I've entitled the message for
this evening, The Command to Preach the Gospel. Now, before the Lord ascended
back into glory, we just read where he gave his disciples commandments. And that is what is known as
the Great Commission before his ascension. Let's look at these
together. Turn with me to Matthew 28. Verse 18, And Jesus came and
spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven
and in earth. Go ye therefore and teach or
disciple 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 to the end of the world. Turn to Mark 16. Verse 15. Mark 16, verse 15, and he said
unto them, Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to
every creature. He that believeth and is baptized
shall be saved, but he that believeth not shall be damned. Look in Luke 24. Verse 45, then opened he their
understanding that they might understand the scriptures. And
he said unto them, thus it's written. And thus it behooved
it was necessary for Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead
the third day that repentance and remission of sins should
be preached in his name among all nations. beginning at Jerusalem,
and you are witnesses of these things. Turn to John 20. Verse 21, then said Jesus to them again,
peace be unto you, as my father hath sent me. Now, why did the
father send him? to save his people from their
sins. That's why his father sent him. As my father has sent me, even
so, in the same manner, for the same reason, send I you. And when he had said this, he
breathed on them and said unto them, receive ye the Holy Ghost. Now this is talking about supernatural
power to preach the gospel. There is no preaching of the
gospel apart from the Holy Spirit. And then he said, whosoever sins
you remit, they are remitted unto them. And whosoever sins
you retain, they are retained. Now in each of these, go ye unto
all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. Teach all nations. Repentance and remission of sin
should be preached in His name among all nations. As the Father
has sent me, so have I sent you. There is an urgency that our
Lord gives for everybody in the world to hear the gospel. Now, I want you to think about
that. There is an urgency for everyone
in the world, everyone in Lexington, everyone in your neighborhood
to hear the gospel. What is the greatest need every
human being has? I don't care if it's a technologically
advanced and prosperous nation or a poverty-stricken third-world
country, everybody's greatest need is to hear the gospel. You believe that? It's not to have a better philosophy.
It's not to have better educational opportunities. It's not to have
better drinking water or better housing, as desirable as those
things may be. But the great need of every son
and daughter of Adam is to hear the gospel. There is no salvation
apart from hearing and believing the gospel. And someone who doesn't
hear and believe the gospel will not be saved. Now let me show you that in the
scripture. Turn with me to Romans chapter 10. Hence the urgency urgency for men to hear the gospel. Romans chapter 10 verse 13, for
whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
What a glorious verse of scripture. I'm calling on his name right
now. Lord, save me. Save me by an act of your sovereign
will. Save me by your justice. Save
me by your grace. Save me by your mercy. Save me.
Whosoever shall call, no matter who it is, I love that word,
whosoever, whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall
be saved. Verse 14, how then should they call on him in whom
they've not believed? You can't, you can't call on
somebody you don't believe. And how should they believe in
him in whom they've not heard? You can't believe on someone
you've never heard. And how should they hear without
a preacher? They won't hear without a preacher
bringing them this message. And how shall they preach except
they be sent? And that means sent of God as
it is written, how beautiful are the feet of them that preach
the gospel of peace and bring glad tidings of good things. Now you who have heard and believe
the gospel, please listen to me real carefully. You who have
heard and believed the gospel, Why are you here? Is it to amass wealth? Is it
to be successful? Is it to make this world in which
we live a better place? The reason we're here, every
believer, the only reason we're here is to preach the gospel. Well, what if I'm not called
to preach? You are called to preach the gospel. Everybody
in here, you are called to preach the gospel. You might not be
called to pastor a church, but if you're a believer, you're
called upon to preach the gospel. I think of Paul's attitude. Turn
back to Romans chapter nine, verse one. I say the truth in
Christ, I lie not. My conscience also bearing me
witness in the Holy Ghost that I have great heaviness and continual
sorrow in my heart. For I could wish that myself
were a curse from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen, according
to the flesh." Now that's how much he desired their salvation. Look what he says in chapter
10, verse 1. My heart's desire and prayer
to God for Israel is that they might be saved. Turn to 1 Corinthians
9. Beginning in verse 19. For though
I be free from all men, yet have I made myself servant to all,
that I might gain them more. Unto the Jews, I become as a
Jew, that I might gain the Jews. To them that are under the law,
as under the law, that I might gain them that are under the
law. To them that are without the law, as without law, being
not without law to God, but under the law to Christ, that I might
gain them that are without the law. To the weak, become I as
weak, that I might gain the weak. I have made all things to all
men, that I might by all means save some. And this I do for
the gospel's sake. that I might be partaker thereof
with you. Now I'm asking myself, and I'm
asking you, could it be that in some measure we've lost the
sight of that? In some measure, we've lost the
sight of that. That our one purpose, our one
reason for being here, is to preach the gospel to everybody
in our sphere of influence. Now, if that's not the main point
of my life, I'm pointless. Amen. If that's not the main
point of my life, I'm pointless. Now, am I suggesting that we
come up to everybody we meet and try and shove the gospel
down their throats? No, not at all. Not at all. But I am saying we should always
be looking for and asking for opportunities to preach the gospel
to others, all the time, and to bring others to hear the gospel.
