Brethren, let's turn in our Bibles
to Matthew chapter 28. Before we get started, let's
go to the Lord. Our great God and Father, we
thank You for this day. We thank You for this time. We
thank You for Your Word. We thank You, Father, that You've
put us in a country where we can worship You without fear,
where we can assemble together publicly. Let us never take this
great, great privilege for granted. Cause us to do so in the full
assurance, Father, that Your dear Son has power to keep us. It's in His precious name we
ask these things. Amen. In Matthew 28 and verse 18, this
is after the Lord had gone to the cross and He had come to His people and was telling
them to go and to preach the gospel. And He said in verse
18, it says, Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power
is given unto Me in heaven and in earth. all power. Go ye therefore and teach all
nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the
Son and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever
I have commanded you. And lo, I am with you always. even unto the end of the world
or to the end of this age, this gospel age. Amen. Now we live in a very dangerous
world. We live in a world that is a
very strange place and getting stranger by the day. It's dangerous for a believer,
very dangerous. Every day this world is becoming
more hostile toward Christ and more hostile toward believers.
Every day. Now, we're sent, we who've been
called by God's grace, we're sent to speak in the name of
Christ, to speak on His behalf, to be witnesses of Christ. And
as we do, the flesh does not like it at all. Whether it be
an unbeliever, the natural man is, he hates God already and
to tell him the truth about God and about what he is just inflames
that hatred. And then for a believer, in our
flesh, when God speaks to us and rebukes us, our flesh doesn't
like being told what to do. And so, if you're the one God's
using to speak, whether you're a preacher or you're his witnesses
speaking to somebody that you know or speaking to one another.
If you're the one speaking and the flesh is offended, the messenger
will be the one to be shot first. That's just how it is. That's
just how it is. That's why Christ tells us here
between this world and the flesh and Satan and all our enemies
that surround us. That's why Christ tells us in
this passage, all power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.
And he says, go ye therefore and teach all nations. See how
he connects his power in heaven and earth with us going to preach.
He says, now all power is mine in heaven and earth. Therefore,
you can go forth and preach. You can go forth and speak in
my name and not be afraid. One, it takes the power of the
Lord to get the gospel and His child in the same place. It takes
the power of Christ to get the gospel and His child together
in the same place. But He has all power in heaven
and earth to do that. There's not a certain man in
the scriptures that Christ did not bring himself to them when
he walked this earth. Everywhere there was a certain
man, one of his elect, he went there because he had to go there,
and he spoke to them, and he called them out. He's doing the
same thing now. He set the appointment before
the foundation of the world when he would cross their path with
the gospel, and he has no trouble keeping that appointment that
he set. None whatsoever. Two, It takes the power of the
Lord Jesus to make the word effectual in the hearts of those that he
would have to hear it. No man can do that. No power
is of the creature at all. Period. Not in the one's hearing
and not in the one doing the preaching. So, he has to be the
one with the power to make his word effectual. And then, number
three, it takes the power of the Lord Jesus to protect each
one of us once he has called us. He says He will. That's what He says. Verse 20.
He says, Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of this age. To the end of the world. Always. What does that mean? Have you
ever looked at that word and thought, what does this mean,
always? What does it mean? I looked up the Greek word. This is how Strong's defines
it. Always, any manner, Every way,
the whole way, all manner of ways, all means, daily, as many
ways as, thoroughly, whatsoever way. That means all ways. All ways. Believer, as long as
you walk this earth, Christ Jesus will be with you all ways. First of all, we have a lot of
powers in this world that are above us. A lot of kings and
princes and powers and principalities and rulers of the darkness, seen
and unseen, that we have no ability to go up against whatsoever.
And what is amazing to me is, you'll be turning with, if you
will, to Ephesians 4. Ephesians 4. What is amazing to me is how,
in this present day, This kind of goes along with our second
message. We'll be talking about a form
of godliness. Isn't it amazing to you how that
homosexuals want to be married? Marriage is an institution ordained
by God. It's an institution ordained
by God. And to want to do something contrary to what God ordained
the same sex, joining with the same sex, and yet want to do
it under this ordained union that God has made, is to
want to have a form, to want the state to say it's legal.
