The Keys of the Kingdom

Christ the King and the Local Church

To the Ruled Church podcast.

This is my beloved son, with whom I am well pleased. He is honored, and I get the glory. And by the way, it's even better, because you see that building in Perryville, Arkansas? You see that one in Pechote, Mexico?

Do you see that one in Tuxla, Guterres, down there in Chiapas? That building has my son's name on it.

The church is not a democracy, it's a monarchy. Christ is king.

You can't be Christian without a local church.

You can't do anything better than to bend your knee and bow your heart, turn from your sin and repentance, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and join up with a good Bible-believing church, and spend your life serving Jesus in a local, visible congregation.

The Kingdom of Heaven Is at Hand in Matthew 4

I wanna speak to you tonight about the keys of the kingdom. We're not gonna start in Matthew 16, that's where you find it. We'll start in Matthew 4. You wanna go ahead and turn there. If I could just put this thought in your mind right now for just a second, just to understand the weightiness of it.

If I were to give you the keys.

To one of my mini automobiles I had, right? Or a little lockbox or something like that, I mean, that's one thing, that's still a lot of trust. Just kinda step up if I give you the keys to my house, right?

So I just want you to, I'm not gonna tell you yet what it means, we're gonna get there, but just let it sit with you for just a second that Jesus Christ gives to Peter the keys to the kingdom. That's where we're gonna wind up in Matthew 16.

So what does that mean? Well, that's what we're gonna talk about tonight, the keys to the kingdom. We'll connect it first, before we get to Matthew 16, to where we're at contextually in the model prayer.

This is important for any church, but it's important for Providence Baptist Church. And with some things that we have to think through in our body. Would you stand with me.

And would you have your Bibles open.

To Matthew chapter four, verse 17? Little different tonight, but this is just our starting point. From that time, Jesus began to preach, saying, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. And Father, help us to understand what this means, help us to understand the kingdom, help us to understand the keys, help us to understand responsibility, help us, oh God, to understand and then give us the faith to use the keys like you've told us to.

And God, may we not be a church that just prays your will be done, but may we seek to enact, when we see something revealed in the scripture, may we do it. Help us, oh God, not to just talk about being a healthy church and praying about being a healthy church, but Lord, when you require feet to our confession that we do it.

So Lord, would you give your grace tonight, even as we talk about these things, even as I look around and see the children and see folks sitting in these chairs, I know that even tonight, they need to hear Christ.

Some of them need to come into the kingdom, even tonight, and that only happens by regeneration. So we pray, Holy Spirit, that you would be pleased to take the gospel preached tonight and regenerate hearts.

Lord, give us faith in the days ahead and we pray it in Jesus' name, amen. You may be seated.

We're reminded tonight then that Christ has a kingdom.

And that he governs his kingdom. And we see tonight in a way we're going to see, at least maybe not right here we don't see, but we're going to see that Jesus Christ governs his kingdom in a particular way.

And so it just starts, I mean, a little bit of review, but let's just say this clearly, there is a kingdom. There is a kingdom. And I just want to show you in the text again, from that time Jesus began to preach saying, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

The kingdom of heaven is at hand. Meaning not that the kingdom of heaven is just going to lie dormant for the next 2 ,000 years,.

3 ,000, 4 ,000 years.

And at some point the kingdom of heaven is going to come in the literal millennial reign of Christ 1 ,000 years and that's when the, no, no, no. The kingdom of heaven is at hand. It's here. Jesus is saying.

So the kingdom is where the rule of God is recognized and rejoiced in. It is a kingdom, Jesus says in John 18, that is not of this world. It is a spiritual kingdom. That is, you didn't find any road signs on the way over here that said, now entering the kingdom of Christ.

There's no political boundaries. Yet the kingdom of Christ impacts another kingdom, which is the kingdom of this world. There's two kingdoms. The kingdom of this world is at present ran by the prince of the power of the air.

