Matthew chapter 28. I'm taking
the title with a message from the words found in verse 18. Matthew 28, 18. And Jesus came
and spake unto them saying, all power, all power, not some, not
temporary, all power is given unto me in heaven and in earth,
all power. There is nowhere in heaven or
on earth that our Lord Jesus Christ does not have complete,
total dominion and sovereign power over all things, over all
creatures, over all events. He's the first cause and last
end of all things, of him, through him, and to him are all things. He has sovereign power over all
things. As the God-man mediator, he said,
all power has been given unto me. John the Baptist preached
this sermon recorded in John chapter 3. The Father loveth
the Son, hath given all things unto him. You're in his hands. He has all power in heaven and
in earth. And I like what the Lord taught
that pagan king Nebuchadnezzar. He said, all the inhabitants
of the earth are reputed as nothing, and He does according to His
will in the army of heaven among the inhabitants of this earth,
and no one can stay His hand or say unto Him, Lord God Almighty,
what are you doing? Shall not the judge of all the
earth do right? Well, we come down to our last
message in the book of Matthew. And I must confess, it's been
a blessing to me to study personally, to study these chapters each
week, to read and study and prepare a gospel message to bring to
you each week. To preach the same thing to you,
to me, indeed, is not grievous. It's not a burden. It's a delight. We started our study in the book
of Matthew in February of 2023. Now here in June of 2025, we
wind it up. Someone asked me recently, what
book are we going to study next? I'm not sure, but I know this,
it'll be in this book, or bring our message from this book, not
another. This book. And I trust our messages
to you from this book have been a true blessing to your heart.
I hope that we've all grown in grace and in the knowledge of
our Lord Jesus Christ. Now I can say this, if you've
missed any of the messages that we've brought through the book
of Matthew, and I've counted 95 different messages that we
have brought through the book of Matthew, you can find them
all posted on Sermon Audio. under the heading of Studies
in Matthew. And you can click on any of those
at any time and you can listen to them at your leisure. Now
we learned last week in our study, these women were first to see
the risen Lord, to embrace Him, to worship Him, and He told them
to go quickly and tell the disciples. Verse 9 of Matthew 28, And as
they went to tell his disciples, behold, Jesus met them saying,
be of good cheer. They came and beheld him by the
feet and worshiped him. And he said unto them, be not
afraid, go tell my disciples, my brethren, that they go into
Galilee and there they shall see me. So he told them to go
quickly and tell the disciples. And we know the rest of the story.
How when the women came to these men, how their message was received
with doubt and unbelief. They believed not the record,
it says in Mark 16. We read just a moment ago from
Luke 24, the words seem to be idle tales, and they believed
not. Now here are these women, just
excited, you can imagine their excitement. We've seen the Lord,
we've heard Him. He told us to tell you that He's
risen from the dead. Their message was not well received. So that sets the stage for what
is said in verse 11 down to verse 15. And here's our first point.
Here we see a ridiculous conspiracy of lies. You remember there was
a posted guard at the grave. The Pharisees were concerned
that the apostles might come at night and steal away the body,
so they convinced Pilate to set up a Roman guard there. put a
guard, so they couldn't do that. And when the angel of the Lord
descended, these guards fell dead as dead men for fear. And verse 11 said, when they
were going, behold, some of the watch came into the city and
showed unto the chief priests. Now they didn't go to Pilate
first. I believe they were scared to do so. or the prisoner, the
one that had been condemned and put in the grave, is gone. And they were responsible to
keep him there, keep that body there. They came into the city
and showed them, the chief priests, all things that were done. And
when they were assembled with the elders, that is the Sanhedrin,
the Pharisees, the scribes, and had taken counsel, they gave
large money unto the soldiers saying, Say ye, his disciples
came by night and stole him away while we slept. And if this come
to the governor's ear, we will persuade him and secure you.'