But just because the state says it's legal doesn't mean God says
it's legal. God doesn't say it's legal. But
you see how the world right now, powers and principalities, politicians
just want to know where they can get the most votes. So you
have somebody that says, I'll marry anybody that wants to be
married. You want to marry your dog? I'll
marry your dog if you vote for me. They just won't vote. So there's
all this evil in the world. But how are we going to be protected
from that, from all this power that's above us? Look at verse
10, Hebrews 4.10. He that ascended is the same
also that ascended up far above all heavens. See, what if some
power should have power over me from above? Well, Christ is
above all. He's above all. He says, I'll
be with you. He's above me. He's above me. He's above you. He's above them.
Every creature that might harm us here below, Christ is above
them. In Ephesians 121 it said Christ
was raised far above all principality. That means He's the chief principality
above all principalities. He's above all power. That means
He is the power above all power. He is above all might. That means He's the chief might
over all might. He's over all dominion. That
means He's the dominion over all dominion. He is the name
above every name. That means His power and honor
and glory goes before anybody else's in the world. That's who
our Savior is. That is in this world and the
world to come. And so, He tells us there that
He's put all things under His feet. In Ephesians 1, He says
He's put all things under His feet and gave Him to be the head
over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness
of Him that filleth all in all. That means you and I are members
of His church. You who have been called by Him,
we're members of His church, we're members of His body, we're
the fullness of Him. So He has authority to fill all
in all. And that means He shall. That
means He shall not fail. That means not one member will
be missing. So now you put these two truths
together. Here you have Christ with all
power over all other powers. And here you have Christ's people
who is His body, the fullness of Him. That means He's going
to use that power to fill His body with each of His children
and nobody's going to be able to stop Him. Though everybody's
above us, they're not above Him. And so they cannot stop Him.
So He's with us as far as being above all. Alright, then turn
over to John 15. John 15. I have another concern. This
is my next concern. My flesh. My flesh is a concern
of mine. I'm so sinful. What if my flesh
overcomes me and I fall away? Well, secondly, Christ is within
me. He's within you who believe.
Look at John 15.4. Abide in me, this is Christ speaking,
and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit
of itself except it abide in the vine, no more can you except
you abide in me. You see there in verse 4, he
says, Abide in me and I in you. Over in Colossians 127, it says
Christ in you is the hope of glory. What gives us a good hope
that we're going to come into glory? Christ in you. Christ
in your person and Christ in our midst, working in our midst.
In my flesh dwells no good thing. In your flesh dwells no good
thing. Every sinner as we're born in
Adam, that's our flesh, that which we got from Adam. And it
means our nature. It means our sinfulness. And
in our flesh dwells nothing good. But every sinner, thankfully,
that is called of God, Christ dwells in you. Now, Christ is
not of my flesh. Christ is not in my flesh. And
Christ is not in our new man. I mean, Christ is in our new
man. And Christ is in us in spirit. Now look at Galatians 5.16. Galatians
5.16. Paul says, This I say then, walk
in the Spirit. Give your undivided attention
to the Spirit. Give your attention to spiritual
things, to the Spirit. Walk in the Spirit and you shall
not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against
the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh, and these are contrary
the one to the other, so that you cannot do the things that
you would. Now listen to this. You can't
do the things that you would. Now my flesh never wants to do
good things. Does yours? My flesh never wants
to do one thing good. And so, this must mean that my
flesh cannot do the evil things that it would because the Spirit
of Christ dwells in me. That's the only one making the
difference. The Spirit of Christ dwells in
us. My flesh does plenty of sinning,
but it doesn't sin nearly like it wants to or nearly like it
would if Christ was not in me. But Christ is in me. In verse
16 he says, This I say then, walk in the Spirit, and you shall
not fulfill the lust of the flesh. But as an added assurance, because
we see all this sin that's in our flesh, he says in verse 18,
But if you be led of the Spirit, you're not under the law. which
means you're not going to be condemned for your sin. You're
not going to be condemned because Christ has already borne that
condemnation and put it away for His people. He's condemned
the condemnation in His own flesh when He went to the cross. And
He gives us even more assurance in Romans 8. You don't have to
turn there, but He says, You're not in the flesh, but in the
Spirit, if so be the Spirit of God dwell in you. So, brethren,
we have no worries of ever falling away because Christ is in you. Therefore, we have a good hope
of coming to glory because the Spirit of Christ is in us. I
can tell you this truthfully, the only thing, the only thing,
when we start speaking in the name of Christ and people forsake
you or people rebel against you or people turn traitor on you
and start spreading lies about you. The only thing that would
keep a man from throwing up his hands and say I'm done with the
whole thing is the Spirit of Christ dwelling in you. That's
it. That's it. Alright, here's the
third thing. What if I should get lost along
the way? What if I get lost along the
way? He said go into all the world. The world's a big place.
