Please open your Bibles to Matthew
28. Matthew 28, beginning in verse
16. But the 11 disciples proceeded
to Galilee. To the mountain, which Jesus
had designated. When they saw him, they worshipped
him, but some were doubtful. And Jesus came up and spoke to
them, saying. All authority has been given
to me in heaven and on earth. Go, therefore, and make disciples
of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the father
and the son and the Holy Spirit. Teaching them to observe all
that I command you. And lo, I am with you always,
even to the end of the age. Let's pray. Our great God and Father. Rarely have I ever desired so
strongly. That the truth of this text.
Would be proclaimed clearly. And understood clearly. That the missions that we do
around the world. would be founded upon your word. And empowered by your spirit.
That all strategy. Of the flesh, every scheme. From the mind and heart of man
would be torn down. And that your people would go
forward. With your weapons of warfare. With your word. Empowered by your spirit. And
that, oh, God, we might see a mighty harvest in the land, in all the
lands to the end of the earth. That your church would be glorious.
That your name. Would be hallowed, your kingdom
would come and your will would be done, Lord, please help me
to preach, help us to understand. Father, please, please have mercy. In Jesus name, Amen. Let's go to verse 16. Says, but
the 11 proceeded to Galilee to the mountain which Jesus had
designated when they saw him, they worshiped him, but some
were doubtful. Here we do not see men of great
faith. But we see men like us, men like
us, a mixture of faith, obedience, doubt, uncertainty, hesitancy. The word doubt here is the Greek
word distaso, which means literally a double standing. It's the word
that is used of Peter when he steps out by the command of the
Lord. He steps out of the boat to walk on the water and then
begins to doubt whether or not he would be able to accomplish
the thing he was called to do. Now, the doubt that are in these
men. The doubt that is in these men,
it's not just because of their weakness, it's not just because
of their dullness of heart, the doubt that is found in these
men is also because of the magnitude of what they're being called
to believe, what they're being called to do. To walk out on
the raging sea of Galilee is nothing compared to the Great
Commission. These men are being called to go out into the land
like sheep in the midst of wolves. They're being called to go out
and cast down every mountain, every earthly mountain of authority
and power only by faith in the name of Jesus and only by the
proclamation of a singular message. gospel of our Lord and Savior,
Jesus Christ. They're being called to do an
incredible, incredible task. They were men. Like us. Put yourself in their place,
do not deify the apostles, put yourself in their place. They
were like us. But look what's going on here.
Look at our text. But the eleven disciples proceeded
to Galilee to the mountain which Jesus had designated. When they
saw him, they worshiped him. But some were doubtful. And look at 18. And Jesus came
up and spoke to them. Jesus knew their weakness and
he came to them. To strengthen And what would
happen to these men eventually? These men who are like us would
be transformed. They would become something other
than what they were, and how would that happen? They would
be transformed by a greater comprehension of the authority of Jesus Christ. They would be transformed by
the magnificent, limitless power of the Holy Spirit. Men just
like us, but they would be made to be something different, not
by strategy, not by scheme, not by human wisdom, but by the power
of the Holy Spirit. Brethren, I will not allow a
group of unbiblical men to steal from me my inheritance, which
is the indwelling and empowering of the Holy Spirit. Not to shake
me, not to draw me into confusion, but to make me strong and able
to do that which no man is able to do. Preach the gospel to the
world, and this is our great need today. This is our great
need. What what kind of missionary
do we need? What do we need today? We need
a greater comprehension of the person and work of Christ through
the study of the scriptures. We need a deep and enduring renunciation
of every strategy. That comes out of the imagination
of men, and we need a constant, constant crying out for greater
and greater manifestations of the power of God. The power of God. Now, I want
us to go on. Let's look at verse 18, and Jesus
came up and spoke to them, saying all authority has been given
to me in heaven and on earth. Jesus knows their weakness and
he goes out to meet them. He goes out to strengthen them
and he will do the same for us. He knows our frame. He knows
that we are just dust. He knows that we're subject to
the same weakness. But as Augustine said, God does
not call a man because he is worthy, but God makes a man worthy
and able by virtue of the call. Come whimpering to me about your
weakness or your inability. Of course, you're weak. Your
problem is that you don't understand how weak. Our weakness is the
catalyst to strength if it drives us to the person of Christ. Jesus comes up to them and he
counters their weakness and their doubt, how? with a declaration
of his authority, his authority over all things without exception,
without limitation, without restriction. I want you to listen to the old
commentary writer, David Brown. He says, what must have been
the feelings that such a commission awakened in these men? We conquer
the earth for Thee, Lord, who have scarce conquered our own
misgivings. We, fishermen of Galilee with
no ladder. With no means, with no influence,
even over the humblest creature? Nay, mock us not, Lord. And the
Lord responds, I mock thee not, nor do I send thee to warfare
on your own charge. But go ye therefore, for all
authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Go ye
therefore, because lo, I am with you, even to the end of the age. John Trapp wrote, Go ye in this
my strength, as Gideon against the Midianites, and though you
be but a barley cake, Coarse and contemptible, yet ye shall
overthrow the world's tents, yea, even the fortresses of Satan. And though you have but a picture
and a lamp in each hand, you shall achieve great matters.
