He comes to you in such a way,
look what I've done for you. Look at all I've given you. I've
given myself. I've given my blood. I've given
my life. I became a man for you. I love you. Why do you refuse
to receive my comfort? Peace be unto you. Why do you
refuse to receive my peace? All is well with you. Nothing's
wrong with you. Everything's fine. Why? It's me. It's me. Our Savior died. He rose again
for our justification. And even this morning, I do pray
that God would even open your understanding. That's what He
did. He opened the understanding. And you know how He did it? He,
beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them
in all things in the Scriptures what concerning himself. So this
morning, if you are in such a place, I do pray that God would open
your understanding so that you might be comforted. You might
be comforted. That the Holy Spirit would feed
you with joy and peace and salvation. that you might bow down even
now and worship Him as His disciples did. And they did. Their hearts
were broken and they worshipped Him. They bowed down to Him.
And it is at this moment of their weakness... Now, that's the situation. That's how... This is where our
text finds us. In the moment of their weakness,
in the moment of their abatement, in the moment at they were the
most... they were the lowest that they could be. It is then
the Lord gives the Great Commission. It is then He gives them this
great commission, their greatest and lowest time of sorrow. He
gives the greatest of commissions. Go you into all the world and
preach the gospel to every creature. Now notice that Jesus didn't
wait till they got better. Now when everything's well, go
you into all the world and preach the gospel. When you get a little
more knowledge and a little more understanding, go you into all...
It's not what he said. It is an immediate command. Go
you now into all the world and preach the gospel in your weakest
state. Why? Because that's the best
preaching. When we are at our weakest state, that is the best
preaching. We are then the most capable
to preach. the most ready to be used in our lowest estate how many of us here this great
commission are waiting for some obscure level of knowledge i
will preach the gospel win and then just fill in the blank when
i'm have more understanding when You know, John disagrees with
that. You know what? John tells you this. He says,
you have an unction of the Holy One. Listen, you know all things. Now, you either believe that
or you don't. John says, you know all things.
What are you waiting for? What are you waiting for? You
know all things. If you know Christ, you know all things.
You know all things necessary. You know all things necessary.
You know the difference between the truth and the lie. Now you
may not be able to explain it in its greatest points. You may
not have the most eloquent words to describe it, but you know
it. And you know it when you hear it. You know it when you
hear it. Let us pray that God will open
our eyes then and give us opportunities to witness of Christ. But as
we We pray. We pray that God would open our
mouths so that we might speak in love toward others. Now there,
as believers in Christ, as you are called by the grace of God
to preach this gospel, there are three things about this Great
Commission mentioned in our text. Three things. Three questions
that we should ask. First is, what is our gospel? If you're going to go preach
a gospel, you should know what it is. Second of all, to whom are
we to preach this gospel? And third, what then is the result
of this gospel? So first of all, what is our
gospel that we are sent to preach? Go into all the world and preach
THE gospel. That definite article, THE. tells
us plainly that there is only one gospel. There are not multiple
gospels. There are not many gospels. Today,
as you came to worship this morning, you passed by several churches,
several places of worship with different denominations on their
door, Catholics, Baptists, Pentecostals, Presbyterians, Independent Christian
churches, whatever they got. Now, if you had asked them, are
you preaching the gospel? Well, that would be, to them,
a silly question. They would say, yes, yes we are.
We're preaching the gospel and I don't doubt that they're sincere.
I don't doubt any one of their sincerity. But listen, whatever the gospel
is, whatever the gospel is, it must be completely and absolutely
founded upon the Word of God. The Word of God for the Gospel
is its source of faith and practice. The Word of God is the basis
of our Gospel. Any Gospel that is based on the
traditions of man, the creeds of the church, or the conventions
of denominations, is not the Gospel. If that is their standing,
if that is their basis, You see, I hear men preaching, and even
men who preach the sovereign grace of God, what do they turn
to? They turn to the confessions. I don't care what the confessions
say. The confessions are not the Word of God. They are men
preaching the Word of God, as I'm doing. But they're not infallible. What is infallible is the Word
of God. Thus saith the Lord. And so then, we don't turn to
any of those. Although they might have truth,
although they might be speaking the truth, that is not the foundation
of our gospel. Our gospel is founded on this.
Thus saith the Lord. That's it. Any gospel that is
not founded on that is not the gospel. I desire to make it very clear
to you. That there is only one true gospel, but there is another
gospel being preached. This is the false gospel. The
false gospel. The one true gospel and the false
gospel today are being preached. One is the gospel of God, the
other is the doctrine of devils. John says this, try the spirits. I'll tell you this, I love you
and you love me, but you better do this every time I preach.
