The Church That Was Built By Jesus The Christ

The Church That Was Built By Jesus The Christ THE CHURCH, WHICH WAS BUILT BY JESUS THE CHRIST
Matthew 16:13-20

Introductory iRemarks:—Beloved let me place these inspired words at the head of my address, on "The Church, Which Was Built by Jesus the Christ". The Lord Jesus said to Peter, "And upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hades shall not prevail against it". David by the Spirit of God wrote "Walk about Zion, and go round about her, tell the towers thereof, mark ye well her bulwarks, consider her palaces, that ye may tell it to the generation following". If there is a true church I submit to you, that the first church is the true church, and the New Testament is the only source of information concerning it. We can form in our minds a mental pic­ture of the church which Jesus built by a careful study of the Sacred Text. We want, beloved to walk about Zion (Jerusalem) the beginning place, with an open Bible in our hands, to go round about the church which was established there, mark well her bulwarks, study her distinctive marks, follow our guide book until we have fixed in our mind a picture of the church of Christ, both in faith and practice, and then look about us for a counter­part of our picture.

We can not overestimate the importance of beginning right. The surveyor must first find "the begin­ning corner", before he makes a survey and the preacher of the gospel should know the beginning corner of Chris­tianity, the beginning time, and place of the church of which Jesus said, "Upon this rock I will build my church", before he can be a safe teacher of the things of the King­dom of God. The word "church", as recorded in the scripture lesson which has been read, is used for the first time in the Bible. It occurs but three times in the gospel narratives, and is spoken of as an institution still in the future. I rejoice my friends that the term church was first spoken by our Lord. He coined the word on the first Pentecost, after Jesus died. Luke records, "'Hie Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved'' or "day by day those that were being saved". After this the church is frequently spoken of in the New Testament and always as an existing institution. The day of the Pentecost was the beginning time, and the city of Jerusa­lem the beginning place of the church of the New Testa­ment. The Holy Spirit has used many terms in setting forth the church which Jesus said " I will build", it is called "the kingdom of heaven", "the kingdom of God's dear Son", "the body of Christ", "God's building", "the temple of God", "the house of God". These terms are suggestive as we shall see.

I have already intimated to you, that the church was not established immediately after the transgression. The great plan, or purpose of God was gradually unfolded. A long period of time was given to prepare the way of salvation, the unfolding of God's purpose through Christ, and the intellectual develop­ment of the people proceeded together. That is God made revelations to his people, as they were able to receive them. I think you will all agree with me when I say. that the gospel must be preached and believed, before any one can come into the church—that is, it must be received by those that enter the church. This much con­ceded, may I ask you when the gospel of Christ was first preached? What is the gospel? Paul tells us: "Moreover brethren I declare unto you the gospel, which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand, by which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain; for I delivered unto you, first of all, that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins, according to the scriptures,-and that he was buried, and that he rose again, the third day according to the scriptures". The apostle declares this to be the gospel, and in the very nature of things, it could not be preached until Jesus accomplished the facts stated. The facts could not 'be believed until they were published, which was done for the first time at Jerusalem, on the Pentecost succeed­ing the death of Christ. This line of thought, and leach­ing lead us again to the beginning place, and time, when the church was established. But some one will say, did not Paul affirm that the gospel was preached unto Abraham? True—in the promise "In thee shall all nations be blessed". This was the gospel in promise only. Surely you make a dis­tinction between a promise, and the thing promised— between the gospel in promise, and the gospel in fact. The Holy Spirit speaks of the purpose of God, and calls it the eternal purpose, which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord". That is that God had a purpose—a plan— before the world