What if I get lost in this way? That can never happen because
Christ goes before me. Look at Deuteronomy 31. Deuteronomy
31. We got Christ above us. We got
Christ within us. And now here in Deuteronomy,
in chapter 31, in verse 7, it tells us this. Moses called unto
Joshua, Deuteronomy 31, 7, Moses called unto Joshua and said unto
him in the sight of all Israel, Be strong and of a good courage,
for thou must go with this people unto the land which the Lord
hath sworn unto their fathers to give them, and thou shalt
cause them to inherit it. And the Lord He it is that doth
go before thee. He will be with thee. He will
not fail thee, neither forsake thee, fear not, neither be dismayed. See, He goes before us. He said,
I'll be with you always. And He will be with thee. That's
what our Savior told us. He says it here. He will be with
thee. And our Savior said, I will be with you always. He tells
us what it means here in verse 8. It means He will not fail
thee. It means He neither forsake thee.
Oh, I get so afraid of everything. I get afraid of everything. My
sin, my enemies within, my enemies without. Somebody says, I'm so
fearful though. But he says, don't be fearful.
He tells me not to be fearful. We have no reason to be afraid.
He says, fear not, neither be dismayed. You know what dismayed
means? Don't be discouraged. Don't be discouraged. Isn't it
easy to get discouraged? Easy to get discouraged? You
just don't know what's going on. All of a sudden, everybody's
here one day, and the next day, you got a handful. Don't get
discouraged. Don't fear. Don't be discouraged.
Is it temporal provision you fear? Look at Psalm 23. Look
at Psalm 23. Is it temporal things, temporal
provision that we fear? Well, look at Psalm 23 and look
at this. As we walk along this path, it
says in verse 1, the Lord is my shepherd. A shepherd goes
before you, before the sheep. I shall not want. He maketh me
to lie down in green pastures. He leadeth me. You see that?
He goes before me beside the still waters. Leads me beside
the still waters. He leads me to plenty of green
pasture where sheep can eat all we want. spiritual things, spiritual
meat, the gospel. He leads us to green pasture
where we can feed. And He is that green pasture.
And He leads us by still waters. And He is the fountain of waters.
He is that waters. Now if He's going to provide
us spiritual things, He'll lead us in all temporal provisions
as well. Is it those sins of the flesh
that you're worried about? Look down at verse 3. He restoreth
my soul. He leadeth me in the paths of
righteousness for his name's sake. I thought this was interesting.
You know over in Galatians 5 when he told us there that our flesh
would not overcome us? He said your flesh won't overcome
you because it's the spirit dwelling in you that's going to keep that
from happening. And then he turns right around in Galatians 6.1
and he says, Now brethren, if any man be overtaken in a fault,
You which are spiritual, restore such a one in the spirit of meekness,
considering yourself lest you also be overtaken. Big difference
between our flesh overtaking us and overtaking the Spirit
of Christ. There's a big difference between
our flesh getting the best of us and our flesh getting the
best of the Spirit of Christ. That can never be. But ever now
and then the Spirit of Christ allows our flesh to get the best
of us so He can teach us It's not us that's keeping us in this
path, it's the Spirit of Christ that's doing it. And every now
and then He lets our flesh overcome us to teach each other, our brethren,
how to restore one another and bear one another's burden and
do it in the spirit of meekness. He's teaching all of us involved
that He's the one doing the work in our midst. And so he tells
us here though, in Psalm 23, he says, but when I've done that,
he says, I'm going to be the one that restores your soul.
