The Great Commission

Q: What does the Bible say about the Great Commission?

The Great Commission is found in Mark 16:15-18, where Jesus commands believers to preach the gospel to every creature. The Great Commission, as recorded in Mark 16:15-18, represents the Lord's final instructions to His disciples before ascending to heaven. In this passage, Jesus commands His followers to 'go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.' This task is not limited to the apostles; it pertains to every believer, inviting them to take an active role in sharing the good news of Christ. The directive emphasizes the importance of evangelism and the universal need for salvation through faith in Jesus Christ, reminding us that all men are lost without Him.

Q: How do we know that preaching the gospel is essential for salvation?

Romans 1:16 states that the gospel is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes. The essential nature of preaching the gospel for salvation is clearly articulated in Romans 1:16, where Paul declares, 'For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth.' This passage underscores that the gospel is not merely a suggestion for salvation; it is the divinely appointed means through which God chooses to save His elect. Therefore, without the gospel proclamation, none can come to faith. The scripture makes it clear that while individuals by nature possess a consciousness of God, it is the gospel which reveals the righteousness of God and brings about faith required for salvation.

Q: Why is the work of missionaries important for Christians?

Missionaries are crucial because they spread the gospel, fulfilling the Great Commission. The work of missionaries is fundamentally important for Christians because it embodies the Great Commission's call to spread the gospel throughout the world. As believers, we are tasked with not only sharing our faith but also supporting and encouraging those who dedicate their lives to this endeavor. The example of missionaries like Walter and Cody Gruber shows the impact of a life devoted to preaching the gospel in foreign lands. Their efforts not only establish indigenous churches but also ensure that the message of salvation reaches those who have never heard it. Supporting missionaries is a vital expression of communal faith, fostering a global perspective on God’s redemptive work.

Q: How does baptism relate to faith in Christ?

Baptism is the believer's public confession of faith and obedience to Christ, following belief. In the context of the Great Commission, baptism is closely tied to faith as a public declaration of one's belief in Christ. Mark 16:16 states, 'He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved,' indicating that baptism follows faith and serves as an outward sign of the inward transformation that faith in Christ brings. While baptism itself does not confer grace or salvation, it is a crucial act of obedience that demonstrates a believer's commitment to Christ. Baptism represents the believer’s acknowledgment of their identification with Christ in His death, burial, and resurrection, and serves as an essential aspect of their new life in Him.

Q: What is the role of preaching in God's plan for salvation?

Preaching is ordained by God as the means through which He saves His chosen people. Preaching holds a vital role in God's plan for salvation as it serves as the means through which He communicates His grace to His chosen people. Romans 10:14 asks, 'How shall they hear without a preacher?', highlighting the necessity of preaching for individuals to come to faith. God has ordained the preaching of the gospel, not as a mere suggestion but as an essential instrument of His grace. Through preaching, the truths of Christ's finished work are proclaimed, allowing the Holy Spirit to work in the hearts of those who hear. The church's responsibility is to proclaim the gospel universally, trusting that God will call His elect through this divinely appointed means.

Mark the 16th chapter. As you know, we'll be leaving tomorrow to go visit our missionaries, Walter and Cody Gruber and their families in Mexico, as well as several of the pastors and churches in the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico. I really wish all of you could go. I wish you would make plans, if at all possible, to do so, to go visit not only Walter and Cody, but other missionary families as well, because It's encouraging to the missionaries and it's encouraging to the churches and pastors in those other countries for you to show such interest in them. And it is good for you. It's good for you.

Nothing will give you an appreciation for and a concern for the work of our missionaries like visiting them on the fields and seeing the work they do. I have never known anyone to go to any of the mission fields, visit a faithful man and the work he's doing, and come back from the field without being inspired to support and encourage others to support the work that is going on in those places.

Walter and Betty, remarkable people. They spent 30 years, more than 30 years in Mérida, Mexico. They took their children there when they were just young children and raised their children on the field. They've made tremendous sacrifices for the cause of Christ. That ought to commend them highly to every one of us. Several years ago, Cody, their oldest son, and his wife, Winna, felt led of God to go join them in the work. Cody quit his job, a very lucrative job, with good benefits, good retirement. They sold their house, and he and Winna took their three small children and moved down to Merida. And there they had been laboring together with Walter and Betty in the cause of Christ.

In more than 30 years since Walter went to Mexico, God has graciously used him to establish, now this is just almost inconceivable, but has graciously used him to establish somewhere over 30 churches. Most of these churches now have their own pastors, the vast majority do. They're self-supporting churches. They don't depend on U.S. dollars to take care of them. They support their own pastors and build their own buildings. We help them as we're able and as it's needed. But these churches are indigenous, self-supporting churches.