began. That purpose had in it, the coming of Christ into the world, the establishment of his church, and the salvation of mankind. Let me illustrate. If a wealthy man of this town, would conceive the plan of building an automobile plant, the project would be in his mind, in purpose. If he would say to his friends "I am going to build an auto factory this year". Here we have the concern only in promise—not a fact. Our wealthy friend makes certain predictions. He says, that his factory will give employment to several hundred men. That he expects to turn out so many autos every day.. Here is the plant in prophecy. Lie engages a contractor, who begins the construction of the building. The material is brought on! the ground. The factory is now under prepara­tion. The machinery is being installed. But no work is being done. It is only in the period of preparation. Finally the building is completed, the machinery begins to hum, the work is being turned out. The factory is now for the first time a fact in this town. The application is simple. The great God bad a purpose before the world began—called the eternal purpose. That purpose is con­nected with Christ, what God intended to do through Christ. This purpose God made known to Abraham in a promise, saying "In thee shall all nations be blessed". It was the gospel only in promise. God made known through holy men, the coming into the world of his peer­less Son. lie inspired the prophets to predict his com­ing, his mission, and his church. This was the gospel in prophecy. Finally God made choice of the Harbinger, John the Baptist to prepare a people for the Lord, to gather the material for the church, which Jesus came to build. The gospel plan was only in preparation. It was the gospel of the Kingdom. Finally Jesus died, was buried, proved himself stronger than death, spoiled death, and arose triumphant. The gospel can now be preached as a fact. But the Apostles were to wait for the promised power. When the day of Pentecost had fully come, the Spirit came to guide the Apostles into all truth, and they preached the gospel as a fact for the first time, men believed it and that day, believing, penitent obedient men entered the church for the first time. The Holy Spirit calls the church, "God's build­ing'', "the house of God". I submit to you that the Holy Spirit makes no mistake in the choice of figures. The most important part of a house or building is the founda­tion. Has the church a foundation? It has, if the Holy Spirit selected the right figure. Paul said "For other founda­tion can no man lay, than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ". There is but one foundation, and there is room on it for one building, "God's building". You never saw more than one building on one foundation. Isaiah prophesied "Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation, a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation". In building we first lay the foundation, and then the building goes on it. This is in perfect har­mony with the revelation of God. The divine order is that the foundation must first be laid in Zion and before the laying of the foundation the stone must be tried. The Lord Jesus is the "tried stone". When was it tried? In the days of Abraham? No. The prophets? No they predicted that it would be tried. In the days of John the Baptist the trial began. After his baptism |esus was led up of the spirit into the wilderness and was tempted, tried. Satan approached the first Adam in a garden of fruits and flowers and at the first trial, Adam went down in disgrace, with the sentence (if death pro­nounced upon him. in a wilderness, weakened by long- days of fasting, Satan approached the second Adam the Lord from heaven, the foundation hope of the world, and tempted him. What does it mean, beloved? The great God had said "Behold I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone". God was willing to subject the foundation to trial, to put it to the test, in order that the sons and daughters of men, might build with confidence upon it, and the trial begins. What if Satan had suc­ceeded in overthrowing the second Adam. The world would be left in eternal darkness and death. But thanks be to God the foundation stood the test. "If thou be the Son of God command that these stones be made bread". Jesus said "It is written man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of (rod". Our Lord met Satan on the plane of being the son of man for our encouragement. He was willing to trust his father. That God would take care of him. Three times the prince of darkness assailed Jesus. I assure you the Divine bather watched the conflict, and when his peerless Son proved the victor, he sent forth his angels to minister unto him. And