15He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am? 16And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. 17And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Bar–jona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. 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.
Peter was given to understand by the Holy Spirit who Christ was, the Son of God.
It is Upon this rock, the truth of who He was, the very Son of God, that the church is built.
And the gates of Hell shall not prevail.
Therein is the rub.
The gates of Hell we gird against, the evils of the devil we are careful to watch against. We will not fall readily to these assaults.
The church is not the building, the habitats we use for worship, the church is the believer.
Christ said where one or two are gathered that He would be there. He didn't say gather in the synagogue or temple and He would meet us.
The church will not give in to frontal assaults, we are on the lookout for those, but here in America the church is falling from within.
Sin has crept in unawares, and it is defeating the Church.
The message, the doctrine, the ageless truths are being set aside for a more easy going. accept all, have no rules, no boundaries religion. Every man is doing that which is right in his own eyes.
If you study the bible just after you see the phrase "and every man did that which was right in his own eyes", you see God's judgment forthcoming.
We have placed idols in front of us, we still go to church but we do not worship the true, righteous, Holy God Jehovah.
We have made it a place of convenience and socializing. Not a place of repentance, not a place of soul searching, thought provoking, get right with God.
We have a church where we believers get together, we sing, we "pray", we listen to the sermon and then we move on and generally not a second thought till the same time next week.
Where is the church? The body of believers that get together, pray for hours at a time for the pouring out of God's Spirit upon us, upon the preachers and teachers, upon this nation?
If we recognize Christ as the very Son of God, then we must recognize the Holiness and purity of God. We must recognize that God is Light and in Him is no darkness, no turning. He is Holy and unmoving. Therefore what was sin, is still sin. Therefore the timeless ageless truth is still truth!
Christ died that we might be saved. That we might be His ambassadors here on earth. A shining light in the darkness.
Not a dimmer switch that turns the light down so we are just barely more light than the dark of the world.
If you truly see Christ as the Son of God, and believe on Him, then you are a part of the church built on the Rock of that truth. The timeless unchanging truth.
The scriptures have given us the way, they have laid out the rules, the boundaries, the doctrine.
Read it.
Follow it.
This is the only way to keep the church healthy and whole. Get the sin out, the watered down doctrine out, the "feel good be good", the "prosperity theology" out. Get back to pure and holy. Get back to the basics, the rock is Christ. He is truth and light.
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