Oh, that the evangelical church, that those who call themselves
Christians would throw away all these foolish little toys of
ministry. And go out with nothing but the
singular message of the gospel of Jesus Christ and under his
authority. That's what we need. That's what
we need. You talk about authority. Go
to the life of Joseph. The life of Joseph. And Pharaoh said to Joseph, though
I am Pharaoh. Yet, without your permission.
Not one hand or foot will be raised in all of Egypt. Jesus died for the sins of his
people. Jesus rose again from the dead. Jesus ascended to the right hand
of the majesty on high, and the father said to him without your
permission, not one. one hand or foot will be raised
in all the cosmos. That's authority. And know this,
the very hand that was raised to throw the first stone at Stephen
was under the direct authority of our Lord and Savior, Jesus
Christ. He rules over all. Now, what does this mean for
us? What does this kind of authority mean for us? For the pastor,
for the missionary, for the evangelist, I'll tell you what it means.
He who goes to and fro, weeping, carrying his bag of seed will
return with shouts of joy, bringing his sheaves with him. That's
what it means. What does it mean? I'll tell you what it means. It means there shall be a multitude
which no man can count from every nation and all tribes and peoples
and tongues standing before the throne of God and before the
lamb. And each one of them will be clothed in white and they
will have palm branches in their hands and they will be crying
out with a loud voice, salvation to our God who sits upon the
throne and to the lamb. That's what it means. I'm so
tired of all this doomsday talk among so many reformed people. With all your rightness, can
you not believe God? Do you not realize that there
are enough covenants, promises and commissions in the New Testament
for us to have the greatest confidence and not only to work for, but
to and to expect a mighty harvest? You say, but there's so little.
It's because there's so little preaching. And so little praying. Warriors fight with real armament. Little boys with make believe
toys. And the strategies that are so
put forth in missions today, most of them are nothing but
little boys wanting to play army. The weapons of your warfare are
the proclamation of the word of God and intercessory prayer. We're in this for victory. Because
he's already promised us that this gospel thing was not something
that was just done in some little corner of the world. But it is
magnificent, utterly magnificent. Now. I believe that most people involved
in missions would probably agree with most of the things I've
said about the authority of Jesus Christ, but here is something
we often overlook. Those who would go out in Christ's
authority must go out under Christ's authority. Now, what does that
mean? You listen to me careful. This is screaming sufficiency
of Scripture. To go out under Christ's authority
means that everything we believe. Everything we preach and every
so-called missionary in church planting strategy must be warranted
by the written word of God. And if it is not, you can have
no confidence whatsoever. It must be found in this book. It must come out of this book
through proper exegesis and not through some magician making
a soup. To find versus to back up what
he's already determined to do in the flesh. It must come forth
from this book, and that is why I want to tell you something.