Since returning to Mérida where he was raised, Cody is now preaching in Mérida. He's also traveling to Chiapas where Brother Milton Howard served the cause of Christ for more than 25 years before he accepted the church in Ball. Cody goes down there and preaches and helps the churches in that area. He's also taking regular trips to the Dominican Republic, and they're helping to establish a gospel church in that place. He and Walter maintain the preacher's school in Merida, where they continually go through training courses with the preachers in the Yucatan area. Since Cody has gone there, making those trips and serving the cause of Christ there, God just has continually blessed the ministry in the area both in the Yucatan and in Chiapas and now in the Dominican Republic.

I brought all those things to your attention because I don't hesitate to ask you and myself, to ask you and your families and my own family to give generously even if it involves sacrificing other things on our part to assist in the support of these missionaries and others, both at home and around the world. Because I ask these things of you, I think it's altogether proper that you should understand clearly the reason why we go about giving ourselves in the labor of the gospel and to these various missionary endeavors.

Why on this earth would any man hazard his life and the lives of his wife and children to go to foreign soil, give up livelihood, give up property, and give up a great many of the liberties we have. Live in difficult, oftentimes hostile circumstances for the gospel of Christ. What would possess a fellow to do so? Why do we spend so much of our money, our labor, our efforts, for the furtherance of the gospel around the world. I'm thankful God has allowed us for the past several years to take just about half of everything that comes in here and it's spent just directly in the support of missionaries or preaching the gospel in one way or another around the world. But why do it?

Why do we have the conferences we have and send out the literature that we send out and the tapes and things literally, literally around the world? Why should we make sacrifices to support this congregation, other missionary families and churches, and other churches like this in this country and in others? These questions could all be answered from a number of places in Scripture and answered in a number of ways. But they are answered very clearly and very distinctly in the text that we have chosen this evening, Mark chapter 16, verses 15 through 18.

The title of my message is The Great Commission. These are our Lord's last words to his church before he ascended back into heaven. His last words to you and me. This great commission was given not just to the apostles of Christ and not just to preachers, but it was given to every believer left in this world. It is our responsibility and our privilege as God's servants in this world to walk about our daily lives, fulfilling this commission day by day as God gives us the means and the opportunity until we draw our last breath. Let's read the text together. Mark 16, verse 15. 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. And these signs shall follow them that believe. In my name shall they cast out devils. They shall speak with new tongues, They shall take up serpents, and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them. They shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover. Now in these verses of Scripture, I want to call your attention to three or four things, and we'll move along very quickly. First, our Lord here in verse 15 gives us what has commonly been called the Great Commission. He says to you and me, I wish each of us would hear it personally. Each of us. I wish that we would take it to be a commission given to us distinctly as a gospel church.

Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. Preach the gospel to everybody. Now, it's utterly impossible for me to emphatically enough state the importance and the comprehensiveness and the depth of meaning that's found in these words. Our Lord's charge to us in this one sentence is that which describes for us the work of God's people in this world, our responsibility and our privilege. The need is great. Our Lord commands us to go into all the world preaching the gospel, Because all men everywhere by nature, without the gospel of Christ, without faith in Jesus Christ, are lost.

All men everywhere are under the wrath of God. All men everywhere are without hope, without God, without Christ, lost, doomed, damned, and dying in this world. God has given all men by nature the light of creation. so that his wisdom and power is seen in the heavens which declare his wisdom and power. God's holiness and his requirement of holiness is stamped and engraved upon every man's conscience by nature so that every man has a God consciousness. Every man is aware that God is. Every man is aware that somehow God will punish sin and God demands holiness.

And yet this light of nature never is that which God uses to bring men to faith in Christ. It is sufficient to condemn, because it reveals to every man what God requires of him, but it doesn't give him any ability to perform what God requires of him. Man by nature is utterly depraved. He is responsible to walk in the light God gives him, but he can't do it. He doesn't have the ability to do it. He's dead in trespasses and sins. And he chooses wickedness over righteousness in all things. But God's given us a message. The message that we have is great indeed. He says to us, go and preach the gospel. Preach the gospel to every creature. Now this is our responsibility. This is the work of God's church.

I don't suggest that we should by any means neglect the feeding of the hungry, the clothing of the naked, the educating of the unlearned. But these things are not our primary responsibilities. We must never neglect the poor and the needy in this world. As God gives us opportunity, we do and we will continue to try to take care of needs which arise in that regard. But there are multitudes of philanthropic societies and organizations all around the world who take care of those needs. And for the most part, while they will, let them take care of those needs. But our responsibility is the preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ. We send missionaries and we support missionaries around the world, here at home and in other places, who preach the gospel of Jesus Christ.

