Burk Parsons: The Gates of Hell

I am thankful to be here at fourth Presbyterian Church I had the great opportunity of meeting dr. Rob Norris several years ago it's been about eleven years ago now when he came and spoke for us at st. Paul's Presbyterian Church and it was a great delight to hear him so I also want to make sure that we recognize him although he is in Texas now and also pastor Blair Smith whom I first met in Germany when we studied there together about eleven years ago so it has been good being here at fourth Presbyterian Church and being in our nation's capital my father traveled in and out of DC for many years working with Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan and Richard Nixon in and out of the capital of these United States and yesterday as I was back at the hotel room I thought about it for a minute I thought well maybe I'll run for president while I'm here and then I realized there's someone who's better who's coming after me and that's dr. Mohler so I nominated him for Moeller for president so if you could carry on that work for me while when I leave let's open this morning to Matthew chapter 16 they gave me a delightful title this talk this morning called the gates of Hell so that'll bring out people on a Saturday morning glad you're here we are trying to win friends and influence people trying to make you feel comfortable make sure that no one's offended here this morning so let's go right to the word Matthew chapter 16 and let's look together at verses 13 through 20 this is the Word of God when Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi he asked his disciples saying who do men say that I the Son of Man em so they said some say John the Baptist some Elijah and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets he said to them but who do you say that I am Simon Peter answered and said you are the Christ the Son of the Living god jesus answered and said to him blessed are You Simon bar Jonah for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you but my father who is in heaven and I also say to you that you are Peter and on this rock I will build my church and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it and I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven then he commanded his disciples that they should tell no one that he was Jesus the Christ let's pray together our Father in Heaven we come to you this morning as sinners who have been humbled by your spirit sinners who have been humbled by your word we come as men and women together to learn from your word to be drawn to your word to be instructed by your word that we might know your word love your word and rejoice and glory in the truths of your word and go out not merely as hears of it but doers of it for your glory alone in Christ's name we pray amen the title of this conference is something like living as a Christian in a post Christian culture yesterday Paul strand from CBN News that's I guess the Christian Broadcasting Network I had to ask I had forgotten what CBN stood for the Christian Broadcasting News was here and interviewed several of us about the topic of this conference as and as you can imagine it's an important topic to those at CBN and one of the questions they asked us concerned this whole matter in the language of what it meant to be post Christian and while I was doing my interview with mr. strand a fine man I said to him that post Christian is not a new term it's actually been around for quite a long time we first saw it in 1886 in the Atlantic Monthly and simply the Atlantic where and they referred to George Eliot as an atheist of course a self-proclaimed atheist we know that there are no true atheists everyone knows that God created them I know that God is God but in 1886 referring to Eliot as an post Christian man being an atheist and then in 1929 we saw the same use of the word in a German philosophers book referring to a state or a culture that had become less influenced by Christian truth the term post Christians been around for a long time and if you've had your eyes open and yours open you've had your head up looking about yourselves and this culture you've realized of course for not only many years but many decades that we as a country in these United States have been post Christian for some time this isn't a recent development and we can look carefully if we're wise decade upon decade for the past many years and we can see the post Christian culture that we've been a part of as Christianity in this country has in many ways lost its influence just this morning as I was leaving my hotel waiting on my ride here man stopped me and he looked at my time as a good evangelism tool he said I like those colors I am from Sri Lanka and he talked to me about his college colors being the same in Sri Lanka so for all you Michigan fans there is a college in Sri Lanka that has the same colors I suppose we begin to speak and I talked with him about Sri Lankan religions and the different types of religion of course there are many Christians in Sri Lanka there are Muslims and I asked him what his religion is and he said that he's a Buddhist he said but he doesn't attend the Buddhist temple because he can practice Buddhism in his heart to which I of course immediately responded well there are many Christians who say the same thing and we began to talk about Buddhism and I said can you explain to me just briefly what