All right. And we'll read it from Greek first, and then we'll go back and translate it. Elthon Deho Asus. Aesta Mere Kaisa Rias. Teis Philippou. Erota Tous Mathetes Autou Lagoun. Tina Lagousen Hoi. Anthepoi Aenei Ton Hwion Tou Anthepou. Bringing you up to the point where we are right now Jesus Did a whole lot of miracles in the 15th chapter lots of miracles gobs of miracles and he did those miracles to prove that he was a Messiah and Then just as soon as we come to the 16th chapter Now the Jews were there as a matter of fact There was an Okloi. Okloi means 10,000 to 20,000 people following him all the time. And a lot of those people were the Pharisees and the Sadducees, the Saqqari, and the Herodians. And the Bible says there was a group of about 5,000 that believed, and out of that 20,000 people. And just as soon as we start the 16th chapter, the Jews show up mad. they start castigating Jesus and telling him why don't you just do a miracle a great sign and Prove to us. You're the Messiah When he had been doing all kinds of miracles all kinds of miracles Well, he just told him basically you wouldn't believe if I stopped us stop the Sun in the sky or whatever You know that you nothing's gonna cause you to believe and then we start here in the 13th chapter and And Jesus starts asking the church, which is there. He asked them all these questions. And having come to Jesus unto parts of Caesarea Philippi, he interrogated the disciples, of whom saying, who do they say the Son of Man is. Who do they say the Son of Man is? In verse number 14, Hoy dey pon hoy man uanayn tom baptistayn, Aloy dey eleon eteroy dey eremayan, E hena ton profeton. But they said, some of these people say, indeed, you're John the Baptist. Remember who Herod thought he was when he was doing all these miracles? He thought it was John the Baptist whom he had killed. And he was afraid. He had John the Baptist on the brain. He was afraid. So he thought he was John the Baptist. Some of the people say that he's Elijah. And some people say that he's Jeremiah, or one of the great prophets of the Old Testament. And so they're relating to him what people say. And then in verse number 15, But he says to them, Who do you say? You tell to me what you say. I want to know what your opinion is. I want to know what your opinions are. Now, who's speaking? Let's get the rules of interpretation. Who's speaking? Jesus. Who's he speaking to? No. The whole church that's assembled right there. He's talking to the whole church. These disciples of the church. There are already apostles in the church, so The first gift placed in the church was apostles, so the apostles are here, and I don't know how many people have followed here, but there's quite a few people in this assembly. And then, who's speaking? Jesus is speaking. Who's he speaking to? The church. What's the subject? Biblical interpretation. Who do you say that the Son of Man is? Who do you say that the Son of Man is? Why did he ask them that? Who, what, where, when, and why? Remember, that's interpretation. Why did he ask them that? Why? Because he wanted them to answer who it was and not him? No, what was the whole debate up until this point? He wanted to know if they understood. He wanted to know if they understood thoroughly that he was the Messiah. Because all the miracles that he did was to prove that he was the Messiah. miracles that they would do and What they did already they're already gone out as a limited commission. They'd already done miracles on their own Now Jesus is asking him. Do you really know what you did and who gave you authority to do that? I am not only have the authority to do all these miracles But I have the authority to pass it on for other people to do it Have you got the story yet? He says do you really understand who I am? Now that's the whole subject here Verse number 16. Now Peter pops up here and he says, now Peter, his name is Cephas in Aramaic, his name is Petros in Greek, and his name in Hebrew is Simon or Simeon. His name is quite complicated, because Simeon means one who hears, and he talked too much. Peter did, usually. Word Peter or Cephas means a little stone, a little stone. Now, it could be that big, but a stone that you can throw, OK? A stone that you can throw. Cephas and Petros is a stone that you can pick up and throw. Now, there's another word for stone in Greek. That is Petra. Petra is a stone you cannot move. You cannot move the stone. Have you been to Morro Bay and seen Morro Rock? That's Petra. If you've been to the Mediterranean and if you have seen the Rock of Gibraltar, that is Petra. That's Petra. If you've been to Jerusalem and you see the dome of the rock, that's