I pray that God will indeed be pleased to revive our souls. I wish, I really wish that I could be excited about what I see going on in the religious world around us. I know there is a tremendous resurgence of religion in the nation and in the world. But I'm convinced it's not a resurgence of the worship of God, but a delusion and darkness, the darkness of utter idolatry. But I pray, and I hope you will continue to pray, that God may be pleased in the midst of his wrath to remember mercy and grant a little reviving in the midst of these years. This much I know. the Lord Jesus Christ will build his church regardless. And I want us to look at it here in Matthew chapter 16 verses 13 through 18, or 13 through 20 rather, verses 13 through 20.

When Jesus came to the coast of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, whom do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?" And they said, they said, this is what folks say, some say that thou art John the Baptist, some say that you're Elias, others Jeremias, or one of the prophets. He saith unto them, but whom say ye that I am? And Simon Peter answered and said, thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God.

And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood hath not revealed this unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. And I say unto thee that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven. And whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven. And whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Then charged he his disciples that they should tell no man that he was Jesus the Christ."

Now, in every message that I preach to you, I try earnestly to do three things specifically. I try to give you a word of instruction. I try to teach you something. I want you to come here and go away having profited by the word so that you learn something from the scriptures. And I want to give you a word of comfort.

I want to comfort the hearts of God's elect. Folks who trust Christ need comforting. They need comforting in the midst of this world and the midst of their troubles in this world. And I want to challenge our hearts. That's what I had in mind every time I preached to you, and tonight's no different. I want to teach you something, I want to comfort you, and I want to challenge you by the Word of God and by the Spirit of God.

Now here in Matthew 16, in this paragraph, verses 13 through 20, we have a passage about which theologians and imaginary theologians have argued for 2,000 years. And I have no desire to enter their controversy. I'm not going to try to settle issues, that's not my ambition in life, that's not my desire, but I do want by way of introduction to address some of the parts of this paragraph that perhaps might be most confusing to you, and things that you might have difficulty grasping and understanding simply because of the confusion of words about them.

First, what is the meaning of our Lord's statement, upon this rock? I will build my church. Now, without question, the Roman Catholic fabrication that Peter was the rock and the foundation on which the Lord Jesus Christ would build his church is totally ludicrous. It is utterly foolish to imagine that the Lord Jesus, the Son of God, would build God's holy temple upon a rock of a fallen, sinful, depraved man like you and me.

And that's exactly what Peter was. as was evidenced from the scriptures. I think sometimes one of the reasons that God in his providence allowed and then recorded Peter's terrible falls is because of the foresight of omniscience, the Lord God recognizing, understood the terrible perversions of Romanism with regard to Peter, who was the imaginary first Pope of Rome. of all the apostles, more is said about his sin than any other, to make us understand that he was by no means an infallible man. Such an exaltation of Peter, that is to make him above the rest of the apostles, to stand out as the founding father of the church, is totally contrary to the spirit of Christianity, to the spirit of Christ, and to the clear teachings of our Lord Jesus. You remember when The two disciples came, the mother came, and James and John, and asked that one should sit on his right hand and the other on his left hand in his kingdom.

The Lord Jesus said, you don't know what you're asking. And then he gives the parables showing that all shall be equal in the kingdom of God. Not any indication by that that all of God's saints are going to do the same thing, or all of them are going to be involved in the same activity at the same time, in heaven's glory, not at all. But in heaven's glory we shall go about the business of serving our God in perfection and in equality in the place where he puts us, so that there will be no distinctions among men as there is now. I received a letter from a good friend the other day who refers to himself as a layman, and I said, please don't put that barrier between us. There's no such thing as clergy and laity in the kingdom of God.

That belongs over in Rome, not here. In this house, in the kingdom of God, we're one, and we shall be perfectly one in heaven's glory. So to have the notion that somehow Peter was to be the rock on which the Lord would build his church is totally ludicrous. The rock that is mentioned here, upon which Christ says he will build his church, was Peter's confession. Not Peter. Let me show you that. Hold your hands here in Matthew 16, and turn to Ephesians chapter 1. Ephesians, the first chapter. I'm sorry, the second chapter. Ephesians, chapter 2, verse 20.

The apostle says, concerning us who have come to Christ, that we are built upon the foundation of the apostles. Not built on the apostles, but built on the same foundation as the apostles were built upon. And what is that? The confession of the apostles and the prophets.

