And for this morning, let's turn to Matthew 16. I will read from verses 13 through 20. When Jesus came into the house of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples saying, whom do men say that I, the son of man, am? And they said, some say that thou art John the Baptist. Some, Elijah, and others, Jeremiah, 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, whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Then charged he his disciples that they should tell no man that he was Jesus the Christ. May God bless the reading of his sacred word. Well, dear church family, 90 years is a long, short time. Short compared to eternity. Long compared to how long most things survive here on Earth. The beauty of the Church of Jesus Christ is that there's no other institution on Earth that has survived 2,000 years. Countries, powers, world powers, come and go. Businesses, come and go. But the gates of hell shall not prevail against the Church of Jesus Christ. When I read some of the things in your history that Pastor Holtz graciously sent to me, I read things like Dr. Machen was one of the speakers at the first Bible conference held here in 1933. I read about John Frame being involved in this church. I read about Edmund Clowney. I'm a Westminster, Philadelphia graduate, and I have great respect for all of these men. I was just thinking, it's amazing, 11 ministers coming to serve you, and some of you still here after 70 years or more. This is astonishing. The grace of God that preserves the church of Jesus Christ. And how many times in these 90 years haven't books been written, the church is going to die? Instead, the church goes out. and Christ's purposes are fulfilled. John Flavel the Puritan said, bury not the church before she be dead. God will keep his church and he will keep a people on earth who love the bride of Christ because they are conformed to the image of Christ. And that raises the question, doesn't it? How important is the church in the life of the individual Christian? And that question has been answered in various ways. How important is the church to you? Well, at one end of the spectrum is the clericalism and the absolutism of Roman Catholicism, in which the visible and institutional church, administered by a vast complex hierarchy of priests and bishops and Pope, claims and wields total power over the believer in matters pertaining to this life and the next. in which scripture comes under the church. The church declares scripture to be inspired. Contrary to the Protestant emphasis that the church merely recognizes that the scriptures are inspired and the scriptures preside over the church. But at the other end of this spectrum is the intense subjectivism and individualism of modern American evangelicalism, which holds that Christianity consists only in personal faith, and which suspiciously regards the church as, quote, organized religion. You see, many agree with the notion today that the church is simply a voluntary society. You go to a church, you might even join it as a full professing member, and then when you're not happy with something, well, you just move on to another church. Maybe you don't like the preacher's personality, or you don't like the fact that there's not a few more social activities in the church. You just do church hopping, or should I say church shopping, which is so common all over America today. In fact, if you don't go to church for a while, it's okay, as long as you have God, the Bible, and yourself. You don't have to attend church to be a Christian. A lady said to me in a plane recently, sitting next to me, a lady who said, I'm a strong Christian, but I don't go to church. And so as a result, you see, the church commands scant regard for her ordinances and office bearers and even less loyalty from her adherents. And so as an institution today, the church competes for support with a whole welter of Christian crusades and mission agencies and schools and publications and broadcasts and charities and fund drives that crowd the landscape of evangelical America. And the net result? The church has lost its authority. It's been reduced to a revolving door where people are leaving as fast as they're coming in. And you see both of these extremes, the Roman Catholic extreme, the typical evangelical extreme, both of them are rooted in unbiblical views of the church. Both are unacceptable to biblical data as well as to the minds of the reformers and Puritans and our forebears. Reformers like John Kelvin. While breaking with the clericalism, the authoritarianism, the absolutism of Rome, Calvin, for example, still maintained a very high view of the church. He said this, if we do not refer the church to all other objects of our interest in this world, we are unworthy of being counted among her members. And then he added this, I agree with Cyprian and Augustine who said, He cannot have God for his father who refuses to have the church for his mother. And to that, Kelvin added these famous words, 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 breasts, and lastly, unless she keep us under her care and guidance until, putting off mortal flesh, we become like the angels in heaven. So what Calvin is saying here is that the church is essential for spiritual admonishment, nourishment, maturation. And yet the church is not the be all and the end all and the absolute authority. The church comes under the word of God. But you see, rallies and conferences and entertainment and all other kinds of things that tend to replace the church today, they are not the church. You see, a church that becomes a musical, a social institution, or an evangelistic circus is not the church. Calvin calls us back to scripture to consider what Jesus Christ has said about the church. And he calls us back to a profound cherishing of the church. That's what I want to do with you this morning. From Matthew 16, 18b, just these words spoken by Jesus upon this rock. I will build my church. So the theme, cherishing the militant