Good morning. I invite your attention to the
Gospel according to Matthew chapter 16. My text will be found in
verse number 18. The title of my message is, The
Church of Christ. Note in your bulletins that there
were two hymns to the same tune. included in the bulletin. The
hymn we sang was written by John Calvin. He was a prolific writer on theological subjects and an
eminent preacher, wrote his messages out. But to the best of our knowledge,
he wrote only five hymns. Only two of them have been translated
into English. And we sang that one this morning,
I greet thee, who my sure Redeemer art. And after this message this
morning, we will sing the second hymn to the tune. Actually, it
was to be to the tune of Toulon, which was composed by Louis Bourgeois,
who was a song leader in Geneva at the time of John Calvin. and
one of the foremost hymn or tune writers for the Geneva Psalter. And the hymn we're going to sing
at the Lord's Table by Horatius Bonar is probably my favorite
hymn for the Lord's Table. Hear, O my Lord, I see thee face
to face. So glad to see all of you here
this morning on this cold and snowy morning and delighted that
the Lord has enabled us to be here safely this morning. It's
good to see some who have not been feeling well lately are
here with us today and we pray that the others that are still
ill will be able to be back with us soon. Matthew's Gospel chapter
16. I'm going to begin reading. Verse 13, when Jesus came into the coast
of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, whom do
men say that I, the Son of Man, am? Now consider, he identifies
himself as the Son of Man. Our Lord was a humble person. did not speak of himself here
as the son of God. He said, I'm just the son of
man. But who do men say that I am? And Simon Peter, both his names, Simon and Peter,
have to do with the word rock. We're going to come to that directly.
And Simon Peter answered and said, thou art the Christ, the
Son, pardon me, verse 14. And they said, some say that
thou art John the Baptist, who has already been called to glory,
martyred for his faith, beheaded because of his faithfulness to
the gospel. John the Baptist. Some say you're
John the Baptist, come back. Some say you are Elias or Elijah,
and others, Jeremiah, one of the prophets. All these prophets
were eminent men, had already been called to glory, and here
comes Jesus Christ, the Son of Man, and people are saying, it
looks like one of the prophets has come back to visit us. 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
bar Jonah, for Simon's son of Jonah. For
flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which
is in heaven. And I say also unto thee that
thou art Peter, and here's my text, and upon this rock I will
build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against
it. We're going to look at that subject
of the church of Christ. I will build my church, Jesus
said. That word Translated church in
our English text means congregation assembly. It actually does not
so much refer to a building. It is more of the congregation
and the assembly that is in the building. That's the church.
Jesus is talking about a church he will build on a rock that
will never cease. Now when you read the scriptures
you'll find sometimes the word churches and sometimes the word
church. It is because the Lord has many
churches or congregations. We have one right here in Great
Falls. But then there is another aspect
of this church in which there is but one. over all the earth. We're speaking of that church
this morning. That's the church of which Jesus here speaks when
he says, I will build my church. He does not say, I will build
my churches. I will build my church. His churches
are being built by him, but he here is speaking of that one
congregation, that one assembly, that one church that he is building
and that which will never cease. Churches generally last for a
generation. There was a time when this church
was not here, did not exist. I wish I could say that it will
always continue here It doesn't work that way, folks.
What we hear in joy in Great Falls will probably be like just about
all other churches, and it'll serve our generation, perhaps
the generation of our children. And then churches just go their
own way. That's sad. That is so very sad. But here is one church, and the
gates of hell shall never prevail against her. We're going to consider
her this morning. We're going to consider, first
of all, that Christ is the owner and master of his church. He calls it my church. My church. It's mine. I want to be in His church. I
want to be in that church of which Jesus says, Moses in my
church. I care not to be in the churches
of others, but if I could be in His, my church. This is God's congregation which
you have purchased of old. Psalm 74 verse 2. Notice, your congregation which
you purchased of old. When was the Church of Christ
purchased? Well, you may say at Calvary. That's true. That's true. We're
going to come to that in a moment. But here is an Old Testament
text. A thousand years or more, Jesus
Christ died on Calvary, and the psalmist says, you purchased
your congregation a long time ago. Of old. When would that
have been? Before the foundation of the
world, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, shed in
that land slain from the foundation of the world. From old eternity,
God has purchased his congregation. There was never a time when God
had an unredeemed congregation on this earth. Of all you have
purchased your congregation from old eternity. Second, this is
the church of God which he purchased with his own blood. Acts 20,
verse 28. Now, watch that statement very
carefully. It is the church of God which
he, who is God, purchased with his own blood. Now that is awesome. God's blood purchased His church. Explain that to me, please. The
church of God, which God purchased with God's own blood. God is spirit, has no blood, no flesh, no sinew,
no muscle. except in the person of Jesus
Christ, the God-man. And when he died on Calvary,
he who is God purchased the church of God with God's own blood. Third, this is the church which
is Christ's body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.
