FBC Morning Worship Service

Oh, good morning.

See on this Lord's day, we have much to be thankful for today, don't we?

We can be thankful that it's not snowing.

We can be thankful that it's warmer right now than it was maybe six hours ago and warmer

than they predicted it to be.

And we can be thankful that, you know, God in his grace has given us health and strength and safety

to be here today and to worship together.

Some of you could give testimony to some ways in which God has providentially protected you

in the past week with weather related stuff or whatever.

Others testimony of clear answers to prayer.

There are a lot to be thankful for.

We stop and think about that, meditate on the Lord and his goodness.

I hope that we can do that today on this Lord's day.

Before we begin our worship service itself, let me just emphasize a couple of things in your bulletin, if I

may.

This evening, we are having a Valentine's dinner for adult couples, those who've signed up for that

anyway.

And originally that was scheduled for six o 'clock.

That time has been moved back to five.

So at five o 'clock at the Bliss's.

So please note that and hope we will have a good time of fellowship.

I know we will.

I know we'll have a good time of fellowship tonight at the Bliss's as we enjoy that dinner together.

And notice that next Sunday, next Lord's day, we'll begin the

after morning service lunchtime and then afternoon service.

And these will be bring your own lunches for the most part.

We'll throw in a special one from time to time, but mostly it'll be a bring your own lunch and have the

fellowship hall set up for you to, you know, we can gather, we'll have some beverage

available, water and coffee available during that time.

But we can stay and have lunch together.

We can fellowship a little bit together and then afternoon service will begin at one o 'clock.

Those will be no longer than an hour in length and should be a

good day.

Looking forward to getting back to that schedule and opportunity, giving us a little more time

together in a maybe less structured setting.

So then the following week, two weeks from today, we have scheduled a planning to have a baptismal service.

If some who need to be baptized will let us know that today that you want to be

baptized on the 28th.

We'll do that, have the time scheduled for that anyway.

And then last thing is the Hope Life baby bottles.

Many of you have already returned those, but we need to have those back by next Sunday.

If you haven't filled it up yet, encourage you to do that and be sure to bring that back next Lord's day.

I think there are a couple of those empties that are still on the table there in the foyer.

Maybe you didn't get an opportunity to participate in that.

You can grab that today.

And if you're like me, you probably have a little change jar or something like that at home and, you know, you throw

your loose change in it.

So you can just take that change jar and that empty baby bottle and just kind of dump and bring it back next Sunday

and it'll be filled.

All right, well, let me read as we begin our worship service this morning, Psalm 133.

Just three verses.

It says, the Psalmist David says, "'Behold, how good and how pleasant it is "'for brethren to

dwell together in unity.

"'It is like the precious ointment upon the head, "'that ran down upon the beard, even Aaron's beard, "'that went

down to the skirts of his garments.

"'As the dew of Hermon and as the dew that descended "'upon the mountains of Zion, "'for there the Lord

commanded the blessing, "'even life forevermore.'".

Thank the Lord for the blessing that he commands upon the mountain of Zion, which ends up standing for

his church and the place of his people meeting together.

So as we begin, we want to ask the Lord to come, the fount of every blessing, tune our hearts to sing his

praise.

Jim, please come and lead us.

Thank you, Pastor.

It's number seven in your hymnals, excuse me, number seven, come thou fount of every

blessing.

All three verses, let's stand together, please, and sing.

Number seven, come thou fount of every blessing.

Come thou fount of blessing, tune my heart to

sing thy praise Streams of mercy never ceasing,

call for songs of loudest praise Teach me the

melodious sonnet sung by flaming tongues above Please the

mount I'm fixed upon it, mount of thy redeeming

love Here I raise mine Ebenezer,

hither by thy side I rise By thy help I'm found, and I hope by thy

good pleasure Safety to it I'll ride at home

Jesus sought me when a stranger, when wrangling

from the fold of God He to rescue me from

danger interposed his precious blood Oh to

grace how great a debtor to

be Let thy goodness like a fetter bind my

wandering heart to thee Prone to wander, Lord I

feel it, prone to leave the God I love Here's my

heart, oh take and seal it, seal it for thy count

above Please remain standing for prayer.

Brother Ed, would you lead us, please?

Our Father, we just, we talk about the weather a lot, Lord, but

our words have no power to change it, and yet we think about

Christ, and his words were powerful, Lord, and he was able to say

to the seas, peace be still, and they fell silent.

And we just look forward to your words, your powerful words

being proclaimed to us today, and we pray that rather than changing

the weather, that would be nice.

We pray that you would change our hearts, Lord, and make us

like you, make us like Christ, and make us, help us to be obedient to you.

And just pray that you would just help us to worship

you in unity this morning, and pray that you would just prepare our hearts to hear your word.

We pray these things in Jesus' name, amen.

Amen, thank you, and you may be seated.

I'll read in the back of your bulletin the first seven verses of Psalm 2,

Psalm 2, verses one through seven.

I urge you to follow along there in your bulletin as I read these first seven verses of this

second Psalm.

Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing?

Kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against his anointed,

saying, let us break their bands asunder and cast away their cords from us.

He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh.

The Lord shall have them in derision.

Then shall he speak to them in his wrath and vex them in his sore displeasure.

Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion.

I will declare the decree the Lord hath said unto me, thou art my son, this day

have I begotten thee.

The Lord add his blessing to the reading of this Psalm together this morning, Jim.

Next hymn to sing that we would like to sing is number 188, Jesus Shall Reign.

188, we'll sing verses one, four, and five of 188.

Jesus shall reign one heir on the

sun.

♪ ♪ Does his successive journeys run.

His kingdom spread from shore to

shore Till moon shall wax and wane no

more.

♪ ♪ He potioned realms of every tongue.

♪ ♪ Dwell on his lowest weed.

And infant voices shall

proclaim Their early blessings on

his name.

Every creature rise and

bring honor and glory to.

Descend with

songs of repeat the

loud

As we pray together today, we wanna remember our missionary of the week, the Hynex, who's serving in Costa Rica.

And we wanna pray for them, particularly related to the

future role that Mark and Lynette have in the ministry there.

Many of you would know a little bit of the history of the church where they had been serving.

They were in that church when Chris and I visited them a year and a half ago,

but then things really fell apart there, primarily due to the pastoral

leadership and just a lot of complicated problems there.

But the bottom line is that there's supposed to be a meeting sometime

this month where the people are

basically telling the pastor he needs to leave.

And again, it's a complicated thing.

There's a lot to that.

And it's something that does need to happen, I would concur, for a variety of reasons.

And that church is in an association of churches, a group of

churches in Costa Rica and in Latin America, Central America.

And the leadership in that organization of churches concurs

also that the pastor there really needs to leave.

He should not be a pastor.

So the problem, of course, is he can refuse.

And if he does, then the people are all going to leave

and the pastor can have the building.

So the bottom line is that the prayer is that the pastor would graciously accept

that and leave.

He's an older man, he's in his 70s.

And then that the desire on the part of the majority of the

people that comprise that church as well as the leadership in the association

of those churches in Central America, they really want Mark to assume

that role of leadership.

The church is not a large church.

It's not a self -supporting church by any means.

So it would be, we would still obviously be functioning in a missionary role.

But they asked us just to pray about that situation.

It's, again, in the distance that we have being in the States and there, it's hard to comprehend

all of the dynamics that are involved.

But having been there and having a little bit of understanding about that work and the nature of it and what

Mark and Lynette, the role of Mark and Lynette have played there, I would concur that that is a good

request to pray and ask that the Lord would open that door for them.

If that doesn't happen, then they will be planting a church.

They've already been meeting for several months now with a group of people that would be a

nucleus of a new church plant.

They'd certainly prefer not to have to do it that way.

So we want to pray to that end.

Let's look to the Lord in prayer, shall we?

Our Father and our God, we are grateful in this day and age in which we live, where it seems that so much

of our world and even our own nature, nation, is in a state of chaos

and animosity and strife, lack of unity, a

lack of cohesion.

It is reassuring to us to know that Jesus shall reign, that all kingdoms, all

kings, all nations, all presidents, all leaders on this planet will bow the

knee to Him and will willingly submit to His authority and to His leadership,

and even more so will sing His praises.

We long for that day when our Lord Jesus reigns in a very real way

on this planet.

In the meantime, we're grateful that our Lord reigns in His kingdom, and His kingdom is a kingdom

of the heart, and He rules and reigns in the realm of the hearts of

His people, and we're thankful for His

leadership, His rulership, His authority in our own lives, in our own hearts,

and we do pray that we would respond to that authority

with willing, glad, joyful submission, not only joyfully submits to His

will, but joyfully rejoices and praises Him for

His kingship.

We're also grateful today that our Lord Jesus is our great high priest, and that

He intercedes in our behalf even right now.

We're grateful that as our high priest, He paid the sacrifice for our sins, not only offering

the sacrifice, but offering Himself as that sacrifice.

We're thankful for our Savior as our priest, and we're thankful, Father, that

He is the prophet who has brought to us the truth of the

gospel related to Himself.

He has revealed Himself to us.

He has taught, He has encouraged, He has exhorted, He has prophesied.

We thank you for this threefold ministry of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

We're thankful, Father, that you are sovereignly in control of the affairs of men and the

affairs of churches.

And we're thankful today that in this challenging and heartbreaking

situation in Grecia, Costa Rica, where the hynix are serving, that

you are in control even of that, that providentially you have brought that church and ministry and the hynix

all to this point in time.

We pray, Father, for a resolution to this situation that would be

a peaceful one, and one where grace is expressed and

evident.

We pray for Mark and Lynette, that you would give them wisdom, understanding in what they should

do and the role that they should play, thankful for their humility and not asserting themselves

and insisting on things their way, but yet you have brought them to

this place where they may very well be in the place of leadership in that local church.

May your will be done.

We commit this all to you.

Father, we pray for your people today who are hurting and burdened, and I

think of many who can't be here today because of the limitations of the body and health.

I pray that you would encourage them in this bitterly cold weather,

which is a dangerous thing for some of our people.

