Much time recently in light of lockdowns and restrictions has been spent discussing and examining what we mean when we refer to the Church of Jesus Christ. Now I think to some extent putting aside the level of tension which has arisen in some respects that when that is all said and done that this is a good thing, a good thing that as God's people that we we remind ourselves and we refresh ourselves with maybe areas of Christian teaching to this point in time that we've not maybe been accustomed to acquainting ourselves with more thoroughly as we should have. Maybe it's even possible for some of God's people that for a long time these areas of what we call ecclesiology have been neglected to some extent. Now when we come to the subject of ecclesiology, which we might simply refer to as the nature of the Church, there probably isn't a more disputed text of Scripture than when we come to Matthew 16 and verse 18, the words which are before us here this morning. And certainly these words are critical as we come to understand not simply what we mean by the Church, as we shall see very shortly, but also what we mean when we refer to Christ as the Head of His Church, and the manner in which he establishes and builds his church in any age and in all generations. Now I mention all this because in this next passage of Scripture, which is key and indispensable, we understand that the Lord has been responding to Peter. Why? Because Peter has been responding to the Lord Jesus Christ. Just to refresh your minds, for those who weren't here last Sunday, the Lord had come to Peter and the rest of the apostles and he had asked them this question, whom do men say that I, the Son of Man, am? You'll see that if you just glance your eyes back over those previous verses. And so the apostles, they give the answer. Some say John the Baptist, some Elias, some Jeremias, and some say that you're one of the prophets, and we doubt with all of the thinking behind those answers that we're given. These were noble names, these were high examples, but they were still men at best. And so the Lord turns to these men, And he asks them the question, but whom do you say that I am? What's your answer to this most needful and necessary of questions in this day? Now Peter responds, doesn't he? And Peter gives the answer. And please remember this, it's important to our message this morning. When Peter is answering, he's answering on behalf of all of the apostles. He's answering very much, of course, himself, but he does speak as the spokesman, something that we've already established in our studies in Peter's life. And so he speaks, doesn't he, in verse 16, and he says with this great simplicity, and yet with this profound sense of authority, thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. Now, I can say to you that Peter speaks not just for himself, but for others on the authority of John chapter six. Remember those words in verse 68 and verse 69. Peter says in a very similar sense, to whom shall we go? He speaks for the others. To whom shall we go, he says. We believe, he says, and we are sure that thou art that Christ. Now, it would be very strange that if now in Matthew 16, Remember, this is a portion that is very close in time to John chapter 6. They're not, you know, months or years apart. These things happened very much quickly in succession. It would be very strange if Peter now, in Matthew 16, sort of pushes all the rest of the apostles to one side and says, you know what, Lord? This is my answer and my answer alone. we're not to think in that manner. He's speaking, and I think there's a certain value and a significance that reminds us of Peter as an individual, but he doesn't speak in exclusion to the rest of the apostles. Please keep all those things in mind as we go through our message this morning. Now in responding, the Lord confers this great blessing in which the key to all true happiness is found. And he responds to Peter, doesn't he? And we need to again just remind ourselves of this as we come to our message. And he says, Peter, blessed art thou. And as I mentioned last week, the Lord is presenting the key to all happiness and blessedness. Peter or the rest of the Apostles or for any person for that matter, where is your happiness to be found? Where is true blessedness to be found in this world and in the world which is to come? It is in knowing Christ, whom to know is life eternal. Peter, you're truly blessed. Peter, this is the core and the key to all happiness, because this is the confession of Christ within your very soul. And Peter, flesh and blood hasn't revealed these things unto you, but my Father which is in heaven. The conversation, folks, does not stop there. And if we were in any other conversation ourselves, we would not then suddenly shift the dynamic. We would understand the context of any conversation we're involved in. Please get all that framework within your mind as you come to what many people believe to be, but I don't think it really is, when you look at it in Scripture, a disputed text in verse 18 and what it means. The Lord has not finished his message with Peter and the rest. He continues to address these men through Peter. Let's bear that in mind this morning. Now in the process, we come now to two verses, which unfortunately, due to the erroneous teaching within the Roman Catholic Church, through their history and to the present day, regarding what they believe to be a papacy and its powers, has led many believers to question what they actually mean. And so there's a historic struggle when it comes to the words of verse 18 and verse 19. And I'll try to present the struggle and answer it in this message and in the message next week. So for example, some will ask the question, is the Lord saying that the success of the church