The evil one. But yet here in Matthew 4, 17, the kingdom of Christ, the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Meaning in the ministry of Jesus, it is breaking into the kingdom of darkness. This is because Jesus Christ by his work, by his ministry, by his life, by his death, by his resurrection is redoing, if you will, that's probably a poor way to say it, but he is the true and better Adam.

And everything that went wrong in the garden, Jesus Christ is making it right. And that's why we see the signs and the miracles and healing of the sick and causing the blind to see and all of these things.

But the most important thing is that he would procure righteousness that Adam failed to procure and that he would die the death of sinners, those who have broken the law in Adam and then by our own crimes and transgressions, we've broken the law and Jesus died for that under the wrath of God as our substitute rising again from the grave.

And in this, the kingdom of God is at hand. And we see it now.

Where?

I'm looking at it. It's the church, the visible church as it were, the people of God who love God and bow to his rule and spread his fame among the world. So it's important contextually, Matthew 4, 17, I'm not being silly.

Matthew 4, it comes right before Matthew 5, but that's important.

Know something.

Kingdom Living and Entrance by Regeneration

So when Jesus says, for that time, Jesus began to, look at it in your Bible and I want you to see the word. For at that time, Jesus began to preach. Jesus began to preach. By the way, why is this time significant?

Because Jesus has gone through all the things necessary to now be ready to preach. That is, he has fulfilled all righteousness as it were in his younger days. He has identified with his people in the baptism received by John.

He has gone out to the wilderness, Adam met Satan as it were in a beautiful, perfect garden. Jesus goes out to the desert, a wilderness, a God forsaken place as it were. And under the curse, he too faces the devil, except he doesn't bend, he doesn't bow, he doesn't sin.

And so now all of that is complete and now the ministry begins and he begins to preach. The kingdom of heaven is at hand. Repent, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Now this is significant. It is significant because the very next, Matthew knows what he's doing.

The very next thing that we have in Matthew after him calling his disciples is that Jesus is going to give us, I don't know what I wanna call it, an exposition of the kingdom. I've called it before kingdom living.

He's going to extrapolate for us.

What life in the kingdom looks like. The sermon on the mount is kingdom living. And he begins in chapter five, verse three to explain what it is, how you enter the kingdom, right? This is not, really it's not too unrelated from John chapter three and what he tells Nicodemus.

Matthew chapter five, verse three, Jesus says, blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. How does one get into the kingdom? It's spiritual transformation. By the way, you understand that everyone is poor in spirit.

You understand that every person who's ever lived is impoverished of spirit because of their sin and the rebellion against God and because of their turning away from God, they have nothing in themselves to offer.

There's no one out there who's rich in spirit. So what's the difference? The poor in spirit know they're poor in spirit and they look to Christ as their only hope. And that only works, that only happens by the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit.

Your entrance into the kingdom does not begin in your hands or your feet, but in your heart. You must be born again and the Holy Spirit does that by showing you your sin, showing you what Christ has done by his perfect merit, his righteous life, his death bearing your sins and his body on the tree as a substitute, his resurrection, the Bible says, for your justification, that by faith alone, you're accredited with his righteousness.

To be born again means that you've been emptied of self, you've been emptied of looking inward and now by grace alone, you look outward to Christ. This is being brought into the kingdom. This is what Jesus is teaching.

And so this takes us where we were in Matthew chapter six, verse 10. We'll pick this back up next week, but in Matthew chapter six, verse 10, Jesus teaches us to pray, your kingdom come. You will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

So there is an element, we talked about this, but there's an element where the kingdom is now and so we're praying and when we pray that kingdom come, we're praying evangelistically, if you will, that the kingdom would expand over all the earth.

And then there's a connection between kingdom living and living out God's will as revealed in his word. We're gonna get to this, but let me just offer this tonight. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

So let me just ask you it like this. Does God reign in your heart? Maybe I asked the children for a second too. Visitors, members, does God reign in your heart? Haddon, you paying attention? Are we playing a game?

