to Mark 16. Mark chapter 16, and I'm going to read a few verses
here in Mark chapter 16 that are very similar to what was
read in the last chapter of Matthew. I'll begin in verse 14. Afterward, that is after his
resurrection, after he had appeared to Mary
Magdalene, after he had appeared to the two disciples on the road
to Emmaus, Afterward he appeared unto the eleven as they sat at
meat, and upbraided them with their unbelief and hardness of
heart, because they believed not them which had seen him after
he was risen. And he said unto them, Go ye
into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized
shall be saved, but he that believeth not shall be damned." Now, I have thought about it
many times, found it to be true very often
that when men and women are confronted with the true
gospel, when they are confronted with the gospel of God's free
and sovereign grace in Christ, they often ask, Questions like
these. If not all are going to be saved,
if some are, as you say, non-elect, if God has chosen a people and
they alone will be saved, why preach the gospel to them? And to use a worn out cliché
in our day, used by every person interviewed on TV or wherever
it is it seems, I'll just say, that's a good question. That's a good question. Not that they mean good when
they ask it. or not that they are even really
interested sincerely in a true answer. But whether they are or whether
they are not, God does answer that question in His Word. Here in just the two passages
that we have read is this statement, go and preach the gospel to all. Paul said to Timothy, do the
work of an evangelist. And in the biblical sense, not
in the modern sense, not in the modern examples, so-called, but
in the biblical sense, to evangelize means to preach the gospel. If we are to be a help to any
soul, if we are to be obedient to what some have called this
great commission. If we are to engage in true missionary
effort, we will have to preach the gospel. Hold your place and
turn over to the book of Acts. In Acts chapter 16, where in Acts chapter 16, when
Paul and those with him sought to go in one direction, and then
another direction, and then another direction, but they were stopped
by God. And he's left not knowing what
to do. The Scripture says here that
he had a vision of God in the night. Verse 9 says, And a vision
appeared to Paul in the night, and there stood a man of Macedonia,
and prayed him, saying, Come over into Macedonia and help
us. How was the apostle and those
with him to help those in Macedonia? In our day, some would say it
would be by providing medicine for them, or health care for
them, or food for them, or clothing for them, or a host of other
things which I would not in themselves be against at all. But when you
read the next verse, it says, and after he had seen the vision,
Immediately we endeavored to go into Macedonia, assuredly
gathering that the Lord had called us for to preach the gospel unto
them. The greatest deed that they could
do for these people, or the greatest thing that can be done for any
People in any age is for the gospel to be preached unto them. And yet men and women, in light
of what the Bible says in one place, they use what I'd call
the damning logic. They try to interpret or really
rebel against the Word of God on the basis of human logic. And they say, well, if God has
a people, if Christ died for that people, if the Holy Spirit
will just regenerate and call those people, why? preach the gospel to all. Well, I would begin this morning
by simply saying, first of all, that it is to be preached unto
all simply because God, and we need to remember who He is, simply
because God, in His infinite wisdom, in His perfect righteousness
and holiness, and especially in His divine overall sovereignty,
has commanded it to be done." In other words, we need no other
mandate really. We need no other reason, actually,
for doing what He commanded to be done simply on the basis that
He did command it to be done. In other words, not only that,
but Scripture tells us that it's what He has determined beforehand
to be done. And it is clearly what we have
read in these texts of Scripture this morning, a plain statement
that comes from the mouth of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself,
and He says, Go ye into the world and preach the gospel to all
you in God's providence brings you in contact with. And if we had no other command,
that is simply what we find everywhere in Scripture. He's saying in
another place by the Apostle, that repentance and remission
of sins should be preached in His name among all nations beginning
at Jerusalem. It is a command of God to His
people, and especially to His servants, to preach the gospel. And His command is simply not
to just go, or it is not even just to preach, but it is to
preach the gospel. There is only one gospel. And we are finding again and
again that gospel defined by the words and phrases that are
associated with the gospel. The gospel itself being glad
tidings. And in this book, it is called
the gospel of God. It is about God. It is from God. It is the gospel of grace. It is not a gospel of works mixed