So they took the money and did as they were taught. And this
saying is commonly reported among the Jews until this day." Now,
that lie is still going on in Jerusalem today. a ridiculous
conspiracy of lies that made up about the Lord. Someone said
years ago, and I've tried to find out the origin of this,
and it's been given credit to many different men, but someone
said a lie can travel around the world while the truth is
putting on its boots. You ever heard that? A lie will
go around the world while the truth is just putting on its
boots. Thomas Jefferson, they say, may have said that. They
also said Charles Spurgeon, the preacher, also quoted that as
well. While these women were running
to tell the truth, the Lord is risen, the Roman soldiers were
running to save their life. and to make some money on this
deal, a large sum of money. Remember, Judas betrayed the
Lord for 30 pieces of silver. Now the Pharisee tried to stop
and quench the truth with what? A lie. By buying off these soldiers
to promote their lie. Say this, as it says there in
verse 13, say, his disciples came by night and stole him away
while we slept. Sleeping on the job, if you are
a Roman soldier on guard duty and you got caught sleeping on
the job, it wasn't going to be a good day for you. Punishment,
punishment, punishment. God help us, here's my thought
on this, God help us to never be influenced by what we believe
or preach by the motive of money or the love of money. There's
nothing wrong with having money. to pay our bills, to buy food
and shelter. The problem is when your money
has you. That's the problem. That's the
problem. Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness
and all these things that be added unto you. Lay up for yourselves
treasure in heaven, not treasures upon the earth. Set your affection
on things above. They put the money in their hand
of these Roman soldiers, the Pharisees, these religious self-righteous
Jews, they put the money, their money in the hand of the soldiers
and a lie in their mouth. Money in their hand and lie in
their mouth. Verse 14, and if this comes to
the governor's ear, we will persuade him and secure you. When Pilate
hears about this, we'll protect you, we'll defend you. Maybe
from a sort of Pilate's justice, sleeping on the job was punishable
by death. In Acts chapter 12, when Peter
escaped prison by the angel of the Lord, you know what Herod
did to those prisoners who kept the guard? They were put to death.
You remember in Acts 16 when Paul and Silas were in jail and
the Lord sent an earthquake and the doors were opened up and
that jailer was ready to take his life? Why would he do that? Because he knew if they had escaped
that he was responsible for them. These liars, although they may
escape the justice of Pilate's sword, they will not escape the
justice of God's sword. No lie can ever be the truth. So what did they do? They took
the money, told a lie. Many today believe the lie and
reject the truth of God's word and the gospel of God concerning
the Lord Jesus Christ. Sad story in our day. When we
see so many people believing the lies of men, salvation is
all they say, your decision, your choice, your works, that's
a lie, rather than God's sovereign grace and God's mercy alone,
that's the truth. It's not by works of righteousness
which we have done, but according to His mercy. He saved us. It's
God who saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according
to our work, but according to God's own purpose and grace.
So don't believe the lie that God loves all men, Christ died
for all men, and God times to save all men, but they won't
let Him. Three lies. The truth is salvation is of
the Lord. Salvation is of the Lord. Now here's the second thing
I want us to see. Not only was there a real conspiracy,
but secondly we see real worship. Real worship. Look at verse 16
and 17. The eleven disciples went away into Galilee. I like
the message the Lord told those women. You tell those men go
into Galilee and that's where they went. The 11 disciples went
away into Galilee, into the mountain where the Lord Jesus had appointed
them. And when they saw him, they worshiped
him. But how could anyone doubt? Some
doubted. The risen Lord, standing right
before them, and it said some of these people doubted. They
said, well, I'd never do that. Oh, hold on. Where we see real
worship, but also we see real doubt, too, don't we? These eleven
apostles were obedient to the word of the Lord. He told them
where to go to meet the resurrected Lord, and they did, in the mountain
of Galilee. Some think not only the apostles
were there, but many others were there in this specified appointed
meeting. Remember in 1 Corinthians 15,
where it says, above 500 brethren at once, he appeared unto them. Maybe there were 500 witnesses,
and maybe some of them doubted that the Lord was risen from
the dead. But it says in verse 17, when
they saw him, they worshiped, but some doubted. Some doubted. Even when the risen Lord stood
before them, some had doubts. We don't know who. We don't know
how many. But some had doubts and fears. Now, what's the problem
here? This is a plague of our fallen,
sinful, wicked nature, to have doubts and fears. You remember
the man in scripture who said, Lord, I do believe. Help my unbelief. Help my unbelief. Faith and doubts