Okay, move over here. Thank you. Does God reign in your heart? This is one of the most serious questions that we can consider because if God is reigning in your heart, then your desire is going to be to do what?

To do the will of God. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. This is what it looks like to be a citizen of the kingdom. Jesus's entire teaching in the Sermon on the Mount. To pursue God's will, to live outwardly what God has worked inwardly.

It is God working in you to will and to work according to his good pleasure. All our hope is in Christ. By the way, if you think that the Sermon on the Mount, this is the dumbest thing in the world. Say, well, don't worry about the moral law.

Just live out the Sermon on the Mount. You'll be fine. Can I just show you something real quick? Matthew 5, verse 48. Be sure and look at this in your text. Matthew 5, 48. So if you think that Jesus is relaxing the moral law, you're mistaken.

Matthew 5, 48.

I shouldn't have said the dumbest thing in the world. That was probably, that was impolite.

Matthew 5, 48.

You therefore must be what?

Perfect.

As your heavenly Father is perfect. So if you think that the whole, the entire basis of the Sermon on the Mount is forget the 10 commandments, just live out the moral principles of the Sermon on the Mount, and you're gonna be okay.

You misunderstand what Jesus is doing. Jesus is actually showing us what it looks like to live in the kingdom. And even living in the kingdom, all our hope is not in our life in the kingdom. All our hope is in what Jesus Christ has done for us.

Resting in Jesus Christ alone. His perfection being credited to our account. Now moving on, we're gonna just skip a lot. Hopefully that, hopefully all I said is not as jumbled coming out as sometimes it can be up in here.

Okay, we gotta move to Matthew 16 then. So with that foundation, then we come to Matthew 16. And in Matthew 16, Jesus says this, we'll just begin, I'll read a little contextually, but not gonna go through all this.

Verse 13, Matthew 16. Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi,.

He asked his disciples,.

Who do people say that the Son of Man is? Verse 14, and they said, some say John the Baptist, others Elijah, and others Jeremiah are one of the prophets. He said to them, but who do you say that I am?

Simon Peter replied, you are the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus answered him, blessed are you Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.

You didn't come up with this,.

It's only by the sovereign grace of God. Verse 18, and I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock, I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

Amen and amen.

But look at verse 19, I will give you, by the way, just note there, singular, I will give you, singular, you, the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven, singular.

Okay, just note, just think about it. Last Saturday I preached at, in Bryant, and I preached Psalm 87, Psalm 87 too, says the Lord loves the gates of Zion, the gates. The kingdom is typified in the physical city of Jerusalem with gates that is an arrow pointing us to the church.

The church is likened to the kingdom, if you will, is likened to a city with gates. And these gates, they have keys, so that the gates can be opened up to let some people in, and they can be opened up, and sometimes let some people need to get out, and they are sometimes locked to some people.

This is the kingdom of Christ. It's Christ's kingdom, and yet he has mediated his authority here in handing the keys, right? Handing the key, the what? Is this valuable to you, Jesus? What are you handing?

The keys to his kingdom.

I will give you, verse 19, I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven. And what do we do with this, by the way? What do we do? What do we do? Do we just say, well, that doesn't mean anything. Let's move on.

That was kind of weird. Or do we go the other way, and we say, well, it's obvious. Don't you see it? Peter's the Pope. Don't you get that from that? Don't you read that, and your first inclination is Peter's the Pope?

Didn't that just jump off the page for you? No, that's wicked and foolish. Okay, so neither one of those will hold up to careful exegesis. You can't, on one hand, say, you know what? That doesn't mean anything.

And you certainly can't, on the other hand, and just say, well, I'm gonna run to Rome's teaching, right? Neither one of those work. Jesus means something here by the keys and the binding and the loosing.