church. Three points this morning. First, cherishing the status of the church, the status of the church as belonging to Christ, my church. Second, cherishing the substance of the church as founded on Christ. upon this rock, upon this rock. And third, cherishing the success of the church as the workmanship of Christ. I will build. So it's a very narrow text. We're just going to focus on these handful of words, the status of the church, the substance of the church, the success of the church. In Matthew 16 verse 18, Jesus speaks about the church really as the epicenter of his vision. There's a programmatic ring about the words he uses. He doesn't just say, Peter, I'm going to try to build this institution I call a church. But he says with divine authority, I will build my church. Despite the gates of hell, they will not prevail against it. It's as if he says to Peter, Peter, you've just recognized that I am the Christ, the anointed, the Messiah, the son of the living God. And I want you to understand what lies at the heart of my ministry. As that Christ, through my spirit, my spirit appointed ministry, my spirit anointed ministry, I am going to bring into being a church that belongs to me. So Jesus is saying right from the beginning of the Christian community of the New Testament church that he's not just come to save isolated sheep, that Christianity's not just about God, Bible, me, but rather he's going to bind his chosen sheep together in an amazing community that will never die that he's pleased to call the Ekklesia, the church. Now, the word Ekklesia, the church, is used in Matthew 18.17 as well, the only two times used in the whole Gospel of Matthew. But the church really designates God's chosen, privileged people Referring back to Israel in one sense, Israel called to know and love and serve him, but also in the New Testament sense, claiming his church as his own, as his assembly, his people, bound to him with ties far deeper than those of family or friendship. Now today, of course, Most Christians would say to you, church is important to me. I'm talking about true Christians now. But my nuclear family, my immediate family is more important. Pastors are told in most seminaries, the important thing is your immediate family, that's number one, the church is number two. But does the Bible say that? Actually, what I read in my Bible is that the nuclear family will not last forever. There'll be no marriage in heaven. But the goal of the nuclear family is that by the means of grace, through the church, that the nuclear family might be saved, that your family, my family, might be an undivided family reserved for the heavenly mansions above, of course. But that the goal is that our nuclear families be folded into the everlasting, largest family ever, the family of the redeemed, triumphant church in glory. I'm not saying the nuclear family isn't important. I'm just saying we don't need to take measurements and say this is number one and that's number two. No, both our nuclear family and the family of the church are critical. We don't compete them. There's no competition between them. And Jesus, you see, has this profound love for his ecclesia, that is, those who are called out from the world and called to consecration with him. That's really the idea of church. You're called out from and you're called unto, called out from the world and Satan and his leadership, and you're called to consecration in the Lord Jesus Christ in the midst of his church. And so Jesus doesn't use this possessive pronoun lightly. My church. My church. Now, there are other things he calls his. Also in the Gospel of Matthew, he speaks of my father, my friends, but he never speaks about my money or my property or my anything of this world. My church. Now, we value things, don't we, that belong to famous people. I should have had an old pen in my pocket, but I don't. But if I had an old antique pen and I were to hold this up, I'd say, how much do you give me for this pen? We had an auction this morning. Well, maybe I get $1 at the most. But if I were to tell you this old pen I'm holding up is the pen with which John Calvin wrote his institutes, and I weren't lying, I mean, the pastor would give me $100 for that pen. You see, because it belonged to Calvin. Well, Jesus Christ, your Messiah, says the church belongs to me. What does that tell you? It tells you that the church is incredibly valuable. The church is His by gift, gift of the Father giving Him for the church. The church is His by promise, for the Father promised her to His Son. And the church is His by purchase, for He gave His own blood for her. And that's amazing. That's amazing. He gave His own blood. That means you should never, never esteem the church lightly. Now, when I was 16 years old, I had a 19-year-old brother who got engaged, and I thought it was too early. So I kind of, we were driving in the car somewhere, and I kind of admonished him a little bit, and I just slightly, I mean so slightly criticized his fiance. And I'll tell you, he hit the brakes, he pulled off the side of the road, turned off the car, looked at me, put his finger three times in a row in my chest, and he said, never, never, never again do you criticize my woman. I get the message. What makes people think that they can so easily criticize the church today? People talk about ministers, elders, church people, brothers and sisters in the pews, as if they have a right to criticize one another lightly and be superior to them. And they're forgetting all the while that Jesus loves his church and gave his blood for her. And you're going to talk? down to the church? Oh, may you never criticize the church then? No, I didn't say that. When the church goes a-whoring after other gods, the scripture says, when a church is unfaithful to the word of God, yes, we must criticize, but then we do it like Jeremiah. We do it with tears streaming down our face, oh, for the daughter, the slaying of the daughter of my people. We don't do it lightly, we