The church which is his body, Scriptures do not speak of individual
churches such as this one as being the body of Christ. If so, Christ would have many
bodies. But He has only one. There is one body. And all of
us are members of it. All of us who through faith in
Jesus Christ have come to be God's children. We're all in
this one body. There is one body across the
face of this earth. One body. It is his church. He's the head of it. Number four,
this is the church whose ministers are appointed by God. 1 Corinthians
12, 28, and God has appointed these in the church. First, apostles,
the twelve of the New Testament. Second, the prophets, those of
the Old Testament. And third, the teachers, or in
another passage, pastor teachers. There's one standing in front
of you this morning. He is not an apostle, he is not
a prophet, but he is a teacher. Hopefully he's going to be teaching
something this morning and hopefully it will be easily understood
and you will learn. The Lord has put these in here.
Why? He gives the reason for the equipping of the saints,
for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ.
Now, other churches have their own ministers, but we're looking
at the church that Jesus calls my church. Fifth, this is the
general assembly in Church of the Firstborn who are registered
in heaven. Notice, general assembly. It is comprised of all God's
children. Who are they? all whose names
are written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation
of the world." Their names are registered in heaven. God's got
a book, a book of life. They're in heaven. And the names
of all God's elect chosen in Christ before time began are
inscribed therein. And this church is comprised
of all whose names are there recorded. This is the congregation
of the righteous, Psalm 115. Blessed is the man who does not
walk in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stand in the way of sinners,
nor sit in the seat of the scornful." Then we read about the unjust,
and we read, they shall not stand in the congregation of the righteous.
The Lord has a congregation of the righteous. It is also called
the congregation of the just. It is people who are righteous
in God's sight. They are righteous through the imputation of the
righteousness wrought by Jesus Christ unto them. They are righteous
by God's grace. They are righteous through a
righteous nature having been put into them when they became
partakers of the divine nature. They stand upright in God's presence. There may be sinners in our local
congregations. There is none in the congregation
of the righteous, not a single one. This is furthermore, this
is the house of God, which is the church of the living God.
God's church is a house. And by the way, in that house
is a family and it also is his church. This church is a very
comprehensive thing. Number eight, this church of
the living God is the pillar and ground of the truth. And
the truth is Jesus Christ. He said, I am the truth. This
pillar upholds Christ to the world. This ground is stable. I would hope that Christ is being upheld this morning
here in Great Falls on steady ground and a high and strong
pillar. This is the way it is in the
pillar and ground of the truth. Number nine, this church is comprised
of Christ's brethren. He declares to his Father, I
will declare your name to my brethren in the midst of the
congregation. I will sing praise to you. I
never read that text without being reminded that Jesus
said, I will sing praise to you in
the midst of the congregation. I hope you do not thank me to
be irreverent when I say I would have loved to have heard
him sing, and he did, he did. On the night that he established
and ordained the Lord's Supper, the scripture says, they sang
a hymn. Jesus concluded the Lord's Supper
and said, brethren, let us sing, and they sang a song, and Jesus
sang with them. Well, if Jesus would sing in
the congregation, We should not be silent, should we? In the
midst of the congregation, I will sing praise to you, he says. And if you're going to sing with
Jesus, and you do, he's here this morning,
walking up in the midst of his churches. He's singing with us,
you just didn't hear him. But bear in mind, he sings nothing
but hymns that are of praise to God. I will sing praise to
you. Let me say this. Our brother Mitch said this morning,
request Sunday, so we're going to sing requests. I rejoiced
at the hymns you folks requested. When I can read my title clear
to mansions in the sky, oh the deep, deep love of Jesus. Turn your eyes upon Jesus, and
it's good when you get a request Sunday, and these are all hymns
that Jesus would sing with us. This church's Christ's wife,
His wife, He betrothed her to Himself in Hosea 2.19. He said, I will betroth you to
me forever, yes I will betroth you to me in righteousness, in
justice, in loving kindness, in mercy, in faithfulness and
you shall know that I am Jehovah. I asked a woman to marry me Jehovah says, I didn't ask you,
I betrothed you to me. I betrothed you to me. And you
will know who I am, and I'm going to show you the glory of my salvation. He identified himself to her
as both her maker and God in Isaiah 54.5, saying, your maker
is your husband, and Jehovah of hosts is his name. I suppose there are men, surely
none within these walls, but there are some men somewhere
who would like to be able to make their own wife. Or some men say, you're perfect,
but then they try to change her and make her into something else.
