How important should the church be in the life of the individual Christian and in Christian families? How should Christians today avoid the extremes of viewing the church as an absolute authority and viewing her as merely a place to satisfy felt needs? What did Christ mean when He said, “Upon this rock I will build my church” (Matt. 16:18)? In answering these questions, Dr. Joel Beeke calls us to cherish the church by considering her status as belonging to Christ (“My church”), her substance as founded on Christ (“upon this rock”), and her success as the workmanship of Christ (“I will build”).

Turn with me please to Matthew 16. Matthew 16. We just heard a wonderful message on the last part of verse 18. I want to read 13 through 19 and then preach to you on the first part of verse 18. Matthew 16, verse 13, hear the word of God.

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? And they said, Some say thou art John the Baptist, some Elias and others Jeremiah's are one of the prophets. He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am? And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood hath not revealed 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." May God bless his word to our hearts, even in this late hour tonight. How important is the Church in your life?

What do you think of the Church? This question has been answered in various ways. It's been answered by the Roman Catholic Church that promotes absolutism and clericalism in which the visible, instituted church, administered by a hierarchy of priests and bishops and pope, claims and wields total power over the believer in matters pertaining to this life and the next. But it's also been answered in the other extreme by modern mainstream evangelicalism today with all its subjectivism and its individualism, in which modern evangelicalism says the Church doesn't really matter that much. Christianity is just a God and me thing.

I can be a lone ranger. I can do and go where I want and I don't have to see the church as anything more than a voluntary society. You don't have to be attending church to be a Christian, they say. So as a result today in America the church commands scant regard for ordinances and her office bearers and even less loyalty from her adherents. It's like belonging to a club.

Both of these extreme views are unbiblical. Both were rejected by our Reformed forebears. John Calvin particularly said, if we do not prefer the Church to all other objects of our interest. We are unworthy of being counted among her members." Many people think that because Protestants broke away from Rome, that Protestants have a low view of the Church, but The opposite is the truth. Protestants have a high view of the Church.

In fact, Calvin went on to say, quoting Cyprian and Augustine, he cannot have God for his father, but refuses to have the Church for his mother. And then Calvin added this amazing statement. For there is no other way to enter into life unless this mother conceive us in her womb, give us birth, nourish us at her breast, and lastly, unless she keep us under her care and guidance, until putting off mortal flesh, we become like the angels. Calvin was basically saying, the church is essential for spiritual nourishment, for spiritual maturation, and for spiritual piety. So I ask you again, what do you think of the church?

Do you need her for your own spiritual maturation? Do you have a high view of the church? And then Calvin finally went on to say this, You cannot understand the right view, the biblical view of the church, unless you understand these words of Jesus in Matthew 16, verse 18a, upon this rock, I will build my church. So what I want to do this evening, briefly, is I want to look at three thoughts with you at this theme, Cherishing the Church. We want to see first the status of the church as belonging to Christ, my church.

Second, I want to show you the substance of the church as founded on Christ, upon this rock. And then third, I want you to look at the success of the church as the workmanship of Christ. I will build. So the status, the substance, the success of the church. Now in Matthew 16, 18, both in my part of the text this evening and in Doug's part of the text, Jesus is really speaking about the church as the epicenter of his vision.

There's a programmatic ring about the words he uses. He doesn't say, Peter, by the way, I'm planning to build a church. Will you help me? He says, Peter, here is an absolute certainty. I will build my church despite the gates of hell.

It's as if he's saying to Peter, since you've recognized my true identity as the Son of God, as the Almighty, as the Messiah, I want you to understand what lies at the heart of my messianic ministry. The reason I've come into the world, Peter, the reason I'm here is that so by my spirit anointed ministry I might bring into being a church that belongs to me. So right from the very beginning of the Christian community, Jesus makes clear he doesn't come simply to save an isolated human being here and one there, but rather to bind his chosen sheep together into an amazing community that he is pleased to call my church. Now, Jesus uses the Greek word here, ekklesia, to describe his church. The only other place it's used in the New Testament is Matthew 18, 17.

But it's used throughout the Septuagint, that is, the Greek translation of the Old Testament Hebrew Scriptures, for the Hebrew word kahal, which describes the congregation or the assembly of God's chosen and privileged people, Israel. And so as God's ekklesia, Israel is called to know God and love God and serve God. The great theologian John Murray puts it this way, when Jesus speaks of my church, he's thinking of all those gathered and knit together after the pattern provided by the Old Testament as the people for his possession, as the community which he is to constitute and which stands in a relation to him comparable to the congregation of the Lord in the Old Testament. Actually, the parallels are amazing. Both Israel and the church are called by sovereign grace out of Egypt and out of this world.