We Do not, as a matter of policy, and I'm convinced biblical policy, support missionaries go teach folks how to raise chickens in Africa. That's kind of nuts. We don't support missionaries to go build schools. Other folks build schools. We don't support missionaries to go build hospitals. Folks talk about medical missionaries and education missionaries and farming missionaries. That's utter nonsense.

Missionaries are men, not women, but men called of God to preach the gospel for the furtherance of the gospel, establishing God's kingdom wherever God sends them. And those are the kind of men God's given us the privilege of supporting. What is it then to go and preach, to serve as a missionary? It is to preach the gospel. And to preach the gospel is quite simple.

It is to declare ruin by the fall, redemption by the blood, and regeneration by the Holy Spirit. It is to declare to men their utter depravity, ruin of all men by the sin and fall of our father Adam, their need of a substitute and a savior. It is to declare to all men the accomplishment of redemption by Jesus Christ when He died at Calvary. Not simply making it possible, but the accomplishment of redemption. Declaring that judgment has passed. Declaring that redemption is accomplished. Declaring your warfare is over to all who believe.

And it is to declare to men the absolute, efficacious, irresistible grace of God the Holy Spirit in raising dead sinners to life, declaring to sinners that God saves! Behold your God. Know yourself to be flesh, withering, dying flesh, and behold God who saves. The preaching of the gospel is so important that it is THE means. Now I want you to get this. Turn to Romans chapter 1. It is the means by which God saves chosen sinners. I stress this here frequently. I stress it because there is great need.

Paul tells us in the first two chapters of Romans that the light of creation and the light of God in a man's conscience, while sufficient to condemn him so that all are without excuse, is never sufficient to save him. nor will God ever use it to save him, that is, use it without the gospel. God has ordained the salvation of chosen sinners by means of gospel preaching. Without the gospel, none can ever be saved. You say, well, that's a fine theological opinion, and we respect your opinion. That is not my opinion, Rex.

This is what God says specifically in his word. This is the exact language of the Holy Spirit. In 1 Corinthians 15, hold your hands here, or look here in Romans 1, but hold your hand, hold it just a minute and listen. In 1 Corinthians 15, the Holy Spirit says to us, it is the gospel preached to you by which you are saved. That's pretty strong language, isn't it? It is the gospel preached to you by which you're saved. Look here in Romans 1 verse 15. Paul says, so as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome also, for I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God.

The word power there is the word from which we get our word dynamite. It is the explosive power of God. It is the magnificent power, the awesome 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. The righteousness of God is revealed in the preaching of the gospel. And it is, by God's blessing, the power of God to the saving of His people. Now the preaching of the gospel has no saving merit or efficacy on its own.

No, sir. But it's the catalyst. So the power of God comes together in the heart of a sinner by the power of God's spirit. And this gives life to dead sinners. So then faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. Turn to Ephesians chapter one, verse 13. Paul is describing for us the purpose of God in salvation. He tells us in another place, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.

Here in Ephesians 1.13, having described God's purpose of grace in election, God's eternal predestination, the accomplishment of redemption by Christ, he tells us that we are saved by God's free grace to the praise of the glory of his grace. Now look at it, verse 13, in whom you also trusted. Well, when did you trust in him? When did you trust in Christ? When did you believe on the Son of God? After that you heard, now listen, the word of truth.

Folks talk to me all the time. They say, I was saved when I was in Armenia and then God taught me the gospel. No, you weren't. That's just not so. Oh, no. Men and women are saved when God teaches them the gospel. You're saved not by the word of falsehood, but by the word of truth.

Read what it says. The gospel of your salvation. That is, a man was sent of God to proclaim to you by the power of God that your warfare is accomplished, that your iniquities pardoned, that you've received of the Lord's hand, double for all your sins. And hearing it, you believed. Read on. The gospel of your salvation. Salvation accomplished for you by the Son of God. in whom also after you believed you were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise. Now then look at 2 Thessalonians chapter 2.

Now this is what distinguishes us in great measure from hardshells, primitive Baptists, folks who call themselves old school Baptists. This is what distinguishes us in great measure. We believe in the necessary utility of the gospel in salvation. That is, we believe that God saves sinners only through the use of His appointed means. Our friends, and we have many, I have many personally, who are strong primitive Baptists, and they believe God saves His elect, and He's going to save His elect no matter what.