Buddhism is could you explain to me the fourfold path in the Eightfold way and he was interested that I even knew of these terms and I said I know about Buddhism what I'm asking is to determine whether or not you know what Buddhism is and he was a bit taken back but he was a jolly fellow and he began to explain this fourfold path and I said my friend you've missed the most important part of the four fold path because in order to even get on the path and to get on the Eightfold way you have to start with the desire to end all desire because the Buddhist believes as many of you have heard that all of life is what suffering and because all of life is suffering they must seek enlightenment true Nirvana to end all suffering and the way they must get there is by of course it seems though contradictorily so desiring to end all desire but there's a principle called dukkha in Buddhism and that principle is very simple that there is sorrow in all of life and not only is there sorrow in all of life but all of life ends in sorrow this principle and as I spoke with this Buddhist man from Sri Lanka this morning I came to realize very quickly that this man has really not been influenced much by Christian truth at all not too long ago I was in a car accident someone pulled out in front of my dear pregnant wife this was I suppose now several years ago and as the ladies got out of the car two of them young ladies we sat on the sidewalk together they were both shaken up pretty severely and as their father was in route to meet us at the site of the car accident I began to speak with these young ladies about the Christian faith and where they put their hope if they had died in this car accident it was a pretty bad collision and their car was almost totaled thankfully they came out without a scratch when one of the young ladies she was about 13 asked me what I did for a living I told her I was a pastor and I'll never forget a response she said what's a pastor and this is where we've come we have come to a place where many of the young people that we live with many of the people that surround us not only don't know the gospel they not only don't know the Word of God they not only don't know the simple truths of what makes Christianity our faith they don't even know the simple jargon and nomenclature of the church and what a pastor is and so I began to explain to her that a pastor is someone who gives the people of God the Word of God this is the culture in which we live study was done by an American Institute between the years 1990 and 2009 some of you may have seen the article by John Meacham and Newsweek last year in 2009 where he reported many of these statistics and considered the effects on our culture and who we are as a nation and that we are truly no longer a Christian nation and one of the statistics that was so alarming that in 20 years and that's a short time twenty years in American society where it used to be in 1990 86 percent of people claimed to be Christian in 2009 only 76 percent claimed to be Christian now some of you say well that sounds like an awfully large number to begin with well it does but that's a significant shift in an American community in just 20 years some of you would say well 76 sounds quite high it sounds quite high to me as well but as we look at the American landscape as we consider churches around us churches that many of you have driven by as you've come here even this morning and you look at these churches you look at the messages on their signs you look at who's pastoring those churches you perhaps consider their doctrinal standards or lack of them and as you look around you say it is a dismal state indeed we as Christians in this country are in a miserable state John MacArthur said what our culture needs is not reform but a culture like ours needs Redemption and that starts at the individual level not the societal level here in Matthew 16 in this great patron confession of Christ at caesarea philippi we look not only at peter's confession but look carefully with me we actually see three different confessions in this great passage look with me Matthew 16 when Jesus came into the region of Caesarea Philippi verse 13 he asked his disciples saying who do men say that I the Son of Man M so they said some say John the Baptist some say Elijah and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets he said to them but who do you say that I am Simon Peter answered and said you're Christ the Son of the Living God now if you've paid attention and what I've just read you've picked up that there are three in fact different confessions of who Christ is look with me quickly verse 13 jesus himself confesses his own identity calling himself by that name that was his one of his favorite names if you will to identify himself this self disclosure of Jesus from Daniel 7 saying very plainly who do men say that I identify himself as the son of man M he's not in one sense concern what they're saying in the sense he knows of course who he is he doesn't need their affirmation he doesn't need the world to confirm who he the son of man is he's simply concerned that the disciples are able to rightly discern the difference between what the world calls Jesus and what God has called Jesus Jesus says who do men say that I the Son of Man am first confession verse 14 so they said some say John the Baptist some Elijah and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets like Isaiah so here we have what the second confession of who Christ is the world looking at this prophet maker this miracle worker this one doing signs and wonders and saying very plainly well he must be a prophet dear folks if Jesus is only a great prophet to you which he is too many so-called Christians in our day then he cannot be your Savior most religions throughout the world including as you know Islam looks to Jesus as a prophet a great profit in fact but simply one of the prophets and mohammed being his what greatest prophet so muhammad being the greatest prophet of allah and jesus one of the prophets they say that Jesus is one way to God but not the only way to God and that Muhammad is the great prophet and the writings of the Quran is the best way of course to God I was in Iran several years ago in 2004 before president meaning Assad came into power and we met with the Vice President of Iran Mohammad Ali Abdi him as he was the vice president of the Parliament at the time overseeing the center for inter religious studies now some of you have perhaps heard me tell this story years ago but there I was sitting there together in the main Capitol offices in Tehran with the Vice President of Iran who incidentally was a liberal Muslim in the sense he wasn't a fundamentalist he didn't actually look at the Quran as the only way but look at all religions as different ways to God but Mohammed being the best way as we said in that room together with Jews and Catholics and evangelical Christians and then these liberal Muslims we began to discuss the truths of the Christian faith and as the Roman Catholic Bishops sat and looked aside and he considered what was going on and all the conversation when he considered the evangelicals testimony when he considered the Jews testimony when he considered the Muslims testimony he simply stopped in the middle of these proceedings stood up and took off his earphones for translation purposes set them on the table and he said in a very rude fashion Jesus Christ is the only way the only truth and the only life and no one comes to the Father but through him and he walked away this Roman Catholic bishop walked out of the room and down the great marble hallway of this great Capitol building in Tehran and I got up from my seat as the meetings were adjourned promptly by the vice president and I went down that marble hallway and I said to that Catholic bishop I have never in my entire life melt felt more close akin to a Roman Catholic then today and in Farsi he greeted me with Salam and said very simply Hafez which is may the Lord be with you as you go I never saw that men again but that's precisely what those proceedings needed to hear he was able to confess to that group of mixed religions very plainly and very simply that Jesus is the only way now he didn't get on the doctrine of justification there we certainly would have had major problems but he was at least able to emphasize to that entire group before he left that Jesus is the only way he confessed Christ and spoke prophetically to that mixed bunch of religious zealots if you will in the capital building if Tehran when Jesus asked the disciples plainly who do men say that I am again he wasn't looking for affirmation he wasn't concerned that the disciples would take on the world on formation of who this Jesus is but very simply what are people saying about me jesus knew the hearts of men he knew what people were saying about him he knew what was in men and he knew how men confessed him but plainly he needed to see how the disciples were responding to what the world was saying about him it's a simple question even that we can ask ourselves today what is the world saying about Jesus who is Jesus to the world we could spend hours discussing this how it is the world looks at Jesus not simply as a savior but as a comforter not someone who speaks boldly of repentance and faith and trust in Christ trusting himself is the only way but as one who is simply a peacemaker someone who is meek and mild and doesn't say anything that anyone would ever disagree with on any account under any circumstances this is the version that many people have of Jesus and so Jesus's follow-up question of course rightly and necessarily he asked the disciples who do you say that I am and ultimately in one sense this is his greatest concern that those that he had called out of the world those who had followed him in his earthly ministry that he was able to look at his immediate church and say who do you say that I am now right now many of us are looking at Peter and we're thinking here's this impetuous frivolous whimsical fisherman who was impetuous in every way and spoke out at every opportunity we don't quite know that actually do we we do know that's Peters spoke up but we don't know the manner in which he spoke we don't necessarily see him jumping up here and actively saying quickly you are Christ the Son of the Living God it could have been that Peter himself was sitting back looking at the rest of the disciples wondering what they were thinking and wondering if they would stand up and speak if they would respond to Jesus you know we oftentimes speak of Peter speaking foolish things in which he sometimes did but I don't see Peter as an impetuous impatient man for the main reason I've never met a fisherman who is impatient and I think Peter probably was not as impatient and as impetuous as we