Both are called by God into a covenantal relationship with himself to accomplish vital kingdom tasks. And both are called to worship God in community. And both are called to future inheritance in Canaan. One an earthly and the other a heavenly Canaan. So when Jesus says, this is my church in Matthew 16, he's claiming God's people as his own.

The ekklesia is his assembly, his people, bound to him with ties far deeper than those of family or friendship. So the ekklesia is defined in Matthew 16, 18 by her saving relationship to Jesus the Messiah, who has done for her what the sacrificial system in the old economy merely foreshadowed. He has done it. He has completed it. The ecclesia is a people bonded to Christ in love, in mercy, in forgiveness, in dependency, through His substitutionary atonement.

Now Jesus begins this New Testament church with a small group of ordinary people. He looks at his ragtag 12 disciples and he says, You are mine. You belong to me. This is my church. And interestingly, the word my is thrown into the front of the Greek sentence in the New Testament indicating emphasis.

My church. This is the definition. This is the status of the church. It is first and foremost belonging to me. Yes, it is my possession.

It is inseparable for me. And I say to you tonight, that's why the church is important. That's why the church has a premier status because she belongs to Jesus Christ. Now we value what belongs to famous people, don't we? If I were to auction off this pen tonight, I doubt if I'd get more than 50 cents for it.

But if I said to you, this is the pen with which John Calvin wrote his institutes, few of you might give me a couple hundred dollars. Its value derives from its owner. And so when Jesus says to us, this is my church, it multiplies infinitely because he's God-man the value of what He's speaking about. So the church belongs to Jesus Christ. That is the first way we're to think of her.

And she belongs to Jesus Christ by gift. His gift. For all that the Father gives Him shall come to Him." The church is His by gift, it's His by promise, for the Father promised her to His Son, and it's His by purchase, for Jesus purchased the church with his own precious blood. Now to make that church his, Jesus really has to do three things. The first thing we call his crucifixion.

His crucifixion is at the center of his vision for the church. His church must be bought with a dowry price of his own blood. And my friends, that was an amazing price. Today, if you go to Golgotha in Israel, it's kind of a touristy, clean place. It seems nostalgic when you stand there and you think about Jesus dying on the cross.

But in Jesus' day, Golgotha was an ugly place. It was revolting. It was atrocious. There was blood and skulls and bones and bleeding flesh laying around. It was an ugly place.

Everything pleasant. Everything touristy was far removed from shameful Gogatha. And there on three crude crosses, dingy and blood-stained, supporting three naked bodies in that awful place. Your Savior, my friend, if you're a true Christian, stood on this center cross, nailed there, because of the enormity and the heinousness of your sin to purchase you as a bride to be able to say this is my church And there stood the soldiers and spectators and priests and elders hurling their hate against Jesus The only one daring to stand up for Him is a despicable thief despised by all. The tender-hearted women who followed Him are silent.

The disciples who loved Him are too terrified to rise in His defense. His friends, His brothers, have forsaken him. He's forsaken by God. The Father has turned his back on his son. He's forsaken by heaven, by earth, by hell.

The face of his father, which was always turned in love and adoration, is turned away, he's an alien in his father's house, an outcast. This, you see, is what God thinks about sin. Your sin, your depravity, the unclean place, the passions of the mob, the sufferings of the soul, that no Mel Gibson film can begin to imitate. The darkened sun, the coldness of God, his holy revulsion against sin, Such are the wages of sin. And this is the dowry price, the crucifixion price.

Your Savior had to pay for your sin. But you see, if the Lord Jesus Christ cherished his church so much that he was willing to die for her. Shouldn't you cherish that bride so much that you're at least willing to live for her? And today, so many of us are so far removed from that, we're quick to criticize. But we have no business criticizing the church lightly and glibly.

When I was 16 years old, I had a brother at 19 who got engaged pretty young to a great woman who's been married to her now for 40 some years of wonderful marriage. But I had the audacity as we were riding in the car, to say to my older brother, as younger brothers are wont to do in their foolishness, some mild criticism about the woman to which he was engaged. Well, he pulled off to the side of the road instantly, slammed on the brakes, turned off the engine, poked his finger in my chest three times and said, now look here brother, don't you ever, ever, ever criticize my woman again. Well, I got the message. Because she's going to be my bride.