You better try the spirits to see whether they be of God or
not. I'm talking about preachers. I'm talking about their message.
You should test the message that I preach to you against the Word
of God to make sure it's so. You would be wise to do that
every time. And listen, the only gospel being
preached in religion today is the false gospel of freewill
works religion. But the only true gospel is the
gospel of God's salvation by free and sovereign grace. These
two are in direct opposition to each other. Now someone who's
preaching freewill works religion say, I preach salvations by grace. They will. I'll tell you that.
And think they're being honest. But yet if you listen, they will
say a man must, needs, add some work or volition of will in order
to make salvation effectual. You tell me, that is not of grace.
That's of works. That's a message of works. Paul
said that in Romans 11. He said you cannot mix the two.
You cannot mix works and grace. It is impossible to mix works
and grace. He said if it is of grace, then
it is no longer of works. Otherwise, grace is no more grace.
And if it be of works and not of grace, then works is no more
works. You cannot mix works and grace.
Either salvation is the full, free grace of God, or it is the
work of man. And you know those men crept
in the church of Galatia, and they were preaching Jesus Christ
plus circumcision. That's what they were preaching.
Jesus Christ, yes. You must be saved by the grace
of God. You must believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ. But you must also obey the law
of circumcision. This is what Paul said. I marvel
that you're so soon removed from him that called you into the
grace of Christ to another gospel. You see, grace and another gospel
are in direct opposition to each other. And if you're removed
from the gospel, you're removed from Christ. You're removed from
Christ. He said, which is not another?
But there are some that trouble you and would pervert the gospel
of Christ. See, they don't eradicate the
gospel of Christ, they pervert it. They pervert it. They don't
throw away the book, they just pervert it. But though we or an angel from
heaven preach to you another gospel, then that which we have
preached to you, let them go to hell. That is the exact translation
of that. Let them go to hell. The gospel Paul preached was
not of works, but of free and sovereign grace. And there are
five things concerning this gospel that every one of us who are
believers know and understand and believe. Every time this
gospel is preached, these things are mentioned. Every time. First
of all, the total, absolute depravity of man. This is the foundation
by which we meet sinners. This is how we approach sinners.
We approach them as they are. I know the church, the false
church, would butter men up. They would try to tell you how
good you are, how much God needs you, how much that you can help
God. No, I can tell you by this, you
cannot help God and you cannot help yourself. You are absolutely,
utterly, and completely depraved. We must meet men on this condition. One man said, if you're wrong
on the fall, you're wrong on it all. If you miss out on this,
that by our father, Adam, all the human race was condemned
to death and sin, you've missed it. The truth of the gospel is that
Adam was our federal head. That's the truth. God made him
upright, perfect, and God set him in the perfect environment.
Isn't that a false idea that, well, if I just had the perfect
environment, I'll be better? No, Adam had the perfect environment.
He even had the perfect nature. And yet he still fell. And God
gave him only one commandment, not to eat of that tree. And
he, in rebellion, ate of that tree. And what happened to him?
He died. He died spiritually. And the
proof of that was he tried to cover his nakedness. He took
the works of His hands, the fig leaves, and He sewed them together
to make aprons for themselves to cover their sin. Isn't this
what man does by nature? All men by nature, they are exposed
of God. The soul that sinneth, it shall
surely die. And what does He do? He runs
to His leaves, and He runs to His works, and He sews them together.
And says, ah, see, I'm covered. Ah, but that's not enough. When
God speaks, when God actually, that's when the preacher speaks,
but when God speaks, what does man do? He runs when he cannot
find, hide in his leaves. What does he do? He runs to the
forest, tries to find more leaves, more works to cover his nakedness,
to hide him from God. Isn't that what men do right
now? They're running from God. Why do men not want to come here?
Why? Running from me? I tell you, they're running from
God. Why? They are depraved. You see, God
is the only hope for man, and yet man in depravity runs from
God. He runs to hell like it's heaven,
and runs from heaven as though it were hell. Man is absolutely and utterly
depraved and wicked. Scripture says that the natural
mind, the carnal mind, is at enmity against God. For it is
not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. Jesus
said, No man can come unto me, except the Father which hath
sent me. Do you see the total depravity? Man is not willing
and man cannot be willing. That is absolutely the worst
case. For man to not only not want
to is one thing, but not to be able to. Man, by Scripture, is
dead in trespasses and sins. Now listen, if you've never known
this about yourself, if you have no clue what I'm
talking about, it's because you're not saved. You're still in rebellion. One thing every believer knows
is his absolute depravity, his absolute inability to please
God in the flesh. That's just a basic principle
of the gospel. You see, if God has never opened
your eyes to see your inability and utter ruin of your nature,
then you will never need Christ and never come to Christ. If
God doesn't show you your need, you'll never come. The second
thing about the gospel is the unconditional election of God.