So, again, I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven. Whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. What do we do with that? Well, as you know, Matthew didn't just write in verses or chapters.

We wrote a whole book. If you keep reading in Matthew, then it becomes clear. So let's just turn over to two chapters, Matthew 18. Again, we won't be able to cover all this. I have covered this before, but there's something particular that I wanna cover, verse 15.

If your brother,.

So we know this is the outline of church discipline.

We've talked about this.

I've preached on this. We've taught on this. We've had Q and A on this. I won't be able to go through all this, but at the end, I'm gonna, the end is where I wanna hit. So if your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone.

If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church, the ecclesia.

And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as, this means an unbeliever, a Gentile and a tax collector. Truly I say to you, by the way, tell me what in Matthew 16, you, singular or plural?

Singular. Matthew 16, singular. Matthew 18, singular or plural? You can't tell.

It's plural.

Truly I say to you, whatever you, plural, bind on earth shall be bound in heaven and whatever you, plural, loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Now, where have we heard that before? Where have we heard the binding and the loosing before?

Oh, yes, yes. Very studious congregation tonight. We remember, we've heard it two minutes ago in Matthew 16, where Jesus says, singular, Peter, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven. Whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.

But now he's talking to somebody else. Who's he talking to? Go back to Matthew 18, verse one. At that time, the disciples came to Jesus saying, who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? Well, that would be fun to address all of that, but we're not going to do that.

Just contextually, you need to understand it is the disciples.

It's a group.

It is the church. Okay, but what are these keys?

What is all this?

What's going on here? Well, first of all, let me just say this. Why does Peter get singled out? This is my opinion. Peter gets singled out because of the confession. Who says that you're the Christ?

It's Peter.

You know, Peter who has foot and mouth disease, meaning a lot of times he opens his mouth, puts his foot in it, and he does something dumb. But this time, guess what?

He's right.

And Jesus makes sure to understand,.

Hey, you are right,.

But it wasn't because of your own flesh and blood. No one else told you. It's the Father who revealed that to you. That Jesus is the Christ. He's the Messiah. He's the promised one. You know who gets the keys then?

It's those who have the same confession as Peter that confess that Jesus is the Christ. How do I know it's not just Peter? Because in Matthew 18, the U is plural. It's not just singular. It's the disciples there representing the church.

Okay, so what do these do? Here's a helpful definition. Just listen carefully. The keys are the authority to judge and declare. I'm entering my own words here. Two things. The keys, and this is historic understanding.

The keys judge and declare on two things. All right, back to the quote.

On what?

So that's the first thing. Doctrines, laws, confessions, practices, as well as who? That's two things. The people who speak these confessions on behalf, judging these things on behalf of heaven. So I'm reading the quote.

They deputize their holder to pronounce a judgment concerning the who and the what of the gospel. What is the right confession and practice of the gospel and who is a right confessor? To bind or loose is to render a judgment in heaven's name.

Jesus places the keys in the hands.

Of the gathered congregation, end quote.

The church is the kingdom and Jesus Christ has given the keys of the kingdom to the gathered church. So that the gathered church doesn't get to make up whatever it wants. It doesn't just get to say, well, we like this doctrine.

We don't like that doctrine.

It's not a big buffet line, right? It's not, the church is a kingdom. It's not golden corral. You don't get to pick this or that and reject other. No, no, no, we have the responsibility by holding the keys to declare this is true doctrine.

This is false doctrine. And likewise, we have the authority and responsibility to say this is a true confessor of Christ and this is not.

The keys give, think about this.

It's Christ's kingdom. He can give his keys to whoever he wants.

And he gives them to the church to judge.

Nah, we don't like that. It's been said America's favorite verse is no longer John 3, 16, it's Matthew 7, 1. John 3, 16, great verse. We've moved on from that. Matthew 7, 1, judge not lest ye be judged.

But this is what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 5, 12, by the way, in the context of church discipline. For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge?