with grace, or a gospel of works that would not be glad tidings
to us, but it's the gospel of God's grace. It's the gospel
of Christ. And so many in our day claim
to be preaching the gospel and sending out the gospel, and their
gospel is about every other person and every other thing in this
world except the Lord Jesus Christ. It is the gospel of God's Son. It is the gospel of salvation. It is the gospel of peace so
described in this book. And all are sent out as ambassadors
of the King. And an ambassador does not have
the authority to alter, withhold, or change in any way the message
of the King. An ambassador simply declares
what the King has said. And so that's who the message
comes from. That's who the message is about. God is the one who commands this. Go ye and preach the gospel. But God, if we have ears to hear,
and if we have eyes to see, and if we have this understanding
that the apostle talks about, God's logic in these things is
the only true logic there is. Because we are not only to preach
the gospel because He commanded it, we preach it because all
those who hear the gospel, those who hear the gospel and reject
it, In doing so, they reveal their true nature of sin and
also the reason for their just condemnation and judgment. They reject the gospel of God's
Son. They show that carnal mind that
is enmity against God. Nothing stirs and brings to the
front or the surface the natural enmity of men and women against
God as He is, like the preaching of His gospel. And so, when the gospel is preached,
It is preached to all, and those who reject it show their true
nature, show that they are justly condemned, leaves men and women
without excuse, showing themselves what they really trust in. who
they really rely on, what their hope really is based on. And so, when Christ came to the
Pharisees, when He came as the preacher of preachers, He said, there's a reason you
believe not. Oh, you don't believe. You claim
to know God. You claim to have hope of life. You claim to have the favor of
God. But you believe not, because
you are not of my sheep." And so men and women, especially
those who are brought under the sound of the true gospel and
reject and turn from and leave that gospel, they show what they
really are in their hearts and what they are by nature. and
how God is just to condemn them and judge them that they forsook
grace in the message of the gospel. When Paul preached the gospel,
you would expect that such a preacher as God was used to write so many
of those books that make up the New Testament. You would think,
not only as the Lord Jesus Christ preached, but you would think
as the great Apostle Paul preached in all these various places,
and he was met with the wickedness and the bitterness and the malice
of men and women. Not to who he was. He was one
of them. Not that he had not been a part
of their religion formerly. Not that he was an immoral man
or anything like that. But what they really were, just
like it was with Christ, what they really were was made manifest
when the gospel was preached. Do you remember what Christ said?
He looked at His haters. He looked at these despisers. And He said to them, for which
of these good works do you seek to stone Me? And they said, oh,
not for any of these good works. We don't stone you, we don't
seek to take away your life because of anything you've done. It's
because of what you said. You make yourself to be God.
And here is the gospel. that Christ commanded to be preached
and essential to this gospel is this fact that must be stated
and men reminded of again and again, that He is none other
than God manifest in the flesh. We're not talking about a famous
figure simply. We're not talking about a mere
prophet like any of the prophets. We're not talking about a great
martyr or moral example. We're talking about the Son of
God. So when men and women reject
the gospel, when they show and demonstrate how they really feel
about God as He really is, It shows that God is just and right
to condemn them and judge them in that sin. But not only that,
you see, the gospel is to be preached to all because it's
pleasing to God and it glorifies Him as a just God and a Savior. Now, if there's one thing I'm
sure of, one thing that I hear again and again and observe everywhere
in what is called modern Christianity, all these Gospels wind up with
a God, if He is anything to be recognized at all, is absolutely
unjust. That's right. They say that He
loves all, but that many will perish. They say that He died for all,
but that many will still yet die in their sins. They say it's
His desire to save all, but many will not let Him. And right
at the bottom line, right at the very essence of such notions
about God, not only that they are contrary to what it says
in this book, but right there in the final essence, all that
put together and boiled down, man's view of God, is that he
must be unjust. He's going to let some that Christ
died for, died for their sins, He's going to let them die in
their sins. They say He's going to let some,