You know, the church I grew up in, 13th Street Baptist Church,
where Henry Mahan was pastor, there was a man there by the
name of Eddie Ballard. And I bet that man, he was bringing
somebody to church to hear the gospel all the time. And I bet
there were 20, at least 20 people there who heard and believed
the gospel through the influence of that man simply bringing people
to hear the gospel. That ought to be something we're
all zealous about. We want people to hear the gospel
because faith comes by hearing. Now, I want to preach the gospel,
and I want my character and conduct to be such that it won't hinder
people who are hearing me. You know, Greg Elmquist said
to me recently, and I love this statement. I could really get
a hold of it. He said, people talk about, I want to see, I
want people to see Christ in me. Well, they didn't see Christ
in Christ. I'm not worried about that, but I'm just worried about
not falling into a scandal that scandalizes the gospel. I sure
don't want to do that to you. I want to preach the gospel and
I want my character and conduct to be such that people are not
hindered in hearing the gospel because of the way I am. Now
I would like for us to look briefly at the four places I read at
the end of each gospel where every believer is called upon
to be a preacher and a herald of the gospel. Now this message
is a different message than I normally preach, but it is the gospel
and something we need to hear. Turn back to Matthew chapter
28. Let's begin reading verse 16
of Matthew chapter 28. Then the 11 disciples went away
into Galilee into a mountain where Jesus had appointed them.
He said, you go there and I'll meet you there. And when they
saw him, they worshiped him. But some doubted. Now it's interesting in the original,
That word some is not there. They saw him, they worshiped
him, and they doubted him. Even while they were looking
at the risen Christ, they saw him, they worshiped him, and
they doubted him. The new man sees, the new man
worships. The old man doubts. I believe,
Lord, help thou mine unbelief. They saw, they worshiped, and
they doubted. Now, is that a problem? Well,
look what the Lord said in verse 18. And Jesus came and spake
unto them, saying, all power, is given unto me in heaven and
in earth. Now, do you hear what our Lord
is saying? He has how much power? All power. Everybody and everything
is in his hands. The fact that you're such a weak
witness and that I'm such a weak witness, we see, we worship,
we do. We worship him for who he is
and we doubt all at once. This fact that we're such weak
witnesses and that we can doubt in the very presence of Christ
standing alive is no hindrance because all power is given unto
me in heaven and earth. You're not a problem. I'm not
a problem because he has all power. I don't know of anything
that irritates me much more when somebody speaks to somebody as
a powerful man. Power belongs to the Lord. No
man has any power except it's delegated to him by the Lord
himself. I love it when Pilate said to
the Lord, speakest thou not to me? Don't you know I have power
to release you? And I have power to crucify you?
