Praise God, it's so good to gather. I'm so thankful again for the various different gentlemen who filled the pulpit and some again who helped us on Wisecrackers on Wednesday evening. Thank you so much again for all of your effort to glorify and magnify the Lord Jesus Christ. And as we come to this text of scripture, we come again, and as many of you know, when you read Matthew chapter 16, this is the first mention of the word church in all of the scriptures. In fact, if you look in the Old Testament and you try to find this word, you're not going to find this word at all. And it's a promise from the Lord Jesus Christ, isn't it, that he's going to do something that has not been done before. And that happens to be, again, that he's going to build his church. and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." And it's an amazing promise when you really think because the avenue that brings this teaching is basically questions that he asked his disciples. And one of the questions he asked his disciples was, who do people say that I am? And they come up again with all of these various different answers, these high answers. Some of them said that he was Elijah, and we realize that Elijah was carried up in a whirlwind on a chariot. into heaven again, and he did not see death, and he has come back from there to be preaching. Others say Jeremiah or one of the other prophets. We find in other texts of scripture, people were saying that he was John the Baptist resurrected from the dead, who had come back again at that time. And really, when you look at all these estimations of Jesus, they're really high, but none of them go high enough. He's so much more glorious, so much more grand, so much more monumental. And therefore, again, he asks this question and he says, who do you say that I am? And Peter responds in Matthew chapter 16 with these words. Simon Peter replied, you are the Christ, the son of the living God. You know, and this is an amazing statement because what Peter is saying is that Jesus Christ is the hope of the Old Testament. He's the great Messiah. He is none other than God in human flesh who has come. You know, and when Jesus hears these words, he realizes the source of these words. He realized that Peter hasn't come to that estimation on his own. He says, blessed are you, Simon Barjone. Why? Because you haven't discovered this. My father in heaven has shown you these truths. In other words, it's a new birth. You know, when we are left to ourselves, we will never come to this designation that Jesus is a Christ, that Jesus is our only hope. So when we have a gathering of God's people such as we have again this morning, we should be amazed. Because this is not natural. This is not normal. What this is is none other than the work of God. And so on the basis of that, He gives a promise, and the promise is in verse number 18. And Jesus says, and I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And what he does is called Simon again Petra, right? He calls him rock. And basically, again, this rock is a little rock. But he says, on this rock. And it's a different word. And it's basically a great boulder. And what he's saying, on the basis of Peter's profession of faith, in that estimation, again, that true estimation, again, of who Jesus Christ is, I am going to build my church. So it's on that basis, again, of that profession, that Jesus is going to build his church. And it should amaze us, I think, again, this morning, that we have a history. You know, that we have a history, again, even as a local church, and we are part of that history. And I think it's really important for us to remember history, because when we remember history, what we're remembering is what God has done. You know, somebody has aptly said, history is his story, God's story. He's the one who orchestrates it. And here's the amazing thing. After 2,000 years of church history, we still have a church. You know, we're still worshiping and glorifying the Lord Jesus Christ. And think of it, because Emmanuel Baptist Church has been around, again, even as we heard this morning, for 73 years. And really, it's gone through, again, great times of outing and great times, again, of what we call challenges. It's both expanded and contracted. And yet, there is a history, you know, that we have, again, as far as faithfulness, again, for the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. I think again it's so important for us to remember history because it gives us real confidence, doesn't it? Going forward. If God has done this in the past, look at what he can do in the future. If God has done this in the past, he can work through us today. But as we look at 73 years of history, it also again causes us to wonder, causes us to question. If the Lord tarries, will Emmanuel Baptist Church have another 73 years of history? You know, will it survive? You know, will faith be found on the earth with all the opposition, with everything going on in our world today? Will there be faith found on this earth when Jesus Christ comes back? You know, we have the baptismal tank again full this morning. Will we fill it next year? Will we fill it the year after? Will it ever be filled again? What will take place? What will happen? And I think these are good questions because when you look at the history of the church, And the church going forward, both the local and what we call the expansive church, when you look at it going forward, there's a lot of skepticism about it. You know, there's a lot of people who do not have much confidence, again, that happen to begin in the church. And let me just say, when you look at church stats, it really brings that out. In the US, think about this, every single year, 4,500 churches close their doors. These are churches that used to preach the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. These are the churches