And he didn't die for her. He just promised he'd live for her. But here's the Savior who died for his bride and who now lives for his bride and to seeding for her every single second? And how do we have the audacity, glibly and flippantly, to criticize the bride of Jesus Christ? May we then never criticize the church?

I didn't say that. But the only way to criticize the church is to do like Jeremiah, to criticize her as the tears are streaming down her face. Oh, for the slaying of the daughters of Thy people Jerusalem, and to weep for her whoredoms and her spiritual adulteries." But you don't criticize the bride lightly. Jesus paid the price of crucifixion, but he also gifts the church and takes her into his possession by his exaltation. I just mentioned his intercession.

I believe that the intercession of Jesus is the most neglected doctrine of ecclesiology in all of theology today. Where do you hear sermons about the intercession of Jesus? And yet, my dear friends, as Joseph Irons, a 19th century divine, said, if Jesus Christ were to stop interceding for me for five minutes, my place would be on the bottom of hell. I'd send myself back into it. He's our keeper from Heaven's courts.

He's at the right hand of the Father. Every moment He's interceding. Every moment He's lisping our worthless names into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth. And He's preserving us. That's how we may persevere.

Because he's the perseverer. Not only on earth, having loved his own, he loved them to the end. But he's persevering now, preserving us now through his constant intercessions. He ever lives to make intercession for us. But thirdly, he earned this word, my, not only by crucifixion and by exaltation, but also by proclamation.

He builds his church now to form it as his church by sending out his ambassadors. He says to Peter in verse 19, Now give to thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven. Keys that the Heidelberg Catechism rightly and famously refers to as the preaching of the Gospel. And whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven. Whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.

Now, all three of these keys coalesce on Pentecost when The Spirit says, as it were to Peter, bring out now the keys that Jesus put into your pocket, proclaim the crucified Christ and the exalted Christ, and thereby open the kingdom of heaven, through preaching, to those who will repent and believe the Gospel. And suddenly, the very man who only weeks ago had denied that he ever knew the Lord Jesus Christ is filled with the Holy Spirit, preaches the Gospel, and the Christian Church, from being a small company of 120 men and women is multiplied 20-fold and becomes a church of 3, 120. And Jesus builds his church. Now what do you think of that church, purchased by his blood, by his exaltation, and promoted and brought in through proclamation? Do you cherish her as his handiwork?

Do you weep for her weaknesses? Does the church stand at the center of your vision as a Christian, as it stood at the center of his vision. Now for most of us here tonight, I suppose the family represents the center of our vision. And in many ways, rightly so, we promote, we defend our personal family, which is a great thing to do, but we must never do it at the expense of the church family. Have you ever considered that as precious as your family is, our personal immediate family is only an interim arrangement?

And our church family life, however, is for all eternity, as Calvin was fond of emphasizing. And therefore, my responsibility as a father is to share Jesus Christ's vision and by the Spirit's grace to fold my family into the greater and more lasting family, the people of God, a family united by common faith. And here Jesus is promoting this vision for us so that we might understand that the living church consists of our brothers and sisters, not merely of the flesh, but of the Spirit. Recently I had the privilege of preaching in Spurgeon's Church in London and a young woman came down from the balcony afterward to me and she was a flood of tears and she said I was feeling sorry for myself all week long because I'm an orphan and I have no brothers and sisters. I have one uncle in Australia and he's a drunk and I never hear from him.

And I thought I'm all alone in this world but today as I heard you preach I came to understand that my brothers and sisters are all around me and have got the biggest family in the world. You see, our families are to be seen in the context of the greater, the larger family. And we as fathers are to seek grace of God to raise our families for the larger family, the family of my church, so that one day we can see our sons and daughters as stalwart sons and daughters in the midst of the bride of Jesus Christ. And you see once a congregation gets hold of this vision, it becomes a gloriously new and different community in the church so that people begin to ask, what is this community all about? What is that God is doing among this people?

They seem like one large, beautiful family addicted to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship and priestly ministry among one another. And the answer is, of course, they've only caught the vision of the Lord Jesus Christ, that the church is not an added extra to our personal salvation or to our personal family life, but it is our family par excellence. And so the Church of Christ is that new community that He is creating into which our faith in Jesus Christ and our personal family lives are folded into in order that we might be enriched by the community of the people of God. What a vision. This is my very church.

But the church doesn't only have a glorious status. It also has wonderful substance. That's my second thought. It's founded on Christ. Our text says, upon this rock I will build my church.

Now, wars have been fought over these words. People have shed blood and spilled ink over these words. Church leaders and assemblies and synods have argued endlessly over these words. These words are inscribed in letters of gold on the great dome of St. Peter's in Rome.