I pray that you would protect them.

And those who are able to be watching today, the service by live stream, I pray that

you would encourage them to know in their knowing that we love them and miss them and long

for the time of our reunion together, being here together again.

We pray for those who are sick and infirm.

I pray that you would raise them up.

Pray for those who are discouraged and lonely, and I pray that you would encourage them and

give them a special sense of your presence and blessing today.

Father, I pray for those who are discouraged and downcast.

I pray that your word would lift up the downtrodden today.

Encourage your people.

For those who are shut in and cannot get out, whatever the weather, I pray for your blessing upon them and

encouragement to them, especially in these days of ongoing isolation and loneliness.

Meet their every need, we pray.

Father, we ask that you would please meet with us in the remainder of this time together, and as

your word is opened, I pray, challenge us with the truth

of the church's one foundation.

And this we pray, in Jesus' name and for his sake, amen.

Amen.

Jim?

Let us sing together one more time before the morning message on page

166, excuse me, 165.

165 in your hymnals, the church's one foundation.

Let's stand all together, please, and sing all four verses together.

165.

The

church's one foundation is Jesus Christ her

Lord She is his new creation

by water and the Word of heaven He came

and sought her to be his holy bride

His own blood he bought her and for

her life he died He lacked from

every nation yet o 'er all the earth

Her charter of salvation, one Lord,

one faith, one

birth Takes one holy food

and to one hope she presses With every grace

endued, mid toil and

tribulation And tumult of her war,

she waits the

consummation

Till with the vision glorious, her

longing eyes are blessed And great the church

victorious shall be the church at

rest Yet she on earth a

union with God, the three in

one With those whose rest

is won, O happy ones and holy Lord give

us grace that we, like them the meek and

lowly On high may dwell with thee.

♪ Thank you, please be seated.

We're turning to Bibles for our scripture reading to Matthew chapter 13, or 16, I'm sorry, Matthew chapter

16.

We looked at a passage earlier in Sunday school today in Matthew 13, pardon my confusion,

Matthew 16.

And we want to read verses 13 through 20 together.

Matthew 16, follow along in your copy of scriptures.

We read verses 13 through 20.

It says that when Jesus came into the coasts of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples saying, whom do men say

that I, the son of man am?

They said, some say you are John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others

Jeremiah or one of the prophets.

He saith unto them, but whom say ye that I am?

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 it unto thee,

but my father which is in heaven.

And I say also unto thee that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church,

and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

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.

Let's have a brief word of prayer.

Our Father, I pray today that our hearts would be blessed and

encouraged by the one foundation of the church.

We pray in Jesus' name, amen.

Well, in the town that I first served as a pastor is a little town of Colchester here in Illinois, down

about seven miles west of Macomb, right on Route 136, that

little highway runs right through the middle of town.

On that highway, that main drag through town, sat a beautiful old

stone church.

It was beautiful.

I think it was probably built in the late 1800s.

And when we were there, the stained glass window in the front of that church was still

intact and still vibrant, and you could see the life of the

imagery in that stained glass window.

But the church itself was no longer a church.

It had been converted into an antique store.

I don't know if it's still there as an antique store or not.

I don't know that the building still exists, but that's what it was 40 years ago.

It's not the only place where that's happened.

Up on Route 64 in the little town of Kings, west of

I -39, there's another such building.

It's a pretty cool looking building, actually.

It's been also converted into an antique store, as well as a little coffee shop.

You can go get some old things and you can get a new cup of coffee in that place.

Saw some interior, I haven't been inside the building, but I saw some interior pictures of the building and

it looks really neat.

You can see where the auditorium was, the main seating level, and you can tilt the camera

on your computer screen.

You can kind of tilt up and you can see the railing for the balcony of that old

building.

But now, again, it's an antique store and it is called Suite

Revival.

Anything but, I suppose.

I read an article not long ago where, in Great Britain, there are a large number

of churches that, in the last few years, have been converted into either pubs or

restaurants, former churches.

Seems like the Christian church in the modern era has kind of fallen on some hard

times.

In fact, if you take your browser and you Google

church converted, just start that, just type that in, church converted, not now on your phone, okay?

You can do it later when you get home.

Now you write church converted.

Before you can type in anything else, you get those suggestions underneath and it's interesting to see

some of the suggestions that come up when you type in church converted.

You'll see church converted into restaurant, house, apartments,

brewery, mosque, skate park, skate park?

How do you do a church into a skate park?

Anyway, condominiums.

Well, the thing about that is every one of those, every one of those represents

a church that has died.

It represents a dead church.

Now, as I was thinking about that and reflecting on just the number of churches where that has happened and that have

been converted into some other kind of, some other kind of business or

entity, I came across an old hymn written in the mid -1800s

by a Danish pastor by the name of Nikolai Grundvik.

And here's the first stanza.

The first stanza says, built on the rock the church shall stand even when

steeples are falling.

Christ builds his church in every land.

Bells still are chiming and calling, calling the young and old to rest, calling the souls

of those distressed, longing for life everlasting.

