"Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God!"

The preaching of the Word by a man of God is so wonderfully precious. I am truly blessed to be in a local church where the Word is solidly proclaimed by a pastor who is sold out completely for the Lord!

Today's sermon was so splendidly convicting. The passage Pastor Dave preached from was Matthew 16:13-17.

The whole sermon was excellent, but when he got to verse 16, when Simon Peter confesses, "Thou art the Christ the Son of the Living God," he had so many wonderful things to say. I can't remember them all...thankfully, we got a copy of the CD of the sermon! The reality of Peter's confession, that Jesus IS THE Christ, the Son of the Living God should compel those of us who believe to absolutely radical obedience, to a life completely sold out for Him. And the reality of it is...if that fact has NOT compelled a person to bring forth fruit that is suitable for repentance (Mathew 3:8), then they simply have not grasped the reality of Christ as Lord...and if He is not a person's Lord, He is not their Savior, either.

I thank the Lord for revealing the Truth to me. As Christ said to Peter, "Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven." (Matthew 16:17) A person can have a head knowledge of the gospel, and can even appear to follow Christ for a time (until trials come, and they prove they are not in the faith), but unless the Spirit of God reveals the truth (which won't usually happen without the faithful preaching of the Word) to a person and awakens their Spirit, they simply won't "get it," as Simon Peter did.

Also in the passage is the verse where Christ says "on this rock will I build my church," which the Roman "church," uses to support their faulty apostolic succession deal with the pope. The problem is, they are simply wrong. Their whole religious system is built on a faulty interpretation. When Christ says "you are Peter" the word he uses for Peter is "petros" (in the Greek) which means 'a pebble' and when He says "on this rock will I build my church" the Greek word is "petra" which is the word for a very LARGE rock. Clearly, the rock upon which He was to build His church was not Peter, who two verses later, Christ called "Satan," but rather, on the truth of what Peter said. Christ, the Lord, is the rock on which the church is built! Pastor Dave gave us a few other points to use in refuting this false roman doctrine:

• No where else in scripture is Peter called a rock
• He is a worthless foundation (Matthew 16:22)
• The early church simply was not built on Peter
• Never once was a successor of Peter mentioned in the Bible
• The entire New Testament teaches that Jesus Christ is the Rock (1 Corinthians 3:11; Matthew 16:16~the confession of Peter is Jesus Christ, the Rock He refers to in the following verse)

So, needless to say...church was splendid today. The preaching was wonderfully convicting, and the fellowship was sweet. Praise God!

Hope you all had a wonderful, worship-ful, preaching-ful LORD'S Day!

><> Mary Jo <><>