In fact, Rome says the rock is literally Peter who served as Christ's vicar on earth. Peter, in turn, is claimed, as you know, as the founder of the Church of Rome, and his role as Vicar of Christ is passed to succeeding bishops, Rome claims, down to the present day. Now, most Protestants acknowledge that these words refer partly to Peter in one way, because his name derives from the word for stone. But the rock refers more to the content of what Peter is confessing than it does to his person. Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God." That refers to the divine revelation from which that confession sprang, and to which Jesus refers when he says, blessed art thou, Simon by Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed it unto thee, but my Father, which is in heaven.

So what's going on here, you see, is that Peter is a spokesman for the rest of the disciples whose confession of this divine revelation matches his. Jesus says, "...whom say ye that I am?" Peter stands forward for them all and he says, "...thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus says, upon this rock, upon this confession, which you just said, because it's the truth, I'm the Son of the living God, I will build the church." You see, if the rock were Peter, Christ would have said, you are Peter, Petra, rock, and upon this Peter, Petra, rock, I will build my church. But instead, Christ uses a diversity of form and gender in Greek words petros and petra Which as JW Alexander said is too abrupt and too marked to simply be fortuitous So the rock is not the natural, unstable reasoning of Peter, but the mighty truth the Father had revealed to Peter, namely the Messiahship and divine Sonship of Jesus. So the church shows the foundation on which she is built by her confession.

And we need to be able to say that we rest on the reality of this objective revelation that Peter confessed and that this subjectively is also our life, our foundation, our love, our all and in all, thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. So what then is the substance of the church? Well, actually, it's threefold. Jesus Christ is therefore the undergirding chief cornerstone. Scriptures call him the chief cornerstone of the church's structure.

That's why 1 Corinthians 3.11 says, Other foundation can no man lay than that is lay which is Jesus Christ. But secondly, the apostles build their doctrine on Christ as the chief cornerstone. And that's why Ephesians 2.20 refers to believers being built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone. You know, of course, the chief cornerstone in old ancient structures was that which held up the whole building. And then there was a foundation built on that.

And so what the New Testament says is that the apostles' doctrine is authoritative, being the inspired Word of God, it is foundational for the church because it is built on the chief cornerstone and this confession of Peter, thou art the Christ the Son of the living God. And then the third part of the structure is of course all the bricks that go into the building to make it the New Jerusalem that shall come down from heaven, adorned with the glory of God in the great day. And those bricks of course are you and me if we're true believers. We are the living stones built on the foundation of the apostles, says Paul, who in turn are built on the chief cornerstone. And that's why 1 Peter 2, 4, and 5 says that believers come to Christ as into a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God and precious, so ye also as lively stones are built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ." And so when you picture the church, you've got to picture Jesus Christ, the chief cornerstone, the apostles' New Testament doctrine as the foundation built on that chief cornerstone, and the people of God as the bricks, the stones in the structure which Jesus lovingly uses to build his church.

Now one stone is in the front, very visible, obvious, large. Another stone may be in the front, visible but small. A stone may be in the back, invisible, to the eyes of most men. It doesn't matter, you see. The only thing that matters is that you are part of that building and that God has designed you to be part of that building, that entire structure, so that in the great day when He comes to bring His church unto Himself, when He is able to say to His Father, Here am I, and those that thou hast given me, that the structure is entirely complete.

And every kind of believer from every tongue and tribe and nation, gifted, less gifted, educated, less educated, rich and poor, all will be represented and one complete building will be presented to the Father. And so the critical question is not, am I a member of the visible church, of which we heard defined this evening, but the really critical question is, are you a member of the invisible church, belonging as a living stone to the Church of Jesus Christ. Because you see, it's quite possible that millions of people, millions of Americans today have joined the visible church who know nothing of an invisible work of the Holy Spirit in their souls by which they've been born again. You see, it's quite possible to own an organ without being able to play it. It's quite possible to belong to a church and not know the true music of heavenly grace in our soul.

My dear friend, if Jesus Christ is not number one in your life tonight, if you cannot say, I am saved by faith in Jesus Christ alone, and I know what it means to repent at his feet and he's my goal and he's my desire. Oh, would to God I would love him more. Would I be more holy and more humble, more loving? But he is my only hope. He's my only refuge.

I long to serve Him all my life. If you can't say that, you are not a member of the invisible church and you need to be born again. You need to be made a living stone in the temple of God. But thanks be to God. Jesus is the mediator.