The title of that hymn is Built on the Rock.

And it's certainly inspired by the text that we just read a few

minutes ago.

And this text declares, this text declares, it promises that even if steeples fall

and church buildings become antique stores or pubs or apartments or whatever, the

church shall stand and it shall stand because of its

foundation.

And Jesus is that foundation.

We get this in Matthew 16, verses 13 through 18.

Now that foundation should be, it should be emphasized is not a mere man.

We know that Jesus is a man.

He came into this world like any other human being is born into this world.

And he certainly is fully man.

One of the designations that he gives for himself is he titles himself the son of man,

the son of man.

But in this statement of verse 14, he asks the question,

this question or statement of verse 14 where the disciples answer his question, who do men say that I the

son of man am?

The answer reflects a bunch of different, just mere men.

Some people think you're just a mere man, like John the Baptist or Elijah or Jeremiah or one of the

prophets.

But Jesus himself contrasts himself with

a mere man.

Though he is the son of man as he calls himself the son of man, Peter then says, you are the Christ,

the son of the living God, you are the son of God.

Then get this subtle, this subtle little contrast that Jesus offers when he

speaks back to Peter and he says, Peter, you are

Simon bar Jonah, that is Simon, son of Jonah.

Peter, you are Simon, the son of a man.

And as you have just said of me, I am the Messiah, the son of God.

Now this foundation is no mere man, but perceiving

the foundation, all right?

Now get this, perceiving the foundation, seeing that the foundation is

Jesus requires some divine sovereign grace.

So look at verse 17 where Jesus says to Simon, blessed art thou Simon bar Jonah, for

flesh and blood have not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.

So what Jesus is saying is that Simon did not come to this conclusion, Peter did not come to this conclusion

by virtue of his own reasoning, his own looking at the

facts presented to him, seeing the miracles that Jesus did and hearing the things that Jesus taught

and coming to the conclusion, oh, well this must be the son of God, this must be the

anointed one, this must be, Jesus must be the Christ.

He didn't come to that conclusion through his own mere reasoning and logic.

He came to see it, to see it as a blessing from the

sovereign God.

Jesus says you see this, you perceive this, you've come to this conclusion because

my Father who is in heaven has revealed it to you.

So you could look at this another way, you could ask yourself, well, okay, so Peter, Jesus

asks, who do people say that I am?

Who do you say that I am?

Why is it that when they first answer the question who do people say that

I am, people were saying that Jesus is John the Baptist or

Jesus is Jeremiah or Jesus is Elijah or Jesus is one of the prophets

but the disciples and Peter as their spokesman says, no, you are

the Christ, the son of the living God.

Why is it that they could see that Jesus is the Christ when others who saw the

same things that these disciples saw, that Peter saw, they conclude that he's just a mere

man?

Why the difference?

The only answer to that question is what Jesus tells Peter.

Flesh and blood hasn't revealed this to you but my Father who is in heaven and therefore you

are particularly blessed.

So this foundation is not a mere man, he is the God man,

Jesus, the foundation is but perceiving that foundation, seeing

Jesus as the Messiah, the son of the living God, seeing Jesus as

the foundation requires divine sovereign grace and

then that foundation, what is involved in this foundation?

This foundation which is Jesus involves four different aspects

and we get these four aspects of the foundation of the church, we get these

four aspects from Peter's statement.

Peter says and I want to read it to you in a literal

translation because there's an emphasis there that we should catch.

Literally Peter says you are the Christ,

get the definite article, it's in the Greek language, you are the Christ, the son

of the God, the living one.

You are the Christ, the son of the God, the

living one.

So those four definite articles give us some insight into what is

involved in this foundation, the elements, the components of this foundation.

So first of all notice that this foundation involves an identity and work.

You are the Christ, you are the Christ.

Now Jesus in verse 18, he again

by way of, is making a contrast between himself and Peter and the statement that Peter just

made.

In verse 18 he says to Peter, you are Peter

and you've probably had this pointed out to you before, the name Peter is the Greek word

petros, petros.

You are Peter, a stone, just a stone like you might

have in your garden, a stone, you pick up a stone, you are Peter, you are petros.

The foundation upon which the church is built is not a Peter, it's

not a mere stone.

No, it is a petra, Jesus goes on to say you are

petros but upon this petra

I will build my church, this petra.

The petra is a foundation stone, a foundation boulder if you will.

So look at another place where the same word is used back in Matthew chapter seven

verses 24 and 25.

You may remember this particular passage from children's church or Sunday school

as a kid when you sang that little song, the wise man built his house upon a rock,

foolish man built his house upon the sand, right?

Verses 24 and five says, therefore, whosoever heareth these sayings of mine and doeth them, I will liken him unto a

wise man which built his house upon a petra, a foundation boulder

and the rain descended and the floods came and the winds blew and beat upon that house and it did not fall for it was founded

upon a petra.

Jesus says to Peter, you are a rock, you're a stone

but I am going to build my church upon this petra.

What is that petra?

What is that foundation boulder that Jesus is gonna build his church upon?

It's upon what Peter just announced.

