I thought about bringing a small
notebook and giving some of our young people a pop quiz so I can get some idea if you're
really listening to me. But I decided not to. Take your
Bibles this morning and turn with me to Matthew chapter 28.
Matthew chapter 28. You know, if you pay attention
in school and you're dedicated in your studies, it's going to help you one day
to have a good job and maybe help you to supply some security,
financial security to your family, enable you to have a few things
extra. But what I'm talking to you about
this morning is the salvation of your soul. Now, if you don't
pay attention in school and you are not dedicated in your studies,
you might still get a job digging a ditch or washing some dishes. But if you don't pay attention
to what I'm telling you, you're going to lose your soul. So I
want you to pay attention to me. when I'm up here. I'm not
trying to sell you on anything. I'm not trying to get you to
make a profession of faith. I'm trying to point you to Christ,
who can save your soul. The Lord Jesus, being betrayed
into the hands of wicked men, who after they tortured Him,
gave Him a mock trial. made a public spectacle of it,
sent him to a Roman cross to be crucified between two malefactors. And then, because his crucified
body would have polluted their Sabbath day, urged the Romans
to go and break their legs so they could hurry up and get them
down off the cross and not pollute their Sabbath day. When they came to Christ, they
broke the legs of the first and of the second. But when they
come to Christ, he was dead already. They didn't break a bone in his
body that the scripture might be fulfilled, which said not
a bone of his body shall be broken. And then Joseph of Arimathea
came and begged the body from Pilate of the Lord. And Nicodemus,
that we talked about in our Sunday school lesson, met up with Joseph
of Arimathea, and he bought a hundred pounds of spices, of myrrh and aloes, and anointed
the body of Christ. And they put him in Joseph of
Arimathea's personal tomb that he had. And then on the third day, they
rolled this huge stone up front to seal that tomb. And then the
Romans came. The Jews told the Romans, somebody's
going to come and take that body, and they're going to say that
he rose from the dead. So can you put a seal on there? Pilate come down, put the Roman
seal on the door, and placed soldiers before the stone. I can only imagine. Our Lord
laughing at these two soldiers going to make fast the tomb of
Christ. The angel of the Lord come down,
rolled the stone away. When the women came to examine
the grave, they found the linen clothes in which he was wrapped,
folded in a pile. Wasn't in any hurry. Just sat
up, took the gray clothes off, folded them all up, put them
in a pile, and came out. And then he appeared
first to the women. He appeared to them. And then he appeared to others. He was seen of Cephas. That's
Peter. And then of the twelve. And after
that, he was seen of over 500 brethren at one time. You can read about it in 1 Corinthians
15, 5 and 6. After that, he was seen of James
and all the apostles. This one who was testified of
God the Father, God the Holy Ghost, testified of the Word
of God, and who himself plainly declared himself to be the Son
of God. The Jews said, if thou be the
Christ, tell us plainly. He said, I told you, plainly. I told you. You believe not because
you're not my sheep. This man had risen from the dead
and now stood before a chosen few, his witnesses. And I want
you to listen to what he tells them. Matthew 28, verse 18. He was about to ascend up into
glory. The angels were going to receive
Him onto a cloud, and they would watch Him go up on those clouds
and disappear into heaven itself. But before He went, listen to
what He said. Jesus came and spake unto them,
saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye, therefore, and teach all
nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the
Son and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe All things whatsoever
I have commanded you, and lo, I am with you always, even unto
the end of the world. Amen. It is a sad fact that often power
rests in the hands of the wicked. I talked to you a little bit
about it in a Sunday school lesson. Parental power in wicked hands
leads to child abuse, perversion, exploitation, leaves children
uncared for, starving sometimes, sick, untreated, or worse. Power in the hands of a wicked
employer can cause needless suffering, can cause hardship, might even
prove to be fatal, forcing men to work in unsafe environments
and dangerous conditions. Power in the hands of corrupt
government officials can lead to wars, needless death, famine,
depression, sometimes even the destruction of a nation. I think
that's where our nation's headed right now, if God don't put a
halt to it. But worse by far is spiritual
power in the hands of the wicked. Satan is identified in the scriptures,
I want you to listen to me carefully, as the prince of the power of
the air. His kingdom is described as the
rulers of the darkness of this world and as spiritual wickedness
in high places. Every unconverted child, according
to the scripture, walks according to the course of this world,
which is according to the prince of the power of the air, the
spirit who now worketh in the children of disobedience. Every
unbelieving son of Adam is under his power, walks under his influence. walks under his deceit. There are two remarkable references
to the air in the scriptures. The first is that at the final
resurrection that those are alive and remain shall be caught up
into the clouds and meet the Lord in the air. He said, we shall not all sleep.