Jesus Christ himself. being the chief cornerstone, in whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord, in whom ye also are built together for inhabitation of God through the Spirit. The Apostle Paul says again in 1 Corinthians 3 verse 11, other foundations can no man lay than that that is laid, and the foundation that is laid is Jesus Christ the Lord. All right, well what is the meaning of our Lord's promise? I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven."

Now you wouldn't believe all the gobbledygook I've heard and read over the years on that subject. Again, the papal doctrine that Peter and his successors, the popes and priests of Rome, as they dream, have the power to admit souls into heaven is a delusion. Peter does not stand at the pearly gate to decide who goes in and who doesn't. in spite of all the jokes to the contrary. The one who has the power to open and to shut the gates of glory, according to Revelation 118, is Jesus Christ who says, I open and no man can shut, I shut and no man can open. The Lord Jesus Christ then has that power and that alone. This sentence then, I will give thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven, appears to have no greater and no less meaning than this.

By God's special decree, Apostle Peter was ordained to be the first messenger, the first preacher of the gospel after the resurrection to the Jews and to the Gentiles. He was the man by whose instrumentality God was pleased to open the doors of salvation and eternal life into the kingdom of heaven in this world after the Lord Jesus rose from the dead. You remember in Acts chapter 2, he proclaimed Jesus Christ the exalted King to the Jews. And then he went over in chapter 10 to the house of Cornelius, and there Peter was the first one by whose mouth the Gentiles also heard the message of God's free grace.

And Peter seems to have an allusion to this in Acts 15. Here in Acts chapter 15, you remember the council at Jerusalem. Peter stands to speak after some controversy had been raised. He rose up, in verse 7, after much disputing, Peter rose up and said unto them, Men and brethren, you know how that a good while ago God made choice among us.

That is, God decided something. God evidently had decreed something and he demonstrated it. That the Gentiles, by my mouth, should hear the word of the gospel and believe. And God, which knoweth the hearts, bare them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as he did unto us, and put no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith."

And so Peter obviously is referring to this where the Lord Jesus said, I'll give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven. So Peter goes out and preaches the gospel first, opening up the kingdom of heaven to the Gentiles and to the Jews after the Lord Jesus had risen from the dead. But then we look at the last words of verse 19, and ask, what do these mean? Whosoever or whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.

Again, I have to say what it doesn't mean. It certainly does not mean, this sentence certainly does not imply that the Lord Jesus gave Peter the power to forgive sins and to absolve sins. Even when I see it in a TV program or on a newsreel or I see it in some kind of a movie on TV and I hear a man speaking to a man, putting his hands on that person or speaking through a screen and saying your sins are absolved or will be absolved. I think how utterly blasphemous can a man be in darkness and in No man has the power to forgive your sins. No man has the power to absolve you of guilt.

No basis can be found for that anywhere in the word of God. That is totally, totally contrary to the gospel. This text, again, has nothing whatsoever to do with church discipline. I've heard a good many messages, I shouldn't call them messages, a good many sermons of one kind or another, from fellows trying to teach real straight church discipline and saying the Lord gave his church the power to bind man's sins or to forgive man's sins according to discipline and in the day of judgment what the church does in discipline is going to come up again. Well, that's so foolish and so contrary to the message of free grace that it shouldn't even happen, should never even be brought up. But the idea that somehow God is going to deal with believers again on the basis of their sin, is totally contrary to the gospel. Where the scripture says, blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. Where the scripture says, who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect. So obviously the text doesn't have any reference to that.

What the text does teach is this. Peter and the apostles were commissioned to teach the way of salvation with inspired authority. J.C. Ryle gave a good illustration. He said, as the Old Testament priest declared authoritatively whose leprosy was cleansed, so the apostles were appointed to declare and pronounce authoritatively whose sins were forgiven. How did they do so? This is how they did so.

Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. They declared authoritatively that God had purified their hearts by faith, even as ours. He put no difference between us and them. They are saved by the grace of God, even as we. And so the apostles, speaking the word with clarity and with authority, as inspired writers of the New Testament, have shown us the message of Jesus Christ, how that salvation comes to all who believe, and every sinner, Believing on Christ looks to God who is just and the justifier of him that believeth. And so the Lord God here tells Peter, I'll give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven, you go preach it, and this is what's declared, that salvation comes to all who believe, and whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.

