Turn with me, if you would now,
to Matthew 28. Matthew 28, our text for this
message will be verse 18. Let's begin reading in verse
16. Then the 11 disciples went away
into Galilee into a mountain where Jesus had appointed them.
And when they saw him, they worshiped him, but some doubted. And Jesus came and spake unto
them saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. That's called good news. That's
called the gospel. That is glad tidings of great
joy. That's going to be our text for
this message. Jesus came and spake unto them
saying all power is given unto me in heaven and in earth." If
we just break that down for a second, what a glorious declaration that
is. He said all power, not some power,
not most of the power. He said, all power. He does not
share His power with anybody. In Matthew 11, 27, He said, all
things are delivered unto Me. In 1 Corinthians 15 and in Ephesians
1, it says, the Father hath put all things under His feet. Everything. And it's because
Ephesians one says he works all things after the council of his
own will. Philippians two says every knee
is going to bow to him. Elect non-elect believer, unbeliever. Every knee is going to bow to
him in heaven, in earth, and even under the earth. Every knee. He owns, he conquers, he does,
he reigns over everything. Everything. All power. is given. I love that. Willingly by the Father. We love
the Lord Jesus Christ so much. We love the Godhead. We thank
God for our Heavenly Father and the Holy Spirit of Christ that
has been given to us and lives in us. But all the focus of the
Godhead is pointing to Jesus Christ. And the Godhead with us points
to Jesus Christ. The father said, I want the son
to have it willingly, happily by the father. It's the father's
desire that everything that can be given be given to the son. All glory, all honor, all praise. He said, if you want to honor
me, honor the son. He that honoreth the Son honoreth
the Father, because that's the Father's desire and good pleasure. Verse 18 says, Jesus came and
spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven
and in earth. It is so easy for us to envision
the Lord Jesus Christ being absolutely sovereignly in control of every
single thing that happens in heaven. Can you envision that? Jesus Christ being completely
sovereignly in control of everything that happens in heaven. Why is it so difficult? Why is
it so difficult for us to envision the Lord Jesus Christ being absolutely
sovereignly in control of every single thing that happens in
the earth? Surely not that. Yes, that too. Everything. Why is it that man easily believes
that Christ has the ability to control and reign over all of
these great spiritual beings, mighty angels? You know, we've
looked at angels before and the power and the might of these
great soldiers, the ability they have. Cherubims and seraphim,
I don't even know what they are, but they're great. But sinful man does not naturally
believe that Christ has the ability to control and reign over simple,
little, nothing, dust, ashes to ashes man. As a matter of fact, sinful man
naturally believes that he has the ability to control, you know, whatever the plan is. He believes he has the ability
to mess it up, or to interfere with it, or to allow it, or to
not allow it, or to nurture it, or to destroy it. Where does that put the power? Mankind naturally thinks that
the God-made adversary, and he is not a subject I even like
talking about it, but we need to talk about where all power
is. Man believes that the God-made adversary is more powerful than
the God who made the adversary. He is a God-created being. Just like the rest of us, he
has to answer to his creator. He began as an angel, just like
all the other angels, but the moment he said, I have a free
will, do you know that's how the whole thing started? That's
how the whole thing started. He said, I am a free moral agent. That was the doctrine of the
devil. That is the doctrine of devils. You hear the scripture talk about
the doctrines of devils. That literally, actually is it. He said to God, I have a free
will. And the moment he said that, God cast him out of heaven as
a bolt of lightning to this earth. And this is where he has remained
ever since. He's in bondage, he's confined,
he's imprisoned by the power of God Almighty to this earth.