And he says, and then I'm going to lead you in the paths of righteousness
for my name's sake. You get it? You get the picture
there? He tells you, your flesh is not going to overcome you. It's not going to overcome you
because the Spirit of Christ was in you. But every now and
then, He holds back a little bit and He lets you wander out
of the path just a little bit. And you're overtaken in a fault.
He does it to teach us the one overtaken and to teach our brethren
who are to restore the one overtaken. And then when He's got through
doing it, He restores our souls. He's letting us see. He's the
one doing it. And He leads us back into the
path of righteousness. And that path's Him. He says,
now come back here and don't put your eyes on your flesh and
on your strength and on your wisdom. Get your eyes back on
Me who's leading you. You see that? So, Christ really
is with us always. Above you, within you, and ahead
of you. And then look here. Then I get
to thinking about the Amalekites. about the Amalekites. Remember
how they came up from behind and attacked the Lord's people?
They had just come out of Egypt, they were tired, they were weary,
like a newborn babe in Christ. And here they come up from behind
and they attacked them from behind. Look here in Psalm 23, verse
6. Surely, goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days
of my life, and I'll dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
Goodness is Christ Jesus. He's all my goodness. And mercy
is Christ Jesus. He's mercy personified. And Christ
Jesus follows me. He's all my goodness and all
my mercy. And He follows me all the days
of my life. We saw not long ago, the God
of Israel will be your re-reward. It means your rear ward, your
rear guard. It means He'll gather you up.
He shall feed His flock like a shepherd. Psalm 23 says He's
leading us along, and it says, And He shall gather the lambs
with His arm, and carry them in His bosom, and gently lead
those that are with Yom. You see the picture? You got
the whole flock going along, the sheep, and He's leading us.
But He's an amazing shepherd. He's not just only in front of
us leading us. But right when that sheep falls
off from the pack in the back that's weak and is struggling,
he gathers up that sheep in the rear and picks him up and gently
carries him in his bosom. And so the whole flock keep going
together. That's why whenever somebody
starts to stray, you try to encourage them, you try to encourage them
to not forsake the assembly of the saints, you try to encourage
them to hear the gospel because it's what they need. But sometimes
we get in a way to where we just can't hear what anybody says. You know how our children are
sometimes. We're telling them something that is exactly for
their good. It's the only thing that is for
their good. And they can't hear you. They
just, it don't matter. They've just so been out of shape,
they can't hear you. Well, believers get that way
too. But we have this assurance, if they're His, He's going to
gather them up. And we don't have to get bent
out of shape and dismayed and discouraged. He'll gather them
up. He's with us always. He won't allow one of us to be
snatched from His hand because He's satisfied His own justice.
Justice is satisfied. If he loses one of us, it's his
own glory that's at stake. It's his glory that's at stake.
And therefore we read in Isaiah 58, 8, 8. Listen to this. The
glory of the Lord shall be thy reward. See, His glory is at
stake if He loses one of us. And so it says, the glory of
the Lord shall be your reward. That's Christ. He's the glory
of the Lord. And His glory is at stake if
He lets us fall away. So the glory of the Lord will
come behind you and keep you up. So, we got Him above us,
we got Him within us, we got Him ahead of us, we got Him behind
us. That sounds like He'll be with me always, don't it? In
always? Anthony? Jonathan? Where they
at? Yeah, I was watching them yesterday
out there playing football. When you're on the football field,
do they sometimes hit you where you don't have pads? That's where
they try to hit you, don't they? That's where our enemies try
to hit us. They try to hit us where we don't have protection.