You are the Messiah, you are the Christ.

So he's going to build his church upon the foundation that Jesus is

the Christ.

This has to do with the identity and the work of

the God man, Jesus.

The identity and the work.

You are the Messiah.

That's a title that tells you something about his identity.

And that title, the Messiah, refers to him as the long -awaited anointed

one.

The long -awaited anointed one.

The one ordained by the Father, anointed by the Spirit to do a

particular work.

And that work is to function in a threefold office, the

threefold offices of prophet, priest, and king.

This is the work of the Messiah.

And what does that work entail?

As the prophet, he is to proclaim truth.

He is to call and he will call to repentance and to faith.

He's the prophet.

As the high priest, he will offer sacrifice for sins and that sacrifice that

he offers is himself, offering himself as a sacrifice for your

sins.

The Messiah will be the high priest who offers himself as a sacrifice for sins

and then intercedes for his people who receive that sacrifice unto themselves.

And as king, as king, he reigns eternally over his kingdom.

So as the Messiah, he is the anointed one who

carries out the work of these threefold offices.

This is brought together very well in the Heidelberg Catechism.

In the first question, in question 31, where it is asked,

why is he, Jesus, why is he called Christ?

That is, anointed.

Here's the answer.

Because he is ordained of God the Father and anointed with the Holy

Ghost to be our chief prophet and teacher who fully reveals to us

the secret counsel and will of God concerning our redemption.

And our only high priest who, by the one sacrifice of his body,

has redeemed us and ever lives to make intercession for us with the Father.

And our eternal king who governs us by his word and

spirit and defends and preserves us in the redemption

obtained for us.

So this foundation involves, first of all, an identity and work.

Jesus, the foundation, is the Christ.

He is the Christ.

Well, secondly, the foundation involves a unique relationship.

You are the Christ, the Son of God.

The Son of God.

Now, there's a whole lot that could be said about that title, the Son of God, that description of Jesus.

I will just allow the London Baptist Confession of 1689 to

explain to us or describe to us the relationship that is involved and meant

by that title, the Son of God.

Says this, statement three, in this divine and infinite being, there are three,

God, there are three subsistences.

The Father, the Word or Son, and Holy Spirit.

Of one substance, power and eternity, each having the

whole divine essence, yet the essence undivided.

The Father is of none, neither begotten nor proceeding.

The Son is eternally begotten of the Father.

The Holy Spirit proceeding from the Father and the Son.

All infinite, without beginning, therefore but one God, who is not to

be divided in nature and being, but distinguished by several peculiar relative

properties and personal relations, which doctrine of the Trinity is the foundation of all our

communion with God and comfortable dependence upon Him.

Now, I emphasize this relationship within the Trinity as Jesus

having this relationship as the Son of God because I want to distinguish it from

the relationship that you have with God when you have come to faith in Christ.

As many as received Him, Jesus, to them, God gives the right

to be, or the authority, to be the sons of God.

So there's a sense in which you can say, well, as one who has, God has graciously

brought to faith to Himself and I have received Jesus as my personal Savior, therefore

I am, all these guys can say this, I am a son of God.

Hmm, by adoption, by adoption.

Jesus is the eternal Son of God as one of

the members of this Trinity that the confession just

described for us.

There is this unique relationship that the foundation upon which the church is

built has, it is the relationship of the Trinity, the

Messiah is God, the Messiah is God.

And then the third component to this foundation is a

divine nature.

As I just said, the Son of God refers to the second person of the Trinity, therefore being

God, but it's brought out further in this third definite article.

You are the Christ, the Son of the God,

the God.

Jesus is both man and God.

He is Son of Man, referring to His humanity, He is Son of God,

referring to His deity.

He is of divine nature, He is God.

This foundation is the Messiah, Christ, the Son

of the God.

And then the fourth element that's brought out in that statement is the

eternal existence of this foundation stone,

the living one.

You are the Son of the God, the living one, the living one.

And of course, when Peter said this, he's contrasting the one true God with all of the

pagan gods, none of which are actually alive.

They are stones, they are pieces of wood, they have no life in them.

But Peter is acknowledging that from the very earliest of Scripture, God refers to

Himself as the eternal living one.

You remember when God confronts Moses at the burning bush and

commissions him to go lead Israel out of, the Hebrews out of Egypt.

Moses wants to know, well, who should I tell Him sent me?

What's your name, in other words?

And God gave him the name to share, which is I am that I

am.

This doesn't sound like much of a name, but it is.

And we translate that name Yahweh or Jehovah, but the name

means I am that I am.

I am the eternal existing one.

Okay, so God, in His revelation of Himself to man, reveals

Himself as the eternally existing one.

But guess what?

Jesus describes Himself likewise as the eternally existing one, Jesus does.

So in John chapter six and verse 51, Jesus is talking about the

bread of life and listen to what He says.

He says, I am the living bread.

I am the living bread, which came down from heaven.

You get the point there.

I have a pre -existence.

I lived in heaven before I came down to this earth.

I am the living bread.

You are the son of the God, the living one.

I am the living bread, Jesus says.

If any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever.