And he has to answer to his creator like everybody else does. He
has to get permission first from the one who holds all power before
he can do anything. Sinful man ignorantly ascribes
all of this free will power to man and to him, but we don't have any. And he
doesn't have any except for what the Almighty allows for him to
have. He can only do what his all-powerful Creator allows him
to do. People say, and you will hear
this, people say, well, the devil's doing this and the devil's doing
that. If he is, the sovereign Almighty allowed him to do that. Whatever he does is only at the
will and permission of the all-powerful One. You say, prove that. All
right, turn with me to Job chapter 1. Job chapter 1. Job 1 verse 1, it says, there
was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job and that man was
perfect and upright. He was mature and righteous and
one that feared God and eschewed evil. And what that means is
he was in Christ. If a man or woman is those things,
it's because they are in the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 2. And
there were born unto him seven sons and three daughters. His
substance also was 7,000 sheep, and 3,000 camels, and 500 yoke
of oxen, and 500 she-asses, and a very great household, so that
this man was the greatest of all the men of the east. And
his sons went and feasted in their houses every one his day,
and sent and called for their three sisters to eat and drink
with them, and it was so when the days of their feasting were
gone about that Job sent and sanctified them and rose up early
in the morning and offered burnt offerings according to the number
of them all. For Job said, it may be that
my sons have sinned and cursed God in their hearts. Thus did
Job continually." Now verse six says, There was a day when the
sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan came
also among them. And the Lord said unto Satan,
Whence comest thou? Then Satan answered the Lord
and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking
up and down in it. And the Lord said unto Satan,
Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there's none like him
in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth
God and escheweth evil? Then Satan answered the Lord
and said, Doth Job fear God for naught? Hast not thou made an
hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that he
hath on every side? Thou hast blessed the work of
his hands, and his substance is increased in the land." What
he's saying is, I can't touch him. You've put a hedge around
him and I can't touch him. Verse 11, but put forth thine
hand now. Do you see where he's saying,
to the Lord, you put forth your hand. This is going to have to
come from your hand. But put forth thine hand now
and touch all that he hath and he will curse thee to thy face.
And the Lord said unto Satan, behold, all that he hath is in
thy And if you have a center margin, you see that that word
power means hand. It's in your hand. Only upon
himself, but not forth thine hand. So Satan went forth from
the presence of the Lord. And as we know, he took away
everything Job had. But he couldn't do that until
he was given permission from the Almighty to do that. Look
right here at chapter two, verse one. Again, there was a day when
the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord. And
Satan came also among them to present himself before the Lord.
And the Lord said unto Satan, from whence cometh thou? And
Satan answered the Lord and said, from going to and fro in the
earth and from walking up and down in it. And the Lord said
unto Satan, hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is
none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that
feareth God and escheweth evil? And still he holdeth fast his
integrity, although thou movest me against him to destroy him
without cause. And Satan answered the Lord and
said, skin for skin, yea, all that a man hath will he give
for his life. But put forth thine hand now
and touch his bone and his flesh. And he will curse thee to thy
face. And the Lord said unto Satan, behold, he is in thine
hand, but save his life. The Lord said, you can touch
him, but you can't kill him. The almighty sovereign has his
hand on what anyone can or cannot do. That brings great comfort
to me. That's a word of great comfort.
It's still that way right now to this very day. Just listen
to these verses concerning Christ in Colossians 1. It says, By
Him were all things created that are in heaven and that are in
earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions
or principalities or powers, all things were created by Him
and for Him. And He is before all things,
and by Him all things consist. Hebrews 1 says, He is upholding
everything by the word of His power. And He is the head of
the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn
from the dead, that in all things He might have the preeminence.