Well, look at Psalm 125. Psalm 125. Is there any place, anywhere
that the believer does not have protection by Christ? He said,
I'm going to be with you in all way, in every way. We have enemies
on every side, but Christ is all around us. Look at Psalm
125 too. As the mountains are round about
Jerusalem, so the Lord is round about His people from henceforth
even forever. It says, The angel of the Lord
encampeth round about them that fear him and delivereth them.
Our Lord is all the way around us. I've read about how in Africa
they'll build around all their camp, they'll build fires all
the way around their camp to keep the lion from coming into
the camp. And they build a fire in the
inside of the camp to keep that fire on the outside of the camp
burning. And in case they break through that outside, they got
a fire on the inside too. Listen to this scripture. For
I, saith the Lord, will be unto her a wall of fire round about,
and will be the glory, the fire, the glow in the midst of her.
That's who Christ is. Satan walks about as a roaring
lion seeking whom he may devour. But when he came to Job, do you
remember what he said to the Lord? He said, Has not thou made
a hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that
he hath on every side? The Lord said, I can't get to
him, because you got him hedged about. You got him hedged about. That's what Christ tells us.
Now go forth, preach the gospel, I'm encamped all around you.
Alright? But what about, what if I stumble
and I fall? What about below me? What about
below me? Look at Deuteronomy 33. Deuteronomy
33. And look at verse 27. The eternal
God Deuteronomy 33, 27, The eternal
God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms. And He shall thrust out the enemy
from before thee, and shall say, Destroy them. Underneath are
the everlasting arms. So He's going to protect us from
underneath. He's going to protect us from
falling. Listen, underneath are the arms of His everlasting love,
That's everlasting. Everlasting love. Those are the
arms that are underneath, that are everlasting. Underneath are
the arms of His everlasting covenant. Those are the arms that are everlasting. He said, I'll never turn away
from you to do you good. And underneath are the arms of
everlasting eternal redemption which Christ has accomplished
by His blood. eternal redemption, everlasting
redemption. Those are everlasting arms. Underneath
are the arms of everlasting salvation accomplished by Christ. Underneath
are the arms of His everlasting power that we've been looking
at here. They are to give us everlasting consolation. These everlasting arms give us
everlasting consolation. Good hope! He said He'd be with
us always. So He's above us, He's within
us, He's before us, He's behind us, He's all around us, and underneath
are the everlasting arms. So we say that we're kept and
we're preserved in all ways. In every manner possible, He's
got us kept, preserved. That gives new meaning to that
song, God be with you, doesn't it? He is with His people. He said, I will be with you always. But there's one more thing. Turn
to 1 Corinthians 13. 1 Corinthians 13. One more thing. He said to us,
I'm going to be with you always. I am with you always, even until
the end of the world. Or the end of this gospel age. But then, where will Christ be? Then where will He be? He said,
I'll be with you until the end. But then when we get to the end,
where will He be? Here's where He'll be. 1 Corinthians
13 verse 12. Now we see through a glass darkly,
but then face to face. That's where He'll be. Face to
face with us. face to face. Now I know in part,
but then shall I know even as I also am known. Do you believe
we're going to reach the end and see Christ as He is? There's
not a remote possibility, Carol, that that won't happen. Not a
slight possibility. If I'm His child that He loved
before the foundation of the world, that Christ redeemed with
His own precious blood, that He sent the Spirit and regenerated,
He's going to be with me always. Always. Same is true of you.
That's true of us, brethren. Beloved, now are we the sons
of God. Now are we the sons of God. And
it does not yet appear what we shall be. We can just sort of
look at it and imagine what it's going to be like. We can't really
enter into it. But we know that when He shall
appear, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. So what do I do with this information?
The Lord will not forsake His people for His great namesake,
because it hath pleased the Lord to make you His people. So what
do I do with that? The God of peace be with you
all. Now therefore, go tell somebody
about it. I'm scared of what they're going
to say. Why? Why do we have any fear of what
anybody is going to say? He said, I'm with you always.
Amen. All right.