many, that Christ paid the debt of their sin for, He's going
to let them have to pay the debt again themselves. And it just
goes on and on and on, ad nauseum, to the point that God is reduced
to being unjust in all His dealings with man. And so He spoke through the prophet
Isaiah. And He said, "...tell ye, and
bring them near. Yea, let them take counsel together,
Who hath declared this from ancient times? Who hath told it from
that time? Have not I the Lord? In other
words, in our day, As in Isaiah's day, and in every other day before,
God, through every prophet, through every apostle, through every
true gospel preacher, has been saying the same thing. What is
that? He says, and there is no God
else beside me, a just God and a Savior. There is none beside
me." You see, how could we ever glorify God? How could we ever really magnify
Him? How could we ever preach anything
that in the end result put everything in the hands of man and made
God totally unjust? How could we ever have a gospel
that made Him a Savior acting in such a way that is contrary
to His nature and character? That's not the gospel. You see, the gospel is pleasing
to God and it is in every way honoring to God. Paul, when he writes in Romans,
he talks about not being ashamed of the gospel. But I'll tell
you, Not only Paul, but me and a whole lot more, as preachers,
once had a gospel we should have been ashamed of. Why? Because it exalted man and it reduced the glory of God. Somebody said, most all error. arises out of low views of God
and high views of man. That's right. And right at the
heart of every false gospel is that very notion that it makes
man ultimately and finally to be his own Savior. And whoever
is the one who finalizes salvation, Ronnie, that's the one that gets
the glory. It's kind of like a man inventing
a machine. And that machine would be so
wonderful, it'd be so helpful, it'd be so great a thing, and
he gets it mostly all put together, and he's left there, that's all
he can do. And he has to walk away from it.
And along comes a man, he looks at it, He puts one piece on it,
and it totally works. It's a finished thing. Who's
going to get the glory? That man that took it from being
a useless, worthless thing in itself, and made it something
wonderful and usable. That's the modern view of God's
salvation. But the Scripture says that it
is the work of God that He accomplished. When the Lord Jesus Christ hung
on that cross, if we can't hear anything else that He says from
that cross, we better make sure we hear one thing. And that's
when He says, it is finished. It is absolutely finished. And so, in those that God saves
by that salvation, in those that He brings to believe the true
gospel, He gives glory. But just the fact that His gospel
is preached is pleasing to Him. Turn over to 2 Corinthians. I cannot tell you the number
of times in the last 35 plus years that the Lord has helped
my sinking soul, my failings at preaching, my lack of seeing
outward results that the world seems to think so very much of. He used this passage so many
times. in 2 Corinthians chapter 2 beginning
in verse 14. Paul says, Now thanks be unto
God, which always causes us to triumph in Christ. Everyone who truly preaches the
gospel If they preach the gospel, they are a success. He always
causes us to triumph. He says, "...and makes manifest
the savor or fragrance of His knowledge by us in every place."
I think the reference here is to the incense. that was offered
to the Lord. You know how incense is? It's
kind of like perfume and cologne. I may wear a cologne this morning
and somebody walks by me and they smell it and they say, hmm,
that really smells good. But somebody else might walk
by me and smell it and it burn their eyes burn their nose and
they say, I can't stand that. Well, listen to what Paul says.
He says, for we are unto God a sweet savor of Christ in them
that are saved and in them that perish. To the one, we are the
savor of death unto death, and to the other, the savor of life
unto life. And who is sufficient for these
things? Might as well say our gospel
smells good to some, it's life to some, and it stinks to others. But I'll tell you who the one
is that it's most important to, and that's God Himself. In other words, the gospel that
gives to God all the glory, exalts salvation in Christ alone, is
pictured here like a fragrance, an incense that goes up to heaven,
and it's always sweet to God. I cannot tell you what it meant
to me when at some point God revealed to me that my preaching
was first of all for Him, to give Him glory, to exalt Him
as the only Savior, to set Him forth as this just God, Paul
says, for we are not as many which corrupt the Word of God,
but as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God, speak
we in Christ. It's to be preached to all because
it's pleasing to God. It's honoring to God. If you
never believe it at all, it's still glorifying to God. He's getting glory. It's sweet
to Him, not only in these that are being saved, but in them
that perish. You say, well, I just don't see
it. That's the problem. We're like Naaman by nature.