We shall be changed. In a moment, in the twinkling
of an eye, the trump shall sound, and we shall be raised incorruptible. I have no idea what that means. I mean, I believe it means that
we're going to be caught up from the world of the physical into
the world of the spiritual. We're going to meet him in the
air. The second remarkable reference
is that of Satan, who is the prince of the power of the air.
As the air may be polluted with airborne viruses and spread to
all who breathe it in, so his lies and influence are breathed
in by fallen men. Man drinks iniquity like water. Isn't that what Job said? His poison lies. contaminates
everything around. Paul said, if our gospel be hid,
it's hid to the lost, in whom the God of this world, little
g, the God of this world, the prince of the power of the earth, hath blinded the minds of them
which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ,
who is the image of God, should shine unto them. To be converted,
according to our Lord, is to have your eyes opened, to turn
from darkness to light, now listen to this, and from the power of
Satan unto God. He is the prince of the power
of the air. Under the power and influence
of Satan, men transformed themselves into ministers of righteousness.
self-righteousness, false righteousness. They established churches and
schools and hospitals and seminaries. They built great denominations,
had huge followings. Their influence is over governments,
nations, whole nations of men. Their influence has to do, it
even affects policymaking in the government. And Paul said, this is no marvel.
Don't marvel at this. Satan himself is transformed
as an angel of light. So no big thing if his ministers
be transformed, his ministers be transformed into ministers
of righteousness. Our Lord confronted the hierarchy
of the Jewish religion. It names them by name. It says
the chief priest and the captains of the temple and the Sanhedrin,
the high council of the Jews. And he said to them, they were
telling him, God is our father, Abraham is our father. He said,
if Abraham was your father, you'd love me. You despise me. This did not
Abraham. If God was your father, he said,
you love me because I proceeded forth and came from God. You are of your father, now listen,
the devil, and the lust of your father you will do. He that is
of God, our Lord said, heareth God's words. This is God speaking. This is not an opinion. I'm not quoting you opinions.
I'm quoting you the Word of God. If you're really interested and
I leave something out this morning, all you've got to do is come
talk to me. I'll sit here and show you where it's at. The spirit of Antichrist. What
is Antichrist? All these movies depict him being
this man that's evil. And he comes, and he looks like
a regular old child, but he's evil inside. Antichrist simply means against
Christ, opposed to Christ, against Christ. The spirit of Antichrist,
his powerful influential presence, is after the working of Satan.
It's no one person or no one religion. It's the spirit of
Antichrist. John said the spirit of Antichrist
is already here. Paul said the same thing. It's after the working of Satan
with all power and signs and lying wonders. What does that
mean? Well, it leads to logic like
this. How could so many people be wrong? That's a lying wonder, isn't
it? Do you know that the majority
of people have always been wrong? It's not that they slipped a
time or two. They've always been wrong. It
was the majority of Israel didn't want to go into Canaan. The majority
of them did. They took a vote on it. The only
two that wanted to go in were Joshua and Caleb. The rest of
them didn't want to go in, and they didn't go in. God let their
carcasses fall in the wilderness, and then He took them in. The majority spoke up on this
day and told Moses he had taken too much on himself. And Moses
prayed about it. He'd come back out, and he said,
now here's what we're going to do. Everybody that's on the Lord's
side line up right here. Everybody that's on the majority
side line up over there. And those that lined up behind
Dathan and Abiram, and they lined up over there, core of Dathan
and Abiram, the Lord opened up the earth and swallowed them,
took them up right into hell with their shoes on. All power and signs and lying
wonders. How could so vast a religion
be deceived? How could something so universally
accepted be the work of Satan? All power and signs and lying
wonders. And all deceivableness of unrighteousness
in them that perish because they receive not the love of the truth
that they might be saved. The power of deception and darkness
as it is in the hands of Satan has filled this fallen world
with satanic religion whose only work is to leave men hoping in
something other than Christ. Is that the truth? That's exactly
the truth. Their only work is to get you
to rest in something, rest your soul in anything. other than Christ. Turn with me to Luke chapter
22. We're talking about power. That's what our text says. The Lord said to them, all power
in heaven and earth is given unto me. But often, power lies
in the hands of the wicked. Our Lord had finished His prayer
in the garden. He got up and came out of the
garden, and here come a lynch mob. A lynch mob. You ever watch them
on Western when they get a lynch mob? Man, here they come. The Scripture said they had swords
drawn and staves. A stave is a club, a big stick. Staves and clubs, and here they
come. And leading the pack was old
Judas. He ran up to the Lord and betrayed Him with a kiss.