He said, thou couldst have no power at all over me, except
it be given thee from above. Now, when we're talking about
going into all the world and seeking to be a preacher of the
gospel, this is the first thing I want to remember. All power
is given to him. Verse 19. Go ye therefore and teach all
nations. Everybody needs to hear this
message. Go and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of
the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Now, the
fact that he says baptizing them gives us some idea of what the
message is to be. The message of the gospel is
seen in baptism. It's so simple, it's so powerful,
and it's so clear. You know when it says they were
baptized of him confessing their sins, talking about before John
the Baptist, they were baptized of him in the River Jordan, confessing
their sins. Do you realize that they were
saying, I am so sinful? They weren't confessing their
individual sins. They weren't saying, here's what
I've done. And everybody's listening, let's find out what he's done.
No, nothing like that. They were saying, I'm so sinful. The only
way I can be saved is by Christ, who He is and what He did. And
my only hope of being saved is that when He lived, I was in
Him and He kept the law for me. And everything God requires of
me, He looks to His Son for. My only hope of being saved is
that when he died I was in him and my sins were put away by
what he did not because of anything I do. My only hope of being saved
is because he was raised from the dead and I was raised in
him. My salvation is entirely in the
Lord Jesus Christ. Is that your salvation? That's
what baptism teaches. If you want to know what baptism
represents, it represents the gospel. It's not a meaningless
religious ritual. It's the gospel. And notice,
it's a Trinitarian salvation that we preach, baptizing them
in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Election
of the Father, redemption of the Son, and regeneration of
the Holy Spirit. Now that's the message we go
preaching. God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit.
God chose who'd be saved. You know, I love that. I love
that. Somebody says, you preach election
too much. Not to me, I don't. Salvation of the Son. If he died
for you, you must be saved. Salvation of the invincible,
irresistible work of God the Holy Spirit. He gives you life.
You got life. That's the message that we bring. And look what he says in verse
20, teaching them to observe, what's that next word? All things. All things. I'm not to admit
anything. I'm not to leave out anything.
Paul said, I've not shown to declare unto you all the counsel
of God. Anybody that will try to hold
back on the message, because they're ashamed of Christ and
they're ashamed of the gospel and they're afraid of men. The
gospel, Paul says, is the power of God unto salvation. What part
is okay to leave out or admit? There isn't any part of the gospel
that's okay to admit. He said, teaching them to observe
all things whatsoever I've commanded you. Well, that part's not that
important. No, you can make that judgment,
huh? Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I've commanded
you, and lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Now, you go to every nation and
preach the gospel to every creature. Now, the method is the same,
preach. Go ye therefore and teach all
nations, baptizing them, you're going to preach the gospel. Now
turn to Mark chapter 16. Verse 15. And he said unto them,
go ye into all the world and preach the gospel. to every creature. Now preach the gospel. It pleased
God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. So
you go and preach the gospel to every nation. He that believeth
and is baptized shall be saved, but he that believeth not shall
be damned. Now, I don't have any doubt that
the Lord lets things be written in order to trip people up as
an act of His justice. He that believeth and is baptized
shall be saved. Oh, see, you need to be baptized
to be saved. Was the thief baptized? Of course he wasn't. He couldn't
be, he was nailed to a cross. No, the thief wasn't baptized
and he was saved. But I tell you this, if the thief
had opportunity to be baptized, he would have been baptized.
I have no question about that. But the Lord allows us to be
put like this, he that believeth and is baptized. That shows the
importance of baptism. No, baptism doesn't save anybody,
but the Lord put it this way. And I have no doubt that many
things in the scripture stated in such a way as a lost man will
hang himself on it. If you want to hang yourself,
the Lord will give you enough rope to let you hang yourself.