When told the divine remedy for his leprosy, he just got angry
and shook his head, maybe stomped his feet, and he said, I thought
that's the problem. But true preaching of the gospel. exalting the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul said, "...I am not ashamed
of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation
to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first and also to the
Greek. For therein is the righteousness
of God revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, the
just shall live by faith." Pleases God. But it's also to be preached
because the whole world is to be filled with the glory of the
Lord Jesus Christ. The psalmist said, "...declare
His glory among the heathen, His wonders among all people."
We're to fill this earth. with the wonders and the glories
of God's grace through the person and the work of the Lord Jesus
Christ. We're not to set Him forth before
men as a failure or helpless or anything like that. We're
to declare His glories. We're to declare what it is that
He's done. The psalmist again, and blessed
be His glorious name forever, and let the whole earth be filled
with His glory. Amen and Amen. You can't preach Him enough.
That sound, irregardless of what God is pleased to do with it,
that message, gives that summary of who God really is through
the Christ that's crucified on that cross. That message that
speaks of the true and everlasting love of God in Christ as is demonstrated
in that cross. And the holiness and the justness
and the righteousness of God. God in all His glorious character
in a perfect harmony. We're to fill the earth with
that. When the true servant of God has a door open for him,
and he knows that there's an appointed hour that he's to preach
the gospel, or when one of God's people finds a door opened up
to a witness concerning the Lord Jesus Christ, It isn't a figure
or a question as to what we're going to say, who we're going
to talk about. It's just what portion of Scripture,
that Word that altogether speaks of Him, what we're going to use
to do it. What will the Spirit of God lead
us to do? Because we know we're going to
speak of His glory. In the Psalms it says this. This
struck me once. In His house, they all speak
of His glory. I was in another house this week.
They didn't speak of His glory. I must conclude it wasn't His
house. In His house, they all speak
of His glory. Not theirs. Not man's. And it
is to be preached to all because in the rejection of it by most,
every believer, quickened by the Spirit of God, is reminded
of God's great and particular grace and mercy to them. They realize, here are all these
people who hate this message. who find nothing in it at all,
who don't delight in the hearing of it, who rebel against it,
speak evil against it. And yet God has opened my eyes. He's given me understanding.
He's given me faith to believe it. And while all the world around
me perishes, are obviously not the objects of His grace and
His mercy. He showed mercy on me. They hate the sound of it, and
I can't live without it. It comes to their heart's ear
as sour notes, but it's the sweetest song to my soul. He made me to
differ. Paul says, "...for who maketh
thee to differ from another? And what hast thou that thou
didst not receive? Now if thou didst receive it,
why dost thou glory as if thou hadst not received it?" We see that God made us to differ,
made us to delight in His Son. Made us to have hope in Him.
Gave us eternal life in Him. Saved us by His grace, not by
our works. And we thank Him. It's our comfort. We find in it a reason to praise
God. We find in it reason to thank
Him. Contrary to what people say it
produces, it's the only humbling thing there is. To realize that here you are
on this earth in the midst of humanity like a grain of sand
that lays down on our beach, and yet God looked down from
old eternity with an eye of favor. with an attitude of grace, with
a love that's more than just mere benevolence, but He loved. And with chords of love, He drew
you unto Himself. We look around. We find so many who, in all their
religion, they really have no hope. They have so many works
that they hold to and yet they know no peace. And yet here we
are, the sinner of sinners, and God gives us peace. Because He
loved us and gave Himself for us. We know the Father will never
charge again to our account what Christ has paid for. We know
that everlasting love in Him will be just exactly that, everlasting
love. We know the life He gives is
not a temporary thing that ends in death, but it's eternal life,
which is to know God. And we can say with Paul, but by
the grace of God, I am what I am. We can say like that old preacher.
who stood with another man watching a man who was led away to the
gallows. The man seemed to wonder at what
a great criminal he must be if he's being taken out and hanged.