No, He's not. No, He's not. He's going to save His elect exactly the way He ordained. Now look what it says, 2 Thessalonians 2 verse 13. We are bound to give thanks all way to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because God has from the beginning chosen you to salvation. Yes, sir. He's going to do it. But how is he going to do it? Through sanctification of the spirit, by the regenerating power and grace of his Holy Spirit. Look at it now. And what does it say? Well, he's going to strike you in the head with a bolt of lightning and save you whether you know him or not. No, he's not. No, he's not. What does it say?

And belief of the truth. That's how God saves sinners. No other way. Well, what if there's not a preacher there to preach to them? That's no trouble to him. That's no difficulty to God. He proved that in Acts chapter 8, didn't he? It's no difficulty to God to cause his servant to go with his word to his chosen people at the time of his grace. He always arranges it.

All right. The Apostle Paul then tells us that this is the gospel by which you are saved. Our master says for us to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. I preach it to everybody because he said do it. Because we don't know who his elect are. And we have his commandment to go preach with this promise that every chosen redeemed sinner shall be called by the power of his grace through the word that is preached. So shall my word be, he says, that goes forth out of my mouth. It shall not return to me void. It shall prosper in the thing where to I send it. It shall accomplish that which I please.

Oh, what a privilege. To preach the gospel of God's grace to sinners with the hope that he may allow us to carry the message to one of his chosen for the glory of his name. I see those commercials on television that publishes clearing houses, and I often think, man, I'd sure like to have Ed McMahon and Dick Clark's job.

Oh, I'd like to go. I'd like to go to somebody's house with a check for ten million dollars. You just had it there. I don't have any money to give them, but I'd sure like to be there, boy. The only thing that would please me more is to have my own to give to, but to take $10 million and just hand it to somebody scot-free, just scot-free.

But I've got a better job than that. And this congregation got a better job than that. For unto us is given in behalf of Christ to preach among the Gentiles, the unsearchable riches of Christ. We carry the gospel literally around the world, scot-free, handing grace to sinners as God's pleased to apply his word to the hearts of chosen men. All right, look at the second thing. Here's a general call, verse 16. The great commission is given, go preach. And then the Lord tells us what to preach.

He that believeth in his baptized shall be saved, but he that believeth not shall be damned. Now, the effectual, irresistible call of the Holy Spirit always produces faith in Christ. No man can do that. It does not depend upon any man. It is the work of God alone. And yet, the effectual, irresistible call comes to God's elect. It comes to redeemed sinners only through this general call that is issued in the preaching of the gospel. Now, what do you mean by general call? We preach the gospel to every creature, to every creature indiscriminately.

You see, our responsibility in preaching is not determined by the decree of God. We don't know who God chose and who he did. We don't know who Christ redeemed and who he didn't. We don't know who the sheep are and who they are. We have no way of knowing until they're called. Our responsibility does not depend on God's decree. Our responsibility is determined by God's word. And His word, Larry, is go preach and tell everybody, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Tell everybody. How can you tell that to everybody? Because it's so. It's just so.

You believe and you shall be saved. You believe and you shall have life. You believe and God's grace is yours. That's the word of the gospel. He that believeth in his baptized shall be saved. He that believeth not shall be damned. Now in preaching the gospel, these two things must be made clear. God promises grace, salvation and eternal life to all who trust his soul.

The only way a sinner can ever be saved is by believing on Jesus Christ. And every sinner in the world who believes on the Lord Jesus Christ has God's salvation. Every one of them. Every one of them. It is our faith in Christ that makes our calling and election sure. Faith in Christ is the one thing needful. This is a matter of concern.

Do we have this gift of faith? Multiplied thousands of people have been washed in the waters of baptism and never been washed in the blood of Christ. Multiplied thousands of people go to church every Sunday who've never worshiped the son of God. Multiplied thousands of people eat the bread and wine of the Lord's table who have never tasted the grace of God in Christ. The scriptures require one thing. God requires one thing. This is the one thing needful for your soul. And that is that you believe on the Son of God. And Samuel of you and Don Fortner believe on the Son of God.

It's only because He gave us faith. And Him having given us faith is proof positive that He chose us and He redeemed us and He called us. Believe on the Son and have life everlasting, but be warned. He that believeth not shall be damned. Oh, that men were wise that they would understand this, that they would consider their latter end. And then our Lord gives us this gospel confession. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved. Now, give me just a couple of minutes here. Look at this carefully.

It is crystal clear in the scriptures that baptism doesn't save anyone. Baptism doesn't wash away anybody's sins. Baptism does not convey grace. Baptism does not regenerate. Baptism contributes absolutely nothing to our salvation, our standing before God, or in any way make us recommended to the grace of God. However, believers' baptism and faith in Christ are intimately connected.