He is the minister. He is the surety of his church. And he is in the business of saving sinners. He is in the business of taking stones from the horrible pit and the miry clay of our natural depravity and mining us and bringing them into the into the goldsmith shop and refining us and chipping away at us by his spirit and changing us by his power and making us confessors of his name and working commitment in our lives to the Gospel. And so we believe in Jesus Christ, that The historic attributes of the church, best summarized by the Nicene's famous creed, are true.

That the church is one, holy, universal, apostolic church. I know sometimes that's hard to believe when we look around us, when we look on the church's external appearance. Her garments appeared soil and torn. We see disunity rather than unity many times, unholiness rather than holiness, denominationalism rather than Catholicity, apostasy rather than apostolicity. We see a church that is tragically withholding the gospel from people and then wondering why she's lost her audience.

Cold preaching, lukewarm members, love of power, lack of discipline, worldliness, entertainment, politics usurp the Gospel. And we're prone to sit down and give up. What's going to happen to the church, we say? When we see the church's decline from within and society's threats from without, we're tempted to say the church cannot survive. You know what Calvin said when someone said that to him?

He said, don't abandon your mother. My mother right now is 90 years old. She's frail. She's aging. I love her as much as ever.

The church is 2, 000 years old. She may appear old and wrinkled to you, but you are still called to cherish your mother, because she is Christ's bride. And better yet, she will not fail. My mother will die, but she'll go to be with the Lord. She's a wonderful, godly woman.

So I need faith to believe, don't I, that as she crosses the Jordan from that frail woman who's now down to 94 pounds, She will be radiant with joy at the throne of the land. And we need faith to believe here in this world that even when the faith, even when the church seems to be old and wrinkled and dying, she is really alive. And there is a future, there is a success that Jesus guarantees. So that's my last thought tonight. The Church doesn't only have a glorious status, my church, she doesn't only have a glorious substance, chief cornerstone, apostolic doctrine, living stones, but she has a glorious success.

I will build. Upon this rock, I will build my church. You notice Jesus doesn't say, I'll try to build it, or I wish I could build it. Or Peter, if you'd only help me and do a little better, we could build it. If I could just have a few popes to help me.

We could build it. No. I created the heavens and the earth. I have called the world into being from nothing. I am the Almighty.

I will build my church, for I'm the Son of God, Peter. Just as you've said. I'll do it. I'm determined to do it. It's my vow.

It's backed up by authority. The authority given to me in heaven and on earth. Let me tell you, Peter, what I will do. I will build my church and even The gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I want to tell you as I close tonight five wonderful truths that this success guarantees for us.

The first is this, Wonderful indestructibility. We heard about that already tonight so I can be short here. But the gates of hell, or Hades, lead to more than death. They lead to all the powers of darkness and evil. Jesus sees Hades, as it were, as an organized city with gates.

And we heard, didn't we, that a city-gate in the ancient world is where things were discussed, where judgment and wisdom was dispensed by the elders and rulers of the city. So what Jesus refers to is what Paul is describing in Ephesians 6 as the powers of darkness organized to destroy the people and kingdom of God. And Jesus says that though the church is built in the midst of the conflict promised already back in Genesis 3.15, and pursued through the ages, It will not fonder before the gates of the enemy. Christ's church may lose many skirmishes, but it will win the great battle. We heard tonight about the Huguenots.

It's absolutely beautiful to study the history of where all the tens of thousands of Protestant Huguenots that then fled from France after St. Bartholomew's, that they went to the Netherlands, they went to Scotland, they went to all kinds of countries, the United States. And just as the churches were languishing, the Reformation churches were getting into what we call the second generation phenomena at that point. Which means the first generation is full of zeal and the second tends to take it all for granted and to languish. The Huguenots came along from country to country And they pumped fresh blood into the church, and the church revived in all these places.

And actually, that's what promoted a lot of what we call Puritanism, a lot of Pietism, a lot of the Covenanters' faith, a lot of the Dutch further reformation, and Also New England, the Puritanism there. And so, yes, the candlestick was removed for the most part from France and has never been fully restored. But the church became all the brighter everywhere else. So God trumped even in that situation. Upon this rock I will build my church.

You see, the statement may seem preposterous to a handful of nobodies who follow Jesus. He looks at eleven or twelve fishermen, a tax collector, And he says, it will never flounder. It may lose skirmishes. Candles may be transplanted. But I am stronger than Satan.

I will defeat Satan's army. The seed of the woman will prevail over the seed of the serpent." And so what Jesus promised is still happening today. Throughout history, the church has often seemed overwhelmed by the powers of darkness, but she has survived and she has grown. John Flavell, a great Puritan, said, be not too quick to bury the church before she be dead. You see, the church may stagger, but she will continue her march through history to ultimate triumph.