that used to have a vibrant fellowship, again, of believers that worship the Lord Jesus Christ, and they shut their doors. There's no more preaching in those communities. It's estimated in Canada in the next decade that 30% of all churches will close their doors. I mean, that's shocking, isn't it? You know, and people have lost their confidence, lost, again, that desire for the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ. They just don't see any good that will come through assembly, such as what we are doing this morning. You know, when you look at all that, I think it was really aggravated by COVID, because even those, again, who happen to be, again, faithful followers of the Lord Jesus Christ, where we're being challenged. Maybe there's an alternative to the church. Maybe if I just stay home. In fact, again, on your internet feed, you can get the best preaching that happens to begin out there, far more than this guy that happened to begin right here. You can hear, you can just roll out of the bed, turn on the monitor, and there you are. And here's the amazing thing. A lot of churches closed during COVID and never opened again. And the reason why is many of the individuals that happen to be there, they didn't go to other churches, but they found an alternative. And the alternative happened to be again online. And what they didn't realize is actually they started a slow descent away from Christianity, the vast majority of them. All of a sudden, little by little, it doesn't catch us on guard because we're off guard because it's so incremental, so incremental, that they wandered out of Christianity. But these are tough days for the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's tough even coming out to church many times. And the reason why is, I don't know if you realize this or not, but all of us are in transition. All of us are being conformed to the image of the Lord Jesus Christ. None of us have been perfected. And therefore, again, we have something in each one of our hearts. And guess what it's called? It begins with an S. And it's what? Sin. You know, and we don't just sin in general, but we sin against one another. And let me say beyond a shadow of a doubt, if you happen to be involved in a local church, relationships are messy. They really are. They're difficult. They're hard. They're arduous to happen to be in our life. And I think for a lot of people, they just think, well, I just might as well not even come out to church. It's so much easier. I have enough problems with myself. I have enough struggles that happen to begin in my own life. I'm just not going to come out. I can get enough from other sources that happen to begin out there. And so they don't come out. But not only that, something else that has plagued the church, especially in the last, again, several years, is that there has been high profile, what we call leaders in Christianity, who've been caught in gross sin, are abdicated to faith, again, altogether. And I think the average Christian, when they look at this and they see, again, one of their leaders, somebody, again, who they respected, go in a direction, they ask the question, and rightly so, where are they leading us? If these are our leaders, where are they leading us? Where are they taking us? If they can't stand, what hope have I? I might as well give up right now. When you really look at it, it's very easy to come to the conclusion. When we look at everything going on in our world, when we look at all the opposition going on in our world, when we look at what's going on in the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ, to really see again that these are difficult days. These are trying days that happen to begin in the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ. But I'm here again this morning, and I'm here again to say that I have never been more encouraged by the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ than what I am this morning. I am more confident, again, in this entity that we call the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ, more than I have ever been in my life. And the reason why I have confidence is not looking at the various different members, the various different instruments that happen to be getting around us. The reason why I have so much encouragement, so much confidence, is because I look at the one who made this promise. And I want you to hear it again, because this is the promise that's given by Jesus Christ. I will build my church. And maybe you've been discouraged. Maybe you've been downtrodden, again, about church. Maybe you've been hurt by various different individuals. Maybe you're even thinking about throwing in the towel as far as it comes to the local church. I want you to be encouraged. And I want you to be encouraged not by focusing on the church, per se, but focusing on the author, focusing on the finisher, again, of our faith. So I want to preach to you on this one little statement, on this one little promise of the Lord Jesus Christ this morning. I will build my church. And the first thing that I want us to see is I want us to recognize the one who is doing the building. I want us to recognize the one who is giving the promise. The one who is giving the promise, listen to it again. I, I will build my church. Otherwise, the one who is building this church is none other than the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, all of us make boasts, right? All of us make promises. All of us, again, have ambition about what we want to do and we think we can accomplish it at the beginning near future. You know, we had Felix over at our house. And Felix, again, took these little, what do they call them? They're magnetic blocks, and he started building them and building them. And he wanted to build them, again, all the way up to the ceiling, and he really believed he could do it. You