Well, Jehovah did make his own wife, and she is perfect. Your maker is your husband. And
Jehovah of Hosts is his name. Now, won't you then notice that
all the texts we've considered thus far are in the Old Testament. In the Old Testament. Some say
the Church of Christ is simply a New Testament entity, having
no existence in the Old Testament. Not true. Not true. Jehovah in
the spiritual realm has ever had only one church. He has never divorced her. She
has never left him. From Old Testament times, she's
described in Ephesians 5. I'm not going to take the time
to explain it. It's a lengthy passage. But I
will tell you this. He says, I will present you to
myself as a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or
any such thing, and shall be married to him at the marriage
of the Lamb. At the end of this day, at the
end of this day and age in which we live, when our Lord Jesus
returns to earth, He's going to gather His church
and there's going to be a marriage. And Jesus and his bride will
be wed. They are betrothed now, but they're
betrothed in the Hebrew sense. They're not merely engaged as
we do in our Occidental cultures. But according to Oriental culture,
when you betrothed yourself to a woman, you were married. Legally
married. The marriage was not yet consummated,
but you were legally married. And here is Jesus Christ saying,
I have betrothed you to me. You are mine. And at the end,
at the final day, this is going to be a marriage ceremony. And
then through eternity, she is called the Lamb's wife. She's
descending from God out of heaven. And the angel says to John, come,
let me show you the Lamb's wife, the wife of Jesus Christ. Notice,
descending from God out of heaven, adorned all so beautifully. Well, that's his church. That's
Christ's church. I will build my church. This
is the church that Jesus is building. Consider the second main point,
Christ is the founder and builder of the church. He says, I will
build my church, and this is in fulfillment of the prophecy
in Zechariah 6, verse 12. Jehovah said, He will build my
temple. Ah, the church is a temple as
well, a temple. He did not say he will build
a tabernacle. He said he will build a temple.
There's a difference between a tabernacle and a temple. Both
the tabernacle and the temple are houses of worship. Israel
worshiped in the tabernacle in the wilderness. In the day of
Solomon, no longer in a tabernacle but in a temple. Tabernacle was
a tent. take it down and move it along.
It wears out eventually. A temple is a permanent structure. And Jehovah says he shall build
a temple. A temple it will never seize
from the earth. Christ is yet building his church.
He says I will build my church. Some men have talked about the
church that Jesus built. Well, he's not yet built it.
He's building it. It is still under construction.
And we as living stones are being built up a spiritual house. And
every time the Lord saves one of his children, he cuts that
stone out, shapes it out, and lays it course by course and
level upon level. And he's still building this
house as long as the Lord is saving people. The Lord is still
building this house. And the Lord added to the church
dailies such as were being saved. As soon as they were saved, they
were added to the church. This is the church that Jesus
is building. He adds a member to it every
time he saves that one. Third, Christ is the rock and
foundation of this church. He said, on this rock I will
build my church. Now, some say, but he was talking
about Peter. You are Peter, and upon this
rock I will build my church. But look carefully, and it does
not show up that much in our English text, but in the Greek
text, Jesus says, you are Petros, and on this Petra I will build
my church. There's a difference, a subtle
difference in the Greek words. Petros, a small stone. Petra, an immovable rock. And Jesus says upon this Petra
I will build my church. He didn't say I'm going to build
it on Peter. Some say the Lord built the church on Peter. I suppose some folk are content
to be built on a church built on some man. I never wanted to
be a member of a church that was built on some man. Jesus
says, I will build my church on this rock. This rock is Jesus
Christ himself. It'll never fall. At the end of the Sermon on the
Mount, Jesus said, wise man built his house upon
a rock. Petra, rock, a wise man. Was there ever a wiser man on
this earth than Jesus Christ? He built a house. Where did he
build it? On the sand? No. On a rock. And it's still standing. The winds have come, the billows
have come, the waves have assailed, and because Christ is the rock
on which Christ the wise man built his house, it still stands. And he is the cornerstone and
foundation of this church. Isaiah 28, 16, he is the precious
cornerstone and sure foundation. Now what is a cornerstone? All
right, it's the most important part of building a house, a cornerstone. Notice it has corners, four of
them. It's rectangular in shape. You
dig your foundation, you put your foundation down in the earth,
and you have this rectangular cornerstone. You lay it down
into the earth. And the walls are going to follow
the lines on that cornerstone wherever they go. It's going
to be square. The building is going to be square.
There's the cornerstone. That marks the place where the
building is being built. That marks the place where the
foundation begins to be laid. Notice that Jesus Christ is a
precious cornerstone and a sure foundation. What is a sure foundation? If you're going to build a house,
you're going to go down until you hit rock. If you cannot find
rock, you make one. You pour your concrete in there
to make a rock. Well, Jesus Christ has become
the rock of this church. It's a precious cornerstone.