are often found in the same heart. Great faith or little faith are
both saving faith. Strong faith or weak faith are
both saving faith, if it's true faith. You see, the strength
of faith is not in faith, it's the object of faith. The Lord
Jesus Christ is the one who saves. Saving faith is not objective. Saving faith is objective, it's
not subjective. Saving faith has an object. Saving
faith has a foundation, the Lord Jesus Christ. It has an object,
looking unto Him, the author and finisher of our faith. You
see, believers in this world are still sinners. We studied
in our Bible study this morning, if we say we have no sin, we
deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. Believers in this
world are still sinners. We're forgiven. The blood of
Jesus Christ cleanses us from all our sin, but we're not faultless. We say we have no sin, we deceive
ourselves. We are pardoned. But in ourselves,
we're not perfect. We are sinners, the chief of
sinners. Oh, wretched man that I am. We are sanctified in the
Lord Jesus Christ, but in ourselves, we are still sinners. That which is born of flesh is
flesh. We are, as Paul said, oh, wretched
man that I am. Thank God the blood of Jesus
Christ, his son, cleanses us from all our sin. The best of
believers are only men at best, sinners Saved by the grace of
God. By the grace of God. Here's the
third point I want us to look at. Verse 18. The Lord came,
and the Lord spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto
me in heaven and in earth. Here we see real power. Real
power. Almighty power. And here is what
we need to dispel any doubt or fear. Almighty God, looking to
the one who was mighty to save, all power is given unto me, heaven
and earth. As God the Son, he has all power,
equal with the Father, We read in Philippians 2, who being in
the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God,
but made himself of no reputation, took upon himself the form of
a servant, and was made in the likeness of sinful flesh, and
became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. As God,
he has all power, but as a God-man mediator, all power was given
unto him. in his office as the anointed
Christ of God, as the prophet of God, as the priest of God
to make atonement for us, as the prophet of God to tell us
the truth, as the King of kings and Lord of lords. He has all
power, able to save to the uttermost. He's the almighty savior. He's
the almighty surety. The one we trust for salvation
has all authority, all power, all dominion. That gives us hope,
does it not? There's one God and just one
mediator, and that is the Lord Jesus Christ. He has all power
in creation. By Him are all things created
that are in heaven and earth. He has all power in providence,
the things that come to pass in time, were decreed from all
eternity. And certainly, He has all power
in salvation. And read that, turn to John 17.
He has all power in salvation. He said, I will have mercy on
whom I will have mercy and whom I will harden. John 17, turn
over there. He has all power, all power in
salvation. And he exercises his sovereign
power and dominion in the salvation of his people. In John 17, this
is his priestly prayer. Father, the hour has come, verse
one, glorify thy son, that thy son also may glorify thee, as
thou has given him power over all flesh, that he should give
eternal life to as many as the father had given him. And this
is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God,
Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. I have glorified thee on
the earth. I finished the work you gave
me to do. He has all power in creation,
providence, and in salvation. The Lord Jesus Christ exercises
his dominion in salvation. Salvation is of the Lord, and
he will save whom he will, when he will, according to his own
good pleasure. All power. Who is the Lord Jesus
Christ? He's God. As God, He has all
power. Who is the Lord Jesus Christ?
He's a God-man mediator. As such, He has all power in
heaven and earth, given to Him in His office as the Christ of
God. Here's the fourth thing I want
us to look at. Here we see the real commission
and commandment the Lord has given unto His people, unto His
church. unto the body of believers, verse
19. And verse 20, go ye therefore,
and knowing that he has all power in heaven and earth, go ye therefore,
teach all nations or make disciples or make Christians of all nations. Go ye therefore and make disciples,
teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father
and the Son and the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all
things whatsoever I've commanded you, and behold, or lo, I am,
I am that I am, I am with you always, even to the end of the
world." Now, they had their commission and their charge from the Lord
to go preach the gospel. and the promise that he would
always be with them, he'd never leave them and never forsake
them. Now here's the Lord's specific command and special command to
his church, his body of believers, to take the message of the gospel
and declare it unto all people. This then is a message that we've
heard of him and we declare unto you that God is God. So we go
and preach the gospel because it's the power of God and the
salvation to everyone that believes, to the Jew or to the Gentile.
So go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.