know, and it got about three foot high. In other words, not near. And all of a sudden you could see a little lean that happened to begin right there. And you know what's going to happen. You know, and all of a sudden it comes to tumbling over. But he has his boast. He has his ability, again, to really dream, this is what I want to do. You know, we hear that from politicians all the time. You know, if you elect me, I'm going to make you wealthy, I'm going to make you healthy, I'm going to make you comfortable, you know, I'm going to bring in world peace, or whatever it happens to be. And many times they make great bows. We hear it from businessmen. You know, they look at their business plan, they look at the product that they happen to be, and they think they're going to be the next Amazon. And we have something inside of us called, here it is, ambition. We want to do things. We dream of things. But let me tell you, there has never been a greater boast than what Jesus Christ makes right here. When you take in all that needed to be done to build this worldwide church in which Christ would be magnified for all of eternity, there is no greater boast in all of human history than the one that is made right here by the Lord Jesus Christ. And he says, I'm going to do this. I'm going to build it. And think how incredible it is. Because again, he's making this. And he has these 12 men that happen to be getting in front of him. And here he's going to work through them to build this worldwide church, this worldwide edifice in which he's going to be glorified. And when you look at these individuals, there's nothing special about them, is there? You know, there's nothing special. We would say they're average men, but really, maybe even they're below average men. I mean, think about it. Here are 12 men, and one would betray him. Here are 12 men, and probably the leader, probably the one who had the most potential, denied him three times in the night in which he was betrayed, and all of them forsook him. And he says, again, on these individuals, I am gonna build my church, and isn't that amazing? You know, and here's the incredible thing, you know, because he uses these men to lay the foundation of the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ, but he still uses people that we would never think that he would use in order to be magnified, in order to be glorified. In fact, again over in In 1 Corinthians 1, beginning of verse number 26, he shows again the instruments that he uses. He says, for consider your calling. In other words, we're called unto salvation, brothers. Not many of you are wise according to the worldly standards, not many powerful, not many were of noble birth, but God chose what is foolish in this world to what? To shame the wise. God chose what is weak in this world to shame the strong. Now think about that. Because if you're a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, guess what? That is a description of you! You're the weak! You're the foolish! You're the ignoble, that happened to begin in this passage. And let me just say, this goes against all modern philosophy today. You know, if you go again for secular counseling, or even some Christian counseling, I happen to be over there, the counselor is always told to make much again of the counselee, to build him up, to say again, you're good, to say that you're noble, to say that you're special. Let me say this beyond a shadow of a doubt, Paul didn't get that note. You know, he calls us the weak. He calls us, again, nothing. He calls us, again, even lower than normal. And think of it. If God uses, if Jesus Christ has used these kind of individuals for 2,000 years, 2,000 years, and think of it. None of them, really. There's only a handful in human history of believers in the Lord Jesus Christ who are remembered, the vast majority of them are forgotten. And yet you have a church here this morning that's praising, that's glorifying the Lord Jesus Christ. And here's the question, why do we have that? And here's the answer. I, thank Jesus, will build my church. You know, it's Him. There's no one greater. There's no one more glorious than the Lord Jesus Christ. And it's amazing because when he says, I will, right? It's looking to the future. It's looking for something that he's going to do. And so we have this future promise of the Lord Jesus Christ. But when we get to the last book of the Bible, the Revelation, it's looking back. It's looking back at what Jesus Christ has done. Here's all the church, and it's gathered in heaven, right? And when we come to Revelation chapter 5, there's a scene of all the individuals, all the moving parts, all the living stones, being brought together. And there's a search made in heaven, right? For one who could open the end time seals. And there's no one found, and there's weeping, and all of a sudden, the Lamb who was slain from the foundation of the world comes forward. And we read these words and think of it because this is what Jesus Christ has done in Revelation chapter 5 beginning of verse number 9 and they sang a new song saying Worthy are you to take the scroll and open its seals for you were slain and then he says this and by your blood you ransom people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, and you have made them a kingdom of priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth." Notice who has ransomed them. The one again who has ransomed him is none other than the Lord Jesus Christ. He has called him from all over the world, from every tribe, from every kindred, from every people group. And the one who takes credit for doing this is none other than the Lamb who has done this. He made a kingdom, didn't he? and ones who will be heirs and will reign again with this great Christ. And listen how the worship continues. Again, it's looking back at what he has done. Then I looked