The Belgic Confession puts it this way, this holy church is preserved or supported by God against the rage of the whole world, even though she sometimes for a while appears very small and in the eyes of men to be reduced to nothing, as during the perilous reign of Ahab, when nevertheless the Lord reserved unto him seven thousand men who had not bowed the knees to Baal." Am I speaking to some ministers here tonight? We've got to remember this, brothers. As we are prone to faint under the smallness of our churches, under the struggle that is involved when even more members leave for various reasons, when we see a church torn by dissension, God sees a church being built up as the living stones of New Jerusalem, elected by the Father, redeemed by the Son, adopted by the Spirit, glorious because of her role in His plan, glorious because of her holiness and her access to God and her distinguished inheritance. Don't give up the battle. Glorious things of the earth, spoken Zion, city of our God, said John Newton.

He whose words cannot be broken, formed before his own abode. On the Rock of Ages founded, what can shake thy sure repose with salvation's walls surrounded? Thou mayest smile at all thy foes." The church's wonderful, indestructibility is grounded in this promise, I will build. But secondly, there's The church's wonderful institution. It's already been mentioned tonight that the church is the only successful institution on earth that's lasted 2, 000 years.

No group, no movement, no institution of any kind in the world can approach the glory, the splendor, the longevity, the honor, the beauty, the magnificence, the wonder, the dignity, the excellency, and the resplendency of the Church of Jesus Christ. We should serve the Church and Christ through the Church with all our hearts always remembering that our labor is not in vain in the Lord. And you see, that's why when we ministers ascend the pulpit every Sunday morning with fear and trembling because of the weakness of our flesh, the weakness of our mind. Who are we to be the ambassadors and heralds of God and speak the very word of God? Me a sinner?

Mere flesh? Yet we ascend that pulpit in the power of the Spirit, " said Paul, 1 Corinthians 2, 4 and 5, with weakness and trembling, yet with the power of the Spirit, knowing that the Word of God shall never return to him void. We've got to believe in preaching. You can't believe thou art the Christ, the Son of God, and not believe in preaching because the Son of God believed in preaching. And he said, I'll do wonderful things through preaching.

And he's organized the church, you see, into this beautiful institution that is well run, well oiled as it were, with his divine plan. That's why Calvin said, we're not called to be individualists. Being sinners, we need one another. We need the body. We need the structure that Christ gives to the body.

For, Lord, says the old Genevan Liturgy written by Calvin, we are miserable sinners. And since we don't get beyond that in this life, beyond Romans 7.24, O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me? We remain far too slothful, too fickle, too weak, Calvin said, so we need the authority of preaching, we need the rule of elders, we need the compassion of deacons, we need the communion of saints, and we need the church to assist us, to teach us, and to nurture us. And so praise be to God that the church is, as Calvin called it, the mother of the faithful. And she is a good mother, a loving mother, supporting, disciplining us, if she's faithful that is, so that believers might grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ.

And so the church is this wonderful institution that is really a hospital for sinners, not a museum for saints. We dedicate our lives, you see, as office bearers and as members to a work in progress, to what Christ promised and paid for with his own blood, to what is worthwhile and will be successful in the end, though there will always be dross amid the gold." And that's one thing that really excites me about the church. The older I grow, I know that nothing done for the bride of Jesus Christ will be in vain. Church building sites are often messy, just like home building sites are often messy. There's this brick laying around, there's puddles of water, there's string, there's all kinds of mess, There's scattered tools and dust and dirt everywhere, but it's a work in progress.

You see, in the church we see so many unfinished people, people that are full of imperfections and weaknesses. And if we think we're going to find something better, We only set up ourselves for disappointment. You know the story of Spurgeon, of course, of the woman who came up to him and she couldn't find a church. She went from church to church to church, and Spurgeon finally said to her, well what are you looking for? A perfect church?

And she said, yes. He said, don't join it. Won't be perfect anymore. You see, it's always a work in progress. And so what we need to do is not get discouraged and give up.

We need to remember the church belongs to Jesus. We need to remember the substance of the church. When we are faithful and bring the Word of God, God will bless it. Be it through personal evangelism, be it through preaching from the pulpit. And so instead of criticizing people who fall short of our expectations, We need to get on our boots, our over-oath, our helmets, and get busy on the work site.

Hora a tla bora! Pray and work. And in that order. You know, Bunyan said you can do more than pray after you pray, but you can't do more than pray until you prayed. So we need to pray, pray, pray, and work, work, work.