and the very authority of the church sits squarely upon the shoulders of Peter as the first in some professed papal line? That's the line and the message and the dogma of the Roman Catholic Church. Peter here is presented and is established in the line of a succession of popes. Christ builds his church upon Peter. That's their thinking and their teaching throughout the ages. Is it right? Is it wrong? If it's right, then I'm in the wrong place, because I certainly don't believe that to be the message in God's Word. So these are questions we've got to ask. We're not being antagonistic. We're not trying to sort of have an argument for the sake of it. We need to search the Scriptures and ascertain what the Word of God is teaching at all times. That's one question which arises here. Another will come in verse 19. Do the keys in verse 19 mean that ministers of the word, pastors, have some God-given and inherent power to forgive someone their sins? Is that what verse 19 is teaching? Whatever is bound in earth should be bound in heaven and so on. Now these have been the claims of the Roman Catholic Church and we are to reject them on biblical grounds. And that's our intention this morning and I trust also through the message the Lord will certainly bless us as we think of how Christ builds his church. Now what is usually overlooked here is that at the heart of all which our Lord is teaching is this matter which I have presented to you by way of my message this morning. Christ building his church. If we had to learn anything this morning, this is what we are to grasp with both of our hands and in the very heart that we have. How does our Savior build His church in any generation? Now, the key to all of this is to remember that by church, by the word church that is mentioned here in verse 18, when the Lord says, I will build my church, what is He referring to? Remember how I've said many times, we understand the word church in two ways, generally speaking, visible, invisible. As we meet together here in this manner, we are a representation of the visible church of Jesus Christ. But here in verse 18 we have to remember that our Lord is speaking not of the visible church, He's speaking of the invisible body. Do we ask what that means? It means this, the company of all of God's faithful people from every age, from every nation, from every people and from every generation. We're dealing with those who are justified by grace. We're dealing with those who are in Jesus Christ. It is not therefore one sort of representation of that under a denomination, or under a banner, or under a name, or under a local assembling of itself together. We have to remember this. And sometimes in the Bible, that will be the meaning. That will sometimes be what is referred to. But in this instance, it's not. And we know that for one very simple reason, because the Lord is saying to Peter here, he builds what cannot be broken. He brings together what cannot be dissolved. He builds his church. everyone for whom the blood has been shed, and every child of God will safely be gathered in. It's a glorious theme, by the way, Christian. It's to really encourage you, enthuse you in these days in which we live. And we are to benefit tremendously from these things in our visible setting, of course we are, but we're to bear in mind that the church which is mentioned here is said to prevail despite all the machinations of hell. and all the influences of wickedness. And that can only ever be said of the invisible body, as we shall see as we go through our message this morning. So all of that is very important as we look at these themes and this message of how Christ builds his church. And we're going to establish this in two simple ways this morning. First of all, Christ builds his church through the confession of sound doctrine. Christ builds his church through the confession. And when I say confession, I want to make it very clear that I don't just simply mean lip service. Whenever we think of the word confession in scripture, and we understand it in its biblical setting, we're dealing with the confession of the heart. We're dealing with the whole heart of a man or a woman who confesses and believes, and yes, lives this out every single day. That's what we're meaning by our confession. not something that we just would subscribe to in a sort of outward manner. He builds it through a heart confession of sound doctrine. You don't need to look too far in the New Testament scriptures to remind yourselves and remember that sound doctrine is critical in the advancing of the gospel and in the building of Christ's church in every age. Because what was it that Peter and Paul preached in the early days? They preached sound doctrine, didn't they? What is it that Peter preaches? He preaches what? The life and the death and the resurrection and the reign and the coming of Jesus Christ. These are all doctrines in God's word. These are sound truths. They have to be preached. They have to be contended for. It is only right that each of these truths, along with all the body of truth that God reveals to us, must be taught, it must be understood, it must be believed, it must be lived out. If we stay with Peter, because he's the center of our focus in these messages, if you go to Peter's latter stages of his life, and you read his first two letters, and notice that theme and how it reoccurs time and time again. In the first letter, what is it he says towards the end? He exhorts the elders which were among them, and he says, I'm also one of you. I'm an elder also. I'm just rephrasing his words here. He says, feed the flock of God. Now you tell me, how do you feed the flock of God if you don't feed them sound doctrine? Peter understands that when you're to build the church and establish the church, that