and I heard around the throne and the living creatures and the elders and the voice of many angels numbering myriads and myriads and thousands and thousands saying with a loud voice, worthy is the lamb who was slain. to receive power, and wealth, and wisdom, and might, and honor, and glory, and blessing. And I heard every creature in heaven, and under the earth, and in the sea, and all that is in them say, to him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, be blessing, and honor, and glory, and might forever and ever." He's the one who was slain. He's the one who was purchased. He is the one who has brought our redemption. And when it says myriads and myriads, it just basically means this. There's a sea of people beyond counting. And the one who has done this, the one who has brought all these pieces together in heaven, his church is none other than Jesus Christ. And folks, I don't know about you, But I'm encouraged by this entity called the local church. And it's not because, again, of our greatness. We have no greatness. No, I'm encouraged because of the one who made this promise. Guess what? He's able to bring it to completion. Yeah, we're still blind to many of the sins that happen to begin in our own life. We many times have too much confidence in ourselves, which leads to our downfall. And there are hard times that will come in the future. I know that beyond a shadow of a doubt. But our confidence is not in us. Our confidence is in this Christ who will build this church. And those who are older, you know, so often we can be so discouraged and think beyond a shadow of a doubt, are my efforts even worthy? And here's the thing you have to realize, the one who uses your efforts says your labor is not in vain. And he can keep going. You know, for those who are younger, so often, again, we look that happen to begin around us and wonder where we should invest our time, where we should invest our resource. And I can say beyond a shadow of a doubt, invest in the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the work that will last for all of eternity. This is what Jesus Christ is doing. And I'm so encouraged, aren't you? I'm encouraged that Jesus Christ is building his church. I, I, Jesus Christ, will, and listen to what he'll do, I will build. Do you get that? There's something that's being built, isn't it? Now, think about it, because he says, I will build, we think of a construction project, right? And the moment we think of a construction project, we ask, what is the church? And we say this, the church is not a building, but the church is the, begins with a P. People, that's right. Two of you got the answer. All of the rest of you failed. But it's the people, isn't it? And we realize that beyond a shadow of a doubt, but this is what God does. God gives us metaphors in his word to understand again spiritual truth, right? And we realize that many times he teaches again about the church, many times he teaches about our own individual lives as a tree, a fruit-bearing tree. And we realize, again, we want to bring forth fruit that's glorifying the Lord Jesus Christ. And so when we look at the problem of the fruitfulness that happened to begin in our life, when we look at the bad fruit that happens to be there, the problem is not, again, the tree itself. The problem is the root system, isn't it? The problem is our own human heart. The reason why we do what we do is not external. It's not, again, because of these things that happen to begin right here. It's because of something in the root system. The root system has to be changed. And we realize that beyond a shadow of a doubt. And so this metaphor of a tree helps us to see our human heart, helps us to see our longings, and helps us to see how God's word, again, really applies again to our life. And we realize that. And it's the same way with this building. metaphor that he uses. Because think of what he's doing. He's building something, right? And think again of how that metaphor is used because this is what he's going to be glorified. He's going to be glorified. He's going to be magnified. He's going to be known. His grace, his sacrifice is going to be apparent in this edifice called the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ. In fact, over in Let me catch up in my notes here. Over in Ephesians, chapter 2, he carries on this construction metaphor. He says, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone in whom the whole structure being joined together grows into a holy temple in the Lord. Incredible statement, isn't it? We're built upon a foundation, and this foundation is those first century prophets, those first centuries of apostles who came. and gave us, again, what we call the Word of God, what we call the New Testament. And we realize that our faith is founded on that, with Jesus Christ as a cornerstone. In other words, there is no church, there is no hope, there is no salvation without the cornerstone. And he's building something, isn't he? He's building, again, what is known in this passage, again, of Scripture, as an absolute holy temple. Now, I want you to tell you something. Some of you know this, again, about the book of, Ephesians. Ephesians is divided up in two, right? Ephesians is the first three chapters, Ephesians is the second three chapters. First three chapters, no commands. Second three chapters, there are all sorts of commands that are based upon this doctrine in the first three chapters. The first three chapters, if you just want a cursory understanding, there's four truths that happen to be there. If you look at the first truth, you don't have to go that deep to see it. But if you wanna go a little deeper, you see the second truth. If you wanna go a little deeper, you see the third truth. And if you wanna go even deeper, you see the fourth truth. And the first truth is this, what God has done. It's