don't do it casually. Remember, Jesus gave his blood for the church. We've been to Israel a number of times, hope to take one more tour group yet next May again. And every time we go to the place called Golgotha. Today it's a little bit touristy, it's clean. But 2,000 years ago, it wasn't clean. There were skulls laying about the cross and putrid flesh. It was an ugly place. It was a place of shame. It was a place where Jesus poured out, naked, hanging on the cross, his blood. where no eye looked at him with pity and compassion and said, we understand. But where he gave himself blood drop by blood drop, forsaken by God, forsaken by man, forsaken by heaven, by earth, by hell, forsaken by all, trotting the winepress alone, even nature forsook him, the sun would shine upon him. He entered behind the holy of holies. And there he poured out his life. for your sin, dear believer, for your sin. This is what God thinks of sin. Christ gave his blood. My brother was angry with me, but he didn't bleed for his fiancee. Imagine how Jesus must be angry at people who lowly esteem the church of Jesus Christ. the unclean place, the passions of the mob, the sufferings of his own soul, the cry of dereliction, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? The darkened sun, the coldness of God, the holy revulsion against sin, such are the wages of sin. May I ask you this morning, do you cherish the status of the church? because she belongs to Christ, who gave everything he had for her. My, my church, paid for by my blood. But secondly, We see in this text the church's substance, substance. Upon this rock, I will build my church. Wars have been fought over the meaning of these words, actually. People have shed blood, spilled ink over them. Church leaders and synods have argued endlessly over them. These words are inscribed in letters of gold, by the way, on the great dome of St. Peter's in Rome. Roman Catholicism says these words the rock literally refer to Peter who served as Christ's vicar on earth and therefore the Popes when they speak ex cathedra speak inspired and the inspired Word of God, contained in the Scriptures, has another authority now, the Church has another authority, which is the inspired words of the Pope, speaking ex cathedra. So if the Bible says that Mary was a sinner, She said, the Lord is my Savior, didn't she, in Luke 1? But the Pope comes along suddenly in 1844 and says she was sinless. You have to understand you misinterpreted the Bible, and the Pope must be right, because this Pope speaks with divine authority. This rock is Peter. It's the papal chair. Well, of course, we Protestants vehemently disagree with that. Not that there's no reference here at all to Peter. His name, after all, does mean stone, but it refers to what Peter's confessing, of course. Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood is not revealed unto you that I'm the Son of the living God, but my Father, which is in heaven. Now, if the rock were Peter, Christ would have said, wouldn't he, you are Peter, Petra, or rock, and upon this Peter, this Petra, this rock, I will build my church. But he doesn't say that. He uses a diversity of form and gender in Greek words that is too abrupt, marked to be fortuitous, so that it cannot refer to Peter himself. The rock was not the natural, unstable reasoning of Peter, but the mighty truth the father had revealed to Peter, namely the Messiahship and the divine sonship of Jesus. So the church rests on the objective revelation that Peter confessed. The church rests upon Jesus Christ, as the Bible goes on to say, as the chief cornerstone. Now if you read the whole of the New Testament, what you really see is three layers here. You see Jesus Christ called as the chief cornerstone, and then on top of that, we're told in Ephesians 2 verse 20, the apostles build their doctrine on Christ as the chief cornerstone. which then becomes a foundation. Ephesians 2.20 refers to believers being built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone. And then on top of the cornerstone with the foundation, is the actual building, every brick being a separate believer. Believers are called the living stones by 1 Peter 2, built on the foundation of the apostles, who in turn are built on the chief cornerstone. So the whole of the New Testament is affirming that what Peter's confessing, that is the rock, that is the chief cornerstone. upon which the doctrines of grace are built by the apostles and prophets and believers are set on those doctrines on that chief cornerstone and find their salvation wholly and solely in Jesus Christ. So it's really the invisible church, the church of true believers that are truly born again. That is the real church. That is the church that's on its way to becoming the church triumphant despite all the battles against sin and indwelling sin in this life. And so we need to be careful when we talk about the church as being in Christ. that we don't talk as if every single member of that church is a genuine member of the living, eternal, invisible church. There are hypocrites in every church. There are those who just make head profession in every church. But the Holy Spirit wields together every Christian. every true Christian, saved by spirit, work, faith, who trusts in Christ alone for salvation, and puts them as stones, living stones, upon this apostolic New Testament doctrine, which in turn is grounded upon Jesus Christ. He's the mediator of the church. He's the minister of the church. He's the surety of the church. He's the savior of the church. But the substance with which he builds his church is sinners like you and me, sinners saved by grace. And so we cherish the substance of the church because she's founded upon Jesus Christ. Now, when we gaze on the church's external appearance, we may think, oh, I don't know if I can believe this. Her garments appear soiled and torn. We often see disunity rather than unity, unholiness rather than holiness, denominationalism rather than