you do not build the church through just experiences and emotions and sensations. I'm not saying that in the midst of our love for Christ and our learning of God that there won't be such things as real true emotions and love. Of course there will, but they have to be in the right context. You feed the flock of God by feeding them the word of God. That's how you build the church. Peter understood that. Not through fabrication, not through lie, not through devices of men, but through sound teaching. And if you look at other scriptures, Paul gives us warnings. It will come to pass in latter days, in these times, in maybe days in which we live, that people will have these itching ears. They don't want to endure what? Sound doctrine. They don't want the things that convince them of sin. They don't want the things that would bring them to think of Christ. They want the things which are palatable, acceptable, easy to hear, and comfortable to live with, but do not want sound teaching. Why? Because sound doctrine does things. It convicts us of sin, it brings us to God, and it builds His church. You've got to see this as we go through our message this morning. In Peter's second letter, he reminds the church. He says, look, we have a more sure word of prophecy. And he brought them to think about the Mount of Transfiguration. And you can imagine some people going, wow, I'd love to be with Peter and James and John on that occasion, standing there in the Mount of Transfiguration. Imagine being there. Why, my heart would be enthused, and I would be walking on air, and I would live for God. And Peter says, no, we've got a far more sure word of prophecy in the possession of Holy Scripture. And you do well to take heed unto it as a light that shines in darkness. So I'm just reminding you of Peter's take on this in the latter stages of his life. Surely when he was writing those letters, I can only speculate at this stage, but I like to think this, Peter would look back upon these experiences which he went through himself and hearing these words and working out what a word that was, I will build my church. I will build my church. That held Peter true many a year. And the rest of the apostles as well. The question we have to ask are these, why tell Peter who he is again? Why say to him in verse 18, and I say also unto thee that thou art Peter? I mean, he knows his name, and he's already called him Cephas there in John chapter one. Why tell him what his name is? What's the meaning behind those words? And then what's the Lord mean, more importantly, when he said, and upon this rock? And what's the relationship between the first and the second question? Well, let me just remind you of this as we deal with this matter of Christ building a church through sound doctrine. Here was a personal word. I don't want to divorce Peter from this. I think there's sometimes a knee-jerk reaction when it comes to the Roman Catholic doctrine, which I reject, and that's to completely dispense with Peter altogether. We shouldn't be doing that because Peter is being addressed as well in an individual manner, as well as representing the apostles. And we know that because of this first part. And the Lord says to him, in verse 18, and I say also, Anthony, please notice the language that the Lord Jesus uses, and remember the conversation which is in process here. Peter says to the Saviour in verse 17 or verse 16, thou art the Christ, and the Saviour is saying to Peter, Peter, now I also say to you, you've told me my name, who I am, and what a word that was. And there is no rebuttal or refusal because it's true. Now he says to Peter, this is who you are, you're Peter. So we want to work out what this dynamic is and understand it. Now back in John 1 and verse 42, the Lord had said, thou shalt be called Cephas. Whether there's a reference to future there, thou shalt be called, I would maybe hold there is, and it comes to fruition right now. So John 1, 42, thou shalt be called Cephas, which is by interpretation, a stone. When Peter had been called and then appointed as an apostle of the rest, there was always the sense in which they were stones. Remember that. When the Lord called them to be fishers of men, when the Lord called them to be apostles in previous portions, he was calling them to be stones in the living temple. That was already in place. That was already a truth and a fact. That wasn't something that had yet to be happened. They were members now. They were born of the Spirit of God, with the exception of Judas Iscariot, and they were therefore grafted into this holy temple, part of its very fabric, we might say, as all saints are. So that's already in place. The Lord is simply confirming this and reminding him and others of their place. Peter, your confession of me, that I am the Christ, the Son of the living God, all that is true. And so I now say unto you, Peter, this is who you are. He's saying, Peter, I am delighted with the confession you have uttered, and this is a true source of happiness and all blessedness. But let me remind you of your significance, of your place in the church of Jesus Christ. You're a stone. There's a resemblance, we might say. You have a part to play. This is not a dismissive word, it's a significant word. And he's reminding him, Peter, I have a work to do with you and the others. You, as with all of saints of God, will be instrumental in the building of my church. So we can't go down this route where we say that Peter has no reference whatsoever, because his name is mentioned, and now our Peter. He says in verse 18, you don't know what this stone, this piece of rock. So while our Lord is not calling him the rock in terms of being the head of a church or any such thing, yet Christ is highlighting the importance of him and the apostles and all