And so that is bound and fixed. Not only that, but as the apostles of Christ were inspired to write the scriptures, They were inspired of God to lay down and establish the rules and regulations by which the church of God must be governed throughout all generations. Now those things which they made binding are binding. You read the New Testament, in conjunction with the Old, for the two or one revelation from God. But as the apostles completed the canon of Holy Scripture, by divine inspiration. They wrote with infallible accuracy that which is the true doctrine of God our Savior, the gospel of God's free grace through Jesus Christ, the sinner's substitute. They declared the ordinances of the gospel.

Baptism and the Lord's Supper. People ask all the time why we're so insistent about baptism by immersion. Somebody said, I was reading about Immersion being a mode of baptism, I said, wait a minute, it's not a mode. Immersion is not a mode of baptism. Immersion is baptism. Anything else is something other than baptism.

By immersion, we confess our faith in Jesus Christ the Lord. And we must insist upon it because the Word of God insists upon it. And any other ideas concerning baptism are founded and arise from something other than the Word of God. We observe the Lord's table. with unleavened bread and wine. We observe it with simplicity, without show, without pomp, without ceremony. We just observe the Lord suffer a simple ordinance of Christ by which we remember him. And we do it as we do because that's exactly how it was done in the New Testament and that's what the scriptures teach. We are given these things so that we are taught how to worship our God according to his will.

Now somebody may think, Those are just small things and they don't really matter. I'll tell you what you do. Go find Uzzah and ask him if small things matter. You remember Uzzah? He's the fellow who reached out to stabilize the ark as it was about to slip into the mud going across the ravine.

And God had said, don't let a man touch that. And others with good intentions, others with what must have been noble desires, others without even thinking that's the problem. Some of us do things without thinking what God said. Others said, I've got to put my hand to this thing. And putting his hand to it, he put his hand to God's salvation. And God killed him. God killed him.

Small things do better in the worship of God. The Apostles, with inspired, infallible writing, gave us the rule of God's kingdom to be pastors preaching the word of God, so that pastors have the rule over you. Not that pastors somehow steamroll over God's kingdom, not at all. But with love and pathology, with the word of God's servants are sent to declare to you the word of God and that which is your responsibility as the people and servants of God in this generation. Now, all matters of indifference, they left as matters of indifference. Those are the things that are spoken of when he says, whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. so that there is no specific word from God concerning some things. Let me show you, the apostles were very careful to do this.

Turn over to Acts chapter 15 again. Acts 15 verse 19. The council at Jerusalem was over circumcision, whether the Gentiles should be circumcised and so on. It was over the keeping of the law, whether the Gentiles should be brought in bondage to the law as the Jews had been. And in verse 19, the Apostle speaks and says, wherefore my sentence is that we trouble them not, which from among the Gentiles are turned to God. Don't lay any yoke upon that. Don't do that. The Apostle Paul takes it up in Romans 14. In Romans chapter 14, he said, who are you that you should judge another man's servant? Now this is the meaning of that.

No man, no church, no denomination, no religious body has the right or the authority to add to the Word of God anything with regard to doctrine or anything with regard to binding obligations on the consciences of men. That's the reason we don't have a confession of faith. We don't have a creed that we require folks to sign. Because anything that is written out other than this word is giving equal authority to it when we turn around and say, no, you've got to sign this. You can't be part of this church. And we dare not do that. We just dare not do that. Folks say, well, that'll keep the church strong. No. Faith in this book and obedience to this book will keep the church strong.

Nothing else will. Folks that know this, they'll ignore anything I write. But we, more than anything else, The point is, we don't have the right under God to make such rules and regulations either of doctrine or of practice. We have no right under God to invent things or add things to the lives of people as regulatory principles by which they must live and govern their lives. This book is God's law. That's all. This is it.

And we must leave it to each individual believer to apply the word through his own life and by the Spirit of God as God directs you. I know that folks who love Christ and know something about the blessed liberty that's ours in Christ understand what I'm saying. And other folks see that as a very dangerous, dangerous thing. Well, you can't just leave it to people to decide what they're going to do.

Oh, yeah. You're all adults, aren't you? You're grown men and women. I've got a daughter now who's 24 years old. She lives over in Lexington, and I keep trying to give her hints and directions because I realize she still needs some hints and directions, but she's a grown woman. She makes life on her own. She pays her own way. She pays her own bills. She gets up and goes to work every day. She fixes supper every evening. She takes care of all things in her household. She's fixing to get married.

I don't try to have her obey me anymore. You understand? Now, I appreciate the fact she honors me. I appreciate the fact that she shows reverence to me as her father. But she no longer needs me to tell her where to go, what to do, when to get up, what to wear, what to eat, and so on. It'd be silly. It'd be utterly silly for me to try to treat her that way. She's a grown woman.

