THE REFORMED WITNESS HOUR"I Will Build My Church"Rev. Carl Haak(e-mail: Rev. Carl Haak) |
Dear radio friends,
On this last Sunday of the year of our Lord 2002, I direct your attention to the Word of the Lord in
Matthew 16:18:
“And
I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and
the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”
These words of Jesus Christ are tremendous words of comfort and encouragement to
all who love God’s church and know the perilous position of God’s true church in
the world. Originally Jesus spoke those words
to assure His disciples. He had been laboring
for two and a half years. Many were at first
attracted to Him, but most of them had eventually rejected His claim to be the Christ and
had left Him. Jesus then asked His disciples
the question, “Whom do men say that I, the Son of man, am?” Really, that question had this force to it: “What do we have to show for it all? The preaching, the miracles, the mighty
works.” The results were not flattering. “They don’t even know who you are. They don’t believe you are the Christ. Some say that Thou art John the Baptist, Elijah,
Jeremiah, or one of the prophets.” Then
the Lord asked, “But whom do you say that I am?”
And to this question Peter, in the behalf of the disciples, responded, “Thou
art the Son of God, the Christ.”
Then Jesus speaks these words. He
speaks to encourage and to comfort. The Lord
Jesus Christ is not discouraged. He is not
depressed. He is confident! “I will build My church, and the gates of
hell shall not prevail against it. It is all
going exactly as planned. My work is on
course.” God’s sure, inflexible,
sovereign purpose to gather a church in Jesus Christ knows no setbacks.
We need to hear that word on the last Sunday of this year. I say, those who love the church and know what the
church represents on earth and who are awake to all that is against it, need to hear this
word of Jesus.
The history of the church is always the same.
The true church of God seems always about to be destroyed. In history, revealed in the Scriptures, it was the
same. Always God’s people who knew the
truth would fall away of themselves in their generations.
They would depart from the living God, serve idols, provoke God to wrath. The Bible shows that the church, of herself, has a
nature to go a-whoring from God and that it is God alone who preserves His church and
brings her to repentance and truth.
The history of the church after the Bible, from the apostles to today, shows the
same. It was never very long before heresy
found its way into the church. Ungodliness
was accepted of church members. Satan sought
to corrupt the church within and to conform the church to the world. Always the church stands in need of reformation. And you would think, if you study church history,
that the light of the church on the earth is about to be put out. But then God would raise up that light again.
God’s sure, inflexible, sovereign purpose
to gather a church in Jesus Christ
knows no setbacks.
We need this encouragement. If we love
the church and know her perilous place, we need to have this encouragement. But we also need to have this encouragement if we
know ourselves. The devil is not finished
when the church rejects false teaching. The
devil’s hands are not then tied. His
great instrument is our own sinful flesh, which can so hurt and work against the church. Our own backbiting, divisions, fighting, rash
judgments of each other, taking offence when none is given, seeds of bitterness — all
of these things, too, are great enemies to the church of God. We carry it within us. There is enough spiritual gunpowder, there is
enough sin in each one of us, to blow up the visible church on earth and to tear her into
shreds. We need to hear that word of
encouragement.
What word of encouragement? Simply
this: “I will build My church, and the
gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” Breathe
those words into your soul. Sense something
of the strength and the certainty of the Master’s words. This is not the resolve of an impotent man, of whom the prophet speaks in
Isaiah 2,
“Cease ye from man whose breath is in his
nostrils; for wherein is he to be accounted of?”
This is not the boast of an architect or an engineer looking over the blueprints
for a new skyscraper or hydroelectric dam, all of which will be cast down in a moment in
the day of the Lord. This is not the ranting
of a crazed world-leader plotting global conquest. These
are the words of Him who sits at the right hand of God.
It is the calm, yet intense, the certain and sure resolve of God’s own Son,
who is Lord of lords and King of kings. “I
will build My church.”
Breathe in every word of it to refresh your heart in this day of apostasy and
lawlessness. “I, Christ of God,
entrusted to perform God’s good pleasure, will (looking into the future —
taking into account every conceivable obstacle) build (do everything to bring it together,
put it in place) My church. It is Mine. It belongs to Me,” says Jesus. “I laid down My life for it.” As you would say to another person, “Hands
off! That’s mine,” He says,
“The church is Mine, and I will see this church through, I will build her to
completion.”
Now, how shall we live in the church of Jesus Christ? Shall we become downcast over small numbers
interested in the truth? Shall we stop trying
to witness? Shall we conclude that they are
just not interested? Shall we look for a
juniper tree and commiserate with Elijah and say, “Well, apostasy has won. There is nothing left. I am left alone”? Or, shall we say, “The church has failed me
here and there. The church doesn’t
provide what I need. I have to look to this
group at college. I have to go to this
movement for my spiritual needs.” Shall
we say that? No!
No. God’s church is on earth. Are you privileged to be a member of the church in
its truth? Then take your stand and hear the
words of Jesus spoken with unwavering confidence: “I
will build My church.”