we read that "the tempter departed from him for a season". Only to renew his attack, in the person of scribes, and priests during his earth life, and in the bit­terness and hatred that raged around the cross. I can not take the time to speak of the "tried stone". It is a theme by itself. We are informed that Christ "was in all points tempted like as we are yet without sin". He did no sin neither was guile found in his mouth". During his personal ministry, he threw down the challenge, "which of you convicteth me of sin?" His character has stood the test, of nearly 1900 years of the most searching- scrutiny, and the fiercest opposition of an unbelieving world. Jesus entered Gethsemane, He was exceeding sorrowful, even unto death. His sweat became as it were great drops of blood. Our dear Saviour is now within the shadow of the cross. Thrice from his lips went up the mysterious words "Father if it be possible, let this cup pass from me"'—"nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt". What do these words mean? I was taught in mv boyhood days, that it was the cup of death on Calvary, that Jesus had in mind, and I can well remember, the old preachers from whom I learned so much, say "but thanks be unto God, he drank it to the very dregs." But let me submit to you, that Christ did not fear death on the cross. It was to die this death that Jesus came into the world— Our Lord and Leader did not play the coward, when he came within the shadow of the cross. Many of his fol­lowers went down to a martyr's death unafraid. We could not conceive of the Saviour praying to escape the very death, that he came into the world to die. And fur­ther the apostle affirms that "in the days of his flesh, when he had ottered up prayers, and supplications, with strong crying—and tears unto him, that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared"; God an­swered his prayer, and sent an angel to strengthen him in the garden. Jesus feared that his humanity would give way—that his human nature would sink under the load he was hearing in Gethsemane, and in agony of soul he prayed: "bather if it be possible let the cup of sorrow— that is killing me, be removed, let me live to reach the cross, and die there, as the world's sacrifice. Thy will be done—" (I). I wish you to consider, the betrayal; the trials, for he had more than one, the cross, and the crucifixion; and then ask yourself, what does it all mean? God said: "Behold I lay in Zion for a foundation, a stone, a tried stone." The foundation stone is being tried. Oh my soul will Jesus endure the trial: six long hours the Saviour hung on the cross; and suffered as the world's Redeemer: a spectacle for men, and angels to view: even in the hour of his greatest agony, he thought of others rather than self —At a respectful distance stood a company of women and among them his mother—Years before as she stood in the temple and held Jesus as a babe in her arms: she heard Simeon utter these words: "Behold this child is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel, and for a sign which shall be spoken against. Yes, a sword shall pierce through thy own soul also"—At that time Mary did not understand—vow she understood, as she looked on her son in the hands of wicked men suffering the shameful death of the cross—and she powerless to help; hut li ten my friend, Jesus speaks. "Mother'—that sweet name, "I am leaving you, but there is John, he leaned on my bosom, I can trust him, Mother, he will take my place, when I am gone. John behold your Mother", and John understood. The only temporal provision that Jesus ever made, he made for his Mother. What an example he left to us: Is your father and mother living my dear young people? If so, he good to them, they will not always be with you; some day they will be gone—even now their heads are turn­ing white, their forms bending graveward—Others may take their place. Yes, take the place of mother, but let me say to you, that never while vou live, will the love of any one be so tender, unselfish and true, as the love of the dear old mother has been. As she goes down the Western slope of the hill of life, be kind and good to her, make her last days her happiest days, and be Christlike, and God will bless you.—Soon the Saviour cried with a loud voice: "It it finished," his head drooped upon his blood­stained bosom, and he gave up the spirit.—Is the trial over? No my friends; His disciples took his pierced body down from the cross; and laid it in the tomb of a rich Jewish Counsellor. But Jesus only stooped to conquer; he snatched the keys which closed the grave so long, unlocked the silent tomb, and arose triumphant. The trial is over, the foundation has been proven stronger than death, hades, and the grave.