And the thing is, I'm saying in this matter of the kingdom of God, you who are born of God are raised up in the household of faith as men and women of faith. And God Almighty has given you the privilege and responsibility of living in this world for His glory with the freedom of men and women who love Christ. Now honor Him. Honor Him. Seek to above everything you do, you seek to honor him. Don't ever, don't ever dishonor him. When you dishonor him, repent of it and seek to honor him.

But I will not, this congregation will not, lay down rules and regulations, say you gotta wear this, you gotta eat this, you can't go here, you can't go there, you gotta touch that, this way you, you, that's nonsense. That's utter nonsense. The authority and power that these apostles had began with them and it ended with him. It has never been given to anyone else. I am not an infallible teacher and no other man is an infallible teacher.

This book alone and only is our rule of faith and practice. Now I hope that helps you to understand the difficult parts of this passage of scripture. Let me point you to some of the comforting things here. Remember that here, here confessed, thou art the Christ, the son of the living God. And that confession is the foundation rock upon which the kingdom and church of our God is built. Now here are five blessed things spoken of in this passage of scripture. I'll give them to you very briefly, but I think you'll find them helpful. First, there is a blessed, blessed confession given here.

At first glance, Peter's confession to a careless reader might appear to be somewhat insignificant. But there is everything about this confession to make it an extraordinary thing to understand. The more I study it, the more I understand the background of it, the more extraordinary and the more blessed it appears to me. For two reasons. First, because of the circumstances under which it was made. And secondly, because of the content of it.

Now remember, Peter made this confession of faith when all the rest of the world was opposed to Christ. All the rest of the world. All the world around him. All his friends, all his family, all his religious leaders, all the political leaders around him in his nation. the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the scribes, the lawyers, the priests, everybody was opposed to Jesus Christ.

Now they were perfectly willing. They were perfectly willing to say he's a good man. They were perfectly willing to say he's a great, great prophet. They were even willing to say that this man is a prophet who has come back from the dead, John the Baptist. or Elijah, or Jeremiah, or one of the old prophets raised from the dead, but to declare that he is the Christ, the son of the living God, brought nothing but wrath and enmity from the cross.

And Peter made this confession of faith in the teeth of such opposition. This confession of faith was made by a man of tremendous faith, character, commitment, and zeal. takes too much of a beating in the church. He takes too much lashing from the pulpit. Peter made terrible mistakes. He committed great evils, no question about that. His thawing, his cursing and denying that he knew the man Christ Jesus, his forsaking of the Lord Jesus in his hour of sorrow and suffering, his sleeping and Gethsemane, his many, many thoughts and failures.

There's no attempt to cover those up. But generally, fellows who make great mistakes, or at least fellows who are doing something. You find somebody who never makes any mistakes, or find somebody who's never done anything. The Apostle Peter was a man who was equally zealous as he was weak. He was equally zealous and fervent and faithful as he was at times clumsy and ignorant, and at all times recognized he had those faults. But Peter was a man of commitment.

He followed the Lord Jesus. When he said to him, though all these forsake you, I'll die with you. Now Peter needed to learn something about his weakness, and he needed to be taken down a notch or two, but he was telling the truth. Rod, he did die with him, didn't he? He sure did. This man, Peter, confessed Christ with zeal and fervency. He confessed Christ with a true hearted love and faith as the servant of our God. Would to God we had more men like Peter.

Now, look at the content of his confession as well. Looking in the face of the Son of Man, he was looking at Jesus Christ just exactly like I'm looking at Bob Pontier right now. on the closer to it. He was looking at Jesus Christ in human flesh, just like you, just like you, only a little younger, just exactly like you in human flesh. And he said, you, that man right there, is the Christ, the son of the living God. What a confession. What a confession. He said in this confession that the man standing before him is himself God the eternal Father. At a time when it seemed that nobody else knew it except him and the God standing in front of him.

He confessed that this despised Nazarene, this poor carpenter son is the Christ not a Messiah, not a Redeemer, not a Savior, but THE Christ, THE Christ promised in the Old Testament Scriptures of whom all the prophets spoke, THE Christ, who would come to save and deliver his people. Now, I don't even pretend to imagine that I know what all Peter knew. I don't. I don't know how much he knew and how much he didn't know. But he knew that Jesus, the man, was the Christ, the Son of the Living God. He knew his Savior. He knew him. And knowing him, he confessed. Do you? Do you know him? Do you confess him?