He said, the one I kiss, that's Him. You'll know who He is. And
then came this mob of religious hucksters with swords and clubs.
Now listen to what the Lord tells them here. Luke 22, 52. Then
Jesus said unto the chief priests and captains of the temple and
the elders which were come to Him. These were religious folks. Now watch this. Be ye come out
as against a thief with swords and staves. He said, I was with
you daily in the temple. I taught you daily in the temple.
No man stretched forth his hand from me. Now watch this. But this is your hour. And what? The power of darkness. You want to know what darkness
is? It's blindness. It's spiritual blindness. That's what it was. The power
of darkness is that which leaves men in their enmity, enraged
against the pure, holy, kind, and loving Savior. What's he
so enraged about? Why is this lynch mob so enraged? What are they angry about? He
went about doing good. He did no wrong. Which of you,
he said, convinces me of sin? I've done no wrong. I've done
no evil. Why do you seek to kill me? Why
do you treat me as a thief and a robber? Why do you come out
here with these clubs and swords? What's man so enraged about? He's enraged over the necessity
of the appearance of a Savior. He's enraged. He's enraged over
the reason for His coming. He didn't come to set up an earthly
kingdom. He came to save those given to
Him by the Father. He's enraged over His sovereign
rule. Most men sit around and contemplate
their whole lives on what they're going to do for Jesus. I'll tell you this, if you ever
learn who He is, you won't be wondering what you're going to
do for Him. You're going to wonder what He's going to do with you. He has sovereign rule over everything
that is. He is the Creator. Without Him
was nothing created that is created, nothing. It was created not only
by Him, but possibly created for Him. Man's enraged over his sovereign
rule. He's willing to give Him a part
in his salvation, but he's not willing to put salvation in his
hands. And that's where it is. All power
in heaven and earth given to me. He's enraged over his claims
of particular redemption. He's enraged over his perfect
sufficiency. He's enraged over his being the
end of the law for righteousness. He's enraged over his claims
of creation, providence, and salvation. He's enraged over his appointed
means. And he's enraged that all power
in heaven and earth is given unto him. He's anti-Christ. This is spiritual wickedness
in high places. And I don't know if we have enough
time this morning, but there's five things I want you to see
concerning this power which is given to Christ. The first thing
I want you to see is that this power is a designated power. As I told you in the Sunday school
lesson, Jesus Christ is God. God over all, blessed forever.
He's God. Ever with God. He created the
world and by that creation declared himself to be God. He rules in
providence. Nothing happens in time or eternity
that he does not decree. He's God, ever with God. Well,
how can you give God, who is almighty, all power? How can
that be? Well, it's a designated power
that he's talking about here. When something's designated,
it means it's set apart or selected for a specific purpose. Turn
with me to John chapter 17. John said, in the beginning was
the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. That's
talking about Jesus Christ. And the Word was made flesh and
dwelt among us. As God, being equal with God,
He was and He is almighty. Yet here in Matthew, our Lord
is telling His disciples that all power is given unto Him. And there's only one sense in
which this can be true, and that is as He's been chosen, ordained,
and decreed as the one mediator between men and God, the man
Christ Jesus. Now watch this. John 17, 1. This
is just before our Lord went to the cross. He prayed this
prayer. These words spake Jesus and lifted up His eyes to heaven
and said, Father, the hour is coming. The hour is coming. glorify
thy son, that thy son may glorify thee. As thou hast given him
power over all flesh," now watch this, "...that he should give
eternal life to as many as thou hast given him." This is a designated
power. This power was given to him as
our representative to give life to those the Father gave Him
in eternal election before the world began. The power given to Him is the
power to save, redeem, justify, and glorify people to Himself,
and it was given to Him before the world began. In all time,
now think with me. I want to tell you something
about the glory of this One in whose hands is all power. In
all time and ages, in all kingdoms and realms, in all creatures,
both physical and spiritual, there is only One who has the
power to save. Just One. Just One. How much power was
needed to save him? All power. All power. There's only one who
has the power to save, and that's Jesus Christ the Lord. In John's
first vision on the Isle of Patmos in chapter 5 of Revelations,
God begins to open. He opened to him seven visions,
and each one of these visions was a vision of this gospel age
from the coming of Christ all the way to the last resurrection. Each vision opens and figuratively
pictures all the work done from the birth of Christ all the way
through. And in chapter 5, his first vision,
he begins to open these things up and John saw him that sat
on the throne and said he held in his right hand a book. And
the book was written within and on the backside. And this book,
nobody was worthy in heaven to even look on the book, let alone
take the book from him that sat on the throne, and certainly
not to open the seals of it. It was hidden. It was a hidden
mystery. It lay in the hand of the father
who sat upon the throne. And there was much weeping in
heaven because no one could come and take the book and open the
seals. This book of God's eternal redemption, this book of God's
eternal purpose of grace, it was sealed and sitting in the
hand of the Father. But one was worthy. And somebody
cried out and said, Behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah. He's
worthy. The Lamb slain. And that Lamb
came and took the book. The Father gave it to Him. And
He took it. And he loosed the seals of the
book. He not only looked on it, Winston,
but he took it and he opened those seals and he fulfilled
everything written in the book. How do you know that? Because
it tells you in Hebrews chapter 10, if you care to read down
through there, He's talking about His coming. He's talking about
this law that pictured Him, this priesthood that pictured Him.