sometimes castigate him for I think Peter had wisdom and I think Peter here as he spoke as Jesus admits this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood Peter barjona the Spirit of God has revealed this to you so speedy responded to Jesus as representing the twelve Jesus spoke in the plural form in the second person singular plural saying who do you disciples say that I singular Jesus em Peter representing them stood up and said you are the Christ the Son of the Living God and jesus answered and said to him blessed are You Simon bar Jonah for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you but my father in heaven this is an important component Peter did not manufacture this Peters confession of Jesus Christ as the Son of God was not something that he was able to figure out in and of himself the truth and the confession that Jesus Christ is Lord not only for Peter but for any of us is something dear friends listen carefully that the Spirit of God must reveal to us it's something that the Spirit of God must be working in us regenerating our dead stony hard hearts where in God not only works with our stony hearts but rips them out of our chests place with an a soft moldable pliable hearts of flesh that he can caused a pump with his own spirit and it's by his Spirit alone that he reveals to us that he indeed is Christ the Son of the Living God without that not only are we dead but to us Jesus is but a figment Jesus is but a good teacher Jesus is but a prophet he is but only one way to the Father the real hero here friends is not Peter but the Holy Spirit the Spirit of God has revealed this to you Peter and if there's anyone that we should look to as the head of the Church of Christ the Christ left us with as another comforter it's the Holy Spirit and not a Pope in a city on a throne Jesus continued and he said verse 18 and I also say to you that you are Peter and on this rock I will build my church and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it when Jesus spoke these words to Peter he spoke very plainly didn't he and if you're like me at all in studying Scripture and you're considering what has been said or what has been written what the Apostles wrote or hear what Jesus wrote and what Matthew records for us if you're like me and you're inquisitive and you aren't quiz ative because you're at this conference as molar said yesterday via Twitter I think quite well he's headed here from Chicago after he was with Philip Graham RIKEN and the ordination of his presidency at Wheaton College and on his way here he said I'm going to Ligonier conference in DC and he said Ligonier is before thinking Christians if you're here it's because you're inquisitive it's a Saturday morning everyone else is out walking around and riding bikes and going to parks and eating big pancake breakfasts and sitting around after they've eaten these breakfasts wallowing on the sofas watching cartoons and whatever it is they watch you're here because you have said I want to think I want to know the Word of God I want to understand the Word of God better I want to grow in my discipleship not as an end in and of itself but so that I might take what I'm learning and go back to my spouse to my children to my grandchildren to my church to my Sunday School class that I might take what I'm learning here and go and be and do in my community not simply here because you're in quitted it quiz ative in and of yourselves but you're here to go and to do that which you learn from but if you're like me and you're inquisitive you look at these passages and you think I'm not only concerned with what Jesus did say here but what he didn't say notice what Jesus didn't say and saying I will build my church he said it very plainly he didn't say I will build your church he didn't say you build my church he didn't say I am going to build a socio-cultural center for religious activity and fervor he didn't say I'm going to be some sort of community organizer and gather people together with like minds to speak the same thing he didn't say you should go out into your community and survey that community and determine what kind of church they want you to build and then build it he didn't say I need you to build my church he didn't even say listen carefully pastors he didn't say I need your money to build my church he said very plainly I will build my church what we see here as Matthew begins these great claims of Jesus is this great claim that Jesus will build his church and that's beginning of four great sayings of Jesus turn with me quickly to Matthew twenty-eight we see here in Matthew 28 of course the Great Commission and just briefly as we look at this and then get right back to Matthew 16 we see in Matthew 16:18 I will build my church the great constitution of Christ's Church if he is going to be the responsible one he is the one sovereign over and the one working in and through to build that which he came to build namely his church well in Matthew 28:18 look there with me we have the great claim when jesus said all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth and then the great commission of course in Matthew 28:19 therefore go and make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit teaching them to observe all things that I've commanded you and lo he leaves us with a great comfort I am with you always the great constitution followed by the great claim of Christ the Great