genuine Catholicity, apostasy rather than apostolicity. We see a church that tragically withholds a gospel from people and then wonders why she's lost her audience. We see cold preaching, lukewarm members, love of power, lack of discipline, worldliness, even entertainment. When we see the church's decline from within and society's threats from without, we're tempted to say the church can't survive. but we're dead wrong. Calvin got it right, didn't he? The church is our mother. Though she appears to age and fail, we still cherish her, and she will meet with success. The Lord will bless her. The Lord will build upon this rock. Because she's Christ's bride, she cannot fail. I will build my church on this rock. Which leads me to my third point, the church's success. Because she's the workmanship of Jesus Christ. I want to set before you in five brief thoughts, why the church is so successful. Number one, she has a wonderful, indestructibility, a wonderful indestructibility. The gates of hell shall not prevail against her. Satan's pretty powerful. He's got quite a few minions helping him. But all Satan can do with all his powers, he cannot destroy the church. So Jesus doesn't say here, hell, I'll try to build my church, or I wish I could build my church, or I hope I could build my church. No, he says, I will build my church. I am God-man. I'm who you say I am, Peter. And I'm telling you, Peter, the church may lose many skirmishes, certain individual church buildings may close their doors, certain denominations may die, but my church, can never die. Satan can never win the battle in the end because I am stronger than Satan. I am God, he's only a fallen angel. Therefore, the church will defeat Satan's armies. The seed of the woman will prevail over the seed of the serpent. Now remember who Jesus is speaking to here. He's speaking to a dozen guys around him, fishermen, tax collector, some other disciples, a motley group of nobodies, you might say, and he says, I'm going to build my church based on myself, on the chief cornerstone, but I'm going to build it through the doctrine of apostles. You 12 and you're going to go out, well you 11 maybe I should say, and you're going to go out and you're going to spread the gospel and that's going to be passed on to other men. We'll pass it on to other men. Timothy, teach others what I've taught you all the way down to 2,000 years later. And what is the church still doing? Well, that's my, my life's work. My main life's work training men for the ministry that they may teach others who may teach others who may teach others. And the church is going on and on and on from 11. Nobody's. It's being built and built and built and built. Yes, she staggers sometimes, but she continues her march through history to ultimate triumph. The Belgian Confession of Faith says so well, this holy church is preserved or supported by God against the rage of the whole world, even though sometimes she appears for a while very small in the eyes of men, or even reduced to nothing, as during the perilous reign of Ahab, when nevertheless, The Lord reserved unto him 7,000 men who had not bowed the knee to Baal. The church has a wonderful indestructibility. Because Jesus said, I, the Almighty, will, no doubt, build my church. And secondly, we should cherish The church is success because the church is a wonderful institution. A wonderful institution. Wonderful institution where we may receive through the means of grace, personal salvation. More people have been converted certainly under sermons in the church than through any other means of grace. I mean, one thief was converted in the last moment of his life. 3,000 were converted under Peter's sermon. This is God's normal way to save sinners under the preached word, but also to mature sinners as saints under the preached word. And we should cherish that, the success of the church in saving sinners, the spirit and saving sinners through the church and maturing them through the church so that we are willing to serve the church and love the church and remember that our labor is not in vain in the lord in that wonderful institution and that wonderful institution is well organized by christ there are ministers there are elders there are deacons to lead her Calvin says this is for our well-being as a people of God. We are not to be lone rangers or rugged individualists in the church. Being sinners, Calvin says, we need one another. No one is gifted with all the gifts he needs to walk to glory, but we take the gifts God has given to each other within the body of the church, and we combine these gifts together to the mutual benefit of all. What a beautiful, what a beautiful team the church is, really. Organized so well by Jesus. A wonderful institution. Even when sinners try to spoil it, the church will survive. And therefore, though the church isn't perfect here on earth, We need to get on our overalls and our boots and put on our helmets and go out and build the church. 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, Martha's as well as Mary's, Peter's as well as John's. What are you doing for the church? For building up of the church? by the grace of Jesus. You see, church is not just meant for import for you under the sermons that your pastor preaches to you. The import you receive is also to be exported to others in evangelistic efforts and in helping the church in one way or another. And then thirdly, the church ought to be cherished because her success possesses a kind of wonderful individuality. Though the church is one body, the living church is one body, every single believer in the church has a wonderful individuality. God made you as a believer unlike anyone else with your unique set of gifts to be used in a unique way in the church of Jesus Christ. My son and I were once hunting in South Africa, and he shot a wildebeest, a big animal. But it was in a herd of wildebeest, and the wildebeest kept running. And the guy that was with us said, oh, we'll get him. We'll get him. I