There are many scriptures stated in such a way as that. The Bible
is a dangerous book, really. You have to have a Holy Spirit
to understand what's being said. He that believeth and is baptized
shall be saved. And he that believeth not, here's
the sad end of those who do not believe the gospel. He that believeth
not shall be damned. Oh, the importance of preaching
the gospel because there's no salvation apart from believing,
hearing and believing the gospel. Now, somebody is thinking, well,
couldn't the Lord save without the preaching of the gospel,
without the hearing of the gospel? That's the wrong question. Does
he save without the preaching of the gospel and without the
hearing of the gospel? You can't show any example in
scriptures where he does. Why, even when he saved Paul,
what was the first thing he did? He sent him a preacher of the
gospel. Now, he later taught Paul by
himself when he was entered into third heaven, but when he first
came to Paul, he sent Ananias, a nobody from nowhere that you
never hear of again. I think that's really neat. If
I was the Lord, I would have sent John or Peter or some apostle. Who's he send? A nobody. But Paul is going to be humbled.
He's going to learn that he's going to have to hear through
the preaching of the gospel. Now go and preach the gospel
to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized
shall be saved, and he that believeth not shall be damned. Now let's
go on reading verse 17. 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.
If they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them. They
shall lay hands on the sick and they shall recover. The early
church had the ability to do these things, literally. They
did speak in other languages. They did heal the sick. They
did take up serpents, and they were, you know, Paul, remember
when he got bit by that serpent in Acts chapter 28, and he shook
it off his hand, and they waited for him to die? That doesn't
mean they're trying to show everybody, that's foolish, to pick up serpents,
and how many people have been killed doing that? In Acts chapter eight, Philip was preaching the gospel,
and all kinds of people were converted. And Peter and John
came. You see, Philip couldn't transfer
the gifts. Only the apostles could transfer
the gifts. And when Simon Magus saw the
laying on of the apostles' hands, the Holy Ghost was given. Only
the 12 apostles could transfer these gifts. And when they died
out, nobody had the ability to transfer the gifts. They might
have had the gifts after they died, but they couldn't transfer
them. But you know what? In preaching the gospel, we do cast out devils,
don't we? We do speak a language that nobody
understands. We speak in tongues to the natural
man, and the spiritual man understands it. We take up servants if we
drink any deadly thing and shall not hurt them, they shall lay
the hand on the sick and they shall recover. That's talking
about spiritual things. Now, if somebody claims to have
these physical gifts, I can speak in tongues, I can heal the sick,
here's what you need to do. You need to hand them a bottle
of Drano and say, drink this. and prove it to me. I bet they
won't do it. And if they try to do it, stop
them. You don't want them to get killed,
but I just bet no one would do something like that. Okay, turn
to Luke chapter 24. Verse 45, then opened he their
understanding that they might understand the scriptures. And
the only way you and I will understand the scriptures is if he opens
our understanding. It's not something we can figure
out, the natural man. This book is a closed book to
him unless Christ is pleased to open his understanding. Lord,
open my understanding. Teach me your gospel. Verse 46,
and when he opens your understanding, here's what takes place, and
he saith unto them, thus it's written, that's where everything
begins, it's written, and thus it behooved. And that word behooved,
it was necessary for Christ to suffer because God purposed it.
Because He was made sin and deserved to suffer. And to rise from the
dead because He made complete satisfaction on the third day. And that repentance and remission
of sin should be preached in His name among all nations. Beginning
at Jerusalem. Now here is the witness. Repentance and remission of sins. should be preached in his name
among all nations, beginning in Jerusalem, the very place
where he was murdered. John Bunyan wrote a sermon entitled,
The Jerusalem Sinner Saved. It's a good sermon. And you are
witnesses of these things. Now, repentance and the remission
of sins is to be preached in his name. Number one, repentance. You need to repent of your sins.
You don't even know what repentance is if you say something like
that. Do you understand that? Repent of your sins. What's that
mean? You need to repent of your sins. What do you mean by that?
Does it mean you're sufficiently sorry for your sins? Does it
mean you stopped committing them? I read somewhere, it said to
repent is to turn from sin and not to return to sin. Well, that's
a good thing, but that's not what repentance means in the
first place. Repentance simply means to change your mind. You used to believe something,
your mind has been changed. You don't believe that anymore.
