(MATTHEW XVI. 18.)
(Continued from page 6.)
THE subject of our remarks is one of the most majestic of Christ’s utterances during the days of His flesh. He speaks in the full consciousness of His divine Sonship and equality with the Father, when He makes the impressive declaration: “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.” In last issue we called attention, first, to the Rock, and secondly, to the Church. We endeavoured to show that the Rock was not Peter, but the Son of God Himself whom Peter confessed, and pointed out that the Son in His divine person and covenant offices was the mediatorial foundation on which the elect Church was to be built, while the truth concerning the same adorable Redeemer was the declarative foundation on which the visible Church was to be similarly placed. In regard to the composition of the “Church,” we indicated that, according to the Scriptures, it consisted of members of Adam’s fallen race who were, first, in God’s eternal purpose the “called out” from a world lying in wickedness, and who were afterwards so dealt with in the days of time. As the objects of divine election, they are generally described as the invisible Church, while as manifested in the world by effectual calling and a profession according to the Gospel, they are known as the visible Church. At the same time, we observed that the Lord Himself constantly recognised the fact that some might be members of the visible Church in profession of the truth who were not so in vital possession. A solemn circumstance indeed, that is fitted to stir every sincere soul to self-examination and diligence in making his or her calling and election sure! We now pass on to notice our next head.
III.—The Builder: “Upon this rock I will build my Church.“
The Lord Jesus, who is the Church’s foundation, from one point of view, is its builder from another.
1. Let us observe that the language used sets forth the Church under the aspect of a house or temple, to be erected as the Lord’s spiritual dwelling-place, where He is to be worshipped and served.
This is a beautiful figure of the Church which is frequently employed in the Scriptures. The Apostle Paul speaks of the saints as “the household of God,” a “building fitly framed together,” growing unto “a holy temple in the Lord,” and “an habitation of God through the Spirit” (Ephes. ii. 19-22); and the Apostle Peter describes them as “lively stones, built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ” (1 Peter ii. 5).
2. The Lord Jesus speaks of Himself as the Builder of His spiritual house, the Church.
He is so in His capacity as mediator between God and men. While it is true that the Holy Ghost is the divine source of power in the application of redemption, it is equally true that He exercises His power as the agent of the Godhead under the covenant of grace. All saving operations upon men’s souls are of the Father, and through the Son, as well as by the Holy Ghost. The Son of God, as the righteous mediator between the Most High and sinners of our race, administers by the Father’s appointment all the blessings of the new covenant, and so sends forth with heavenly authority the Holy Spirit in His special influences. The Son is thus the builder of the Church upon the Rock by the Spirit’s all-powerful agency. He carried on the work of building in this way during the days of His humiliation, and does so still in His glorious estate of exaltation. “Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins” (Acts v. 31).
3. Let us now observe the manner in which the Divine Builder performs His work.
And first, where does He find the stones which He purposes to place in the spiritual house? He finds them in the dark quarry of a fallen estate—buried deep in the earth of a world lying in wickedness. The saints are by nature dead in trespasses and sins, children of disobedience and wrath, even as others. “There is no difference; all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” But the Lord employs means to bring them out of this low condition, and to make them fit for their place in the Church, He sends forth the Holy Spirit as the divine agent (to whom we have already referred), who exercises His gracious power in connection with “the Word of truth,” read or preached, upon their understandings, consciences, and hearts. It is His usual method, first, to awaken them to a sense of their fallen and lost condition, and to cause them to cry for mercy, deliverance, and newness of life, making use of His law and gospel for these important ends, and then, secondly, to dispose and enable them to fall in with His way of salvation as presented in the Gospel. Thus He cleanses these “stones” from all their filthiness, infuses into them a new and heavenly life, and brings them to the sure foundation laid in Zion. The Divine Builder
lays them straight and square upon the Rock of salvation. These “living stones,” enlightened in the knowledge of the truth as it is in Jesus, are deeply sensible, in every fibre of their being, that, if they had been left to their own resources, they would have utterly perished in their sins, and that they are eternal debtors to the free grace and omnipotent power of God by Jesus Christ for their having been raised out of inexpressible depths of sin and misery and laid upon the Rock—Christ. They ascribe the glory to Him who sitteth on the throne. Such is the manner in which the Son of God builds His living Church upon the immutable foundation.
4. As to the visible Church, the Lord Jesus, in the course of His operations, does bring some persons within its walls, who have a certain place in the building which is not vital in its nature.
The families of true believers have such a place, and so have nominal professors and their families. Some of these classes may, by the grace of God, be made “living stones” in the spiritual temple before the Lord’s work is completed, but the remainder will be cast out at last, like the foolish virgins and the tares of the field as related in the parables.