said, well, how are you going to get him? There's a whole group there. He goes, oh, I'll find the footprint. We walked through some mud and there was like 25 footprints there, sets of footprints. He said, there it is, there it is. You see the blood, the little bit of blood is on that one set of footprints. I couldn't see any difference. But he was an experienced hunter. He could see it. And we followed that one set of footprints until we found the animal. See, God's people often look alike. but each one has its own spiritual DNA. Each one has its own experiences. A. W. Tozer said, it's like ships going from New York to Rotterdam. They all start at the same place. They all end at the same place, but no ship takes the exact same route through the water. God is beautiful. He delights in variety from every tribe and nation and people and status. He brings the church together on the glorious day. And what a beautiful thing that is. It's one thing I love about our seminary, actually. We've got men from 21 different countries and every skin color possible and every different background from every continent. And they're asking questions in class about their culture and their churches. And it's so beautiful, so enriching to all the students to see this diversity come together on the same foundation, individuality, but oneness in Christ. And then fourth, the church has this wonderful inheritance. An inheritance that is laid away. All things are yours in Christ. Christ belongs to God. So all things are yours in Christ. What an inheritance. What an inheritance. We think that we need to save a lot of money. You know, that's what the world tells us. So that when we, you know, when we get old and we get sick, we have something to fall back on and we have something to give our children. I guess it's somewhat important as far as it goes. But what's really important is you have a spiritual inheritance. When I was nine years old, my dad sat me down on his bed, and he took out his wallet, and he laid some money on the bed beside me, and he said, I have a question for you, and I want to write my answer with an iron pen on your heart. He said, what's the difference between a believer and an unbeliever? I always said I didn't know, Dad, because all my answers were always wrong anyway. So he said, well, a believer always has a place to go. A believer has an inheritance waiting for him. My dad was just a simple carpenter. We were actually fairly poor. I didn't hardly realize that when I was young, but I mean, we couldn't have a whole hot dog on one bun. My mother said, you have to cut it down. So if you eat two hot dogs, you only take one hot dog, but you have two buns. And my dad said to me at that moment, he said, you know, son, I want to tell you something. When, when your mother and I pass away, we're not going to leave much money for you. Then he got tears in his eyes and he looked at me. He says, but we'll leave something more valuable for you. I read that Matthew Henry said better to leave behind a spiritual treasury of prayers for your children than the treasury of gold and silver. That's what my parents left me, a spiritual inheritance. And when God works in your heart, that's what you need to leave your children and your grandchildren and participate in the church seeking to build her up in this spiritual inheritance that will never, never, never die. I will build my church. And then finally, fifthly, We should cherish the church's success because she has a wonderful, effectual invitation by the power of the Holy Spirit. Come unto me, all ye who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. There are a thousand invitations in the Bible for sinners to come just as they are to Christ. Now, and he promises to give everlasting rest. If you're not a believer, true believer, here this morning, I extend that invitation to you to come to Jesus. Now, this great savior who will build his church. So let me just give you an illustration. and then I'll close. There was once a boy, a young man in northern Scotland who bedded down his flock of sheep one night and that night there was a ferocious storm in the valley and the viaduct that was going from one hill over to the other hill broke in the middle of the night and the track, actually the train track was actually laying in the valley in the morning. And the shepherd boy ran up the embankment and got to the train that was coming in time and waved to the conductor to stop. And the conductor just waved him away and just kept going. And so the boy threw himself across the track and the conductor slammed on his brakes. and stopped the train just before it went down into the abyss. People on the train were sleeping, they awoke with a fright, and they jumped out of the train, they ran to the valley, they looked down into the valley, they saw the mangled remains of the track, then they looked at the shepherd boy, they saw the mangled remains of the shepherd boy, and it became very quiet. Until finally, finally, An old man spoke. He said, that boy, that boy there, he just saved my life. But Jesus Christ, again and again, in every sermon your pastor preaches, he throws himself across the track of your life. He urges you to stop that train of your life that is going nowhere, but to hell if you don't know Christ. To stop and consider your ways and repent of your sin and believe in him alone for salvation and don't rest until you can look to the man, the God-man on the center cross and say, that God-man there, that Christ, the son of the living God, he saved my life. He invites you, he invites you now to come to him just as you are and welcome then into the true church, the invisible church that shall never perish. Thank God for the church, cherish the church, her status, My church, her substance founded on me as the rock, Jesus says, and her success. There'll be no empty chairs in heaven. Every single one given to the father, given by the father to the son shall be there. May you and I be there as well. Amen.