Now we may expect the foundation to he laid. Just fifty days after the death of Jesus: The Holy Spirit came, and inspired the apostles, who as wise master build­ers laid the foundation at Jerusalem: Peter said to a great Jewish gathering: "Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified both Lord and Christ. Now when they heard this they were pricked in their hearts." Why so? because they were convinced—believed the message which they heard, and said unto Peter, and the rest of the apos­tles, "Men and brethren what shall we do?"—Then Peter said unto them: "Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins— and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Then they that gladly received his word were baptized, and the same day, there were added unto them about three thou­sand souls." The first three thousand living stones were placed on the foundation, by their faith in Christ, repent­ance, and baptism into the saving name—And the divine building, the church began to grow—and for the first time we read of the Lord adding to the church which was at Jerusalem. With the New Testament before us, we can easily form a mental picture of this divine institution. There was but one church in the absolute sense—many con­gregations of like precious faith composing that church. The congregations were called collectively churches of Christ, and individually, Christians, disciples of Christ.— brethren, saints. They recognized but one leader,—Christ as head over all things to his church: They were bound to him, by no law, but the law of the Lord as revealed in the New Testament. Their creed was the word itself— They represented one family, all children of God: The brotherhood in which all were brethren: They continued steadfastly in the apostle's teaching and fellowship in break­ing of bread and prayers: The church thus edifying itself in love: This simplicity and unity continued for about two hundred years. Although the mystery of iniquity was even then working. In the church itself were men speak­ing perverse things to draw away disciples after them. The apostles forewarned their brethern, but it did not save the church from the great apostasy, and for 1200 years the church of Christ, as a divine organization was lost to the world, and the man of sin was revealed. The apostate church ruled the people with the unwritten word during the dark ages.

Finally Martin Luther inaugurated a great reformation. He tried to reform the Church of Rome: he failed in this—but his labors resulted in a new state religion. He never conceived the idea of restoring the simple New Testament Church—He gave the people the Bible, but he did more,, he gave them also his opinions, formulated into a creed—and the result was a church not named in the Bible; Martin Luther was a great and good man, and did a grand work. It would be more than human to expect, that he after the spiritual darkness of the dark ages at one stride could step from Rome back to Jeru­salem—We thank God for what he did—But if he had preached just what the Apostles preached, the word—no more—no less—and led the people to believe and obey the word, no more, no less; he would have produced the church described in the word; no more, no less. But he preached the word, and something more than the word, his opinions about the word, and his efforts resulted in a new religious denomination, which has been in existence ever since—And since Luther's time, there have been many attempts by good sincere men at reformation so called, reforming churches unknown to the New Testament. The church which Jesus built does not need to be reformed—As a divine organiza­tion it never was deformed—It was divinely given and perfect, but through the great apostasy was lost to the world. What is needed is a restoration of the New Testa­ment church. Was the church as established by Christ and his Apostles right? You answer—yes—Should we try to restore it, to reproduce it? And there is but one answer, with every honest man and women. When the church of Christ as described in the New Testament is reproduced it will be the same in organization, name, creed, doctrine, worship and life as the church which was at Jerusalem.

You ask me if I can trace the church of which I am a member back to Jerusalem—and I answer no. There is no unbroken line of succession. This Apostolic succession idea is a myth, no man can make it out. The only true succession is in the seed, the word of God. ' How was the church first produced? It grew from seed, the seed of the Kingdom, the word of God. We read, of the first church—"They that gladly received his word were baptized and the same clay, there were added unto them about three thousand souls". Everything in the world grows from seed. The church is no exception. Now if I plant the pure seed of the Kingdom, or to drop the figure—If I preach just what the Apostles preached, and tell people to believe and do just what the Apostles told men to believe, and to do—and that in the very language which they used, to worship as they taught believers to worship—and live as they lived—I will produce a congrega­tion of Christ, just like the Apostles established, and in your heart, you know it—But you are ready to ' say that we are as a religious body only a little more than a hun­dred years old. That we are therefore a new religious society. Before we can have a new religious body or church, there must be something peculiarly new preached to produce it. We 'preach one foundation, Christ; is that new? It is as old as Paul teaching at Corinth. We teach that faith in Christ, repentance and baptism are necessary in order to be built on that foundation. Is this new? No, it is as old as Peter's sermon at Jerusalem—We meet on the first day of the week in the breaking of bread, and fellowship and prayers—We wear New Testament names, and are bound only by the word of the Lord. You could not to save your life name anything new in our teaching or practice. If you can stand up and name it, and I pro­mise you to try and induce my brethren to discard it. For new things in religion are not true things, and true things are not new—They must be at least nearly 1000 years old to be Christianity. If a company of Jews would settle in this town and build a synagogue, and on the Sab­bath day, meet and worship God according to the book of Leviticus, what would you call them? A new religious so­ciety? You would not, but you would say that Judaism is being restored in our midst. And when a number of people here meet upon the first day of the week and worship as the first Christians did, in New Testament simplicity, observing the ordinances as delivered by our Lord, what should you say? That a people here are trying to repro­duce, to restore the church which Jesus built. How near they come to doing it, God knows, and you should judge.