But the preacher looked at him and said, there goes me but for
the grace of God. There goes me but for the grace
of God. You can pick the worst criminal,
The mass murderer, the pervert, doesn't matter what it is. And
we know that so many will march away into the judgment of God. But we must confess, there goes
me, but for the grace of God in Christ. Paul wrote to the
Thessalonians and he said, "...and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness
in them that perish, because they receive not the love of
the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God
shall send them strong delusion that they should believe a lie,
that they all might be damned who believe not the truth, but
have pleasure in unrighteousness." You know what the next word is? But. I call it one of those buts
of grace. But. But we're bound to give
thanks always to God for you, brethren. Some there at that
place called Thessalonica, Brethren, be loved of the Lord, because
God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification
of the Spirit and belief of the truth." Every time the gospel is preached
to all men, and the better part of those who hear it, reject
it and go their separate way, those who have been able by grace
to believe it, they find reason. to thank God. It is to be preached
to all because the elect of God are scattered among them. Out there in the midst of all
the tares that the devil has sown is God's wheat. We don't know who they are. I
don't see any strange mark. And I certainly don't see any
difference in their flesh. Now they may see it. I don't
see it. But God knows it. The Lord knows
them that are His. And He's going to bring them
through the preaching of this gospel to all. He's going to
bring them to hear. Not only from the beginning have
chosen them to salvation, but He's going to bring them to belief
of the truth. I read just this morning in a
devotional that old J.C. Philpott had written. He said,
don't look for faith, don't look for peace, don't look for any
experience of the Holy Spirit of God apart from the gospel
of God. How true. How true. You see, people often always
claim to be wanting God to give them some experience, wanting
God to speak to them, wanting God to assure them of their salvation. But they have no interest in
the Gospel. He said, go and preach the Gospel
to all. Because there's some out there
that He's going to call that he's going to give ears to hear
that gospel, and it's going to be to them just exactly what
gospel is. It's going to be good news. Good news. Paul goes on writing
to Thessalonians, he says, "...whereunto he called you by our gospel to
the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ." How did
he call them that he chose? Through the gospel. Through the
gospel. Our Lord says in John 17, of
those people that the Father gave Him out of the world, He
says, Sanctify them through Thy truth. Set them apart. Manifest them. Call them out
by Your truth. Thy Word is truth. Christ said, My sheep hear My
voice. Where do they hear it at? They
hear it through the Gospel. That's something very encouraging
to the gospel preacher. That when he stands to preach,
though he doesn't know who the Lord's people are, though he
cannot make them the Lord's people, though he cannot save them in
any way himself, he knows that God the Spirit will use this
gospel and take the things of Christ and show them to them." It is to be preached in order
to expose every false gospel. Paul warned about what he called
another gospel. And I see preachers so often,
they're engaged in every fight that there is. Some fight a moral
fight. Some fight a political fight. Some fight a theological fight. They love a fight. But it's not by our fighting.
It's by this preaching of the gospel. You remember when the
Philistines overcame the Israelites, and they took the Ark of the
Covenant, and they put it in the temple of their god Dagon. They just put it in there, shut
the doors, walked out, got up the next morning, they went in
there, and the statue of Dagon had fallen on his face. And he
did what all false religious do. They took and propped up
their god again. Everything's okay. They leave
the temple, close the door, go home, go to bed, get up the next
morning, they walk in the temple, and not only has Dagon fallen
on his face, but his head and his hands have broken off. That's what we are to do. Just
keep setting forth the true gospel. I remember Brother Henry Mahan
saying many, many years ago, he said that the only way to
expose a crooked stick is by keeping laying down a straight
stick beside it. The only way men and women can
see that a gospel is false is by preaching the true gospel. Paul said, but though we or an
angel from heaven preach any other gospel unto you than that
which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. Only the true gospel can expose
the false. It is to be preached also because
it's a declaration of the lordship, the kingship, the sovereignty
of Christ the righteous judge over all. I've often said that,
you know, that little song that kids have been taught to sing
sometimes, everybody's going to know, or no, it's everybody
ought to know who Jesus is. Well, everybody's going to know.