I heard from someone recently that she'd been to Baptist churches
most of her life and never heard a message on election. That is,
that's not astounding, but to me I understand they're not preaching
because they don't believe it. But I told her, I said, you've
never heard of election because you've never heard the gospel.
You've never heard the gospel. The gospel of man is rooted in
man. The gospel of man is rooted in
himself, in his will, in his works, but the gospel of God
is rooted in God. In God. Election, friends, is not difficult
to understand. People say, I just don't understand
election. Yeah, you do. You just don't believe it. People
just don't believe it. They don't want to. Election's
not hard. Listen. God chose a people. Does anybody understand that
and miss that so far? God chose a people. In sovereign free love,
without any merit of their own, God, for his own glory and his
own purpose, chose a people. Anybody miss that? It's not hard
to understand. God purposed to save those people. God said they're going to be
holy and without blame before me. When did He do this? He did this
in eternity. He did this when there was not
yet anything created. Before the world began. God chose a people. It's not
hard to understand. Matter of fact, this is not a
point of debate. People say, well that's just your opinion.
No! It's the Word of God! Have you ever tried to read the
Word of God and delete the word election or predestination? Matter of fact, Brother Don Fortner,
he was in a college, they did that. They would not permit them
to say election or predestination. So my brother took the Word of
God and began to read And bleep out the word elect or election.
Bleep according to the foreknowledge of God. He went through all those
scriptures with the word election and predestination and he bleeped
them out. You would have to bleep out the
book. It's throughout the book. Listen to this plainly. Blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who hath blessed
us Yes, sir, we who believe in Christ with all spiritual blessings
in heavenly places, in Christ according as He had chosen us. When was all this taking place?
Before the foundation of the world. And what did He choose
us for? That we should be holy and without
blame before Him. In love, having predestinated
us unto adoption of children. And listen, how? By Jesus Christ. Not only purposed that we should
be holy, He purposed how we should be holy. By Jesus Christ. What
for the reason? What is the reason? To the praise
of the glory of His grace. See why God did it? You see how
God does it? You see when God did it? It's
not debatable. It's not my opinion. If you don't
believe it, you just don't believe God's Word. You should be honest. Men should be honest about this.
They just don't believe the Gospel. No matter how they rage about
this truth, no matter how much they hate God's word about election,
seeing the depravity of man, we know this, that if there were
no election, there would be no salvation. You know who know
that? Believers. We understand that.
We know this to be true. We know that there's none righteous,
there's none that seeketh after God, there's none that understandeth.
We know this, that In the flesh, no man can please God. Therefore,
we glory in the election of God. We praise God for His sovereign
election. Number three, we preach the particular
redemption of Christ. This means that God's chosen
people, He chose them to be holy without blame, but the means
He chose is not by any merit of their own, but by the sovereign
Savior Jesus Christ. By Jesus Christ. This is how
He purposed that we, the elect, should be saved. By Jesus Christ. Salvation is not by Jesus and
you, not by Jesus and the Pope, not by Jesus and some man or
works or decision of man. It is by Jesus Christ alone.
That is how salvation is accomplished. Since all of the elect were born
sinners, we could by no means merit the righteousness of God,
nor could we offer an offering for our sin. This is what Jesus
did. He did both of those. He performed
a righteousness for us. by his own obedience as a man.
You see, Adam was our federal head, but now Christ, even before
Adam, was our federal head. God put us in Christ, and by
doing so, He put us in union with Christ, so that He should
bear the weight and responsibility of all our salvation. You see that? You see, the weight
of salvation does not in one ounce rest upon you. Isn't this
glorious? Isn't this a wonderful message?
It is if you know your depravity. You see, if you're wrong on depravity,
you have something to offer. You miss out on this. In Romans 3, verse 22, it says,
"...even the righteousness of God." which is by the faith of
Jesus Christ. You see how the righteousness
of God is earned? It is earned by Jesus Christ. He is the center. He is the sum
of our salvation. And not only this was He our
righteousness, but He was also our offering. The Apostle Paul concerning the
preaching of the Gospel says this to wit, that God was in
Christ reconciling the world to himself, not imputing their
trespasses to them. and hath committed to us the
word of reconciliation. Now we as ambassadors for Christ,
as though God did beseech you by us, we pray you in Christ's
head, be you reconciled to God. See, Paul's preaching the Gospel.