Many years ago a young mechanic by the name of White left Germany for Canada. He had been a member of the Lutheran Church but had become sceptical. He told me that he had decided to give the New Testament a careful reading, before he would avow infidelity—Thinking that if there was a true Church he could find it described in the Sacred Text—He said by reading the word, he formed in his mind, a mental picture of the New Testament Church; but when be looked about him, be could find no counter­part to the picture—He found work not far from Toronto, and the first Lord's Day, asked if there was a church nearby—He was told that there was no church service that day, but would be the following "Sabbath". Then his in­formant said: By the way there are a people who worship every Sunday in a private house about two miles out in the country. Mr. White said to himself, this may be the Church, that I have been looking for; for I read in the New Testament that the first church met in a private house. He found his way to this simple assembly. He saw a table spread with the emblems of a Saviour's suffer­ing and death. He watched that household of faith in
the breaking of bread, in the fellowship and prayers. And he said to himself; here is my picture. This little congre­gation is worshipping like the first Church. Then one of the elders, a plain but pious farmer read a portion of the Gospel narrative, and in a simple, direct manner told the the sweet story of how Jesus came into the world to save sinners. That he stormed the citadel of the human heart by his matchless life and unselfish love. Young White said, "I was a proud young man, but I could not keep the tears from running clown my cheeks". When an invita­tion was given to confess faith in Jesus, as Lord and Christ, our friend said it was the first invitation he ever heard. He went forward and made the good confession— When asked when he wished to be baptized, he replied NOW. For I read in the New Testament that they went the same hour of the night. He rejoiced in finding a New Testament Church. This young man became an Elder, and a power for God in the Church which Jesus the Christ built. And now a word in conclusion—I believe with­out a doubt that the Church of Christ can be, and has been restored—All that is necessary, is that men and women honestly walk by the same rule: The Apostolic rule, and all speak the same thing; speak as the oracles of God. Measure everything by the divine measuring rod, the word of God—If a company of us, would take a trip into the great growing Northwestern country, and in passing through some little town, we would especially admire the depot, the beauty of its architectural design, its material, its finish—supposing that on our return, we read in some Western paper, that the station house we admired so much was destroyed by fire, that it was razed to its foundation. And then if some years later we would make the same trip again—We would naturally think, when coming near that town, of the depot which took our fancy, and which we read was destroyed. As the train would slow down, we would look out, and exclaim, why here is the same beautiful building! That newspaper report could not have been true. As we step on the platform, we say to the Station Agent: We read that your beautiful Depot was burned a few years ago. He replies, Quite true. We say impossible, we can identify the building. We saw it four years ago. He informs us, that it was burned three years ago. We say how can this be? It appears to us as the same building—same architecture, same material. Well, the Agent replies: When the building was burned, the company sent down the original plans—and a new con­tractor, and workmen, who had never seen the first depot, built this one, according to the old plans—I rejoice to find in the South land, as we have in the North—earnest men and women working by the old plans—Doing God's work as it is written: On the night before the battle of Waterloo; the officers under the Duke of Wellington, asked him, what was his plan of battle for the morrow—So that in the event, that he might be disabled, they would carry out his plan.—The Iron Duke said, "My plan for the battle is to stand where we are, and die to the last man." He won—That plan will always win—Let us, beloved, stand like a wall of fire for the Gospel, as the Lord gave it. and as his apostles preached it; and for the Church of Christ, in its purity and simplicity as revealed in the New Testa­ment and faithfully give our lives in restoring it, and in the coming crowning day—We shall stand on the winning side.