Everybody's going to know. These that reject this gospel,
to the damnation and detriment of their eternal soul. They're
going to know that God has highly exalted Him and given Him a name
above every name, that every person, every creature in heaven,
earth, and hell is going to bow and confess that He is the Lord
over all to the glory of the Father. We're proclaiming a King. We're preaching about the Lord
of glory. We're declaring that One with
whom you have to do. You're not going to meet a normal
looking Jewish man, clothed in a robe and sandals, walking down
the shore of the Sea of Galilee. That's not who you're going to
meet. You're going to meet that highly exalted One who sits at
the right hand of the Majesty on high. The One in whose hands
God has committed all judgment. John, even as one of his own,
when he saw Him, he fell down as one did. And all that foolish bravado. Let me tell you, me and Jesus
have got this thing worked out. Well, this is what I'm going
to say when I stand before God. You're not going to say anything.
The man that came before the king, he was speechless. Speechless. The psalmist said, say among
the heathen, The Lord God reigneth. All this fussing about what's
going on in the world, all this distress over what's taking place
politically and economically and morally, what are you going
to say? I'm going to say the Lord reigns. The Lord does what He will in
heaven and in earth. Say among the heathen that the
Lord reigneth. The world also shall be established,
that it shall be not moved. He shall judge the people righteously."
And then it's to be preached to all to remind them of His
sure return. He's coming again. Do you know
what the proof of His second coming is? The fact of His first
coming. and the fact that He said He's
coming again. This same Jesus shall also come again in like
manner. He comes again the second time
without sin into salvation. He's going to ultimately, finally,
save all His people, body as well as soul. I'm reminded this week that men
and women don't really think they're going to die. No. Well, I've lived so long. We're
going to die, and this is the one we're going to meet. If we
don't die, and we're alive at His coming, it's still the one
we're going to meet. And He's the Lord. He's God over
all, blessed forever. Paul said to those Thessalonians
again, and to you who are troubled, rest with us when the Lord Jesus
shall be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels." Just
rest until He's coming. He's coming with His mighty angels
in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God and
that obey not the gospel. of our Lord Jesus Christ. An old preacher said one time,
in the law, in all our failures concerning the law of God, there's
a remedy. And that remedy is in the gospel.
But for those who obey not the gospel, you see, that shows that
it's not a mere invitation. It's a command to be believed.
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. But he says he comes taking vengeance
on them that know not God, that obey not the gospel of our Lord
Jesus Christ. That's why we're to preach the
gospel to all. Many more reasons than I could
ever express But those are a few. And when you look at our text,
there's one thing you have to notice in verse 16. And that is, not only that believing
precedes baptism, it's believers' baptism, which is why we don't
baptize infants. small children. It's believers'
baptism. He that believeth and is baptized
shall be saved. But there's one thing that's
even more clear than that, and that is we must hear the true
gospel in order to believe. We're not called upon just to
believe. We're called upon to believe the truth. Believe on
Christ who is the truth. Believe the record that God has
given of His Son. Believe the gospel, because only
in the gospel is the object of true God-given faith revealed. And that is Christ. Paul says
it like this in Ephesians 1, "...in whom you trusted after
that you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation."
And I can tell you this, the gospel of how to be saved is
not the gospel of your salvation. Whether it be the Roman road
or three easy steps or whatever it is, that's not the gospel
of your salvation. The gospel of your salvation
is the good news that God has saved you in and through the
Lord Jesus Christ by Himself, by His grace, and for His glory. I love the gospel of your salvation. That's why we preach the gospel
to all people. And I rejoice that somebody preached
the gospel to me. I had religion. I had a pulpit. I had a baptism. I had all that. But I didn't know the truth.
I didn't know the true God. as He reveals Himself in Scripture. I had not heard that gospel that
gives all the glory to Him. Therefore, I had not believed,
and therefore, my baptism was just another ritual of religion. Baptism is a public confession
of Christ as He is revealed in the truth. It's a confession
that all our hope is in this Christ who died in our place,
who God raised because He accepted His work, and whom God exalted
to His throne. Go ye and preach the gospel to
every creature. God said to do it. and much more. Our Father this day, help us
weak, poor, pitiful proclaimers of the gospel. But your Word,
joined by the power of your Spirit, proclaimed to every creature,
does so much more, is used for so much more than we could ever
imagine. Help us to know it. Help us to
proclaim it. Help us to lead the results to
you. We know that you'll save all
your people, and you'll get all the glory in their salvation,
and all the honor will be yours. We thank you. We pray. In the
name of Christ, Amen.