What does Jesus mean? The word
“church” is the Greek ecclesia, which refers to the gathering of those
who are called, or a congregation of believers. Although
the visible church on earth contains tares, that is, weeds in the wheat field, the true
church is, nevertheless, the gathering together of those whom God calls out of the world,
or the calling together of believers and their elect children. They are the chosen. They are the irresistibly summoned ones. They are the ones whom Christ has been commanded
of the Father to gather out of the world and bring into the sheepfold of Christ. We hear that the age of the church is over. We hear the false and blasphemous teaching that
Christians should abandon visible churches where there are elders and deacons. We are told that the Spirit of God is no longer in
the church. All of these teachings are
blasphemy against the Word of God and against God’s Son. Christ’s work from the beginning of the world
to the end of the world is to gather together His church.
“I will build My church.”
What Jesus is saying is simply this: “I
fully intend to do exactly what God eternally willed to be done. I will build a church as God’s eternal
dwelling place for all eternity. I will build
the church universal, yes. Out of all ages
and races and nations, true. But I will
build that local, that visible, that instituted church with elders and deacons. The Lord Jesus uses this very word “church” in
Matthew 18,
where He tells us that we must go and tell the church
about an impenitent member. I cannot go and
tell Moses. I cannot go and tell David. I cannot go and tell the universal church. I can only go and tell the local church with her
elders as they lead the church. Jesus Christ
is the Builder of every faithful local church on earth.
And Jesus Christ says, “That church shall be on the earth. I will build My church. I will see to it that there is pure preaching. I will see to it that there are sacraments. I will see to it that there is Christian
discipline. I will build My church.”
Now breathe that into your soul.
The church, Jesus says, is similar to a building.
Christ is the foundation, and He continues to build that church out of the dunghill
of the earth, out of fallen men and women. He
builds a church that will stand to all eternity and that, when completed, will be called
the New Jerusalem, the Tabernacle of God. Here
is the figure: Jesus is the builder. Before Him are the blueprints of the divine
Architect, the eternal will of God. The
dimensions and the span of the beams and the color of the stones and the glorious design
of this church — all according to God’s intentions. Jesus Christ lays each stone. He chisels and He shapes and He fits as a wise,
skilled builder in whose hands are wisdom and understanding. He builds the church.
He says to Peter, “I’m going to build My church upon a foundation.” That foundation was Peter’s confession that
Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God. The
foundation of the church was not Peter. The
foundation of the church is not man.
You could sooner build again the twin towers of New York, only this time build them
on top of each other and design it all to rest on a pebble, a little pebble — you
could sooner do that than build God’s church on a man. Would you go out and design the Sears Tower to
rest upon a grain of sand? Well, you had
better try that before you try to build the church on man.
No, the church is not built upon man. The
church is built upon the confession of the truth — the truth that God gives in holy
Scripture; the truth that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God; the truth of
Christ, the Son of the Blessed, the author and finisher of our faith. The church is built upon doctrine, upon the
creedal “I believe,” upon the personal embracing of the truth of holy Scripture,
the infallible, without error, Scripture.
Now, come. Breathe some pure air into
your spiritual lungs. Get your nose out of
the world. Exhale the smoke and the stench of
men and breathe these words in: “I will
build My church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”
The Lord’s work of building the church is opposed, and the Lord’s resolve
is challenged. As He goes out to build He
sees forces mighty and ruthless seeking to frustrate and destroy His intentions. That is always the case. When, so to speak, the ground-breaking ceremony of
the church was held long ago in the Garden of Eden, and God gave the promise of the Seed
of the woman who would crush the serpent, then a declaration of war was issued. “And I will put enmity between thee and the
woman; between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his
heel.” The gates of hell rage against
the building of the church.
The picture here is of the forces of sin, the kingdom of darkness under the rule of
Satan, having one strategic aim — destroy Christ’s church. The gates refer to that which comes out of that
kingdom. It refers to the organized, planned
expeditions, the campaigns, the marching orders that the enemy receives to attack the
building that Christ is making. That is
always the case. If you take your membership
in the church of Jesus Christ seriously and vitally, then you understand that you are in a
spiritual war zone. You are in the church
militant, the church that is called to take up the battle of faith. You are called to take the armor of the Word of
God, in order that you might stand.
Do not be amazed at troubles in the church of Jesus Christ. Do not be amazed that there is evil attacking the
work of Jesus Christ in the church from one hundred different directions. Do not be amazed about that. What you ought to be amazed about is if the world
loves you and if there is no trouble. Then
you should be startled. You should be
startled by a false peace. You should be
startled in the church if there are no warnings issued against false doctrine and sinful
life and seductions of the world. If you do
not hear that from your pulpit, you had better be afraid!
Do not be amazed that there is evil
attacking the work of Jesus Christ in the church
from one hundred different directions.