Reconciliation. How then are sinners reconciled
to God? Here it is. For He hath made
Him to be sin for us. That's how we're reconciled. God is not going to impute our
sins to us because He imputed them to Christ. He made Christ
to be sin for us, so that we might be made the righteousness
of God in Him, which God ordained that we should be. You see, Christ
was only fulfilling the will of God. And by fulfilling the
will of God, He actually redeemed us. He actually saved all the
elect. The result of His obedience in
death is not that He died for all men without exception, but
died for those that the Father gave Him. You see, Jesus didn't make salvation
possible. That again is a false gospel. But we preach salvation accomplished. Salvation finished. Work is done. The work is done. And this is not a matter of our
opinion, and again, this is not a matter of debate. Because that's
what people will say to you when you preach this gospel. That's
your opinion. No. Go to Hebrews chapter 9. Hebrews
chapter 9. Look at verse 12. In this matter
of redemption. In this matter of redemption.
Redemption is not something that takes place when a person accepts
Jesus. No. Redemption was accomplished. Redemption was accomplished.
Look at this in verse 12. Neither by the blood of goats
and calves, but by his own blood he entered once into the holy
place. Listen. Having obtained eternal
redemption for us. How long is this redemption? Eternal redemption. The redemption
that He purposed to give us is the redemption He accomplished
and it is the redemption He applies. That redemption He obtained.
Look at Hebrews chapter 10 and verse 12. But this man, after
he had offered one sacrifice for sins, forever sat down on
the right hand of God." What does that mean? He's forever
finished. The work is forever done. "...from henceforth expecting
till his enemies be made his footstool. For by his one offering
he hath perfected forever..." Who? "...them that are sanctified."
Those who God set apart, that's exactly who He perfected. He
perfected. Therefore, Jesus, before his
death, gives us this victory speech. In John chapter 6, he
says this, this is the Father's will, that of all which he hath given
me, I should lose nothing. but raise it up again at the
last day. Is that not a victory speech? That's just a victory
speech. I know this is the Father's will, and this is exactly how
it's going to happen. I'm going to redeem the elect,
and the elect will be redeemed, and I'll lose not one of them.
Not one of them. And the fourth thing we preach
is this. We preach the effectual call of the Spirit. This is the
gospel that all that God has chosen in Christ redeemed, the
Holy Spirit will call to life. In that same passage, Jesus said
this, this is the Father's will which is sent me, that of all
he hath given me I should lose nothing, but raise him up again
at the last day. And this is the will of him that sent me, that he that seeth the Son and
believeth on him may have everlasting life. He said before that, he
said, the Father which he gaveth, he said, all that the Father
giveth me, listen, shall come to me. And him that cometh to
me I will in no wise cast out. But Jesus in the next few verses
in John 6 tells us this, that no man can come unto Him. Wait
a second, you just told me that they will, and now you're telling
me they can't. How then can they? Except the
Father which hath sent me draw them. And this is the work of
God the Holy Spirit. The Father sends the Spirit so
as to draw the elect, to draw His people to Himself. See there's a dead man and his
sins. What can he do to come to Christ? He's dead. What can he do? But see now the
Holy Ghost come upon him. See that he was not seeking or
looking for God, yet God in free grace blows life into him and
he believes. This is the work of the Holy
Spirit. As many as received Him, to them gave He the right to
become the sons of God, which were born, not of blood, nor
of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God."
How were you born again? Was it of your will? No. I was
willing as a by-product of His grace. It was the power of the Holy
Spirit. See, this again is not a matter
of debate, but a matter of record of Scripture. Psalm 110 and verse
3, listen, Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power. See, I'm not unwilling. I'm willing,
aren't you? You who believe, you're willing
to believe, aren't you? Nobody dragged you. Nobody beat you.
You were willing. How is it you were willing and
others aren't? The Holy Spirit of God made the difference. You
were born again of the Spirit. This is the message of the Gospel.
It's the work of the Holy Spirit. You remember Lazarus, don't you?