And everyone is called to that. J.C. Ryle said the Church of Christ needs servants of all kinds, instruments of every sort, pen knives as well as swords, axes as well as hammers, marthas as well as marries, peters as well as johns. And so though we struggle in the church, Though we groan, though we bleed, though we weep, yet we pray, yet we work, yet we press on, remembering the church is going to be one day a perfect bride adorned for her husband, without spot, without wrinkle. As Matthew Henry said, the church shall survive the world and be in bliss when the world is in ruins.

For when men are projecting the church is ruined, God is preparing for her salvation. But thirdly, I Will Build guarantees not only a wonderful institution and a wonderful indestructibility, but also a wonderful individuality. A wonderful individuality. You see, we forget when we complain about the church's messy building site that we are part of the mess and we're no better. We're also in progress.

Sometimes it's embarrassing. I was just thinking today on my birthday, it's been 44 years now since I became a Christian by the grace of God. I ought to be 10 times more holy than I am. I ought not stumble over the measly straws that get put in my way. I'm far too great a sinner.

I'm part of the problem. I'm part of the problem. And yet God, in his amazing grace, works with this wonderful individuality. Even though It's a corporate family, a universal family. He works in each one's soul, what each one needs to come to glory.

I had a man in my church who had ten children. He had a friend who had ten children. The family was a terrible mess. The father of the ten children where his family went to seed said to the father of the ten children who were walking with the Lord, I don't know what I did wrong. I raised them all the same.

The father said, perhaps my friend, that's your problem. You didn't raise them individually. Each child has his own needs. You can't just disappoint every child exactly the same. Each one has his own needs, and God has this marvelous capacity, this infinite capacity, to deal with millions of his children worldwide, as if each one were his only child.

He builds his church with an incredible individuality. I have a son who's a hunter and when he graduated from high school, I took him hunting in South Africa. I was doing a trip there. It was one of the most wonderful times of our lives together. And one day, we were following some wildebeest, and we thought actually that we had shot a wildebeest that was going to die.

And our hunter went before us, and he was looking at all the footprints in the mud and to me they all looked the same. All 20 wildebeest footprints looked exactly the same. But this guy looked at them and he said, that's the one you hit right there. You see the prints a little different? I said no.

I could see it at all. But he had an eye for it, you see. He had this uncanny sight. And wherever he went, he said, there's the print, there's the print, there's the print. He just picked it out of 20.

But I thought at the time, you know, that's God's intimate knowledge of us. We cannot even tell each other sometimes whether we're saved or not because we can be such hypocrites. But God has every hair of your head numbered. He deals with you individually. He knows the path you take.

And you can trust him. You can trust him to build you according to his good pleasure, to be the exact brick, the exact stone he wants in the exact place and the exact size in his building. Christ will lose none of those given to him by the Father chosen to everlasting life. And then fourthly, there is this wonderful churchly inheritance. We cherish, we cherish the church not only for her wonderful individuality and her wonderful institution and her wonderful indestructibility, but also her wonderful inheritance.

There's an inheritance laid away, undefiled, that you and I, if we're believers, shall come to one day. One day Christ's work will be finished in us. One day there will be no loose brick and strings and mud and water laying around. One day we'll be part of that perfect building brought as a bride adorned for her husband. One day we will come and see Jesus And He will be far more beautiful than we have ever, ever imagined.

We'll feel like the queen of Sheba, that half of it was not told us. And on that day, we'll be without sin. No sin in my body, no sin in my soul, absolutely spotless. I will be as perfect as Jesus is perfect through Jesus' own work. That's an amazing thought.

My bridegroom shall look at me and say, I see no sin in my Jacob, no transgression in my Israel. And we'll look at him and say, you are all together lovely. Here we see through a glass darkly, but then face to face. You've heard the story perhaps of a 19th century young man who was blind whose name was William Montague. And he belonged to an aristocratic family.

His father was an admiral. And a physician came to his father and said, you know, I think I can do a surgery, maybe, that can solve William's problem. And William, meanwhile, had fallen into love with a beautiful young lady and he was about to marry her. And he agreed to submit to the surgery. But he said to his father, the bandages have to stay on for two weeks.

I want the surgery two weeks before my wedding day. I want you to be my best man, Dad. And when I stand up there and my bride walks in, I want you to take off my bandages. Because if I can see, I want the first thing to be my bride." That's what happened. It was a very august body.