believers in ages to come. It was a personal word, but it then also became a pivotal word. Because now the Lord shifts the scene, you might say, in verse 18. And he says, and upon this rock I will build my church. Now this is where all the the so-called difficulty lay, and maybe if you've read these words and know the answer to these things anyway, or maybe I'll say things that you've never thought before in terms of how you understand this verse, often you'll find that preachers will immediately go to the Greek at this stage. And I've got a problem with that. I'm not by any means an expert in Greek, but these things are very simple to see for yourself if you have a lexicon or any such way of looking at Greek language. Peter is petros, rock is petra. It's very easy to see their difference in words, but there is a play on the words. But they are different words. However, my observation as I look at scripture is that this is not enough. There is much more that needs to be said. We also know, as you look at the Bible, folks, that how does God reveal himself to us? He calls himself our rock, doesn't he? He's our hiding place, and we could turn to many scriptures, Old or New Testament. Think even in Corinthians, when Paul speaks of that rock in the wilderness, that rock was Christ. So in the truest, most significant sense of the word, when we say, who is our rock? We say, God is our rock of our strength. It's only a title, it's only a name that could ever be given to God himself or our Lord Jesus Christ, when we reference his excellence, his preeminence, his strength, and his power. Now all of that is a given, we might say, as we look at the Bible. Remember that Peter is given a degree of historical primacy importance here, as with the others, but not universal, and certainly not what we call papal, and most definitely not with any impeccable qualification that the Catholic Church seeks to teach. Now at this stage, some will say, but what does this mean then? Upon this rock will I build the church, or my church? Some preachers will say, well, the Lord means this. It's not my view, by the way, and I don't think it's the historic view when you look at this more closely. Some will say that Christ is now turning to himself and pointing to himself and saying, upon me, I will build my church. Now, of course we step back and we say, in the overall sense of the Word of God, Christ is the head of his church, yes, without any doubt. He builds his church, he's the cornerstone, he's the bedrock. Again, these are scriptural things that we know for sure, but we have to be true to every verse that comes to us. Is that precisely what the Lord is saying in this moment? I struggle to say it is, because surely the Lord would render the wording more along these lines, and upon me, rather than this wording, and upon this rock. There's something else in view here. Peter's been addressed here. You're Peter, you have a part to play, you've got a significance. Christ is always the head of his church, but then the Lord points almost somewhere else, and upon this rock. Now, think about this, folks, before we move to our second point. What is the whole conversation about? It's the confession of Christ. It's the confession of who He is. And so this has generally been the meaning in, we might say, conservative, reformed teaching when it comes to scripture, and I believe it's the right one as you look at what the whole passage of scripture is saying here. This is a reference to Peter and the apostles' confession that Christ is the Son of God. This confession of the person and work of Jesus Christ. This is the rock upon which Christ builds his church. I believe that is the scriptural meaning. Why? Because it fits in with the whole narrative. That's the whole subject, isn't it? That's what's in discussion. Peter says, you're the Christ, you're the son of the living God. Well said, Peter, blessed art thou. And this is who you are. But how do I build my church? I don't build it upon you, Peter. Because in the next moment, you're going to be rebuked by me. and you'll fail me, and you'll deny me, as will all of God's people, because they are flesh and blood. I will build my church upon this confession which can never be moved, at the very heart of it all. So in that sense, Christ is saying, I'll build it upon me, but he's referencing this confession. All of this is so important because what is always under siege in the church? What is always under attack? The very doctrines of Christ, aren't they? That's where Satan will always go for, in one way or another. Whether it'll be from false teaching, bad teaching, erroneous teaching, or whether it'll be from the fools and the sins of people as they're approached upon. Oh, if they're really Christians and Christ is really the head of his church, they wouldn't do such things. Satan is always seeking to undermine this confession. Let me say this to you with all of my heart, brother and sister in Christ. This is the key to your blessedness. It is the key to your heaven. It is the key to your salvation. A saving understanding of our Lord is critical in making one person that living stone. The church will only ever be built so long as it has at its very heart the confession of Christ. We must preach Him and no one else. So whether or not you've had that understanding of verse 18 in your Christian life or not, I want you to see that I'm not trying to strain this verse. I want you to see that it's right there before your very eyes. What is the conversation all about? Who do men say that I, the Son of Man am? And that's how Christ builds his church. My last point, and you'll be glad I'm not looking at verse 19 as well because that's a big subject as well. So that's why I'm showing a degree of compassion towards you and making this my