How is it that if you eat of the bread, which is Jesus, you shall live forever?

Because He lives forever.

He lives forever in eternity past.

He lives forever in eternity future.

You shall live forever.

And the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.

Oh, but if that isn't clear enough for you, you could turn a couple pages over to chapter eight and

verse 58 and Jesus almost got killed for saying this statement, making this statement.

At least the attempt on His life was made.

The Jews were chiding Jesus because He had spoken of seeing

Abraham and Abraham rejoicing to see His day.

And the Jews said to Him, you're not yet 50 years old and you have seen Abraham?

And Jesus replies and says, verily, verily.

In other words, truly, yes, actually I have.

He says, I say unto you, before Abraham was, I am.

You know what they heard?

Before Abraham was, Yahweh, I am that I am.

He's claiming to be the eternally existing one.

He's claiming that for Himself.

How do we know that?

How do you know that He's claiming that?

Because the next verse says, they took up stones to cast at Him.

They wanted to kill Him because of His blasphemy of claiming Himself to be

God, to be the eternally existing one.

So this foundation, this foundation involves an identity and work.

You are the Christ.

It involves a unique relationship.

You are the Christ, the Son of God.

It involves a divine nature.

You are the Christ, the Son, the Son of the God.

And it involves an eternal existence.

This foundation does.

You are the Son of the God, the living one,

the living one.

Jesus is the church's one foundation.

Now, upon that foundation, Jesus says, I will build my church.

Notice, Jesus will build His church.

Now, it is definitely true that He uses people in the building of that church.

Like, you look in verse 19 of here in our text, Matthew 16, and

what did He say?

He says, I will give unto thee, unto, He's speaking to Peter.

He says, I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven.

Whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.

Now, there's a lot that could be said about that.

You know, this is the verse that the Roman Catholic Church uses to proclaim that Peter is the first

pope, and that, you know, this necessity of papal succession, the holding of the

keys, and all the rest of that.

That's not what Jesus is saying to Peter, and that's not the role that Peter was to fill.

What Jesus is saying to Peter is that, I'm going to build my church, but I'm going to use people to do it.

I'm going to use people to do it.

People are going to have the keys to the kingdom.

And we know that because of how the church is built, and how the

keys to the kingdom, the doors to the kingdom, if you will, are unlocked.

And who holds those keys to the kingdom?

He uses people to do so.

So, for example, in Acts 2, on the day of Pentecost,

how did Christ build His church in Acts 2?

You can read of it in verses 38 through 41.

Acts 2, 38, says Peter said unto them, here's Peter speaking, he says to the crowd

who's listening, repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Christ, for the remission of sins, and you

shall receive the Holy Ghost.

For the promise is unto you and your children and to all that are far off, even as many as the Lord our God shall

call.

And with many other words, he did testify and exhort, saying, save yourselves from this untoward generation.

And then, verse 41 says, they that gladly received His word were baptized.

He takes the keys, He opens the door to the kingdom.

He opens the door.

Repent and be baptized, every one of you.

What's He doing in opening the key, in turning the key to the kingdom, the gates of the kingdom?

What's He doing?

He's proclaiming the gospel.

Repent and be converted.

Repent and be baptized for the remission of sins.

And they that gladly received His word were baptized.

And the same day, there were added unto them 3 ,000 souls.

Now, you say, well, doesn't that prove that Peter is the first pope?

He's the one that has the keys, that opens the kingdom.

Yeah, but he did.

But it would also point out, in 1 Corinthians chapter three, 1 Corinthians

three, verses 10 and 11, the apostle Paul, who is not a

successor of anything from Peter, he says, according to the grace of

God, which is given unto me, to Paul, as a wise master builder, I

have laid the foundation, and another man builds on it.

But let every man take heed how he builds thereupon, for other foundation can no man

lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.

Now, what's Paul saying here?

He's saying that in every place where the church is established,

the local church is founded, there is a man that is used to

lay that foundation.

And that has happened millions of times in the last couple thousand

years.

And then, of course, we can turn to Ephesians chapter four.

In Ephesians chapter four, again, again, asserting the fact that as

Jesus builds his church on the one foundation,

as he builds his church, he uses people in the building.

Ephesians four, verses 11 and 12, it says that he, Christ,

Christ, gave some apostles, some prophets,

some evangelists, and some pastor teachers for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry,

for the edifying, for the building up of the body of Christ.

We're gonna see in just a few minutes that that is a reference to the church.

So the point is, the point that I want you to get is that Jesus builds his church on that one

foundation, which is himself, and he uses people in the building.

But here's the thing, don't miss this.

It is God who does the building.

It's God who does the building.

Paul himself refers to this in 1 Corinthians three, passage we just read a few verses earlier,

he said this.

He said, I have planted, Apollos watered, but God

gave the increase.

It's God who does the building of his church.

And in Acts two, verse 47, on the day of Pentecost, there's all these people who were added

to the church.

At the end of that passage, end of that chapter, Acts two, 47, it says, listen, and the Lord,.

Who's that?

Jesus.

And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being

saved.