Commission and the great comfort we are usually focusing our attentions aren't we people on the Great Commission alone on what it is that we are to do but over and over and over again throughout the Gospel of Matthew and throughout the New Testament as you know well the reliance of the success of the building of the Church of God relies on Christ and the Holy Spirit as he leaves him with us to build to grow to edify to emboldened and to in strengthen his church so often we focus simply on what we're doing we don't want to take the emphasis off of that but we want to make sure that for most and primarily and the structure that God has laid out for us that we're looking to Christ as the one who will build his church but as we'll see in just a few minutes it doesn't end there he says I will build my church very plainly now in your if you're in the first century and you're Peter and the Apostles sitting there with Jesus and you hear this language of build what do you think you would take away so often when we look to this passage we come thinking that what Jesus meant when he said build was must have been that he was going to start something from scratch that he was going to start a new project anew but in fact the language here to build comes from the language of constructing a house well when you construct a house you're not starting from scratch are you what are you using wood nails brick mortar hammers all these things that you're using to construct something when we even in our own language in our own parlance of the day we will talk about making something when I asked my wife how many of you made eggs this morning by the way anybody make eggs or eat okay well if you made eggs this morning what did that mean if I asked my wife to make eggs what am I asking her to do to lay an egg I'm not asking her to lay an egg I'm not asking her to lay it and then scramble it I'm not asking her to create an a got a thin air I'm asking her to take an egg and to put it in the pot or the pan crack it hopefully not getting into this shell into the pan and then scramble that egg right if my children say will you please build me a treehouse they're not saying build me a house in the trees out of nothing I'm using already existing trees aren't I'm I'm using hammer and nails and wood from other trees likely to construct a tree house even John MacArthur and his commentary on this passage says Jesus wasn't starting from scratch he was building embolden affine strengthening something that had already been in existence Hebrews 3 tells us plainly that Moses was faithful in whose house God's house Jesus was the faithful what of that house son of that house and we Hebrews three rights are that house and the Exodus we see God building his church but not only in the Exodus but from the very first chapters of Genesis itself and Genesis 3 a passage that you know well plainly says that God made a promise and as soon as the historical Adam and Eve fell in the historical Garden of Eden God came into being accommodated himself came down and spoke to men and said this is the promise I give you and all these cursings there is a promise to you a seed will come forth from the woman and it will crush the head of the serpent bruising the seed of the woman's heel and at that moment God began to build his church and what we see throughout all of history not simply from Pentecost down down but throughout all of history is God faithfully building his church but then throughout history we see these moments in God's grand narrative and I use that term appropriately and God's grand narrative of redemption history we see Abraham the foremost one with whom God made his covenant in Genesis 15 and 16 and what does God promised Abraham turn there with me quickly if you're a Baptist you're gonna be there in 10 seconds Presbyterians you got about 30 seconds to get there Genesis chapter 15 a passage that we should all know well now I'm reading from the New King James Version here which is it necessarily the best version but I love what it says here when we read in verse 1 of chapter 15 after these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision saying do not be afraid Abram I am your shield you're exceedingly great reward now catch verse 2 but Abraham said Lord God what will you give me God Almighty the creator and sustainer of all the earth the one who had called Abraham out of a foreign land to be his out of darkness into light he said very plainly I am your shield your exceedingly great reward or in other translations your reward will be very great and Abraham responded by saying very plainly Lord what will you give me God has just said that he is his reward God has just said I am your portion I am all that you need Abram and Abraham what will you give me seeing that the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus my wife and I have not had any natural children they impatiens they were impetuous and when God did not fulfill the promise in the time that they men thought that he should what did they do they took matters into their own hands Sarah gave Abraham her house made Abraham and Hagar produced a son named Ishmael who we know as the Muslims Herald as one of the early spiritual progenitors of Islam when we attempt to build God's church in our own way with our own means going outside those means those simple ordinary means that God has given us to build his church trusting him and his