Petra. That whole top of that mountain is solid stone. It's a stone. That's Petra. Moreover, that weak adversity of conjunctive particle there today, moreover, having answered Simon, Peter, he said, you are the Christos, you are the Messiah, number one. Peter knew that Jesus was a Messiah and Another thing he did here. It's whole Christos whole wheels to you You are the Messiah the hamashia is what it would be in Hebrew the Son of God The Son of God The Son of God, that would be the fulfillment of Matthew, not Matthew, but Genesis 3.15, where the Old Testament prophesied that the seed of the woman would slay Satan. And this is, he's that one. The Son belonging to God, the one living, the living God. You are the Son of the living God. You are the fulfillment of Genesis 3.15, the promised Messiah. Now, verse number 17. Apokrystes de Hoesus. Epen alto makarios eis simon baruma hote sarx cae haima uc apokalypsin soi al ha pater mu ho entoes uranoes. Now, do you think anybody else in this group believed this? No. Do you think anybody else didn't believe this? There was one that made a tremendous, found what we call a statement of faith a long time ago. His name was Nathaniel. Remember when they said, we have found the Messiah? And he said, Jesus of Nazareth? And he said, can any good thing come out of Nazareth? And then Jesus approached him and said, an Israelite on whom there is no guile. He looked at him and he said, what? He said, you know me? He said, yeah, I saw you when you were underneath the tree, the fig tree. Well, probably what Nathanael was doing on the fig tree is that he was praying to God. that he would answer the prayers that he would send his Messiah. Now that's conjecture, but that's probably what he was doing. And what did Nathanael say? You are the Messiah, the Son of God, the King of Israel. So even before Peter made this statement, Nathanael had made it. So it's not the only time. If you want to get it right, Nathanael said it first. are the Messiah the King of Israel the Son of God and so Peter makes a statement you are the Messiah the Son of God and the King of Israel pretty much And he's Jesus said to him Blessed you are Simon son of John Simon son of John now, he didn't call him Peter did he? He didn't call him Cephas, did he? He said, Simon. And Simon is a very good word. It comes from Simeon. Simon and Simeon are the same words. If you really wanted to get it right, if they got it translated in the Bible right, it would be Simeon. The King James, when they translated the Bible, they took the names of the Old Testament, Simeon, Levi, and all of that. And sometimes, well, they just goofed. The word Jude, Judah. In the New Testament, they have the word Jude. It should be Judah. It's all one name, Judah, Jude. Yudah, and the word Jesus would be Joshua. And here, we see a very important statement by Jesus. He said, one who hears, son of John, because flesh, sarx there, That means, it's carne in Latin and Spanish. It is basar in Hebrew, and it means flesh. It means something natural. Natural, the natural man. Because the natural man, and then it says chi, chima. Now the infection of the sin nature in man comes through the blood of the father. flesh and blood, flesh and blood, everything human, nothing human. Nothing human has revealed or uncovered to you but the Father of me, the one in the heavens. The one in the heavens Now let's go back to the Old Testament again Jesus in his ministry held about that. We have recorded 292 public church services 292 public church services. Now, 149 times, there was a great multitude spoken of, which is 10 to 20,000 people, at least 5,000 in the world, or close. One time in Luke 12 and verse one, a group could not even be numbered. 92 times, Jesus preached the gospel of his death, burial, and resurrection to this group. All right? Now, in the Old Testament, the word rock is very important. The word rock is referring to Jehovah. Jehovah himself, always the rock. It's a rock. Numbers 20 and verse 8 2nd Samuel 22 to Psalm 18 to 31 342 962 to 71 378 16 and Deuteronomy 32 4 and 15 and 2nd Samuel 23 3 Isaiah 8 and 14 and 17 and 10 These all refer to the Rock of Israel the Rock of Israel is Jesus now In the Old Testament, you've got to get there before you can get here, okay? In the Old Testament, they were out in the wilderness. God led Israel out of Egypt through Moses. Moses means to rescue or to lead out. That's what Moses, Moshe, means. In time elements, We have Abraham here. We have the Egyptian bondage right here and over here is when God led Israel out of Egypt Now when they got out in the wilderness They didn't have any water No water no food So more important than food is