last point this morning. He builds his church despite the attacks of hell. Aren't you glad that you can say that? He builds his church despite all the attacks and the approaches of hell itself. And so the next part of verse 18 goes on, because the Saviour is not finished here. I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Now while for us the next words which came from the Saviour, to some extent they seem to come out of the blue, don't they? You think Peter was expecting this? You think you were standing there with Peter and James and John and the others and you heard these words of the Saviour, I will build my church, oh that's wonderful, and the gates, whoa, whoa, the gates of hell. What's this mean? But the Lord has something more to teach these men about how he builds his church. We have to remember, however, that in these days that which we speak of here, the ancient site of a city wall And city gates, people entering in, or even people trying to overthrow them and sort of break them down, that wasn't an uncommon thing. Probably would be for us. We stepped outside this wall and we saw a city wall suddenly built with a gate there, Boris next to it. We'd be a bit worried and perturbed. But we're not used to these things. But in these days, it was something of a common sight and understanding. In our Lord's day, how often the thoughts of the people were very much concerned with temporal things. temporal kingdoms, temporal means, even amongst the apostles. The desire for the Roman Empire to be dismantled and for the son of David to take his earthly throne was very much in their mind's eye. You'll see that if you go onwards into verse 21 and so on, we'll deal with this another time when Peter rebukes the Lord when he hears about the necessity of Christ having to die and to suffer. No, those things can't be. Why would Peter be so enthusiastic? I don't want to ruin that message too much because the thinking is still there. No, we'll take the throne now. We'll defeat these powers now. And the Lord is saying, no Peter, you've got it all wrong. You've got it all wrong. And maybe Christian, maybe Christian, we're living in a day where the church of Christ is continually getting it all wrong. in understanding not just the nature of the church in its invisible nature but the things that it must go through and what the extension of the kingdom of God is all about. We're going to see this in our text this morning. I think to some extent here lies the answer to the question I posed last week. I don't know if anyone wants to stand up and give your answer, but I won't tell you until I gave you a bit of a question, and I don't have any prizes. I've got a half a glass of water there before me, which you can probably have if you're willing to have it. The question I gave you last week was along these lines. In verse 20, the Lord charges his disciples they should tell no man that he was Jesus the Christ, Why would he charge them to not tell others that Jesus was Christ when we've just established that upon the doctrine of Christ he builds his church? It's a good question, isn't it? If you sat there with a bit of paper in front of you, I want to know what you would say in your answer. Some of you gave me an answer last week and it was encouraging to hear those. It's a thought-provoking question. I think we can answer it to some extent here. Certainly these men had to realise that the shame, the reproach of the cross must come first. They must not lose sight of what initially to them was unthinkable. He must die. You've got to get this into your mind. For them this was, at this stage, an unthinkable concept. He must die. The Messiah dying? But that's what scripture teaches. The Lord is emphasising this. However, I think the answer really lies here in something that John Calvin observes, and if you read his commentary, it's fascinating to see how he comes to this observation. He makes the point that these men who in their early days and calling were required to bring souls to Christ as fishers of men, were men that were not yet fully prepared for the approaches and the suffering that would follow the confession of Christ. that they were not men that were fully matured in understanding and in their ability to withstand the reproaches that would come. And so it may well be a means of compassion from our Lord that he's not saying, silence and don't preach Christ. I mean, in a sense, the stones would even cry out and men would speak of him. But there's a degree in which we understand the Lord is first seeking to shore them up, to firm them up, to strengthen them in their faith, to add to the numbers, and furthermore, by His death, and then when they would witness His resurrection. They would be so endued, not just with the Holy Spirit, but with the strength and the power that we serve the risen Christ, that they would be able by the grace of God to withstand the approaches that would come when they would confess Him as Messiah and Christ. In the sort of first outworking of the Lord's kingdom here, it's bringing the disciples to me, be fishers of men. Bring them to me, let them see the works and the miracles and the signs and the wonders. Let them know because of what I do, who I am. And then when the time is right, I'll thrust you forward and you preach this." And that's what they did, isn't it, in the days of the Acts of the Apostles. I think that's a good answer. Don't know if that's your answer. But that's the one I'm going to give you this morning. Now, I believe all that Christ said at the end of verse 18, brethren and sisters, it consolidates this. And I want this to really encourage you and strengthen you in your walk as we come to a close this morning. After approving of Peter's confession and stating this as the bedrock of the Christian