The Lord builds his church.

Jesus builds upon this one foundation.

And as he does so, the foundation, Jesus, who

builds upon that foundation, he builds the church.

He builds the church, and he takes ownership of it.

He says, upon this foundation, upon this Petra, I will build

my church.

I will build my church.

And in taking ownership of it, in the epistles, in further writing

in the New Testament, we see ways in which that ownership is described.

So for example, in Colossians 1, 18, Jesus, who is the foundation of the

church, Paul declares he is also its head.

In Colossians 1, 18, he writes, and he, Jesus, is the head of the

body, the church.

The church is the body.

Jesus is the head of that body.

He is its head.

And the church itself is his body, as we just mentioned.

But Paul brings that out in Ephesians one, in verses 22 and 23.

And here's what he says.

And it says, and God the Father put all things under God the Son's feet.

The text actually says, and he put all things under his feet.

God the Father put all things under God the Son's feet and gave him as

head over all things to the church, which is his body.

The church, which is his body.

So Jesus is the head of the church.

The church is his body.

But another way that the church is described, reflecting, again, the ownership of

Christ, is that the church is his building, his building.

In 1 Corinthians 3, verse nine, Paul says to the church, the local

church at Corinth, he says, you are God's building.

You are God's building.

He would say the same thing if Paul were writing to Faith Baptist Church of Sterling,

2021, he would say to the church, you are

God's building.

The church is his building.

And then another description, again, communicating the idea in a

different figure, a different picture of the ownership that Jesus has of

his church.

The church is his bride.

It's his bride.

You're, I'm sure, familiar with the passage in Ephesians chapter five.

It's where Paul is exhorting husbands to love their wives.

On what basis, what parallel, what foundation should husbands

love their wives?

How should we love our wives?

He tells us, he says, husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church

and gave himself for it, that he might sanctify it and cleanse it with a

washing of water by the word, that he might present it to himself a

glorious church, present his bride to himself a glorious church, not having spot or

wrinkle or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish.

Paul is using the imagery here of the church as the bride of Christ,

that Christ will present to himself as a sanctified, pure,

glorious church.

Bride.

We see this in the culmination of all things in Revelation chapter 21.

Would you turn there with me if you would?

Is in Revelation 21 and 22, we see the culmination of

this marriage of Christ to his

bride.

Revelation 21, verse two, John says, I John saw the holy

city, new Jerusalem coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a

bride adorned for her husband.

But now look at verses nine and 10.

Says there came unto me one of the seven angels which had the seven vials full of the seven last plagues and talked with me saying,

come hither, I will show you the bride, the lamb's wife.

And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain.

And he showed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem descending out of heaven from God.

And then look over a page at chapter 22, verses 12 and 13.

And Jesus says, behold, I come quickly and my reward is with me to give

every man according to his work.

I am alpha and omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last.

And now look at verse 17.

Verse 17 says, the spirit and the bride say, come,

come.

The bride says, come.

Who's the bride?

This is church.

This is church.

Jesus' bride is the church that he himself

builds.

So Jesus, now watch, Jesus is the church's one foundation.

And he builds on that one foundation and then takes ownership of that which he

builds.

And then I want you to notice, fourthly, that Jesus determines the nature

of that which he builds.

He calls it his church.

I suppose he could have called it anything he wanted to call it, but he chose to use the word church.

And that word in the Greek language is the word, the Greek word is ekklesia.

And it refers to a select group, a group of those who have been called out,

the called out ones.

Now, this is applied even in the writing of the New Testament as Paul

writes his letters to local churches.

Listen to what he says.

In Romans 1, he's writing to the church, which is

at Rome, and he's talking in this opening couple of

verses in Romans 1.

He's talking about his calling.

He's been called to proclaim the gospel among the nations, among the nations.

And he says, among whom, in verse six, are you the called,

the called out ones of Jesus Christ.

He's writing to the local church at Rome, and he says to you, Roman believers in

Christ, you are the called out ones unto Jesus Christ who belong

to Jesus Christ.

In his letter to the Corinthians, his first letter to the Corinthians, in chapter one, verse nine, he says to the church at Corinth,

he says, God is faithful by whom you were called out into the

fellowship of his son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

You are the called out ones.

In Colossians 3, verse 15, he says, let the peace of God rule in your hearts

to which indeed you were called, you were called out, you were called into

one body.

You were called into one body.

So the church is comprised of this select group.

The term that Jesus uses to talk about that which he's going to build on this foundation

is a people who are called out unto himself.

And as Jesus speaks of it in Matthew chapter 16, he's referring to this building

in a spiritual sense.

This church, as Jesus speaks of it in Matthew 16,

constitutes a spiritual building.

J .C. Ryle describes that building in this way.

He says, the church is the blessed company of all faithful people.

The whole body of believers of every age, tongue and place.

All who are washed in Christ's blood.

All who are clothed in Christ's righteousness.

All who were renewed by Christ's spirit.

All who are joined to Christ by faith.

And we can't see that, can we?

We can't see that entity.