Listen to me. Our mission strategies and our
church planting strategies, if you can say such a thing. should never come forth from
the anthropologist, the sociologist and the expert in leading cultural
trends. Our strategy must come forth
from the scriptures and through the working of the exegete. The theologian. And in the context of church
history, You listen to me. This is so important, much of
much of what is being done today is being done completely and
totally with a secular mind, abandoning the scriptures. And
don't tell me you're reformed, you're Calvinistic or anything,
unless all that talk of yours bleeds down to you submitting
to scripture with regard to all the things in your life. So many people think they're
they're in this reformed trend or whatever you want to call
it, I prefer to say biblical. But but listen to me, just because
you think you understand something of the doctrines of grace does
not mean you understand anything about the Reformation. The Reformation
was not about Calvinism. It was not even about the doctrines
of grace. The Reformation was about sufficiency of scripture,
and it was out of the sufficiency of scripture that all these other
doctrines came. So don't just grab a hold of
one little thing because you're entirely missing the foundation
of all of it. Now. I want to go on, listen. To what God said to Moses. See that you make. All things
this is regarding the temple, see that you make all things
according to the pattern which was shown you on the mountain. How much more could it be said
by our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, see to it that you carry
out my greatest cause, the great commission by the pattern that
I have shown you in the scriptures. Remember what I said a few days
ago, it is not, brother, it is not your church, it's his church. It's not your commission. It's
not your endeavor. It is his. And he expects you
to do everything he commanded you to fulfill it according to
the letter. To restrict you only to his will. God has given the church and
her ministers the scriptures that we might be adequately equipped
for every good work. God has given. His church and
her ministers, the scriptures that we might know how to conduct
ourselves in the household of God, which is the church of the
living God, the pillar and support of the truth. You have no right
to go anywhere to find out how to design your church, your mission,
your strategy, except the scriptures that God has given us. Now. I want to say this. When someone
comes after all these years and so much talk about inerrancy
and infallibility, when someone comes to me and says that they
believe that the scriptures are inerrant, I want to be honest
with you, it means nothing to me. It means absolutely nothing
to me. Because I've seen enough of these
guys. Because if you're not going to add. The twin doctrine of
the sufficiency of scripture, you've said nothing. There are
two sides of the same coin. If you believe the scriptures
are inerrant, you believe the scriptures are sufficient. And
I will know if you really believe both these things the moment
I hear you preach and the moment I walk in your church. So it's not just inerrancy, it
is sufficiency. Brothers, we must, if we're actually
going to do a work in the land, we must lay aside our carnal
strategies and designs and we must return to the scriptures
to discover what our true weapons of warfare are. I've mentioned
two, I'm going to add two more. The first two are the proclamation
of the word of God and intercessory prayer. And if you want to dress
it up and add something to it, then add these two things, sacrificial
love and suffering. Because those are the weapons
of our warfare. We must do you read rightly the
Old Testament and look through that every time the arm of the
flesh. is revealed, there is nothing
but weakness, death and destruction. And every time the arm of the
flesh is cut off, we behold the power of God. The more we trust
in ourselves, the less we will see the power of God. We must shun Saul's armor and
we must pick up the smooth stones of the gospel that for too long
have been neglected. This is the only way the giant
can be slaughtered and the work of the Great Commission can go
on. It is the only way. It is the only way. Now, let's
go on, let's look at a communication of the church's preeminent task,
let's look at verse 19 and 20. Go, therefore, and make disciples
of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the father
and the son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all
that I command you and lo, I am with you always, even to the
end of the age. First of all, recognize this, that I'm calling
the Great Commission the preeminent task and not the preeminent command.
The preeminent command is to love the Lord your God with all
your heart, soul, mind and strength, and the second is like it to
love your neighbor as yourself. We must all always in the scriptures
and in the night watch check our hearts. Brother, you find a man with
a blazing heart for God. The rest will fall into place. To love the Lord your God. To
be passionate for him. To delight in him, to seek him,
to love his face. In some ways. When the preacher
gets up to preach. And he has his opening prayer. And he doesn't want to open his
eyes and he doesn't want to quit praying. He doesn't even want
to start preaching. He just wants to stay there for
a while and be with him. You must cultivate your relationship
with Christ, he must be beautiful to you. And how do you do that? I know preachers are always telling
you you should love God more. Ask them just how you're supposed
to do that and you'll really mess up their sermon. I'll tell
you how you're supposed to love God more, how you can do it.
I love my wife now. After more than 20 years of marriage,
I love her far more than I loved her. When I married her. Why? I see more virtue than I saw.