Those were shadows of good things to come. But He said, Lo, in
the volume of the book it's written of Me, I come to do Thy will,
O God. Everything written in that book,
He opened and fulfilled. And every creature who had knowledge
of this transaction cried and worshiped God. And everyone who
learns about it now cries and worships God. Worthy is the lamb
who was slain. Are you listening? To receive
power. Isn't that what this is? Power. He must be made a man to receive
this power. He must obey the law in every
jot and tittle to receive this power. He must satisfy divine
justice and take his place at the right hand of God to receive
this power. And having done this, our Lord
looked at His disciples and He said, All power given unto me
in heaven and earth. Oh, I tell you, that ought to
have some impact on your soul. Religion, my friend, is offering
salvation from a savior who has no power to save. He has no power.
His hands are tied. He weeps. He's sorry for you.
He sympathizes with you, but he needs your help. If he could just get you going,
if somebody down here can get you going, you take the first
step. He'll take the rest. God tells us that the heathen
sets up his grave and images and prays to a God who cannot
save. What kind of God do you got this
morning? Can he save? If he can't save, he ain't God. All right, the second thing I
want you to consider is the scope of this power. In his high priestly
prayer in John 17, he makes a distinction between the scope of his power
and the reason for it. The scope of his power is universal. It is over all flesh. The reason
for it is to give eternal life to as many as the Father had
given him. The scope of His power is over
all flesh. In Matthew 28, 18 in our text,
the Lord declares His power not only as over all flesh, but it's
over all the earth and heaven. What He does here on the earth
as a man is not disconnected from heaven. He said, I said unto him, thy
sins be forgiven you, that you might know the Son of God has
what power to forgive sins in the earth. What he says here
goes there. It's not disconnected. When he
justifies a man here, he justifies there. When he saves a man here,
he saves there for eternity. Paul said, our hope in Christ
is like an anchor of the soul which enters within the veil. It goes beyond the veil into
heaven itself. This saving power is active both
in heaven and in earth. And let me tell you something. As great as the power of Satan
is, he does not have all power. In John's vision, he saw Christ
come down and lay hold on Satan and bound him with a great chain. I'll tell you, I've considered
in the past the power of Satan, and I see him running loose in
the earth and deceiving nations and deceiving multitudes and
deceiving religious organizations and whole families. was so immense
to me, and I'm looking out here, and I'm seeing the influence
of it, and the power of it, and all these things. Let me tell
you something. He's not doing one thing that God doesn't let
him do on his chain. And so the Scripture, instead
of saying that Satan will give you strong delusion, it said
those who receive not the love of God, God sent them strong
delusion. How'd he do it? Just took his
chain. I'll tell you, if he weren't
restrained, no flesh could survive. A preacher, you're saying the
Lord's permitted him to deceive the nation? That's exactly what
I'm saying. The Scripture says that. Power
was given to him over the nation. But the scope of our Lord's power
is universal. It's universal. But its objects
are particular. Particular. We sang that hymn
a while ago, and I was thinking about this very point. Pass me
not, O gentle Savior. Pass me not. All right. The third thing I want you to
see is the manifestation of this power. Here's the power. He has
all power. Here's this one who stood before
Him. He's alive now. He rose from the dead. He's revealed
Himself to hundreds and hundreds of people. He stayed on this
earth for more than another month after His resurrection. And then
He declares to them, all power in heaven and earth given unto
Me. Then He steps on a cloud and goes outside. How's this power? Manifest. How's he going to manifest this
power, Richard? Through the preaching of the gospel. Huh? Listen to
the text. All power given unto me in heaven
and earth, go ye therefore and teach all nations. I tell you,
I wouldn't leave Taylor if I didn't think he had power to enable
men to believe. I wouldn't waste my time. You
can't convince an unregenerate man of anything. He'll defend that lie with lies. You can't get first base with
him. I'll tell you, if the Spirit of God gets in him, you can take
the simplest things and state them, and you'd be stumbling all over the
place trying to tell him something, and he's getting everything you
give him. How does the victorious Christ
manifest His power? Go ye therefore and teach all
nations. The power of our ascended Lord