That's what Paul says. That is the Lord Jesus Christ has given the keys to his kingdom over to the church as manifest in local visible congregations with the authority and responsibility to open and shut, to bind and loose.

I'll read you another quote. I didn't want to tell you the name of the first quote because I think they didn't do a good job with wokeness and they didn't do a good job with COVID. So I didn't tell you his name because I don't want to endorse it.

But I'll tell you this name, stood the test of time, James Bannerman, Presbyterian. We can overlook that. He's Reformed Baptist now because he's in heaven. He says this, the expression the kingdom of heaven made use of in the grant to Peter of the keys is according to a very common New Testament use of the words to be understood of the visible church of Christ.

And the power of the keys is the power of opening or closing the door of that church in the case of parties seeking admission or meriting exclusion. Exactly equivalent to this power of the keys is the authority to bind and to loose or the authority to bind upon men their sins so they shall be shut out from the church or to loose them from their sins so that they shall be entitled to admission.

Now, if that makes you uncomfortable, I think it's just because number one, we were so far removed from the people understanding the church in this way. This is all over. This isn't just Reformed Baptist.

I mean, you go back far enough and this is people of a variety of understanding on baptism, but still understood this reality of the church. The church has the responsibility to bind and loose, to say, we think that you are still in your sins.

No, we think that you're forgiven of your sins. Let me be clear about something. The church does not have infallible power. You understand? The church will let some people in the kingdom that actually aren't in the kingdom.

The church will baptize people at times who are unregenerate. Just because we make that mistake doesn't mean that we should just intentionally baptize unregenerate people. Does that make sense? That's fallacious reasoning.

Because we can make mistakes of baptizing someone who is unregenerate does not mean that we just don't care about it anymore. Why do we care? Because we have the keys. Similarly, the church disciplines people, puts them out of the church.

Does the church infallibly get this right?

No.

There are times that people are in the church that should be disciplined and they're not. And there are times that people are disciplined in the church and it turns out they're actually are a believer.

It's not infallible power, but it is and remains a responsibility before God and before a watching world to guard the gates. It's been said this way, the church does not create heaven's judgment, it recognizes and announces it.

And I need to make a point. These keys are not given to the elders. They're not given to the deacons. They're not given to the key holding committee. They're not given to some ecclesiastical parachurch body.

They are given to the church, to local churches. One writer says it this way, to hand final rule, listen carefully, to hand final rule of the church over to the pastors, fires Christians from the work that the Holy Spirit has equipped them to do and that Jesus has authorized them to do with the keys of the kingdom.

Well, what about pastors then? Are they just chopped liver? They're nothing? No, we know that's not true. You heard that this morning. By the way, driving home, I got to hear some good preaching. Got to hear Pastor Jacob.

And you heard some of these things, but pastors are leaders. They're leaders and they must lead and oversee these things. And they're going to be working behind the scenes much more usually than you are when it comes to significant cases of church discipline.

There is a sense that church disciplines happen all the time. It's formative. And then there's time when we're just, you know, you guys are dealing with things and we shouldn't know about it. If you confront someone with their sin, that doesn't mean that you got to call Pastor Jacob or myself and say, hey, guess what we did?

No, no, it's between you and them alone. Deal with that alone.

Deal with it.

If it has to rise worse than that, then there are times that we need to be involved, of course.

But we lead, we oversee,.

But just understand tonight, Providence, at the end of the day, there is a responsibility given to the entire gathered church to say, we believe this person is a Christian.

That's a joyful thing.

That's coming up soon in the life of our church.

Praise God.

Actually, it's next Sunday, isn't it? You have the responsibility to say, we believe these people have a right to the kingdom. Of course, we hope you trust your pastors, but understand you have a responsibility.

Our confession says this in 2612, all believers are obligated to join themselves to local churches when and where they have the opportunity. Likewise, all who are admitted to the privileges of a church are also subject to the discipline and government of it, according to the rule of Christ.