22 years ago. And that virtue draws out my
affections. How can you? Love God more. Do you have to send all your
youth to some acquire the fire conference? I mean, look at what
we're doing. How do you love God more? Well,
first of all, you must have a regenerate heart, because if you don't,
the more you see of God, the more you'll hate him. How do
you love God more? This is how. The more you know
of his virtue. The more you know of his beauty,
the more you know of his excellency, the more you understand his attributes. If you have a regenerate heart,
then your affections will be drawn out. Behold your God. And this is the great crime of
the American preacher. How many of them have even preached
the series on who God is? That's what the people need to
see that his beauty is limitlessness, his beauty. I am convinced from
the scriptures and from experience that if it were not for the Holy
Spirit strengthening our hearts, that sometimes when the beauty
of God is revealed, it would drive us mad. This is what propels men and
women into the Great Commission. And this is why the Great Commission
is a labor of love. You love the Lord, your God,
and therefore you long that his name be great among the nations
from the rising to the setting of the sun and that the lamb
receive the full reward for his suffering. As the Moravian said,
I love that statement. And you love people. To say that
everything is about the glory of God, that is true, but to
say it so many times, it turns into a cliche and modern evangelicalism
is very sad. Let me tell you something, young
man. If you're all about the glory of God. You're going to
love people. And you are going to be moved
with compassion. Over their suffering. And you
are going to want their salvation. To the point where you say with
Spurgeon, save the elect and elect some more. Now, I know I'm going to get
all kinds of hate mail from that. Now. He says, therefore. Those prepositions are so important,
aren't they? Those things that just put one
thing to another. Why are we supposed to go out
not in our own inherent authority? Or our strength. Why do we go
out because of what he's declared? All authority has been given
to me in heaven and on earth. And you see that authority protects
the preacher, protects the missionary, protects every believer. And
he knows every hair on your head and do not fear because you're
worth far more than birds. And he sees every one of them
when they fall. That's why the weakest man imaginable, the weakest
woman imaginable can become a tower of strength because they understand
the Lord is with me. Because they dwell in the shadow
of the most high, they live under his wing. And they're aware of
it. Therefore, make disciples. Make
disciples. The word means teach, teach. Instruct. And therefore, make
disciples. Now, our Lord made it very clear
what a disciple is. A disciple is someone who is
like his master. And therefore, in the work of
missions and evangelism and church planting and pastoring, we are
not called to count converts nor to record decisions. We are
called to evangelize the lost, and once these lost are soundly
converted, we are called to teach them the full counsel of God
and enter into the lifelong labor of their conformity to the image
of Jesus Christ. That is a disciple and that is
discipleship making. Now, he also says all nations. Don't ever. Be content. Don't be content with your own
ministry. Don't be content because you
got up and you preached this marvelous demonstration of expository
preaching. Because it tells me that you're
just all about yourself. Do not be content until the banner
of Jesus Christ flies over every inch of this planet. Until the
world, the earth is filled with the knowledge of the glory of
God, like the waters cover the sea. And again and again, I say
it a thousand times to not be content until the lamb, the lamb
has received the full reward for his suffering. Every one
of them is brought in. Remember what I taught you about
Ezekiel. Can these bones live? Ezekiel said basically to the
Lord, my heart is not proud, nor my eyes haughty, nor do I
involve myself in things that are difficult. It is not unto
me, O Lord, to know the times and the seasons that you have
fixed by your own authority, but I will put my hand to the
plow and I will preach. I will prophesy. I will prophesy
until all these bones are converted into living men or I join them
in death. I will preach. And it is our
faith and belief in the sovereignty of God that encourages us to
preach in the deadest places of the world. Now, he says. Go. Now, all of you are probably
familiar, you've heard many, many times that the command here
in this text is not go, it's make disciples, and that's true.
But the commentary writer, Craig Blom Blomberg, he just nails
it on this. He does an exceptional job and
this is what he says. He said this observation. That
the command is to make disciples and not go has been emphasized
in some cases too much, and in some cases it's been emphasized
too little. And how has it been emphasized
too much that we're just supposed to make disciples and go is not
the command when a pastor and a church. begins to assume that
they're only responsible to evangelize the people around them where
they are planted to the neglect of the Great Commission. Now,
when is it not emphasized enough when people think that, you know,
going is the important thing? It's when churches. Think that
going, going, going, sending, sending, sending is the thing
that we ought to do, and they become frantic and they become
pragmatic. And what usually happens when
this happens in a church and a denomination, usually two things,
you mark these down. One. They begin sending people
to the field who are not qualified to go. They begin sending anyone
to the field that wants to go to the field and they neglect
the direct commands given us in First Timothy, chapter three
and Titus one. Now, the response I've received
from that from some people is, yeah, but they're not going out
as elders. They don't have to meet those requirements. You're
reading the text wrong. I want you to realize something.