promised in his word in his timing not on our own not in accordance with our own wisdom but his authoritative Lee so it's then when we not only produce a dead church but we actually produce other religions Abraham had his own way of doing church growth and he thought that if he could intervene in this grand narrative of redemption then we might just be able to help God out because he was a little slow in his promise turn back with me to Matthew 16 so he says very plainly I will build my church I am taking that which I have been building and I will build it in the future this is in the indicative voice simply saying that this will be this is something that will happen in the future tense when we hear the word church what do we think of now this is important because so often when you spoke of where you're coming today you spoke of coming to fourth presbyterian church and appropriately so what I found is fascinating in our world today we've seen in America particularly is the loss of denominational names in churches have you noticed this so we have Baptist churches that have dropped the name Baptist Presbyterian churches have dropped the name Presbyterian now I don't be mad entirely I understand why they're doing it how many of you and just just for my own understanding how many of you are a part of a church that has no denominational affiliation in the actual name of your church or you've recently dropped it how many of you that's the case for okay it's kind of the same with us we're simply called st. Andrews a reformed two congregation all right so reformed has of course many connotations but a lot of people don't quite know what that means but many of you come from churches where there's no denominational affiliation in your name there's a part of me that belong or where you're going but at the same time what I do appreciate about it is that people are foremost rather than calling themselves when asked well I'm a presbyterian or I'm a Baptist or I'm a charismatic Graham up at a coastal or on this to that or the other they're simply responding more and more these days I've heard with very simply I'm a Christian and I attend that church over on wayside Drive I attend that body of believers that gathered together at that place called grace fellowship or covenant grace or whatever it might be but when we hear the word church what do we think our minds immediately drawn to a building or to a people Luther and the Reformation said over and over and over again that the church is not a building but a people it's not a wood and stone he said but it's the company of all those who believe on the name of the Son of God but still today hundreds of years later after the Reformation we are still to the day speaking of a building as a church friends this is a building that can be blown over if it were in Florida by a hurricane perhaps here by a tornado or whatever natural disasters you have here hail storms I guess whatever this is it can be eaten up by moth and rust eaves can come break in and steal this could be laid low and the church would still gather together on the Lord's Day to worship God Almighty wouldn't they it has little to do with the building but the word church is not just a people who gathered together but in fact the word church is you know plainly is compound word made up of a prefix and a root word the prefix is what back we see that we're in our common day we see it right there the exit sign X it we hear of the Exodus and what does it mean simply out of and then the root word is Cleese eeeh so ecclesia from the root word color o which in the Greek and the first person is I call or in the infinitive form Coleen so to call out of something we have missed dramatically in our era of doing Church admits so much of what's going on and how people are going about trying to build the church amidst a seeker-sensitive culture I understand their motivations I understand their drive but they're wrong headed but the language of the church is the language of those who have been called out of the world called out of darkness and made able to stand by the grace of God by the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit in our lives made able to stand in his light but not simply to stand in to bask in his light but to come together as the church and then to go out as the light of the world into the darkness not simply to come and to wallow in our light but to go out as the mission of God in this world speaking communicating living and doing all the crisis calls to do is that light of the world when the church fails to be the church friends when the church fails to actually be the assembly the congregation of the called out ones from the world not only do we cease to be the church but we cease to be the light of the world set on a hill if you will as Jesus plainly says in Matthew five 13 through 16 we not only ceased to be the church we not only ceased to be able to speak prophetically biblically truth to each other from the pulpit and reciprocally to one another within the congregation but we cease to be that city set on a hill proclaiming and shining as the light of Christ into this darkness when we think of church we need to think of a group of called out ones that's why our worship services that's why what we do and the way we do what we do is not designed for most for the world we want to make sure that the world can comprehend and understand what's going