And He does. He holds all the power. Our Lord
said to his disciples, and he said to us, he was telling them,
before I ascend back to my father, before you watch me rise back
up into heaven itself, let me give you these words of comfort. My peace, I'm going to leave
with you, okay? You're going to have peace in
knowing this. All power is given unto me in
heaven and earth. All power, power over everything. All of the power that there is
to have. All of it has been given to Jesus Christ. Now it would
take a long time to individually name everything that our Lord
has been given power over. Because that would be everything
that exists in existence. So for the sake of this message,
I'm going to give you five. I'm just going to fairly quickly,
just one by one, I just want to tell you and acknowledge five
things that the Lord Jesus Christ has power over. And our Lord
told the Sadducees one time, he said, you do err not knowing
the scripture nor the power of God. So it's of great importance
that we understand something of his power. Psalm 6 verse 11
says, God hath spoken once, twice have I heard this, that power
belongs unto God. So let's see that in these five
truths, okay? Number one, turn with me to John
17. John 17, verse 1. These words spake Jesus and lifted
up his eyes to heaven and said, Father, the hour is come. Glorify thy son, that thy son
also may glorify thee, as thou hast given him power over all
flesh. Power over all flesh. Every man
and woman that exists on this earth, Christ has power over
him or her. Every servant, we've already
established that, but I just want to go a little bit deeper
by pointing out that every servant, every king, or as we say, president,
every law-abiding citizen, every cartel, every sane man, every madman. The heart of every single human
being on this earth is in the hand of the Lord and he turns
it however he wants to. He turns it however he wants
to. I know that's hard to understand. I do. Believe me, I do. We say, you know, if that's the
case, then why does he allow all flesh to do the wickedness
that all flesh does? All of these horrible, heinous
things that happen. Why would he allow them to happen?
I don't know. I don't know. But He does know. He does. He wisely knows why. He said that everything He allowed
to happen would end in His glory and His people's good. He proved that to us through
many men in the Scripture, like Pharaoh. I mean, we could go
through many, many men who just did horrible... Pharaoh did horrible
things to God's people. Look at what they did to Jesus
Christ. Why would God allow that? His
glory and the good of His people. Why did He allow Pharaoh to do
for 430 years everything that they did to His people? Well,
it was for His glory and the good of His people. The Lord
told Pharaoh, I raised you up. I'm the one who raised you up
and put you there. and allowed you to do that, to
show my power in you, to show that everything you meant for
evil, I meant it for good. And the Lord proved that to his
people in the end. So for our comfort, honestly, let's know this. He has power
over all flesh. I know it appears so chaotic
down here in earth. I know it feels like you can't
trust anybody anymore. There was a time in life when
you could leave your stuff out unlocked. But he has power over all flesh.
He controls every man and woman on this earth. All right, now
for our warning, let's all know this. I sincerely, sincerely
would like for everyone to know this. For a warning, let's know
this. Turn to Luke 12. Luke 12 verse 1, in the meantime,
when there were gathered together an innumerable multitude of people,
insomuch that they trod one upon another, he began to say unto
his disciples, first of all, be ye, beware ye of the leaven
of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy, for there is nothing covered
that shall not be revealed, neither hid that shall not be known.
Therefore whatsoever you have spoken in darkness shall be heard
in the light, and that which you have spoken in the ear and
closet shall be proclaimed upon the housetops. And I say unto
you, my friends, be not afraid of them that killed the body,
and after that have no more that they can do. But I will forewarn
you whom you shall fear. Fear him which after he hath
killed hath power to cast into hell. Yea, I say unto you, fear
him. For our warning, let's be very
aware of the fact that he has the power to cast into hell.
We need to be very aware of that. The problem for all flesh is
men and women do not really believe that he has the ability or the
will the desire to cast anybody into hell. Most people really
don't even believe that there is a hell. All you have to do
to prove that is go to a funeral. Nobody goes there. And they sure
don't believe that Jesus Christ puts anybody in it. But he does,
and he's going to. In Revelation 1, he said, I hold
the keys to hell and death. And in Revelation 20, the apostle
John said, I saw it. I saw the throne. I saw him who
sat on the throne, Christ. And he said, I saw the spiritually
dead stand before him and the judgment and all the books were
opened. Every sin that they'd ever committed
in life. And every soul that wasn't found
written in the Lamb's book of life was cast into the lake of
fire. Honestly, for a true warning.