First Timothy three and Titus one. It is talking about the
requirements of elders, but only in this way. He's giving us a
picture of a mature Christian. And in order to be an elder,
you must be a mature Christian. It doesn't mean that only elders
need to meet up to those qualifications and no one else needs to. He's
giving us a picture of a mature Christian, and if you're going
to be an elder, you're going to be a missionary, then you
must be mature. And this is what a mature man
looks like. You see that. Another way in which this Frantic
pragmatism reveals itself is when a church or a denomination
leaves aside the scripture and begins to design and accept strategies
that that supposedly produce results. Now, I am describing. Most of
the strategies, church planting ideas, mission strategies and
programs and plans that come down through the pike almost
every year, and they do not last even that long. Am I describing anything that
you're familiar with? I'm describing most of evangelicalism
is what I'm doing. People desperate to fulfill the
Great Commission, frantically moving around and doing things
that are not warranted by the scriptures. Now, let me say this,
missions is actually a very simple thing, and as a matter of fact,
we could say that missions is primarily divided up into two
ministries. You are either called to go or
you are called to send. And either way. Devotion. And dedication is required. William
Carey said this to the brothers who were around him, I will go
down into the mine. That is India. But you men must
hold the rope. So either we're called to go
down into the mine or in some way as individuals and churches,
we are called to hold the rope for those who go down. Either
way, there will be scars on our hands and there will be exhaustion
on our faces. Also, I want to say this, we
live in an age of media, multimedia, Internet, cyberspace, and there
have been some great advances in technology that has also been
beneficial to the advancement of the kingdom of heaven, especially
in areas that are off limits to missionaries. But I want you
to know this. We will never accomplish the
Great Commission online. Biblical missions is incarnational,
sending people to people. When God reached out to humanity,
he did not write the gospel in the sky. He clothed himself in
flesh and he dwelt among us. And we must do the same. We must
continue sending flesh and blood missionaries to flesh and blood
people. Now, not only are we to go, but
we're to baptize. Now, many times people look at
this word, well, baptized and just go on as though it doesn't
really have that important of a place. But Jesus did put it
here. And he gives it a very important
place, and I want to give you at least some some of the implications
of him putting this here. First of all. Our disciples must
receive our embrace. The whole of the unique Christian
message to the exclusion of all other gods, all other religions
and all other teachings, you say, how do you get that out
of baptizing? Well, this the name. Of the father, the son
and the Holy Spirit. This unique Christian message,
the God of the Bible is not the God of the Koran. We are not
offering the nations their same God with another name, nor are
we offering the nations an option among many. We are offering the
nations the only name by which men must be saved. And you say,
Brother Paul, there's no need to really talk about this because,
you know, we're all evangelical. You mark my words, evangelicalism
in a matter of less than a decade or more, you will begin to see
evangelicals fall. To the point where not universalist,
but inclusivist, anybody believes anything and they're OK. It has already begun. As a matter
of fact, the word evangelical means nothing. It has no meaning
anymore. None. We must guard this doctrine,
you see, the Christians of the early church were actually persecuted
for being atheist. Yes. Because everyone's having
a party in Rome, everyone is affirming each other's gods,
trading gods like baseball cards. And then the Christian shows
up and says, no, they are no gods. There is one Lord, Jesus
Christ. Crucified and resurrected from
the dead. You see, the hostility between
the world and Christianity could be resolved in just one swipe. All we have to do is change our
definite article to an indefinite article. Instead of saying he
is the way, the truth and the life, all we have to do is say
he is a way, a truth, a life, and we will be the toast of the
secular world. But in doing so, we will remove
the scandal from Christianity. It will lose its power and whoever
does it will lose their soul. Another thing about baptizing,
they must openly and publicly identify with Christ. Now, I
know this is a cause of great controversy in modern missions
today, and I also know. That there must be wisdom. And yet know this, we find nowhere
in the New Testament where the apostles are trying to teach
their disciples how to hide from persecution and suffering nowhere. And yet that is a part of the
great missionary conversation today in contemporary Christianity. What the apostles did was this,
even in their evangelistic messages, they told the people they would
suffer. And then through the teaching of the word of God,
they prepared the people to suffer. They did. My dear friend, know
this. Missions and suffering go hand
in hand. And if you don't want to suffer,
don't be a missionary. And in many places, the advancement
of the kingdom brings suffering, is it not true that all those
who seek to live a pious life will be persecuted? Another thing I want you to see,
and I've seen this firsthand in the places I have personally
lived. A person can tell their family, tell their friends, everyone,
I believe in Jesus now, and no one will have a problem with
it. Oftentimes, even in the most persecuted countries, people
will not have a problem with one of their family members saying,
I believe in Jesus now. But it is when. They are baptized. In the name of Jesus, and they
identify themselves with Jesus to the exclusion of all other
gods that the persecution comes. I can't tell you how many people
in my first church plan. In Peru, they would go home and
tell their mother and father they were now believing in Jesus
and thoroughly explain the gospel to them. And there was no problem.