This, that Jesus is talking about in Matthew 16, that Ryle describes for us,

is a spiritual building that comprises all the faithful of

all ages from all places.

And you don't see it, and I don't see it either.

But we will.

We will.

Remember Revelation 21.

I saw a city descending from heaven.

The new Jerusalem prepared as a bride for her husband.

There will come a time when we finally become a visible building in

Revelation 21.

All right, but watch.

Even though the church that Jesus is talking about in Matthew 16 is a

spiritual building, it finds expression in multiple

local places.

Multiple local places.

First Corinthians chapter one.

Look at how, in verses one and two, look at how Paul ties together the local and

universal aspects of the church.

First Corinthians one, verse one.

Paul writes, he says, Paul, called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God, and Sosthenes our brother.

Now listen.

He says, unto the church of God, which is at Corinth.

Then he goes on to say, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called saints.

Now listen, with all that in every place call upon the name of

Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours.

Paul is acknowledging that the church of God isn't limited to the locality of

Corinth.

There are believers in places all over the place that, like this

local church of God in Corinth, also call upon the same Lord Jesus Christ.

In chapter three, verses 10 and 11 again, let me point that out once again to

show that Jesus is the already laid

foundation that needs to be laid in every local place.

Paul says, as a wise master builder, I laid the foundation and another builds upon it.

Paul went to Corinth and he laid the foundation.

What was that foundation that he laid?

He tells us in verse 11, no other foundation can any man lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.

Jesus is the already laid foundation that must be taken to every place to lay

down for there to be a local expression of that spiritual

building in one particular place.

So in other words, what is true universally that Jesus is the

church's one foundation is also true locally

and must be true in this local church that Jesus is

the church's one foundation.

And so Jesus, who is the foundation, and he builds on that

one foundation, which is himself, he takes ownership of that which he builds and

he calls it his church.

So he determines the nature of that which he builds.

And then in verse 18 of our text, Matthew chapter 16, Jesus

guarantees the protection of that building.

He says, the gates of hell will not prevail against it.

The gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

The gates of hell would have been clearly understood to those whom he's speaking

as death, death.

The gates of Hades, you enter into Hades through

death, the gate of death.

And he says, the gate of death is not going to prevail against the church.

It cannot die.

My church cannot die.

And he guarantees that it shall not die by his own resurrection.

Notice what he says a little later.

In verse 21, it says, from that time forth, Jesus began to show to his disciples how that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer

many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed.

Oh no, oh no, the foundation is destroyed.

The church is ruined.

It is destroyed before the first stone has ever been laid on that foundation, right?

No, no, the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

Why?

Because he will be raised again on the third day.

Jesus guarantees the protection of his building by his own resurrection

from the dead.

So the church shall stand even if

steeples should fall.

Somebody beginning a series on the church.

And what I wanted to lay today is the foundation stone that Jesus is the

church's one foundation.

And that everyone who comes to faith in Christ is placed into that

building that Jesus is building.

And those who come to faith in Christ and are in that building of that spiritual

church that Jesus is building, their eternal

existence is secure.

They are in his building, which cannot be destroyed.

The first question to ask each of ourselves today is am I in that building?

Am I a stone in that building?

Have I come to faith in Christ?

Have I been called out by the gracious call of God?

I've heard his call to repent of my sin, to turn to Christ,

to trust in Christ, to call upon Christ to save me.

Am I a part of that building?

If so, rejoice today.

Rejoice, the gates of hell shall not prevail against it, shall not prevail against you.

Oh, but listen, if you're hearing that call today, that you need to be a part of that building,

then heed that call, turn from your sin, turn to Christ, call

upon him to save you, even today.

So our Father and our God, I pray today that by your grace, we

would appreciate the building that you are building.

And we would appreciate the permanence of that structure.

Father, I pray if there is one here today who needs to become a part of that building by

faith in Christ, turning from their sin and turning to him and calling upon him to save him, I

pray that today you would open their eyes to see that you are the Christ, the Son

of the living God.

May they call upon you, Christ, to save them today.

This we pray in Jesus' name and for his sake, amen.

Would you take your hymnals and turn to number 411.

411, I wanna stand and sing the first and fourth stanzas of

the solid rock, on Christ, the solid rock, I stand.

I trust you do.

If not, come stand on him today.

Christ, the solid rock, I stand.

411.

My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and

righteousness.

I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on

Jesus' name.

On Christ, the solid rock, I stand.

All other ground is sinking sand.

All other ground is sinking sand.

When he shall come with trumpet sound, oh, may I then in

him be found, dressed in his righteousness alone, thoughtless

to stand before the throne.

On Christ, the solid rock, I stand.

All other ground is sinking sand.

All other ground is sinking sand.

Now, before you rush out today, we have one who has come recently and expressed a

desire to become a member of this local expression of God's

spiritual church, this local church, Eric Foreman.

Why don't you come on ahead, Eric?

And Eric expressed interest a few weeks ago to me and to the deacons to

join the ministry here, become a member of Faith Baptist Church.

The deacons and I have met with him and heard his testimony, wonderful testimony of God's grace,

and so grateful for the varied ways in which God in his grace.