water And so God told Moses to take his rod and to strike the rock. And from that rock flowed water. Jesus said that I am the rock, that I am the water that came down to heaven, and I am the bread. God gave them water. God gave them bread from heaven, that manna, manna. It comes from the Hebrew word ma, which means what? Manna means what is it? They didn't know what it was, okay? Now, there is a natural occurring manna in that wilderness from the tamarisk tree, but only a little bit. It looks like coriander seeds or cilantro seeds. Ever seen cilantro seeds? Plant a cilantro. Well, it looks like cilantro seeds is what it looks like. Coriander seeds. And it tastes like honey. It's very sweet like honey. And it tastes like French toast with honey on it. That's what it tastes like. And this occurs, but now, It only occurs very little. But now God took something natural that they knew about and he multiplies it tremendously. And he rained bread from heaven, it said, upon them. Every morning they'd get up and there's this manna all over the place. Manna, manna, manna, manna, manna. And then they started griping about not having anything. They were laying, sitting by the flesh pots of Egypt and we don't have any meat. So God sent them quail. Now quail come out there. Now there's millions of people here being fed by this water flowing out of the rock and by the manna coming down out of heaven. And now by the birds flying about this high, they come through there. Now there's flocks of quail that come in out in that area, maybe 50. But now we got millions multiplied over and over and over beyond what is natural. So we have all of this. We know that Nathanael made his confession of faith that he was the son of God, the king of Israel. And now Peter makes a confession to face and said, yeah, you are the son of God, the holy one, the Messiah, the king. And Jesus said that you have said correctly, but that your daddy didn't tell you that in the synagogue. in Galilee, that you didn't learn that from mama either, that you didn't learn that from your brothers and sisters, but it was revealed to you of what you have known from my father, which is in heaven. Now, in the 18th verse, Cago Dei Soi Lego Hotei, C A Petros Cai Epi Tauta Tei Petra, Oecu Domeso, Mutane Ecclesion Cai Pilei Hedu U Qaraqisqa Susan Altais Now before we even read this, I want to go to 1 Peter. Let's go to 1 Peter and see what Peter says. If I can find it in this old worn out Bible. 1 Peter. 2, 1 Peter 2. Therefore, putting aside all malice and all guile and hypocrisy and envy and all slander, like newborn babes long for the pure milk of the word, By it you may grow in respect to salvation and you have tasted the kindness of the Lord and Coming to him as a living stone Now I want to tell you the stone in Matthew 16 18 is not Peter. That's Jesus Peter was a little stone Peter was a little stone built upon that foundation stone. And Peter's going to tell us exactly who the foundation stone is. It's not Peter. Peter's just another one of those stones in the wall, another rock and wall. And coming to him as a living stone, rejected by men, but choice and precious in the sight of God. Now, Jesus said that he was what? the stone that was rejected by the builders, the chief and cornerstone. The chief and cornerstone is a very large rock. And what it was, it was chiseled and polished to make sure it had no imperfections in it, because the weight of the whole building was going to rest upon it. So it had to be checked. There couldn't be any fractures anyplace. It had to be solid. It had to be pure. And now all of us that make up the members of God's churches today are little pebbles, little stones built upon the wall, built upon the foundation of Jesus, that great rock. And coming to Him as to a living stone rejected by men but choice, but elect and precious in the sight of God, you also are living stones. are being built upon as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For it is contained in scriptures, behold, I lay in Zion a choice, picked out, elect stone, a precious cornerstone. That's not Peter. Peter's not talking about himself, is he? He's talking about Jesus. And he who believes in him, not in Peter, in him shall not be disappointed. This precious value, then, is for you who believe. but for those who disbelieve. The stone which the believers rejected, Israel rejected that stone. Jesus was probably a stonemason. Joseph was probably a stonemason and not a carpenter. Jesus uses tremendous amount of stonemason terms. The stone which the builders rejected, this became the very cornerstone. A stone of stumbling and a rock of a fence. And that's the rock that followed