on here is Paul plainly says in first Corinthians but that doesn't mean we go the next step and start designing our services for them services of God's people and worship for most people listen carefully are designed for the people of God to worship God we need to be mindful of this and whatever our tradition is whatever our denomination is we need to be mindful of this and careful and that doesn't mean and has to be an organ and not a guitar that doesn't mean it has to be timpani and not a drum set that doesn't mean it needs to be a wood base standing up rather than a electric bass on the side the point is is that the way in which we worship God should reflect how Christians the called out ones worship him Jesus is saying very plain that I will build my church I will call out people from this darkness and make them able to stand by my spirit in my marvelous light I will give them all things that pertain to life and godliness in me who is the Lord and the head of the church who is the head of your church Jesus Christ it's not just a name it's not just a title it's not simply a doctrinal statement that you make that's on your church's website or in some old dusty Creed that you never read but Jesus Christ is the living and active head of the church just as Peter said you are Christ the Son of the Living God not a dead God but to say the Living God in one sense is largely superfluous for God to be God he must be in fact living and then Jesus in the last part of the statement and saying I will build my church he says very plainly and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it now I realize that we're not digging into this passage and all the depth that you might like trying to figure out what Peter's confession meant and what Jesus meant when he said you are Peter and on this rock I will build my church I'll leave that for dr. Sproul at a later time but let it suffice to say very plainly that Peter was in fact one of the foundations of the church as Paul says in Ephesians 2:20 the Peter and the Apostles and the Old Testament prophets were the foundation of the church and Christ is the what the cornerstone the chief Cornerstone in fact and Peter takes that same language from the Old Testament that Jesus picked up himself and he says in Peter very plainly this is the rock over which people are stumbling this is the rock of offense it not only gives life but it also makes those to stumble to whom it has been appointed to stumble Jesus said I will build my church and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it very plainly why is it that the gates of Hades don't prevail against it because ultimately it's Christ who builds his church and the way that he has established not in our own mind and our own devices and our own scheming and planning and plotting but the way he has devised very plainly if you're taking notes 1st Corinthians 3:6 God is the one who gives the increase acts 2:42 God is the one who adds daily to his church we see plainly over and over and over again God is sovereign over the growth of his church or dating not only them ends of church growth but the means as well and what are the primary means of church growth it's the same primary means that we have for what in fact makes a church a church Calvin said plainly in his Institute's wherever we see the Word of God plainly are purely preached and heard wherever we see the sacraments rightly administered there it is not to be doubted a church of God exists and later reformers came along and they said well in rightly administering the sacraments buuut sir and peter martyr vermigli said plainly the discipline of the church must be consistent if there's no discipline within the church then truly there's no church in one sense every Christian who's here who's a member of a local church in one sense listen carefully is under the discipline of the church in the sense that we're under the discipline of the Word of God as disciples of Jesus Christ we come following Christ in his steppes parapet ethically walking in his ways under his teaching under his discipline and so when we come to hear the word of God we come in one sense friends to be disciplined to buy it and as dr. Godfrey well said years ago I don't really feel like I've been to church unless I'm a little beat up many of you are leaving your churches looking for your pastor simply to say nice things about you until you smell good and look nice and encourage you so that you walk out feeling good about yourself so that you can go and take on the world on Monday years ago a dear sweet lady left a congregation where dr. John Gerstner our seas mentor was preaching and in preaching on the doctrine of sin and of course looking at the gospel as well the little lady came out of that congregation that day and said dr. Gerstner you made me feel so low and he looked at her and he said that's too much what he was trying to convey to her is that what the gospel should do is should rip us of any high feelings of ourselves any lofty notions of who we are in and of ourselves and our own strength but the pastor is here to regularly discipline us with the Word of God carefully and lovingly and always to the ultimate goal of what bringing us to repentance and faith and restoration that we would be a people of repentance and faith looking to Jesus as the author and perfecter of our faith not to ourselves and so we're all under the discipline of the