He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved. He that believeth
not shall be condemned. Now we cannot make sinners believe
the gospel, can we? I can't make you believe. I can't
give you faith. I can't make you believe the
gospel. We cannot give sinners faith
in Christ. That's the gift of God. We cannot
give sinners life in Christ. He that hath a son hath life,
but I can't give you life. I cannot give you salvation.
But one thing that God has told us to do, go preach the gospel.
And through the preaching of the gospel, God grants salvation
unto his people. The Lord has ordained, through
the preaching of the gospel, to grant faith and salvation
in Him. That's why we're so insistent
upon when we come together, we take His Word and preach it.
Let me show you the reason why. Turn to Romans 10. He's commanded
us to preach the Gospel. Faith comes by hearing and hearing
by the Word of the Lord. Romans 10. It says in verse 13, For whosoever
shall call upon the name of the Lord, shall be saved. How then shall they call on him
in whom they've not believed? And how shall they believe in
him of whom they've not heard? And how shall they hear without
a preacher? And how shall they preach except
they be sent? As it is written, how beautiful
are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, that bring
glad tidings of good things, but they have not all obeyed
the gospel. For Isaiah saith, who hath believed
our report, So then, verse 17, faith cometh by hearing. Hearing
what? The Word, the Gospel. Faith cometh
by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. He must give us
ears to hear. Hear what? The Gospel of the
Lord Jesus Christ. One other scripture I want us
to look at, turn to 1 Corinthians. Chapter 1, when Paul said that
God didn't send me to baptize, He sent me to preach the Gospel.
1 Corinthians 1 verse 17. He said, for Christ sent me not,
1 Corinthians 1 verse 17, to baptize, but to preach the Gospel. not with wisdom of word, lest
the cross of Christ should be made of none effect. For the
preaching of the gospel, the preaching of the cross is to
them that perish foolishness, but unto us which are saved is
the power of God. For it is written, I will destroy
the wisdom of the wise, I'll bring you nothing to understanding
of the prudent. Where is the wise? Where is the
scribe? Where is the disputer of this world? Hath not God made
foolish the wisdom of this world? For after that, in the wisdom
of God, the world by wisdom knew not God. Verse 21, it pleased
God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. For
the Jews, they want a sign. The Greeks, they seek wisdom.
But we preach Christ crucified. Unto the Jews, a stumbling block.
Unto the Greeks, foolishness. But unto them which are called,
both Jews and Greek, Christ, the power of God, Christ, the
wisdom of God. So it pleased God through preaching
to call out his people. Aren't you glad the Lord sent
you a gospel preacher? to preach to you the truth of
salvation by the grace of God, by the grace of God. Go ye therefore
and teach all nations and then baptizing them, that's how believers
confess faith in Christ, by water baptism. Water baptism is a picture
of our death, of his death and burial and resurrection and our
identification and confession with him. Baptizing them in the
name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Who should
be baptized? Those who believe the Gospel.
Those who believe the Gospel. Turn to Acts chapter 8, let me
show you an example of that. Acts chapter 8, when Philip was
called to preach out in the desert country to one man and his party,
that Ethiopian eunuch in Acts chapter 8, the place where the eunuch was
reading, verse 32, he was led as a sheep to the slaughter,
Isaiah 53, like a lamb before her shears, dumb before her shears,
so he opened not his mouth, verse 33, in his humiliation and judgment,
his humiliation and judgment, In his humiliation, his judgment
was taken away. Who shall declare his generation?
For his life was taken from the earth. And the eunuch answered
Philip and said, I pray thee, of whom speaketh the prophet
this, of himself or some other man? Now watch it. Philip opened
his mouth. and began at the same scripture
and preached unto him the Lord Jesus Christ, all about who he
is, what he accomplished. And as they went on their way,
they came unto a certain water, and the eunuch said, see here
is water, what doth hinder me to be baptized? And Philip said,
if thou believest with all thy heart, thou mayest. And he answered
and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. And
he commanded the chariot to stand still, and they went down both
into the water, both Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him.
And when they were come up out of the water, the Spirit of the
Lord caught away Philip, that the eunuch saw him no more, and
he went on his way rejoicing." So those who believe the gospel,
they want to confess the Lord Jesus Christ. While we say baptism
is not salvation, Being baptized does not give one salvation.