Israel in the wilderness. Now, the second time we go back to the Old Testament. Now, in the Old Testament, the rock that Moses struck And out flowed water. They were out there in the wilderness again, and there was bitter waters and everything else. And God told Moses, Moshe, you go to that rock again. Go to a rock again. Go to a great big rock. Now, I don't want you to hit that rock this time. I want you to speak to that rock and say, come forth water. Now, the first time that Moses struck the rock, The rock was a type of Christ that would be struck at the cross of Calvary. Okay? That he would give his life and death, give his blood and his life for us on Calvary. All right? But the second time that Jesus Christ comes, he's not coming to be struck, is he? No. He's coming as the Lord of glory. The Lord of glory. So when Moses struck the rock, got mad at Israel and struck the rock, he did violence to that type, didn't he? Now, what did it cost Moses when he struck that rock? You remember? What happened to Moses? He was not able to go into the Promised Land. He took him up to Mount Pisgah. And he let him see all that, and I've stood on that very place. Took him up to Mount Pisgah, and he looked over that whole land. He said, there it is, Moses. And that last chapter of the book of Deuteronomy says that Moses, even though he was 120 years old, his vision was not diminished whatsoever, nor his walk or his strength at all for all of those years. God just basically kissed him the kiss of death and put him in the ground and buried him He had been faithful in every way Except that he was unfaithful to God when God told him to speak to the rock And that's the rock we're talking about right here, this is the rock it's not Peter it is not Peter 16 verse 18 But I also to you I say that. You are Petros, Cephas, a little stone, a brick in the wall. But upon this, the great foundation rock, I shall be building. I shall keep on building. Now the church was called out at the seashores of Galilee. It had apostles, the first gift placing to apostles. They had a limited commission. The apostles went out and they did miracles through the authority of Jesus. He'd given them, laid hands upon them basically and transferred energy and power from him to them and gave them authority. Excuse me, the word apostello our Apostle means one sent out with authority He sent these out with authority. There was 70. He sent him out with authority and they cured Illnesses they raised the dead They cast out demons Not only did Jesus have power over Fallen spirits or demons, but he gave them power over it He said, I am this foundational rock and I shall be building the church of me, the Ekklesia. Now this word Ekklesia here is an old, old term. The word Ekklesia was used in the Greek city-states. And it's a Greek term. Of course, this is Greek. And Jesus chose to pick out a term that was understood by them. The word ekklesia means assembly. It is not a church house. It is an assembly. The assembly, there were many assemblies in the Greek Empire. Every little town, state was an assembly. And in that town or state, there was a called out group of verified legal persons that were elected by that assembly or that group of people to carry on business democratically in that area. To collect taxes, to draft people into the army, to do bill roads or whatever they needed to do, this assembly, this ecclesia did that in the Roman Empire. Now, in the kingdom of God, each and every ecclesia is autonomous, that means nobody else tells them what to do. Every little church, now, every little assembly is autonomous. It answers to no one else but that church. That church is a pure democratic body. Thomas Jefferson went to a Baptist church meeting on Wednesday night one time just to see what was going on, and he saw, he said, the most pure form of democracy that he thought existed in the world. From the youngest church members to the oldest church members were voting, and their vote counted the same as anybody else. And the church carried on business according to the rules, and it was a democracy. democracy. And he got the idea a little bit about how to help build the Constitution of the United States of America from doing that. This little ecclesia, this assembly, autonomous democratic body. He said the church, this autonomous democratic body belonging to me, He said, and the gates of Hades, the philae, the gates, the bars, the walls of Hades, not, they shall be able to wrassle down. Third person plural future indicative active. The gates of Hades will not be able to wrassle this church down. Now, we have people that believed that the church historically ceased to exist, basically. This