is manifested in preaching. Paul tells Timothy that this
purpose and grace which was given us in Christ Jesus before the
world began. is now made manifest by the appearing
of our Savior, Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death and
brought life and immortality to light." Now listen, through
the gospel. Whereunto I was appointed a preacher. That's 1 Timothy 1, verse 10. The gospel. The gospel, Paul said to the
church at Rome, is the power of God. unto salvation to everyone
that believeth." It's the power of God unto salvation because
it's the gospel of Him who has all power. And he said, therein is the righteousness
of God revealed. Our Lord said to His disciples,
you go to Jerusalem and you wait. You go over there and you wait
until you be endued with power from on high. Don't you leave
the brink on this hill. You stand here watching me go
outside. Don't you run over here and start preaching. You go to
Jerusalem, and you don't do anything until you be endued with power
from on high. You think there was one in the
bunch who knew what that meant? Not one. Not one. But they obeyed their Lord. They
knew enough about him to obey him, and they went over there. And the Holy Spirit of God fell
on them, and they began to preach. And oh, what preaching they did. Without this power, no sinner
could ever be brought to repentance and faith. All right. Fourthly, I want you to see in
our Lord's declaration of His power the effects of working
of this power. I never thought of this. I've
read this Scripture so many times, never one time ever thought about
it. The Lord didn't say, go and teach all nations, and if any,
believe. He didn't say that at all. He said, you go teach all nations,
baptizing them. Who's going to baptize believers? You mean you're assuming somebody's
going to believe? Yeah, why wouldn't I? All power's
in his hands. He said, you go teach these people. How in the world are you going
to teach these folks? They're steeped in religion. They've
been taught the very opposite. Somebody asked me one time, what
do you have to believe? to be saved." I said, it's not
so much what as it is whom, but when it comes to the what, you
can pretty much just go the opposite of everything you've ever believed.
That would be the truth. He said, you go teach these heathen
idolaters and then you baptize them in the name of the Father
and the Son and the Holy Spirit. You teach them to obey my commandments. Every man for whom Christ became
a representative for whom he came and lived and died and rose
from the dead shall be taught of God." Isn't that the lesson
that our Lord told to the Pharisees in John chapter 6? He said, don't
murmur. Don't murmur. No man can come
unto me except my Father draw him. As it's written in the prophets,
they shall all be taught of God. If there was any possibility
that they might not believe, that they might not submit, He
could not have made this declaration all powers given unto me. How useless are our words when
they're not accompanied by the Holy Spirit, and yet how irresistible
they are when He does. Isn't that something? Now you
go, he said, you go, and you teach, and you baptize. Fifthly, let me leave you with
this. Those who know what I've just
told you, I mean know it, know it in their soul, believe it,
embrace it, rest their soul on it, listen, they find comfort. And listen to what he tells them.
He said, you go, and lo, I'm with you always. Who's with you? Him who has all power. I'm with
you always, even unto the end of the world. You know what that
word, it's used several times in the scriptures, and it doesn't
say always, it says always. You know what that word means?
All the way. All the way. And I'll give you another little
hint. He said, I am the way. The whole way. All way. The old hymn writer, he said,
take your burden to the Lord. And leave it there. Leave it
there. When will we cast all our cares? That's what Paul said. Cast all
your cares upon Him, for He cares for you. Oh, when will a man
take his burdens to the Lord and leave them there? When will
he cast on Him all his cares? He'll cast on Him all he cares
when he comes to know that this power was given to Christ for
the salvation of his soul. and that all power is given unto
him, and he'll never leave you. I'll be with you always. Those
who believe that, they take their burdens and lay them down, and
they leave them right there. Why wouldn't you? He has all
wisdom. All goodness is in him, perfect
goodness, perfect kindness. Perfect love. What if God were to give you
these things? If he gave it to the Catholic
Church, they wouldn't let the Protestants have it. If the Protestants
have it, they wouldn't let the Catholics have it. God gave it to him. He's the
only one wise enough to distribute it. Merciful enough to make it
possible for us to have it. Loving enough to give himself
for us.