That's exactly what Peter sets an example for us to do here. To confess him, who is the Christ, the Son of the Living God, and confess him publicly in the Now secondly, here in verse 17, is a blessed man. The Lord Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood hath not revealed unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. Now Peter was a truly blessed man. The only blessed man in this world are men and women who are saved by God's free grace. Many women who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.

I don't have any idea who the man was. It was a young black man out in Oklahoma City. Interviewed on the news a few nights ago. Some of you may have seen him. I don't have any idea who he was, what his faith was. I have hope, maybe. Maybe he's one who has been taught something of God's free grace.

He was on the fourth floor of that building when the bomb exploded, and he fell inside, down to the first floor, and walked out. Walked out with a bruise or two. And the newscast, as they were announcing it, said, we're going to talk to a man who cheated death today. And the lady sits in and said, you must feel awfully lucky. He said, I feel awfully blessed. Blessed.

Big, big difference. Big, big difference. One who is blessed is blessed by somebody. One who is lucky has just fallen into a mess of luck for a change. He's just going about and worships something called, hey, something called determination without personality. One is blessed. Blessed of God. Peter was blessed of God. This man's blessedness was obvious because of his faith. He was blessed of God with spiritual understanding. And this spiritual understanding is the gift of God.

Peter said, I see. And I confess, thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God. And the Lord Jesus said, you didn't learn that by makeshift by that. You didn't just happen on that. You're blessed of God. My father, my father taught you that. Those who are taught of God, have spiritual understanding and come to Christ in faith. They are indeed given the mind of Christ so that they know all things. They know his voice and follow him. Being blessed of God. Peter was a man blessed by divine decree before the world began. Now let me ask you, do you believe him? Do you trust the son of God? Do you acknowledge him to be the Christ, the son of the living God? If so, my father revealed that to you. And the fact that you now believe him is proof and evidence that you're blessed of God with all spiritual blessings and heavenly places in Christ Jesus before the world began.

And he was distinctly blessed by distinguishing grace. That which set Peter apart from all other men in his generation, and these apostles, that which set them apart from all other men in their generation, was the free grace of God. So that the apostle Paul later wrote, who maketh thee to differ from another? And what hast thou that thou didst not receive? Now if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory as if thou hadst not received it?

Now thirdly, here is a blessed foundation. upon this rock I will build my church. The foundation upon which God's church is built, the foundation on which our souls are built, the foundation upon which our faith and our hope is built is the rock Christ Jesus.

It is a foundation laid by God before the world began. He said, behold, I lay in Zion a foundation stone. You read it in Isaiah 28, 16. It's a sure foundation. It's elect. It's precious. This foundation is Christ the Lord. Sure. That is, there's no question concerning the stability of this foundation. It's a foundation that has been laid by God. You can safely build upon it. This foundation is a precious foundation. like precious gems, like precious stones, unto you that believe he's precious. And this foundation is one that's indestructible.

Back here in Matthew chapter 7, our Lord Jesus gives a parable in verse 24. Whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, that is, whoever believes on me, I will liken him to a wise man which built his house on a rock, And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat upon that house.

Rains of trouble, and winds of adversity, and floods of sorrow beat on that house, and it fell not. How come? It's found in a rock. And everyone that heareth these things of mine, and doeth them not, you who believe not, shall be likened unto a foolish man which built his house upon the sand. And the same rains of trouble, the same winds of adversity, the same floods of sorrow came and beat on that house. And it fell. How come? It was built on the sand. That's how it comes. We built on the rock Christ Jesus. And building on that rock, we built on a sure foundation.

A foundation that's indestructible. A foundation which cannot be destroyed. When the psalmist says, if the foundations be destroyed, and he uses that word if just as an argument, if the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do? Oh, but bless God, the foundation can't be destroyed.

It's a tribe foundation. Many have been building upon him for thousands of years. And this foundation unites. He's the chief cornerstone in whom we are all fitly framed together. built up in habitation of God, a holy temple in habitation of God through the Spirit. And then in verse 18, here's a blessed promise. Oh, what a blessed promise it is.

And I say unto thee also, that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Perhaps no word in the Bible has been more misunderstood, more abused, and more confusing to men than the word church. What is this church which the Son of God calls my church?