The true church on the earth is opposed. It
is opposed by false doctrine that seeks to spoil you; evil living, which seeks to conform
you to the enemy; the seduction of the world and world-conformity. And, I say again, that is not the worst of it. That is not the end of it. Because, you see, the enemy of the church is not
simply the one outside. It is the one inside. It is also the one you and I carry in our own
flesh. Our flesh goes out to the kingdom of
darkness. Our flesh is allured by all of its
sins. And our flesh is proud.
As we join in the confession, on this last Sunday of the year, that “we love
Thy church, O God, and we pray for her on earth,” then we had better know our own
sins, our own sins which are able to tear up the church and her fellowship — the sins
of jealousy, the sins of cruel judgment, the sins of issuing one’s own judgment as
being the rule of the church. I tell you with
weeping that our own flesh is able to destroy and mutilate and hurt God’s church on
earth.
I believe that when Jesus says that the gates of hell are against the church, He is
not talking about a theoretical battle. He is
not talking about little boys playing with toy soldiers in imaginary wars. I believe there is one work of God in time. That one work of God is: “I will build My church.” I believe that the gates of hell are rising up
untiringly against it. I believe that your
call and mine is: “To the walls. It’s no time to fight each other in the
church over petty issues of jealousy. Rather,
it is time to take our stand in the church of Jesus Christ on the side of the truth.”
But shall we despair? Listen. The gates of hell shall not prevail against it. It is as if Christ pictures it this way: Right out in front of the gates of hell He builds
His church, that is, right under the nose of the devil’s kingdom, so that the
archfiend in hell sees the church out of his window.
And when the world goes out of its kingdom it cannot avoid seeing the building of
the church. God does not hide His church.
But the world begins to boast. Satan
begins to have glee. He says,
“Don’t you know? We destroyed the
church long ago. We tore it down and have
erected in its place the false church. We
have put man on top. We have subjected the
church to the traditions of men. We have
infiltrated the church, which was once sound in doctrine.
It seems as if overnight we have taken away from her her confession of sola
scriptura, the Scriptures alone. We have
entered into Solomon’s temple and carried away the gold thereof.” The devil says, “Are there churches? Oh, yes. But
you know how they’re referred to today? Spiritual
aid stations, community revival centers, coliseums for entertainment, dance floors, places
where the false prophets speak swelling words of pride.
They are no longer church,” he gloats. And
what about those traditional, solid churches built upon solid confessions? Ah, says the devil, “look at her children,
those who are supposed to be dedicated to the Lord. We
have taken her young men. We have taken her
young women. We have taken their strength. They left the church. They are with us, now. They are spaced out on drugs. They are in homosexual relationships. And they are sleeping with their boyfriends and
girlfriends. The church,” asks the
devil, “where is it?”
Then the Lord pictures the devil looking out his front door. And there is Jesus building His church. In Singapore, where the devil had them worshiping
the year of the dragon and parading in the streets sticking needles through their cheeks,
a church is born. In the Philippines, where
they once lived in trees and ate each other, leaving skulls at the base of the tree trunk,
a missionary now walks through the land, whom Christ uses to build His church. Throughout this land, in a day when the Sabbath is
sold over to man, when Mother’s Day is more important than the Sabbath Day, when
Sunday is used for sports and gardening, when men call Sunday “my day,” and
where men rush on Monday, bumper to bumper, to work, believing that it is all about the
great American dream, it is all about checking your stock portfolio, it is all about
considering yourself decent folks, being a good guy, and dreaming about Friday night and
how drunk you can get — right there, in that land, Jesus Christ, out of the human
dunghill, is building His church.
Right there, in that land, Jesus Christ,
out of the human dunghill, is building His church.
The enemy rages. The fangs of the
dragon are bared. A screech is heard from the
bowels of hell: “That church
again!” Christ builds His church. Does Christ flinch before the devil? Oh, no. He
speaks and judgments fall on them who tempt His wrath and scorn His love. The heathen raged, the kingdoms were moved; He
uttered His voice, the earth melted. Be not
afraid or dismayed by reason of that great multitude, for the battle is not yours, says
Jesus to the church. It is God’s. “Ye shall not need to fight in this battle. Set yourself and stand still and see the salvation
of the Lord. Hear the Word of the Lord.” Buildings will collapse. Economies will utterly fail. The best-laid plots of men in welfare and social
security and health care are all going to be ruined.
And man in his mightiest estate is going to be cast down. But the church will never go under. It shall never be overcome. “I will build My church and the gates of hell
shall not prevail against it.”
That is our confidence. Let us labor,
then, dependently and faithfully. Let us
stick close to the church in our lives. There
have always been those who said that the visible church is corrupt and you ought to come
out of it. These are the people who forget
themselves. Stick close to the church. Center your life in the church. Insist upon the preaching of the truth. Cherish the church.
Give yourself for the church. Serve
her in her need, for she is glorious. She is
God’s holy city. Who can tell of its
glory? The day will come when all shall be
cast down and the works of men shall be turned out as empty. And they shall vanish in a moment. But not
the church which Christ builds. Breathe it
in: “I will build My church and the
gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”