Honestly. I know we all think, well, everybody's
good. You know, we're in these four
walls. We're good. Everybody's not good. Honestly. For a true warning,
let's fear this God. He has the power to cast every
sinful soul on this earth into hell itself. But, thank God,
but for our hope, if we are given fear, if we are given God-given
fear, For our hope of mercy, for our hope of grace from Him,
our hope of redemption and salvation and eternal life, let's acknowledge
this power of His. Go with me to Mark chapter 2. Mark 2 verse 1, it says, And
again he entered into Capernaum after some days, and it was noise
that he was in the house. In straightway many were gathered
together, insomuch that there was no room to receive them,
no, not so much as about the door. And he preached the word
unto them, and that blesses my heart. That's what he preached
to them, the word of God. And they come unto him, bringing
one sick of the palsy, which was born of four, And when they
could not come nigh unto him for the press, they couldn't
get in the door of this house, it was so full of people, they
climbed up on top of the roof, they uncovered the roof where
he was, and when they had broken it up, they let down the bed
wherein the sick of the palsy lay. When Jesus saw their faith,
he said unto the sick of the palsy, son, thy sins be forgiven
thee. But there were certain of the
scribes sitting there and reasoning in their hearts, why doth this
man Thus speak blasphemies, who can forgive sins but God only?
And immediately when Jesus perceived in his spirit that they so reasoned
within themselves, he said unto them, why reason ye these things
in your hearts? Whether is easier to say to the
sick of the palsy, thy sins be forgiven thee, or to say arise,
take up thy bed and walk. But that you may know that the
Son of Man hath power on earth to forgive sins. He saith to the sick of the palsy,
I say unto thee, arise and take up thy bed, and go thy way into
thine house. And immediately he arose, took
up the bed, and went forth before them all, insomuch that they
were all amazed, and glorified God, saying, we never saw it
on this fashion. For our hope, our hope of glory,
let's rest in the fact that our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ
has the power to forgive our sins. You have sins and so do
I. And we need forgiveness. And
he has the power to forgive them. Where is this power? Where is
this forgiveness? It's in the blood. There is power, power, wonder-working
power in the blood of the Lamb. In the precious blood of the
Lamb. The blood that He shed in giving His own life for His
people on the cross of Calvary. He said, I have the power to
lay down my own life. No man takes it from me. I have
the power to lay it down and I have the power to take it again. And that's what he did. He gave
his life as a sacrifice to God to provide forgiveness for his
people. And all who come to see this
power of forgiveness through his death, they will beg him
for it. Lord, I need this forgiveness.
They will come to him for mercy. They will come to him begging
to be covered under the blood of his forgiving mercy. And here's
the reason why. Here's the reason why they will
do this. Turn with me to Psalm 110. Psalm 110 verse one, it says,
The Lord said unto my Lord, sit thou at my right hand until I
make thine enemies thy footstool. The Lord shall send the rod of
thy strength out of Zion, rule thou in the midst of thine enemies.
Verse three says, thy people shall be willing in the day of
thy power. In the beauty of holiness from
the womb of the morning thou hast the dew of youth. He has
the power to call every redeemed sinner that he saved in the shedding
of his own blood to himself. He holds that power. He has the power to draw them. He has the power to make them
want to come to him. Those who once were his enemies,
they now desire to be his footstool. All they want to do is sit at
his feet. That's power. He has power over
all flesh. He has power to cast into hell. But he has the power to forgive
sins. He has the power to make his people willing to come to
him, come to him alone. And one more, okay, last one.
Go to the book of Jude. Jude, one chapter. Verse 24. now unto him that is able, to
keep you from falling and to present you faultless before
the presence of his glory with exceeding joy. To the only wise
God, our Savior, be glory and majesty, dominion and power. both now and ever, amen. Thank God he has the power to
keep us from falling and to present us faultless before the presence
of his glory with exceeding joy. I want to be faultless so badly. I want to be without sin so badly.
I want to be spotless. Well, he has the power to present
us before the presence of his glory that way with exceeding
joy. That's power. That's good news.
All power has been given unto him in heaven and in earth, in
you, in me, in life, in death, in everything that will ever
be now and forevermore. Verse 25 says, To the only wise
God our Savior, be glory and majesty, dominion and power,
both now and ever. Amen.