church in one sense but these marks of the church we see also the means of grace in the church as Westminster standards call them the ordinary means of the church they are the word the preaching of the word of God the right administration of the sacraments n was the last one prayer as we see in acts 2:42 the church the early church that God had added to daily were practicing the Apostles doctrine and fellowship gathering for the breaking of bread for taking of the sacraments and in prayer as even Francis terton points out in his Institute's the gates of Hell will not prevail against it but if we are trying to build the church in our own way if we are going about building the church according to our own ways our own means leaving behind the gospel leaving behind the Word of God instead replacing it with socio-cultural pop psychological therapy and nice stories and good illustrations and just an hour full of good jokes and entertainment if we're replacing the preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ for that friends not only will the gates of Hell prevail against us but we in fact will become the very gates of hell we will be the very gates of death itself we will be the ones proclaiming what people think is life but when we don't have the gospel we don't have life as our molar said a couple of days ago and posting an article from Justin Taylor when we confuse the gospel all is lost and I'll also say if we lose the gospel then we're all lost the gates of Hell shall not prevail against the church that Christ is building if you want to build the church on your own terms and according to your own mechanistic sand schematics and your own strategies and your own methods then that won't be the Church of Jesus Christ the only gates of death that will not prevail against the only Church of Jesus Christ are the gates of everlasting death against the ever-living and everlasting church of Jesus Christ Diocletian after his persecutions erected a monument that said this for the extermination of all Christians throughout the world Diocletian and his persecutions similar to Nero Nero and his neurotic persecutions and the persecutions not only throughout the early church but throughout all of history as God in his sovereign providence has ordained that people come against the church to try to take her down to try to eradicate her from the earth but over and over and over again the church has withstood in fact even the very martyrs of the church have become the seed of the church their blood their death is a witness to us even to this day no years ago there was a pastor in Oklahoma who had been preaching for many many years in this small town in Oklahoma and as he continued to preach the Word of God faithfully week in and week out people in their community as progress came to that town and industry came and new stores and as retail markets began to open up on Sundays as they began to show sporting games on Sundays those people more and more over the years started to find other things that they could do on their Sunday mornings and eventually just a very few were laugh in worship on those Sunday mornings the pastor realized that the church had all but died so he took out an ad in the paper and for weeks he published that there was going to be a funeral service at this one local church out in the country of Oklahoma and that it was a funeral service for the church itself he advertised it for weeks and gathered support from the townspeople to come and to be a part of this funeral service for the church now the people were just amazed that he would have the gall to do this they didn't know what would come of this they had no idea what to expect when they came it was just like any other funeral service he preached his sermon to the people that had gathered the church was packed and then at the forefront of the chancel he put a coffin and after the service he came and he opened up the coffin and he asked the people to come down and to look into the coffin and see a dead church and as they came down and they inspected this coffin and they walked by one by one silently leaving that building that day in complete silence and awe what they saw in that coffin was a mirror and friends very simply we mean need to understand that if we give up the gospel we have not only made ourselves susceptible to the prevailing gates of the devil and his minions but we ourselves have become in fact those who are leading others to the very gates of Hell themselves let us be a people who come away from this conference inquisitive thoughtful but if people are going back into our churches infighting carefully wisely patiently respectfully for the proclamation of the gospel of Jesus Christ because it is only that that will truly build his church now for the future let's pray our Father we thank you for your church we thank you Lord that you have called us out of darkness and into your marvelous light we thank you Lord that we gather together today with people of like minds and we pray that we would walk out here not in attack mode but an independent humble mode depending on Jesus Christ and your spirit to build your church as you use us in and through the world to proclaim your gospel of life in Christ's precious name we pray amen

Channel: Ligonier Ministries

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Id: 25RaOiH3bOM

Length: 50min 39sec (3039 seconds)

Published: Thu Jul 23 2015