apparent, right? There's no commands. This is what God has done. And here's the second truth, if you wanna go a little deeper. What God has done, here it is, through Jesus Christ, right? So we see through the substitutionary atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ what he has done. What God has done through Jesus Christ, and here's the third truth, in the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the third truth. And then the fourth truth is this, what God has done in Jesus Christ, in the church of Christ, here it is, for His eternal glory. That's what it's about. And so think about it. He comes to the end of chapter 3, and this is what it's about. It's about this temple that he's making in which Jesus is going to be glorified for all of eternity. And then he prays. And listen what he prays in Ephesians chapter 3, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength. And this is what I want you to do, to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge that you may be filled with the fullness of God. So he says you're gonna be filled with the fullness of God, you're gonna know God's grace, you're gonna know God's love if you know the height, the breadth, the length, the depth. And here's the question. The height, the breadth, the length, the depth of what? And here it is. He hasn't changed. At the end of chapter three, what he's talking about is the church. What he's talking about is this holy temple with living stones. And think of what a temple is. A temple is where a deity dwells and where a deity is magnified and known and glorified and praised and worshiped. And that's what he's making. He's making this holy temple in which Jesus Christ is going to be glorified. And Paul, Jesus, I mean, Paul wants our minds to be stretched. You and Gentile, one body, all these truths. And he wants our minds to be stretched again by these truths, which are so beyond us, as far as the glory. And at the end of chapter three, these truths are so wonderful of what Jesus Christ is gonna do through the church that he ends in doxology. He ends in praise. He says, now to him who is able to do, far more abundantly than we ask or think, right? He is able to do. He is able to do. He is able to do. According to the power at work within us, to Him be glory. Here it is. In the church and Christ Jesus throughout all generations forever and ever. Amen. I mean, where is it? It's a church. And I think a lot of times, all of our concentration goes on What's wrong with this stone? What's wrong with that stone that happened to begin over there? We can see the idiosyncrasies. We see the struggles of all the people. And we never stop and never gasp in amazement that God can use such unpromising, such weird, such unconventional, such mesh-shaped stones as you and I, and fashion us for his glory. I mean, do you ever look at that? I mean, many times when I'm talking about, again, somebody will ask me about Emmanuel Baptist Church, and I'll talk about the various different members of it. I'm always blown away by how different people are. God doesn't just call a certain class. are certain type of people. I mean, we're in Acts chapter 16 in the morning, and we'll continue that study again next week. But in Acts chapter 16, there's three individuals that are touched by God's grace that couldn't be more different than one another, right? Remember who they are? Lydia, a rich woman who sells purple, right? Established, older in her life. A young slave girl, and here she is, inhabited by a demon. And then there's a third one, right? A hardened Philippian jailer who could care nothing about nothing. And yet God somehow takes these individuals, Jesus takes these individuals, and he makes them living stones to be used for his glory. I mean, think about, again, what's written about it. Lydia, in Acts chapter 16, verse number 14, it says, one who heard us was a woman named Lydia from the city of Scythia Tyre, a seller of purple who was a worshiper of a God. Now listen to what it says. The Lord, the Lord there is Jesus, right? That's his name. The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul. Now, why did she believe? And she believed because of why? because of Christ building his church. Think of a slave girl. Think of again as she went around again and announced again that he's having to be servants of the Most High. In Acts chapter 16, verse number 18. says this to the slave girl, and this she kept doing for many days, Paul having become greatly annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, and listen to what he says, I command you, and then he says this, because he has no power on his own, he has no ability on his own, I command you in the name of Jesus to come out of her. And what happened? At that very hour, he came out. Who did that? And think of the hardened Philippian jailer. Here he is carrying on his business. Here's the arrest of Paul and Silas. And here they are at midnight. singing, hounds, and all of a sudden, think of who constructed that they would be there for that particular jailer being on duty that very night. And at midnight, there is this earthquake, the doors are open, but none of the prisoners flee. He's about to kill himself. And they say, wait, wait, we're all here. And then he asked the question, what must I do to be saved? Who did that? Who did that? Who made him ask that question? Who worked in his heart? Hard man, who worked in his heart? So effectively, Lydia, by power, pomp, position, money, slave girl, nothing, nothing, inhabited by a demon, and this hardened man who could care less about anyone. And isn't it amazing when you look at the makeup of Emanuel Baptist Church, I think we don't do it enough. It's such an eclectic mix, isn't it? You know, we have people from various different places, people from various different cultures, people from various different