It is not this local city. It's just not. It's just not. If this local assembly follows the pattern of Ephesus, Philadelphia, Thyatira, Corinth, Galatia, and all others named in the New Testament, one day she will wither and die. So it's not talking about a local church. It's not talking about a religious denomination. It just isn't.

Religious denominations are the inventions of men, all of them, with no exception. The church that he's talking about here is his body. The word church simply means called out ones. That's all it is. It's a called out people. A people called out of this world, assembled around the throne of God. A spiritual assembly, not a carnal assembly. It's the church which is his body. Now what did our Lord here promise his church? He promises that he will build his church. I'll build my church. I'll build it.

Sometimes we foolishly imagine that we do it. And I'll tell you what, anything that we build, anything I build, anything you build, anything we build collectively and call it the building of God's church, it's just wood, hay and stubble and it'll burn. You can bank on it, you can bank on it. Now churches and preachers can get all kinds of tricks and gimmicks up their sleeve trying to make it look like things are happening. And you can get all kinds of decisions out of folks and you can run folks in and run them out and you can get things going.

But I'm telling you, anything we do in the arm of the flesh doesn't honor God. The building of God's church doesn't depend on me and I can't do it. The building of God's church doesn't depend on you and you can't do it. He says, I'll build my church. How? Through the faithful preaching of the word. through the witness of my people, I'll build my church." But the building of the church is his work, his work alone.

And he says concerning this church that he will build through the preaching of the gospel by the power of his spirit, the gates of hell shall not prevail against him. What on earth does that mean? Though visible churches do wither and die, not one member of Christ's mystical body not one member of his church, that church of which he's the head and we're members, that church which is his kingdom, that church which is his bride, that church which is his body, not one member shall perish at last. The head is safe and all the members are safe. The gates of hell shall not prevail against his church.

I preached to you Sunday morning from Exodus 13, or Exodus 3 rather, and as I read that Third chapter of Exodus, we read about the burning bush. The glory of God was in that bush, and it burned with fire, and yet it wasn't consumed. Moses said, I'll turn aside and see this great sight, why the bush is not burned. And the same could be said concerning God's church, for it is like that bush.

The glory of God resides here. the gospel of God's free grace in Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit of God meets in this place as we're assembled together in Christ's name. We've come to Mount Zion, the city of the living God, the New Jerusalem, the innumerable company of angels and the spirits of just men made perfect, the church of the firstborn. We've come to Mount Zion. And this Mount Zion, this city of God, this church and kingdom of God burns and burns.

But it's not consumed. Though persecution comes against it, the fires of adversity come against it, it's not burned. It's not consumed. Why? Because it's His church. And somehow or another, the perfection of Christ is our mediator. And the everlasting salvation of His elect, His church, are wrapped up with one another. And He cannot be complete without us. That's what the scripture says.

Turn to Ephesians 1. Ephesians chapter 1. This foolish doctrine of the once saved and once lost, this notion that somehow a fellow can be saved today and lost tomorrow, that Christ may after all lose some of His elect, does more than rob the saints of their comfort. It robs Christ of His glory and His completion and His perfection as a Savior. Look here in Ephesians 1 verse 22.

Verse 21 rather, far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that's named, not only in this world, but also in the world to come, and hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be head over all things to the church. Now look at the last verse, which is his body, the fullness of him that filleth all in all. In other words, without his church, He's not full. If one member of his body is missing, his body's not complete.

That's the security of God's saints. The gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And then our Lord gives this blessed gift to Peter. In verse 19, I give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven. Now Peter has given them to us. I hear the word. The apostles have given them to us. We can't open, we can't shut, but I can tell you whose sins are remitted. I can tell you.

Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ hath everlasting life. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. He speaks plainly. Christ Jesus brought in righteousness. That's the message declared in this book. He put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. And every sinner who believes him has everlasting life. That's the message that's declared here as Peter opens up the kingdom of heaven to sinners such as you and I are. As the apostles, with the preaching of the word, open up the gospel to the world.

Now look at verse 20 for just a minute. Here's the charge reversed. Then charged he his disciples that they should tell no man that he was Jesus the Christ. That looks strange, doesn't it, Robert? The reason he said don't tell anybody is because his hour hadn't come yet. The time had not come for him to be exalted. The time had not come for him to either be lifted up to the throne or to be lifted up on the cross. His time had not yet come. But now that he has been lifted up upon the cursed tree to die, and now that he's been lifted up on his throne, he says, go ye into all the world and tell everybody. Go tell everybody that he is Jesus, the Christ, the son of the living God. Amen. May God add his blessings to that portion of his word.