autonomous little body of believers here ceased to exist, some people believe that. I will say this, that the Catholic Church began to change, and after Constantine the Great, the one that Constantine the Great, they call him Constantine the Great or Saint Constantine. When he married the church to the Roman Empire, the church changed dramatically. First of all, it changed its polity. It was no longer a democracy. No longer a democracy. It had one head, which was Constantine. And they began to look at the church as a church Catholic. That's where we get the word Catholic. Catholic means universal. That there was one head of the church, not Christ, but the apostle of God. Later on, we find that power invested not only in Constantine here in about 325, but over here in Pope Leo II. when he established himself as Pope. Now the Pope was the Apostle of God. And according to the Catholic Church, they looked upon Constantine when he was there as if he was receiving everything that God was actually, everything that Constantine was doing, that it was an invocation from God, that he was speaking for God himself. And he was speaking ex-cathedral. Every pope after, now the Catholic Church was not the Catholic Church in 325 AD that you know today at all. That's an evolution of theology and doctrine. But the Catholic Church became something that it was not before. Now the Catholic Church was only one entity within the kingdom of God. We see the church and the saint united here. We see infant baptism established by law. We see indulgences. We see purgatory invented. We see saint and image worship. We see the doctrine of transubstantiation. We see the doctrine of celibacy. Auricular confession. We see the Bible forbidden in 1229 A.D. Now, does that sound like it's from God? No. But the popes said, now, we no longer have a democratic body of believers. When you study church history at Bakersfield College or Cal State University, they're going to tell you about the history of this church right here, the Catholic Church. They're not going to tell you about the history of God's churches. They don't know they existed. But you go down here, and we see these churches already being persecuted. Persecuted by the Jews first, by the Roman Empire, and now by the Church Catholic. And we see them preaching. They're called the Paterines, they're called the Puritans, they're called the Cathari, and not the Puritans that came to America, by the way. That's not the same people at all. We see them called Paulicians, the Paterines, the Albigenses, They had different names. When they came to this country, some of them migrated from Armenia or Turkey into the Alps. They were persecuted heavily in the Alps. They ran off into Germany. They ran off in Russia. They ran off in China. And when they came here, some of them were called Mennonites. And some of them were called Amish. And some of them were just called Baptists. I think that the Amish and the Mennonites have a purer form of the lifestyle, maybe not doctrinally as straight, but the lifestyle goes back to there. The church, each one of those bodies are democratic little bodies. All of these churches here are democratic bodies. There's a little piece of handout that the Baptist Church, the Southern Baptist Convention has put out for years. You got one for me and brought it to me, Marilyn. I had a half a dozen of them already. Oh, you did? Yes. It's what we believe as Baptists. An autonomous body of believers. local assembly Observing Baptism and the Lord's Supper two offices deacons and pastors and it goes on to say this thing That's the ecclesiastical that's the church now as down to the ages churches have waned and they have risen and they fallen and There aren't any old church buildings among true churches. Because the building wasn't the church. You can go back in Catholicism, you can go back into Islam, you can go back and you can find buildings a thousand years old. But it's hollow buildings and there's no assembly. The assembly was like bees. You want a bees? One of them things that make honey, and occasionally you might get bit by or stung. Baptists are like bees. From the very time that God created them, even though you didn't see them any over here or any of them over there, they were still in existence in the world. They're still making honey and building hives, whether it was a hive in a tree, A super neat looking hive out here all along all these almond trees and whatever but bees have been bees doing bees business They have one Queen and that is the Lord Jesus Christ and no other heads and when that hive divides and Multiplies another Queen goes with it and that hive has one Queen We only have