backgrounds, people from various different ages, people from various different socioeconomics that happen to begin in their life. People, again, that you would never think that would be together. And why are we all together? This is the reason. Because somebody else is building this. Somebody else is constructing it. And it's none other than Jesus Christ. Let me tell you, if that doesn't encourage your heart, if that doesn't give you confidence again in what God is doing in the church of the Lord Jesus Christ, I really don't know what will. It's glorious, it's grand, isn't it? You know, this is what He is doing. So listen to this promise again. I will build, and listen to the last two words, my church. Do you see that? You know, there's somebody building it, isn't it? And it's somebody, again, and I want us to take those last two words, and I want us to see a couple things. And this is so important, and this might get me in trouble, but if it gets me in trouble, please throw tomatoes. I love tomatoes anyways, so you can do that, okay? But it's basically this. What Jesus Christ is building, and I want you to see this, is a church. You get that? Because it's not a hospital. Right? It's not a radio station. It's not, again, some government or some political movement that happens to begin out there. You know, it is a church that he is building. It's not a radio station. I think a lot of times, again, when you look at all these various different things that call themselves Christian and everything else like this, they used to be called parachurch organization. Perry is taken from the Greek word alongside, and what they did is come alongside and they supported the church, but the church was the main thing. Now that people are losing confidence in the church, they have separated themselves, and they've become the main deal. But what Jesus came to build, and I want us to realize this, is the church. That's what he came to build. You know, it's taken from two Greek words that are put together. Ekklesia, ek out, right? Kaleo. He calls out a people, and when you look at the vast majority of uses in the New Testament, it's talking about, again, a local church. It's talking about the gathering, the geographical gathering of God's people all together to praise, to honor, to glorify, to magnify this great God that happens to be again above. It's all about him, isn't it? And it's not a stagnant entity. We come, we worship, we grow in the likeness of the Lord Jesus Christ. And then God uses us to go out, what? To call other living stones, other sheep to the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what he's called us to do. But make no mistake about it. What Jesus Christ is building, what he is constructing is none other than the church. That is the program for this day and age. That's his program in which he's gonna be glorified for all of eternity. And the other thing that I want us to see about these two words is it's my church. Do you see that? It's not your church, it's not my church. It's Jesus' church, isn't it? And I think that's so important for us to really recognize because so often I think we can talk about against this being somebody else's church. Right? We might look at some church that happened to begin over there, and we're trying to designate again whose church that happens to be, and we might say something like, that's Pastor so-and-so's church. Or that's Pastor so-and-so's church over there. Or the one, again, who happens to begin of that church is this individual that happened to be over there, as if it's their church. Let me say beyond a shadow of a doubt, that is not their church. And the moment we start speaking that a man, right? A pastor or a Christian leader, again, that's their church. I think that's where we get into trouble. And that's where I think we've gotten in trouble so often in a celebrity mindset that many times we have. It's about Christ, isn't it? That's why I think a lot of churches implode on themselves. It's not because the preaching is bad. It's not because the pastor isn't teaching the word of God. But I think there's so much Focus on the man who stands in the pulpit and not on the Lord Jesus Christ that so often people have their confidence They don't even know it in the man rather than Jesus Christ It's not about us We have been bought with a price and we are not our own and we have to think of those statements not only individually but also corporately and This is Christ's church. This is not my church. This is not your church. This is Christ's church. We are thankful that we are members of this church. But ultimately, he is the owner. He has bought us with a price. And he's the owner of that church. And I think it's so important for us to recognize that, because even individually, I think a lot of times we look at the various different things we happen to be doing, and there's lots of various different ministries that we could say. There's the sound booth. There's the church cleaning that goes on. There's the preaching. There's Sunday school classes. There's junior church. There's various different things. We could go on and on and on, all these things. And we can talk about these as being my ministry. Let me say beyond a shadow of a doubt, I'm so thankful that you take ownership of that. But ultimately, that's not yours. You know, and think about it. We're celebrating 73 years of Immanuel Baptist Church. And I can remember two of the signatories who began that church. And that's it. And here's my whole point. The rest of them are forgotten. And of those two, I know very little about. And let me say, that's not a bad thing. It's actually a good thing, guess why? It's his church. He's remembered back there, but he's remembered today in Christ. It's all about him, and folks, if we have a ministry, if we're not preparing others that come alongside of us again to take over