So the church has keys to open the door and say, come in. Come in, brother. Come in, sister.

Praise God.

But the church also has keys to open up the door and say, sir, you must go. Madam, you must go. Because we do not believe based on your outward evidences, I don't know the heart, do you? How many hearts do you know?

I'll tell you zero.

You don't even know your own, do you? You don't know the hearts of men. But you do know the outward actions of men and the outward professions of men. And if we observe that the outward actions and outward professions or one or the other is contrary to the rule of Christ, then the church has a responsibility to open the gate and turn a person out.

Now, understand that Christianity has become personalized in the 21st century. I don't know if you've heard of the book, Jesus Calling. If you have it, toss it. But it's the whole idea of this personalized message, really about how great you are personally and your potential and the stuff you hear from prosperity preachers, you need to cut out the toxic people in your life.

And really for most people, the number one toxic person in their life is themselves. What they need is to be freed from their sins and crimes. Instead, they're getting the garbage of the prosperity gospel.

Forgive me, I'm a little passionate about that. But if I can just reiterate, we don't pry standing on ironclad truth. We live in an age of syncretism. You know what syncretism is? Hey, you guys know where we stand on the Democratic Party.

It's no problem, right? Like we have no problem saying you cannot be a Christian and vote for that filth and trash. But let me warn you about the Republican Party and their syncretism. And you watch their syncretism and putting all these things together.

You watch their little Republican National Convention and they're praying to all these weird gods. We better hold them accountable. We better preach the law to them and the gospel. This is the world that we live in, that everybody's just right.

That what we just need to do is this hyper individuality and this idea of, you heard this phrase? It's such a trash phrase.

Your truth.

Hey man, that's your truth. And we say it like we're being friendly, you know? It's like, hey man, that's just your truth. No, no, there's no such thing.

You take that away. That pronoun is not applicable. There's no such thing as your truth.

There's truth, there's error. And the church has to be willing to stand on the side of truth. It cannot be individualized. If I can just reiterate back to Matthew 16, turn there. Jesus says in verse 18, we could preach a whole sermon just on these few words.

I will build my church.

The reiteration is this is Christ's church. It's not yours. It's not mine. That's just Quatro's church down there. No, it's not. It's not my church. Erase my name from history.

It's Christ's church.

This is the church he's building. Ephesians 5 says that Christ loved the church, gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word so that he might present the church to himself in splendor without spot or wrinkle or any such thing that she might be holy and without blemish.

Jesus Christ has come to build his church, living perfectly according to God's law, laying down his life for his bride under the wrath of God, dying, rising again from the grave. The Holy Spirit comes into a person's heart, makes these truths come alive.

It's not just rattling. I heard a person not long ago who I don't believe is a Christian anymore. They told me the gospel and I said, I affirm that gospel, but so what if you don't believe it? So you can't just let these truths rattle around up here.

In your noggin.

They have to be embraced, believed, trusted, experienced. And what happens is the Holy Spirit opens up our heart to these truths and say, I get it now.

I get it.

I'm a wretched sinner. I am the wretch that the song refers to.

I am the ungodly one. I've got nothing inside myself, nothing to offer God, nothing to commend myself to God, but I see it now. Christ has everything. Give me Christ.

The Holy Spirit does.

And I hold that Jesus out to you tonight and exhorts you to repent and believe the gospel if you don't know him, but hear me, when this happens in a person's life, these individual Christians gather together.

You can't keep them apart. It's like magnets. It's like, they just come together.

Because why?

Because this one's in Christ and that one's in Christ and the gospel is a glue. It's like a magnetic glue just brings the people together formally, covenantally, under qualified leadership, gathering in local churches.

We're in the book of Acts and that's what you're seeing. Here comes the gospel and they're preaching the gospel. And what happens? People get saved. And what happens after they get saved? They're having church.