It's a sure foundation. And then number four, the final
point, Christ is the preserver of this church. He said, the
gates of hell shall not prevail against it. The gates of hell
shall not prevail against it. The Greek word here translated
hell is Hades. Hades! That's the place to which the
departed went when they died. And prior to the coming of Jesus
Christ, it was both the righteous and the unrighteous. They all
went to Hades. It was the abode of the dead.
Two places in Hades. One was a place of torment and
the other was Abraham's bosom. The rich man in Lazarus showed
this to us to be true, but everyone who died went to Hades prior to the resurrection
of Jesus Christ. Now, there are gates of Hades. And the gates of Hades shall
not prevail. Interestingly, in the Old Testament,
we read about the gates of Sheol. Sheol corresponds to Hades. Sheol is the Hebrew word in the
Old Testament. Hades is the Greek word in the
New Testament. They both mean the same thing.
In the book of Job, we read about the dead going through the gates
of Sheol. Everyone who died went through
those gates. either into the place of torment
in Hades or to Abraham's bosom in Hades. The church of Christ will never
go through those gates. She will never die. She will
never die. She will never cease from the
earth. But notice that Jesus used the verb prevail and the
gates of Hades shall not prevail against my church. Prevailing
suggests conflict, combat, war, battles. Now, Satan is confined regarding what
he can do to the Church of Christ right now. He's been bound for
a thousand years. He's on a leash and doesn't mean he's completely
inactive. He's not. He's permitted to do
things against the Church of Christ. He's used many men to
wage battles and warfares against the Church of Christ. But in the book of Revelation,
chapter 20, we read that when the thousand years are fulfilled,
Satan shall be released from his prison and shall go forth
out into all the world, deceiving the nations Gog and Magog, and
they shall surround the beloved city. What this world has seen
thus far in persecution and tribulation will pale in comparison to what's
going to happen in that day when Satan is released. when the church of Christ is
completely besieged. They shall besiege the holy city. A battle will be fought. The church will have a battle
like she has never fought before. Besieged by the very gates of
hell. Satan having mustered all his
demonic forces And his forces in the earth, the gates of Hades
have opened and here he comes, besieging the city. And it will appear that all is
about to be lost. And there, the eastern sky is
opened and here comes Emmanuel, El Shaddai, The gates of hell
shall not prevail. He will not permit it. When it
appears that all is gone, when it appears the church has no
hope, when it appears that finally her name will be wiped from the
earth, no, no, no, here he comes, El Shaddai. If you've never read the book
about Mansoul, by John Bunyan, you probably have read Pilgrim's
Progress. You need to read The Holy War
and find out, and Bunyan in his allegorical manner has just brilliantly
set forth how it is that El Shaddai comes to save this church, and
he will, because Jesus will not let Satan And even all the forces
of hell destroy his church. Other religions will be destroyed.
They have their day. Other sects, denominations, they
come, they thrive, they go. But here is a church that will
ever prevail. Christ's church will live forever.
Praise the God who preserves her. Look what we read in Ephesians
3, verses 20 and 21. Now to him who is able to do
exceedingly, abundantly, above all that we ask or think, according
to the power that works in us, To him be glory in the church
by Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen. To him
be glory in the church. Did you catch that expression?
To him be glory in the church. There is only one entity in all
this world. that gives glory to Jesus Christ,
truly gives glory to Jesus Christ, and that is his church. The wicked have risen up, the
heathen are in rebellion against Jehovah and his anointed. Religions
give lip service to him. Jesus says of them You draw near
to me with your lips, but your hearts are far from me. They want to bear his name, call
ourselves a church of Christ, but do what they want to do.
Some nations have at times claimed to be Christian nations. This nation did at one time. Do you suppose they think so
now? Does anybody think this is a Christian nation nowadays? I'll say to you it never was,
really. But there is one entity, unto him be glory, in the church. Now listen, friend. Either you are opposed to Jesus Christ out
in the world, or you are in religion giving mere lip service to Him,
or you are in His church glorifying Him, exalting Him, praising Him. And I hope that before you walk
out that door today, you can confess, I'm in His church, His
church, and I will glorify Him forever. Let the world forsake
Him. Let them turn against Him. Let
them give lip service if they will. I not only will draw nigh
to Him with my lips, but my heart will be joined to his." That, my friend, is the Church
of Christ. And O God, our Father, to the
glory of your name and to the honor of your Son, Jesus Christ, build us. If you will not, we
cannot build ourselves. Build us. Put us on yourself. and enabled us to give you praise
and glory. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.