But when they said we are going to be baptized into this Baptist
church, all hell broke loose. Jesus Christ. Brothers, Jesus Christ said. But although he is the prince
of peace, at the same time, he came to bring division, there
would be division in this time of the Messiah's trouble. There
would be warfare. Many of the strategies that come
out of North America with regard to missions are simply designed
so that Americans can go over into dangerous lands, play missionary
without the worry of persecution. It is self-preservation. We must
realize that you're not going to win the world without spilling
some of your own blood. Now, let's go on, finally, baptizing
is important. Because Jesus Christ did not
die to leave in his wake. Individual disconnected. Disciples. He died. That from his blood. A church would be born. We have
throughout the entire New Testament. Believers being brought together
in local churches that openly and publicly identify themselves
with Jesus Christ, the church is beautiful to him. The local
church, the gathering of people together. And this is one of
the reasons why baptizing is so important, it begins that
step of publicly identifying not only with Christ, but publicly
identifying with his people. Now. Let's go on. He says not
only baptizing, but teaching. The Great Commission, is primarily
didactic. It's not about sending missionaries,
it's about sending God's truth through missionaries. Then he
says to observe the goal of teaching is not merely gnosis. The goal
of teaching is praxis, it's not merely orthodoxy, although it
must begin with orthodoxy, it is also about orthopraxis. And
this is the reason why Jesus said, take my yoke upon you and
learn from me. To learn from him, you cannot
learn from him as an uninvolved bystander, you learn from him
as one who takes this teaching. Upon yourself. And you submit
to it. And this goes against everything
in our culture and it goes against everything and everybody else's
culture, but that's the Bible in a fallen world. Now, he says,
all that I command you, what are we to teach? Now, listen
to me, because this is extremely important, brothers. Listen.
He says, teach all that I commanded you, teach his word, teach the
word of God. I want to quote a very famous
Baptist here by the name of Broadus, and I want you to think about
what he says, because it would literally bring missions back
to where it needs to be if someone would just listen to him. This
is what he said. Our Lord. Did not foresee a time
or a circumstance when any part of his teaching. Any part of
his teaching would be antiquated or untrue, inappropriate or needless. Furthermore, he did not foresee
any extra revelation being added. Now, that's that's sound exegesis,
my friend. Teach them what what I commanded
you, teach them what I commanded you. I'm hearing so many missionary
people use language like this. We cannot be restricted by the
scriptures. I'm even hearing arguments from
the book of Acts, particularly Acts 15, that the disciples didn't
make the decision with regard to the Gentiles because of something
they got out of scripture, but from what they were experiencing
all around them. And through that experience,
they reinterpreted the scriptures. Sometimes it is almost appropriate
for a preacher to cuss, isn't it? I'm not going to say it, but
if someone will write it all down on paper, I'll sign it. Brothers, what on earth are we
talking about? What are we talking about? You
know what's sad, two things are at stake, the glory of God and
beautiful, beautiful, beautiful, precious, precious souls. Know
this also, young men, just as a side note, I talk a lot about
radical depravity. But never forget, at the same
time, men were made in the image of God, God does not delight
in the death of the wicked. People are precious, they are. All of them. All of them. Don't
go the mission field, you can't go with that. Let's go on. Truths to be gleaned missions,
it's not about sending missionaries, but about sending God's truth.
Through missionaries. Therefore, all the sending and
all the missionary activity in the world is of little use unless
it results in the proclamation. The proclamation. Of the scriptures
resulting in the transformation of lives in accordance with what
is written. Another thing I want you to see,
the missionary must be a man of the word, the missionary must
be an exegete and a theologian. Guys come to me all the time,
young guys, and they'll go, they'll go, Brother Paul, I want to go
to seminary. Why? Well, I want to be a missionary.
OK, why are you going to seminary? Well, you know, I want to learn
about how to do missions. I said, then don't go to seminary.
Well, then why should I go to seminary? I'll tell you why to
go to seminary. You listen to me. Here are the reasons you
go to seminary. You go to seminary to learn the languages. You go
to seminary to learn how to exegete a text without contradiction.
You go to seminary to study systematic theology so that you can learn
to think without contradiction, both theology and ethics. And
you go to seminary to learn church history so that you won't keep
making the same mistakes and so that you will have at least
the sounding board of 2000 years of godly men by which you can
judge your own interpretations, because we've got enough cults
running around who say, I only read the Bible. And what they're
saying, I only live by my own interpretation. of the Bible,
and I disregard what other godly men down through history have
ever believed. That's why you go to seminary.