someday, then we're doing a disservice to the people of God and to the cause of Christ. This is not our church. Now, let me wrap all of this up. in a neat little bowl, as neat as it can get. I think, again, most of the criticism that comes upon the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ many times comes from outside of the Church. I don't think we should be lying. I think we should talk about, again, things that we could do more biblically. more honor to the Lord Jesus Christ. And we should always be examining, again, how we are doing this for the good, because we want to glorify the Lord Jesus Christ. We want to grow. And I recognize that. But I think, again, most of the condemnation comes from that happens to be outside of the church. In fact, I read a stat. About 81% of those who do not go to church think the church is full of hypocrites And it's absolutely judgmental. And let me just say some of that, we own it, right? We've been too condemning. We've been looking at other people's sins. We've been looking at other people's foibles. And we haven't seen our own foibles that happen to be in our life. But let me tell you, if you truly preach the gospel, that criticism is going to come. Because think of what we said, and there's no hypocrisy there. You need to repent of your sins. I'm a sinner, you're a sinner, we're all sinners. We've sinned against this great God. We deserve his judgment forever. We deserve, again, his punishment. We deserve his wrath that happened to be in our life. But look at what he's done through the Lord Jesus Christ. And let me say, the moment you start bringing up sin, is a moment again people start saying, well you're a hypocrite, you're judgmental. And we're not hypocrites, we're not judgmental. We have sin, we have struggles in our hearts and in our lives. But look at what Christ has done. You need to put your faith in another if you're ever going to have this forgiveness, if you're ever going to have the hope of eternity. But here's what happens. Because there's this criticism from outside, because again, there's a hostility, and there's a lot of hostility against believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. You know, we were talking about this in the deacons meeting. Just two decades ago, if you put on a resume that you were a member of Immanuel Baptist Church, people would check that and go, that's a good thing. He works with people. You know, he gives of his time and his assets. You put Immanuel Baptist Church, That person is ignorant. That person is a bigot. That person is close-minded. We don't want that person in our business. Things have changed, haven't they? Changed drastically. But let me say beyond a shadow of a doubt, because of all of this, people want to reconfigure, reinvent the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ. And let me just say this. How dare we? This is not our church. It's not our church. We don't get to decide. Jesus Christ does. What his message is, how he's gonna be magnified, and how he's gonna be glorified. Isn't it amazing? We belong to another. We belong to the Lord Jesus Christ. And maybe you've come out this morning, maybe you're really discouraged, maybe you're really downtrodden, maybe you've just come out to church because, again, it's just habit. You come out every Sunday, but when you look, again, at the people that happen to be around you, when you look at the lethargy, when you look again at the opposition, when you look at all the politics, again, in our country, in our world that happen to be getting around us, You're so despondent. You're so discouraged. You think beyond a shadow of a doubt, why should I bother? You might have even been hurt by those who happen to be again in the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ. And you're feeling again, should I give up? Should I give up? And the answer is no. And why? It's not because all of us ever act together. But there is one who is building his church for his eternal glory. What's the future? What's the history of Emmanuel Baptist Church? And here's my answer. I don't know. Emmanuel Baptist Church could close later this year, could close next year, could close in five years, but this is what I know beyond a shadow of a doubt. Jesus will still build his church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. That's where my confidence is. Where's your confidence? this morning as we think again of the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ and all that he's done. Let's bow our hearts in a moment of prayer. Father, what an amazing passage. What a glorious passage. When we think that you take stones that are lifeless, hearts that are hard, Lord, and you make those hearts flesh, You make those stones pliable. You change them. Lord, you bring them together. We think, again, of the organization of Immanuel Baptist Church, even the organization of what made this service this morning possible, what made this congregation come out this morning, again, possible. Even this very seats that we sat in this morning. Lord, when we think of that you've done all of that, we're amazed. We're in awe. Lord, we truly cannot, we can grow, but we truly cannot understand the depth, the breadth, the length, the height of your glory and what you are doing through salvation, through the establishment of the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ. God, may we see beyond a shadow of a doubt. when we are active, when we are serving, when we are members of a local church and a local community, again, of faith, that you have chosen to work through us, that you might ultimately be glorified. Just help us so much to realize the author, the finisher, the founder, the builder is none other than our Jesus. We thank you so much. Just be with us as we go to our time of communion. We ask these things in Christ's name. Amen. Well, God is.