Do you suppose Lazarus could have ever resisted the call of
Christ? No. And neither does a dead sinner
ever resist the call of the Spirit of God to life. And matter of
fact, when he's given life, why would he resist? Listen, if Christ calls you and
you resist, it's because you're dead. If God ever gives you life,
you won't resist. You'll believe. And the fifth thing is this,
all who believe shall never perish. He said this, My sheep hear My
voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. I give unto them eternal
life, and you listen, they shall never perish, neither shall any
man pluck them out of My hand. For the Father which gave them
Me, remember we're talking about the elect, gave them Me is greater
than all, and no man shall pluck them out of His hand. Is there
any hope for us to be lost? We who are saved, is there any
hope? Is there any way that this is going to turn out bad for
you? I tell you what, life is full of bad, life is full of
ills and troubles and difficulties and we're not exempt from any
of them. But you listen, nothing is going to happen to you except
God give it permission. You're kept. You are kept in
his hand. You see, to remove you from God
is to take God from the throne This is our surety, this is our
hope. And so then I'll give you these
other two quickly, very quickly. This is the gospel we preach,
the total depravity of man, the sovereign election of God, perfect work of Jesus Christ
in redemption, the irresistible grace of the Spirit, and the
preservation and keeping of the saints. This is the gospel. This
is the gospel we preach. It is a gospel we must declare.
We must declare it. Now to whom shall we preach this
gospel? Very simply, everybody. Everybody. Go ye into all the
world and preach the gospel. Now I know God's got to elect.
I know Christ died for them. I know the Spirit will call them.
And only them. Nobody else. I know that with all my heart.
Yet my commission is not to choose the elect. My commission is to
preach to everyone. Because I have no idea who the
elect are. Spurgeon was asked that question.
Sir, if God has to elect people and He's only going to save them,
why preach at all? Spurgeon said, sir, if you would
kindly point out the elect to me, I'll only preach to them.
I don't know who they are. This
is why he said, preach the gospel to every creature. Who do we
preach to? Anyone who'd listen. I don't care how bad. It's not
for us to question the evil nature of the man or anything. It is
our mission to preach at every opportunity. Now, get up, go
out and preach it. Declare it at every opportunity. Every instance God opens the
door. Open your mouth. Open your mouth. Preach this
gospel. I'm not ashamed of this gospel.
This is the power of God and the salvation to everyone that
believeth. See, I believe that God saves
whomsoever will. I just don't believe He saves
whomsoever won't. He won't. Now, this is the result. What is then the question? What
is the result of this message? Some will believe and some won't. Simple? You preach to somebody, they
believe. Praise God. You found one that was lost.
You found God's elect. You preach to one who was chosen
and redeemed and called of God. No glory to you, glory to God. He that believeth and is baptized
shall be saved. Thy people shall be willing in
the day of thy power. We preach the gospel because
it is a power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth. And everyone that believes. Now
this matter in our text, this matter of baptism, he says he
that believeth and is baptized. Baptism is not an addition or
a necessary work to salvation, but rather it is the only means
of confession. This idea of coming down to the
altar and stuff, that is a totally Romanistic Catholic view. That comes from the coming to
the altar, coming to get the Eucharist and stuff. That coming
to the front is no confession of faith. The only confession
of faith in Scripture that is recorded for us is baptism. If
you're a believer in Christ, you should be baptized. You should
be obedient. And you know what? I'm gladly
obedient to this. I want to be identified with
Him. That's what baptism is. We're plunged in the water. We
are identifying with Christ. You're saying, I died with Him.
I was buried with Him and I rose together with Him. That's what
you're identifying to all men. You're confessing. Now the second
group is this. Some will not believe. You won't believe your total
depravity. You won't believe in God's sovereign election.
You won't believe in Christ's perfect redemption. You won't
believe in the irresistible call of the Spirit of God. You won't
believe in the perseverance of the Savior. Why? Because you're
dead. You won't believe. And you listen. If you won't believe, you will
only receive what is justly your reward. Damnation. Damnation. Salvation is the gift
of God's grace, but damnation is the just reward of sin. Therefore, if you're saved, you
know this, all the glory belongs to God. And if you're damned,
it's your own fault. Well, how do you reconcile that?
I don't have to. You see, I'm here to preach the
Word of God. I'm not here to debate. Just to declare. And you know, Paul says this,
and this is one thing that gives me confidence every time I preach
the Gospel. He said this, For we are a sweet
savor of God. Let me get this thing right,
I messed it up. He says we are a sweet savor
of God. And we are triumphant every time
we preach the gospel of Christ. We are a saver of life unto life
to some and a saver of death unto death to others. Today,
listen, I'm a saver of life unto life to you who believe. That
message I preach, you identify with everything there. You know
that to be true. You know what you must do. You
must go out and preach this gospel. You desire that others believe
this gospel. But to some, I'm a saver of death
unto death. You despise it. You don't love
it. You don't want it. If you continue in that, you'll
die in your sins and be damned. May God give us grace to go and
preach his word to every creature.