And then if you have that, guess what? These are only tools so
that you might study the Bible. You say, well, I'm going to seminary
to study the Bible, you're going to seminary to gain the tools
to be able to spend the rest of your life studying the Bible,
because it's going to take that long and you still won't even
reach the foothills of understanding the glories of the gospel. Do
you see that? You don't go just to learn some
gimmicks and some strategies. I remember one time I had the
privilege of sitting in just sitting in there in the back
row, the chapel there at Masters. And I don't know, some teacher
had said something crazy somewhere in in some part of the West or
something, and I guess Dr. MacArthur thought he needed to
come in and make sure the young men didn't get carried away by
that stupidity. And I'll never forget the first
time I saw him. And he walked up the pulpit and
he says this, he goes, don't you ever forget you're here at
this school, two reasons, two reasons, you understand me, you're
here at this school for two reasons to learn how to interpret scripture
in order to preach scripture. That's all we do here. We interpret
scripture. We preach scripture. You're here to interpret scripture
and preach scripture. I went. Yeah, that's right. And I was here when he said it. I would have said amen, but I
was too scared. Brothers. Brothers. Study the word to preach the
word. Pray. Preach, study, pray, preach. I mean, Why add anything to this? This is our mantle, this is our
joy, this is our privilege. Now, let's go on quickly, I had
a young man call me and I want to use this as an illustration
years and years ago, and I did have him come join me on the
mission field, but he called me and he said, Brother Paul,
I want to come down and work with you in Peru. He said, OK,
tell me about your personal Bible study, your time in the scriptures.
He said, that's really not my gift, but I just want to come
down there and I want to give my life away. I said, OK, I said,
talk to me about your your prayer life. Well, you know, Brother
Paul, that's just not a strong thing for me, but I just I want
to come down there and I want to give my life away. And this
is why I said to him, young man, no one here in Peru needs your
life. They need someone who can come
down here And open their mouth and tell them about God and then
go back to God and open their mouth and tell God about them,
that's what they need. We don't need your life, we need
God's life. And he came down and I taught
him those things, he needed to hear it and we all need to hear
it, we need to have the heart of Ezra. What does it say? Ezra
set his heart to study the law of God. And to practice it. And to teach
statutes and ordinances in Israel. Now, I want to say a few things.
I know I've got to hurry here, but the command to make disciples
through preaching proves a few things. The command to make disciples
through teaching proves this. First of all, Christianity is
a truth religion. Don't ever get away from that.
Christianity is all about truth. And these guys will throw up
smoke screens to you, young men, don't listen to them. Well, the
truth is living and the truth is this and the truth is Jesus.
And they use all kinds of really nice language to get away from
the fact that the truth is also propositional and it's found
in this book. Christianity is about truth, it is a truth religion,
and God knows our minds, the categories of our minds, he knows
how we need to receive these things. He gave us truth in written
word. So it's a truth religion and
the Great Commission is primarily a doctrinal endeavor. It is primarily
a doctrinal endeavor, and that is proved by the fact that what
do we do? We teach about Jesus, what did
the apostles do? They would not abandon prayer
and the word because their entire ministry was the prayer and the
word. Now, You only have to look a
small glance at modern day missions and you realize that theology
and doctrine and all this stuff does not have a very high priority.
And because of that. Missions has become something
of a contradiction. Even an absurdity. And I want
to give you a few glaring examples of what I'm talking about. First,
it has become popular opinion that Christians should lay aside
their doctrine and rally around their confession of Christ. Here's
the problem, there are many versions of Jesus Christ being taught
by those who claim to follow him. How can we know which is
the true Jesus, except through a careful and cautious study
of the scripture and the application of its doctrine? Do you see that? Or are we listen very carefully? Are we to fill the world and
the church? Are we to preach? A Christ that
is so vague and so general. That we fill the world and the
church with countless contradictory opinions of who he is and what
he taught. Is that we're supposed to do?