You know, in an august body, things can be rather tense at a wedding. This was particularly tense because, well, what's going to happen to William? As The bride walks down the aisle, the father reaches over, takes the bandages away and he can see and he's so amazed at the beauty of his bride, he cries out in the midst of the august body, you are far more beautiful than I ever imagined. I think That's what will happen one day when we will go through the gates of pearly bliss and we will see Jesus waiting for us, said Samuel with a soft cloth to wipe away every tear from our eye and we shall gaze upon him and say, you are far more beautiful, Lord Jesus, than we ever imagined. An inheritance, incorruptible, that fadeth not away.

No more spots, no more wrinkles forever and forever. And then finally, fifthly, I will build means that Jesus has still got more work to do. The world hasn't ended yet. So we cherish also the church's wonderful invitation. We send out the invitation, still today, to Come and repent and believe the Gospel.

Some of you sitting here tonight still do not know this wonderful Savior. I invite you to come to him just as you are. I invite you to do that as I close through two quick stories. The first is about a Scottish Highland boy who woke up one terrible morning after a great storm at night in the middle of Northern Scotland, only to find that the sheep he sheltered in the storm were safe in the cave, but the train track over the great chasm had fallen into the valley. And the shepherd boy ran up the side of the embankment and got to the train that was coming just in time and he waved to the conductor to stop.

And the conductor just waved him away. And the boy ran and he threw himself across the track. And the conductor slammed on his brakes, ran over the boy and stopped just in time. And the sleeping passengers woke up. They ran outside, ran to the front of the train, they looked at the boy, the mangled remains, they looked into the valley at the train track that was mangled as well.

And no one said a word for a good long while. And finally one man said, that boy there, he saved my life. My dear friend, if you don't know the Lord Jesus Christ, I say to you tonight, He throws Himself across your tracks. Stop your train. Stop your mad rush to do one more thing.

Bend the knee, cry out for mercy, seek his face, ask him for repentance and faith. And you too may gaze not just across the track, but on the cross and cry out. That God man there, truly, like the centurion, he's the son of God, he saved my life. And you know if that happens to you, you will want to give your life back out of gratitude to this glorious Savior. So I close with this story.

There was once a wealthy Englishman And he went to California in the 1850s to rake in money from the gold rush. He was very successful. He came back with millions and he went through New Orleans on his way back to England. He did what in the 1850s most tourists did. He went to the infamous slave trading block and as he came around the corner, he saw a beautiful young African woman on the block being auctioned off and two men in front of him arguing among themselves about the dreadful things they would do to her if they got her, even as they were trying to outbid each other.

And the man became very angry. And he cried out to the auctioneer, I'll give twice the price what anyone will pay. And the auctioneer said, what do you mean twice the price? No one has ever given so much for a slave. Do you really have the money?

And the man reached in his pocket, he waved the money, and the auctioneer said, sold. And the wealthy Englishman came up, took the young woman down to his level, and she spit him in the face. He wiped the spit away. He took her a few blocks away into an office, argued with the officekeeper. Finally he said, I have a right to do this.

The office man got out some papers and he signed the papers. He turned around and he said, here are your manumission papers. And she spit him in the face. He wiped the spit away. He said, don't you see?

Don't you see? You are free! She just stared at him. Finally she crumpled at his feet. She began to weep and weep.

She clung to his boots. Finally, she looked up at him and she said, Sir, do you mean to tell me that you paid more for me than anyone has ever paid for a slave, just to set me free?" He said yes. And she began to weep again. And she wept and she wept. Finally, she looked him up in the face once more and she said, sir, I have but one request.

Can I be your slave forever? That's the way a Christian feels, my unconverted friend. When you come to know the love of God and Jesus Christ that surpasses understanding, makes this world look like a dull black and white compared to the beauty of the color of the love of Jesus, you will want to serve Him forever. Be His willing servant, as Paul said, His willing doulos. Oh God man, the Christ, the son of the living God, may I serve thee forever.

Let's pray. Great God of heaven, we thank thee so much, that thou dost love thy church, that thou art the builder of it, that thou art the chief cornerstone of it, that thou dost gather the substance of living stones to it, and that thou dost preserve them even to the end, and that this work is sure. We thank Thee, Lord, for its indestructibility, for its invitation, and for its magnificent completion on the great day. And We pray that everyone, boy and girl, teenager, father and mother in this place, may not rest until they too can say, I belong to the beautiful, glorious church, the church I cherish, the church of Jesus Christ, because I cherish the Savior of it. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen.

And for more information about the National Center for Family Integrated Churches, where you can search our online network to find family integrated churches in your area, log on to our website ncfic.org.