church, he then reminds these men that they are, with all saints, engaged in a battle. Okay, brothers and sisters, we are in a battle and we need to realize this. He reminds these men they are in as the invisible church will always be encountering spiritual warfare and yet despite this, the church will always advance. The invisible church. This is our message. I don't wish to introduce controversial aspects into my sermon, but I simply leave it at this. We may have forgotten this amid all of the political, social, and medical attention which has been around us. We are always in the midst of a furious struggle. And I think that's lost to some extent on many. The Lord speaks about the gates of hell. Now in the days of our Lord and the apostles, they all had their issues, didn't they, with kings and pilots and heralds and Caesars and high priests and Sadducees and Pharisees. Our Lord reminds Peter, in a sense, you know, there's always going to be these things. But what really lies at the heart of it all is that there is a furious siege of hell against the church of Jesus Christ. That never ceases and it never stops. It's relentless. The gates of hell refer to the councils or the designs or, as I said, the machinations and evil purposes of the devil and hell itself. That must have been a frightening word. Must have been a very foreboding message. That God's people are constantly exposed to this invisible and this hellish attack. Just as we might say in a physical sense when the enemy would assault the gate and the walls, it was relentless, it was continual, it was night and day. So the Lord says to his people here, the people of God and their confession of Christ and their endeavour to walk as pilgrims in this world, they are subject to relentless attacks. And while I say we're not to sort of sit back and sort of lap it up and say, oh, it's just the way things are, we're not to think it's strange when we're subject to it. Subject to it individually, Christian. When you are constantly bombarded with doubts and temptations and worries and fears, where there's coldness, where there's indifference, where there's tension, where all the things that we all know is there preventing and hindering and keeping us back. These are all the symptoms and signs and remind us that there is the roaring lion and he does seek to devour the people of God. Peter says that, 1 Peter 5 in verse 8, we're to be sober, you're to be vigilant because your adversary, the devil, your adversary, not mine, not someone else's, it's yours. You and me as the people of God and we're to resist him. Peter is being spoken to here and he and the Apostle would see this as the days would unfold. I'm going to build my church, Peter. I'm going to build it because why, at the very heart of this is the confession of Christ that never can die. But that doesn't mean it will be easy. There will be the gates of hell. But then there's the advancement of the church. What a lovely word this is to finish with. Shall not prevail against it. The thought is the church is advancing, not hell. The church of Christ is being built. I know there'll be all the resistance and all the attacks and all the approaches. It will not prevail. Again, it's so important we understand what our Lord means here. Now, this is why we can now bring everything together in one sort of heading and say, we know this is not the visible church, which is being referenced here. We know this has nothing to do with the Roman Catholic Church and the head, Peter being the head. Why? Why do we know this? Because this is not a promise that any particular church or any particular denomination will not fall away. Most tragically, they have and they will. Names will come and go. Denominations will come and go. Local churches will come and go. The Lord may even, in his mysterious providence, withdraw, as the Bible says, the candlestick away. But none of that means that the invisible church ceases to advance. That's really got to get a hold of our hearts here. And in terms of practical things, professing believers may come and go, and names will rise, and names will fall, and people of great renown no longer will be seen, but the Lord says, I will build my church. And when my voice ceases, and when your life is no longer here, but another generation takes our place, The Lord says, I will build my church. But it's so hard, Lord, and we're so oppressed, and it's so much indifference, and there's so much to discourage us. And where are those that love the Lord? I've kept for me quite a number that haven't ever bowed the knee to Baal. I will build my church. But what about the persecuted church, and they can't meet together? I'll build it. And what about there's only a few of us? I'll build it. And what about law when I'm filled with doubts and temptations and backslidings? He says, I'll build it. Upon that, my friend, we hold and we cling to. Jesus speaks of his mystical body, the company of the saints throughout all the ages. And do you know why he builds the church? Because he's bought it with his blood. and the blood will never lose its power. He builds it. This was a word to rally the troops and stir the hearts of a people who had just seen many people walk away and no longer follow. I'm saying to you, to encourage you, I'm saying to my own heart, as frail and as needy as it is in these days, they hold of this great truth, that at the heart of it all is our confession of Him, know Him. If you don't know Him right now, I'm saying this to you, if you have not in your heart a confession of Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you are not part of that church. But you can be part of it by knowing Him, and following Him, and loving Him, going to Him. Thank God He builds His church. May the Lord bless his word to our hearts. Amen.