Look what it says. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved. You see, true saving faith in Christ and obedience to Christ go hand in hand. Where there is no obedience to Christ, there's no faith in Christ. And the person who claims to have faith, who does not obey the Son of God, is deceiving himself.

These are things plainly revealed in Scripture. Our text here tells us plainly that baptism follows faith. It doesn't precede faith. That means that baptism is the believer's confession of faith in Christ. It is not that which is done to someone in order to get them to believe. Believer's baptism is an act of obedience to Christ, the Lord.

It is that first act by which the newborn babe acknowledges and confesses the Lord Jesus Christ as his Lord, Savior, and King. And therefore, it is the answer of a good conscience toward God and must be done conscientiously. Baptism is the means by which the believer confesses Christ.

It is a picture of redemption accomplished by the death, burial and resurrection of Christ. It is a picture of our faith in the fact that we died with him, were buried with him and arose with him. It is a confession that we believe one day we shall rise with him in resurrection glory. And it is a confessed commitment to the Son of God to walk with him in the newness of life.

Now then, look at this gracious confirmation, verse 17. These signs shall follow them that believe. In my name shall they cast out devils. They shall speak with new tongues. They shall take up serpents. And if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them. They shall lay hands on the sick and they shall recover.

Now it must be said emphatically in this day of charismatic chaos, confusion, and nonsense, that the age of signs and tongues and miracles ended with the apostolic age and the completion of Holy Scripture. Since that which is perfect is come, that which was in part has been done away.

These signs were literally fulfilled in the apostolic age. You read the book of Acts, you see them all literally fulfilled. These signs, however, were intended by God to be a confirmation concerning the apostles that these men were God's inspired spokesmen as the penman of Holy Scripture. He confirmed their word to us by signs and wonders, Hebrews 1 and Hebrews 2.

But now these miracles are over. You see, if miracles were done every day like the Pentecostal nuts would have us believe, they have You have these shows and these big campaigns. We're going to have a miracle revival. They're done every day. A place down in Florida, folks have been supposed to be having miracle revival for the last five years, every night. Folks come from all over the place. Television crews come down and watch the thing.

Everyday miracles aren't miracles. Something as common as dirt's not a miracle. They're not a miracle. These things were special signs and wonders. And you don't have to, I don't have to confirm what I've said to you. I don't have to confirm to you that I'm speaking as one who was called and sent of God to preach by performing a miracle or speaking in a strange tongue, an unknown tongue. Not at all. All you got to do to find out whether or not what I'm saying is true is look in this book. That's all you got to do. Look in this book. And my word is confirmed by the book.

And yet our Lord here promises us that as we go out and preach the gospel into all the world, to every creature, his presence and power will be incessantly with us and will manifestly be confirmed to us. It's a great pity that our faith is so weak that we need for God to confirm his word to us, isn't it? But oh, what grace that he stoops to confirm it, even to our weakness. He says signs and wonders, Well, how does that apply to us? Well, just look around you and behold a house of miracles.

Here are people out of whom the Lord has cast seven devils by the power of his grace. Here is a people who speak with new tongues. Mouths that were once filled with cursing and bitterness are now filled with grace and mercy. Here's a people who are forced every day what we're talking about a little bit earlier, Rex, to take up serpents and be bitten of them and yet be unhurt. To drink the poisonous concoctions of ungodly worldlings and yet be unhurt by them.

Here's a people who were sick with the deadly palsy of sin, who've been restored to health by the power of God's grace. A people who, like Lazarus, lay in the tomb and were dead but now have been raised from death to life by the power of God. Here's a people, this little band of people, sent of God, literally into the world. We don't have any idea into how many places or where or how God takes the word that goes forth, but literally sent into the world, laying their hands on sin sick souls, dead in trespasses and sins. And every now and then, God raises one up. Every now and then, he causes one to recover by the word of his grace. I believe I'll go on scattering the word, preaching the gospel, and I call on you to give yourself relentlessly to the work with me, and let us pray for God's blessing upon it, for the glory of his son and the building of his kingdom.

The Great Commission

What does the Bible say about the Great Commission?

How do we know that preaching the gospel is essential for salvation?

Why is the work of missionaries important for Christians?

How does baptism relate to faith in Christ?

What is the role of preaching in God's plan for salvation?

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The Great Commission

What does the Bible say about the Great Commission?

How do we know that preaching the gospel is essential for salvation?

Why is the work of missionaries important for Christians?

How does baptism relate to faith in Christ?

What is the role of preaching in God's plan for salvation?

Sermon Transcript

About Don Fortner

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