And repentance is primarily regarding this thing of the remission of
sins. How many times do we find these
two words together in the New Testament? Repentance and remission
of sins. The natural man thinks that the
remission of sins is the end of a process where you need to
repent, you need to believe, you need to become more holy,
you need to read the scriptures, you need to pray, you need to
call upon the name of the Lord. There's all these things you
need to do, and at the end, you'll have the remission of sins. The gospel doesn't have the remission
of sins at the end. If you do this, this, this, this,
and this, you'll have your sins forgiven. The gospel begins with
the full, free, complete forgiveness of sins. Now that's what's to
be preached in His name. How are sins remitted? You're to have a change of mind
regarding all the things you thought concerning the forgiveness
and the remission of sins. Repentance and remission of sins
are to be preached in his name and you are witnesses of these
things. That word witness means you've
experienced this. You're preaching what you've
experienced. You've experienced salvation coming to you, forgiveness
of sins coming to you through Him causing it to be. And you
find out you've been forgiven. You don't do something in order
to be forgiven. You find out you've been forgiven. And that's how we preach the
gospel of God's grace. A change of mind regarding the
remission of sins. Turn to John 20. Verse 21. Then said Jesus to them, his
disciples, peace be unto you. Well, I want to hear him say
that to me, don't you? I want to have his peace. Not some peace
I make up, but where he gives me this peace. Peace be unto
you. As my Father has sent me, even
so send I you. And when he had said this, he
breathed on them and saith unto them, receive ye the Holy Ghost. Now this is who we need to preach
the gospel, the Holy Spirit. I can't preach the gospel on
my own. I can't convince anybody to believe or enable anybody
to believe, but he does. This is His work. And look what
He says next, verse 23. Whosoever sins you remit, they
are remitted unto them. And whosoever sins you retain,
they are retained. Now, did you know that the Pope
of the Catholic Church says that He has this ability? He can make
your sins stay on you, or He can make your sins to be removed.
This is papal authority. Would you want any man to have
that kind of authority? Would you want me to have that
authority? Let me tell you this, I sure wouldn't want you to have
that authority. I know what would end up happening to me. I'd do
something to make you mad and your sins are retained. They're
still there. I don't wanna take a chance on that. What is the
Lord saying? He's saying the gospel you preach
is such that those who believe, their sins are remitted. And
those who reject what you're saying, the gospel you preached,
their sins are retained. They stay on them. That's all
the Lord means by that. He's not saying any man has the
power or some kind of special power to make sure your sins
are forgiven or not forgiven. No, the gospel you preach has
in it this. If somebody rejects what you're
preaching, their sins are still on them. They're going to die
in their sins and they're going to spend eternity in hell. And
if somebody believes and receives and rejoices in the gospel you
preach, their sins are remitted. They stand before God without
guilt. Now I want to call on each of
us to do everything in our power to preach the gospel to every
creature. I hope that's going to be the
passion of our lives. To preach the gospel to every
creature. Isn't he worthy of this? Isn't he worthy? And you know the Gospel message
is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation. You know
everybody ought to believe this message. It's true. It's the
truth. Everybody ought to believe the
truth. He's worthy to proclaim Him to all nations. And everybody
ought to believe. And we want, we know we can't
save anybody. We're so painfully aware of that,
but we want everybody to hear the gospel. And the Lord gave
this commandment to his church, go and preach the gospel to every
creature. May the Lord enable us to do
this, to where this is the passion of our lives. It's simply being saved by grace.
Nothing compares to that, to simply be found in Him. But I
want to have this passion as well, to preach the gospel to
every creature. He's worthy and we want everybody
to hear the truth. We love men and we want them
to hear the truth. Let's pray. Lord, how we thank You for the
Gospel, how we thank You that all power is given unto You,
how we thank You that You are with us even to the end, that
You work through the preaching of Your Gospel. Now Lord, give
us grace to be faithful in proclaiming the message, believing the message,
proclaiming the message, and oh Lord, Open up doors for us
to preach your gospel. Teach us to do it in compassion
and meekness and humility and in boldness and how we thank
you for your gospel. In Christ's name we pray, amen.