Well, guess what? That's what we've done. You see
that. That's what we have done now. I want to say something else. Secondly, it's been often stated
that Christians should lay aside their theology and unite around
the common cause of the Great Commission denominations and
individual believers. They think the Great Commission
ought to be the thing that binds us and we ought to lay aside
our theology to just work together in the Great Commission. Now,
here's the problem. The Great Commission is primarily a doctrinal
endeavor. So are you going to lay aside
doctrine to carry out a primarily doctrinal endeavor? Do you see
how absurd that is? It is an absurdity to think that
missions can be the thread that binds individuals together who
have contradictory opinions with regard to Jesus Christ and the
fundamentals of the Christian faith. It cannot happen. It will never work. Not in a
biblical way. Now, thirdly, it's become a major
Christian idea or opinion that we should only concentrate ourselves
on the major doctrines and not sweat the small stuff. And then
often there's a quote that's attributed to Augustine where
the scholars are not really sure if he said it or not, but it
goes something like this in essentials unity. In doubtful matters, liberty
in all things charity, and there's some truth in that problem is
there's a lot of danger in that, especially in our contemporary
context. And you say why? We live in a
current Christian culture that increasingly depreciates absolute
truth, and every year here's what's happening. More and more doctrine is being
relegated to the small stuff category. So that doctrines that
only 10 or 15 years ago were considered absolute essentials
to being evangelical, absolute essentials to being Christian
are now considered not even worth arguing about, and if you bring
them up, you're just a critical spirit. You see that another
problem with this idea is if you just want to make the major
things the thing you concern yourself about and not sweat
the small stuff, that's OK. If you want to philosophize and
meditate in an ivory tower or your group of seminary students
sitting in the student center talking all kinds of stuff. But
if you're going to do real life ministry with real life people,
if you're going to plant real churches, then that small stuff
becomes incredibly important and it demands a definition.
It demands it. Another thing. It has been very. Frequent. That missionary organizations
and denominations. They reduce their doctrinal confession
down to the lowest common denominator so that they can involve themselves
with as many missionary candidates as possible and also bring in
just as many mission supporters as possible. Now, many times
this is done with a sincere heart, the desire to do more in missions,
but it is blatantly pragmatic. It is unbiblical and it always
results in the weakness of the church and the Great Commission. Now, I'm going to read to you
something from Walter Shantry in today's gospel. Just listen
to what he says. Those who believe in God's word
have been grasping at the same superficial solutions that liberalism
has adopted relevance, respectability, whether intellectual or social,
and especially unity have become the aims of God's people with
the hope that these will revitalize a weakened church. If only Bible
believing people joined together, the world would sit up and listen,
thinks the church. Let's merge our mission boards
to pool our funds and our personnel. Let's join giant evangelistic
projects. If every evangelical joins in
a common organization, we can have greater depth of evangelism.
Thus, organizational unity becomes the aim of gospel churches, having
accepted the theory that unity is all important for world evangelism. Both the church and the individual
must lower their estimate, the value of truth in a large Congress
on evangelism. We could not insist on a truth
of God's word that would offend any brother evangelical. Thus,
we must find the lowest common denominator to which all so-called
born again Christians hold. The rest of the Bible will be
labeled unessential for missions. After all, unity among Christians
is more essential than doctrinal precision. It is just for this
reason that mission societies have been unwilling to carefully
examine the root problem in preaching. Mission boards are hesitant to
answer the question, what is the gospel thoroughly to answer? That would condemn what many
of their own missionaries preach. It would destroy the mission
society, which is a federation of churches who have differing
answers to that question. To adopt the position of one
church would be to lose the support of five others. The whole system
built on unity and generality would crumble. The local church
may not get too specific about truth either. It may affect its
harmony with the denomination or association to define the
gospel carefully will bring conflict with the organizations. Working
with teenagers, it will prompt irritating problems with mission
boards and embarrassing disagreement with missionaries supported for
years. It may condemn the whole Sunday school program. Giving
too much attention to the content of the gospel will mean friction
with other evangelicals. And unity is the key to success. Does that sound familiar? Brothers,
unity is so beautiful and so important, but unity can only
be based Upon sound doctrine. Now, let's finish, he says, and
lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Lo is
translated from the Greek particle edu. Lo behold. Do you know what the greatest
encouragement of the Great Commission is, you know, the greatest encouragement
to the missionary alone in the dark jungle is, you know, the
greatest encouragement is to the man who is surrounded in
a house by enemies who want to kill him. I will tell you this
right here. Whenever you're afraid, this
is what Jesus says, look at me. Look at me, he says. All authority has been given
to me in heaven and on earth. Look at me. You talk about calm
waters. Tis enough, Lord. Tis enough. I am with you always, even to
the end of the age. Levertov calls this the greatest
conclusion that any book could have. Brothers, this is not a
time for narrow shoulders, small hearts, tight spirits. Not a
time. For mumblers who do not speak
clearly. It's not a time for angry men
or critical spirits. It is a time. To go. To baptize, to teach. And to do everything that has
been given us to do in his power, his authority, let's pray. Father, thank you for your word.
I pray, dear God. I pray. Not for a revolution
in missions, but a reformation in missions. That men and women would go out
with just a lamp and a pitcher. And overthrow the tense of this
world. By looking to your son and trusting in the power of
God. In Jesus name, Amen.