one head and that's Jesus Christ only one head and He is the rock. He is the rock. Have you learned something so far? A lot. Okay. Okay, verse number 19 now. 16 and verse 19. Dosol soi tes clados. tēs basaliast tōn uranōn, kāi hā ion dēsēs epi tēs gēs, estai didōminōn en tōs uranōs, kāi hō harhā ion lēsēs epi tēs gēs, estei lelōminōn en tēs uranōs. I will give unto you all. You all, not to Peter. I'll give unto you all, the church. That's nominee of a rockety plural. OK? In analytical Greek lexicon, you can look up on page 371, if you don't believe me. I will give unto you the keys, the kleidos, belonging to heaven. the kingdom of the heavens. The kingdom of the spiritual house of God. This assembly would multiply like bees and spread all over the world and that church would not cease to be. It would go and they would keep on going and going and going and going until the Lord comes back again. Now were there imitations of it? Oh yes. Did the church ever cease being? No. The church didn't need to be reformed. The church didn't need to be started over again, as Joseph Smith said. The church didn't go out of existence for 1800 years, as Herbert Armstrong said, and he was the first person to preach the gospel in 1800 years. That's not true. The church has always been here. The church has been lowly, and the church has been stout at times. There are hardly any church buildings, I think, In Rhode Island, there are two old churches in America. One founded in 1638, one founded in 1639. That's about the oldest Baptist churches around. Church houses. But the assemblies have come and gone. People don't live forever, do they? No. I have seen churches grow great. Out in Wasco, I was a member of a church out in Wasco one time. That church had three or four or five hundred members in it. Tremendous church. When that pastor resigned, that church went. There was one man holding that church up. By his teaching, his great teaching, he held that church together. I was a pastor of a church that had about 300 people in it at one time. When I resigned, it went and it went out of existence. What you try to do is build teachers and things. Now, those teachers have gone out of that church and been teachers all over the country. I went to one of the greatest seminaries in America and in the world. It does not exist anymore. It's gone. It's gone. I'm still here for a little while longer. The students that I've taught are still here. I haven't quit teaching. That seminary is still teaching on discovertheword.com. Hundreds of those classes in that Seminary are out there for people to learn from every day every day There's almost 4,200 classes in mp3 almost 2,800 videos Still preaching still going on. I Hope that after I'm gone messages like this will go on Because you're not gonna hear this preached very much today. I Not only that, you go to churches and you're going to hear a salvation message and that's about all. That's it. We need foundations again. We need to build some more stones on that rock. That building that Jesus called out and built is still in the world today. We as members of those New Testament churches all have a responsibility. to do exactly what it says here. Let's look at it. I will give unto you, Phil and Christina, and all of you out there, Donald over there in Wales, each and every one of you, all of us, Nancy, Pennsylvania, different people all over in Texas, James in Texas, I'll give unto you the keys of the kingdom. And whatsoever you may bind upon the earth, it shall already having been bound in the heavens. And whatsoever you may loose upon the earth, it shall having been loosed in the heavens. Whatever the churches scripturally do here on earth, will already have been done in heaven. The keys of that church were not given to Peter, but they were given to you. You have those keys. Have you led somebody to Jesus Christ, the Savior? You had the key. You got the key. Have you led them to the scriptural baptism? You have the key. Have you taught Sunday school classes and built up upon the doctrines of the apostles all the way from Acts through Revelation? Have you done that? That's our jobs. That's our jobs. That is our job. Our Father, we send this message out for you to encourage each and every person out there Whether in China, Japan, Australia. Father, I pray that you touch each and every one of these faraway people's lives and let them know that that they have the keys of the kingdom. That you've left your business in their hands today. Father, be with them, give them courage and strength and confidence. In Jesus name we pray. And father, please forgive me where I failed you. And my shortcomings. And my savior's name. Amen.