savior, our Redeemer, thou uphold the truth, thou tell
the truth, to be honest with ourselves, to be honest with
our hearers, to be honest with the Word of God. Lord, we thank
you that you gather the people together here and so many other
places. You have a local assembly everywhere,
and you've called them out, and you've brought them together,
and you call them your people. Beloved of the Lord, And God
bless this congregation of believers. Lord, we pray that you meet all
of their needs of ever whole, ever heart. And Father, so afraid that someone is going to one day hear the gospel the last
time and never be affected by it, never be touched by it. Lord,
don't let that happen. If it would please You, don't
let that happen. Father, bring glory to Yourself through us
here. In Thy Lord Jesus Christ's name I pray. Amen. Amen.