We're baptized because we do believe. We don't be baptized
in order to believe. Well, we say that baptism is
not salvation, not even essential to salvation. Christ is essential
to salvation. But baptism is certainly essential
to obedience unto the Lord. Obedience unto the Lord Jesus
Christ. Now, that's the means the Lord
gave His church that we might confess our faith in Him, His
death, His burial, and His resurrection. And He said to do this in the
name, watch it carefully, verse 19, in the name of the Father,
the Son, and the Holy Spirit, the Holy Ghost. We do this, we
preach His gospel in His name with His authority. God the Father,
God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. These three are one. We do this in the name of the
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Why do we do that? When we baptize
someone, we say, Upon your confession of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ,
we baptize you in the name of the Father, Son, Holy Spirit,
because that's what He told us to do. But here's something I
think we need to realize. When we talk about the Father,
the Son, and the Holy Spirit being the total, whole, complete
Godhead, the whole Godhead is involved in our salvation. The
Father, what did He do? The Father chose us. Ephesians
chapter 1, read it sometime. Ephesians 1, according as He
has chosen us in Him, the Father has chosen us in Him before the
foundation of the world. And then it talks about the Father
choosing and it talks about the Son redeeming. All to the praise
of the glory of His grace, in whom we have redemption through
His blood, the forgiveness of sin, according to the riches
of His grace. And then the Holy Spirit. What
does the Holy Spirit do? He's the one that quickens. He's
the one that reveals. He's the one that makes us new
creatures in Christ Jesus. So we see the whole Godhead is
involved, all to the praise of the glory of His grace, the Father
in choosing, the Son in redeeming, the Holy Spirit in saving us
by His grace. You hath He quickened who were
dead. If His own will be yet, He us
with the word of truth. In closing, verse 20, teaching
them to observe all things whatsoever I've commanded you. And lo, I'm
with you always. I'm with you always. Now you
think about this, wherever you go, whatever you're doing, the
Lord is with His people always. The one who has all power and
all authority. I'm with you always, even to
the end of the world. and great promise of the Lord
unto his church. Teaching them, he said, to observe
all things I've commanded you. We have no right to invent new
doctrine or dismiss old doctrine or to hold back any doctrine.
We're to preach all the counsel of God, all things that I've
commanded you. We preach all the counsel of
God that is summed up in this. Salvation is of the Lord. Salvation
is in the Lord Jesus Christ. Salvation is accomplished by
Him. Go preach the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, knowing
that I have all power in heaven and in earth. What are we to
preach? His word. By charge, we preach
the word. We preach His person, we preach
His work. Who He is, what He's done. Who
is He? God Almighty. God our Savior. What has He done? He accomplished
our salvation. He appeared once in the end of
the age to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. And then
he said, teaching, preaching the gospel of all things I've
commanded you, and I'm with you always. Notice, I am. You see that? I am with you always. Here's his great unchanging promise. I am with you always. This is
the same God and Savior who spoke to Moses out of the burning bush,
who said, I am that I am. Our Lord said this, if you believe
not that I am, you'll die in your sins. We must believe the
Lord Jesus Christ is God, our Savior, that He is the Lord Jehovah,
our righteousness. He has said, so we may boldly
say, the Lord is our helper. I'll never leave you. I'll never
forsake you. The Lord has promised to bless
his word to his elect. It will not return to them void.
Compromise is inexcusable. Failure is impossible. With wholehearted
devotion and commitment to the Lord Jesus Christ is most reasonable,
is it not? He who loved us and gave himself
for us. How can we not be totally sold
out to our Lord Jesus Christ? Lo, I'm with you always. You
remember when he said, and see the reference there is Matthew
18, 20. He said, where two or three are
gathered in my name, I'm with you. I'm with you. The Lord is
with us. He'll never leave us. He'll never
forsake us. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
one who made the promise. And He is the promise. He is
the promise of eternal life. He's the security of the promise
that salvation is found in Him. And then that last word in our
whole study, how many words have we read from Matthew chapter
1 all the way through to Matthew 28, 20? How many words have we
read? A lot. We studied a lot. We've learned
a lot, I hope. I have. And what do we say to
that? Amen. Amen.