5. Let it be here noted in conclusion on this point, that none have any right to conclude that they have been savingly placed in the Church, invisible or visible, who do not adhere to the truth concerning the Lord Jesus in His person and atonement.
Many, now-a-days, think that they have a perfect title to be considered true Christians though they have no real faith in the Godhead or Atonement of Christ. Such are under a manifest delusion. They are not resting upon the Rock of Ages, and so are outside the Church of Christ. Salvation is far from such self-satisfied unbelievers.
IV.—Our fourth and last point is the Church’s Safety: “And the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”
The Church is assailed by many powerful enemies, but they shall not succeed in accomplishing its destruction.
1. What does Christ particularly mean by “the gates of hell?”
He evidently means Satan and his forces. Hell appears to be here represented as a city possessing gates. In ancient times, among the Jews and perhaps elsewhere, the chief men and magistrates of a town were accustomed to sit, for purposes of deliberation, in the gates. There they decided cases of dispute, and there they took counsel with a view to advance the city’s interests. “The gates” were thus the seat of the wisdom and power of the city. The figure in the present case is obvious. Satan is the chief ruler in the dark city of hell, at whose gates he and his confederates sit in evil counsel, and from which they come forth to execute their subtle designs. The Saviour, therefore, employs this graphic and awe-inspiring expression, “the gates of hell,” to describe the prince of darkness and his agents in all their subtlety and power. Satan is the chief enemy of Christ and His Church. He rules in the hearts of the children of disobedience, and is “the god of this world,” the god whom the world worships and obeys. He also still possesses some place in the souls of God’s people. Sin, though cast down is not cast wholly out, and he exerts his influence to stir up “the old man,” who is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts. The devil may be said therefore to exert his power against Christ’s Church, either directly on the minds of its professing members, or mediately through the action of others who are its open enemies. He has no doubt made much use in the history of the world of open enemies, such as Paganism and Mohammedanism, to resist the progress of the Church; but he has been most aggressive and successful against its interests through the instrumentality of professed friends. The activities and successes of the Papal legions is an outstanding illustration of this on a large scale. They profess to be the friends of Christ, and are all the while fighting against His true Church. The great adversary also has not failed in setting up encampments within the pale of professed Protestantism. He has influenced the minds of many, who profess to respect the Bible as the supreme standard of faith and practice, to depart from its clearly-expressed doctrines, and to maintain opinions, either out of harmony with these doctrines or entirely contrary to them. Sometimes he has also caused unnecessary divisions among those who were standing for the truth of God in its purity. The gates of hell have advanced against Christ’s Church along many channels, error in doctrine, disorder in practice, individual corruption and such like. Not seldom the adversary as a man of war, robes himself in the bright garments of an angel of light, and so deceiving the unwary to their hurt, inflicts injuries on Christ and His Church. He even entered into the Apostle Peter shortly after the Lord uttered the words of our text, and Christ had to say to Peter, “Get thee behind me, Satan; thou art an offence to me; for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but the things that be of men” (Matthew xvi. 23).
2. Let us now observe that “the gates of hell shall not prevail” at any time completely against the Church upon the Rock, but shall be ultimately driven back for ever into the bottomless pit.
Satan and his legions “shall not prevail” finally against any living member of the elect Church united to the Rock, Christ. They may indeed succeed too much at times, to the dishonour of God and the injury of the soul, but they shall not obtain a permanent victory. Every stone that Christ has laid upon the sure foundation and given a place in the spiritual temple shall be eternally saved, in spite of all the powers of darkness. “I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish” (John x. 28). Satan and his forces shall not succeed in overthrowing utterly the Church of Christ in the world. The Lord has made provision for the maintenance of His cause to the end of time. When many of His people are transferred to the better country, He will still have a remnant upon earth, according to the election of grace, who shall bear witness for His truth. “They shall fear Him while sun and moon endure.” The powers of darkness shall not “prevail against” any branch of the visible Church while it stands upon the Rock of Christ’s truth. Mere professors may be swept off the foundation of a sound creed, if they yield to the enemy’s suggestions, but this does not essentially weaken the living and faithful Church. It is, lastly, clear from the Scriptures that the Church upon the Rock shall yet, by divine grace, prevail against the gates of hell. There is a day coming, even in this world, when the Church, “fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners,” shall triumph over its enemies, and shall extend its borders to the uttermost ends of the earth. The whole earth will be filled with the knowledge and glory of the Lord (Psalm lxxii). After this lengthened period of triumph and prosperity, the Church will enter upon a short period of decay and weakness, and then the end shall come. Christ shall appear in the glory of His Father, with the holy angels, and shall sit upon the throne of His glory, and at last shall be declared the eternal victory of the whole elect, redeemed, regenerated, and witnessing Church over sin and Satan and all the hosts of hell (Matt. xxv. and Rev. xx.).