I want to bring my message this
morning from Matthew chapter 28. But I'm going to ask you, if you will, also
to turn with me to Hebrews chapter 12. I'm going to read the passage
in Hebrews chapter 12 first, and then we'll go back to the
text, Matthew chapter 28. Beginning with verse 18 in Hebrews
12, for you have not come unto the mouth that might be touched
and that burn with fire, nor unto blackness and darkness and
tempest. and the sound of a trumpet and
the voice of words, which voice they that heard entreated that
the word should not be spoken to them anymore. For they could
not endure that which was commanded. And if so much as a beast touched
the mountain, it shall be stoned or thrust through with a dart.
And so terrible was the sight that Moses said, I exceedingly
fear and quake. Of course, that refers to Mount
Sinai, when the children of Israel came out of Egypt and were led
by Moses to Mount Sinai, and God came down on that mountain
and spoke. And even Moses, we see, feared. The scripture says he feared.
such a tremendous sight, such a tremendous experience for God
Almighty, God who created the heavens and the earth, God who
created all things, created you, created me, and every living
creature, God of great holiness, God of great purity, so holy
that even the angels are not pure in his sight. The heavens
are not clean in his sight. If man ever come to a realization
by the grace of God, by the power of the Holy Spirit, to realize
the God with whom we have to do, who he is, what he's like
that will cause men to fear, to fear him and to seek him and
to forget about thinking that just a pretense of religion will
satisfy God Almighty. This God is so holy and so great,
but yes, so gracious, so gracious. and so loving and so kind to
his people. But oh, that's the mountain that
Israel came to and the people feared. The voice sounded louder
and louder and the fire and the smoke and all to picture the
holiness, the greatness of God Almighty. But you, as a believer,
have not come to that mountain. Notice the next verse. But you are come unto Mount Zion,
and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem,
and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly,
and this is the point I want us to see, and church of the
firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the judge
of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to
Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of
sprinkling that speaketh better things than that of Abel. Now let's go back to my text
this morning, Matthew chapter 28, verse 16. Then the eleven disciples went
away into Galilee, into a mountain where Jesus had appointed them.
And when they saw him, they worshipped him. But some doubted. And 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. I have three statements
that I want to make. And with the help of God, the
Holy Spirit, these statements, I believe, will be a help and
a challenge encouragement to all of us here today. The first
statement is the Church. The Church of the Firstborn has
a sovereign head. The Church of the Lord Jesus
Christ, the Church of the Firstborn has a sovereign head. And I'm using that title that
we read there in Hebrews chapter 12, to the general assembly and
church of the firstborn. Now the Lord Jesus Christ is
called in the scripture the firstborn several times in several different
respects. He's called the firstborn of
every creature. The firstborn of every creature. In other words, in the purpose
of God, He was set up first. He's the firstborn of every creature. Before there was anything other
than God, Christ, he had a subsistence even from before the creation
of the world. And his people were chosen in
him before the foundation of the world. He's God's first elect. And then all of his others are
elected in him. He is the firstborn of creation. And second, he is the firstborn
from the dead. He's the first man who ever died
and rose to die no more. There were other men that the
Lord raised from the dead, but then they died. But the Lord
Jesus Christ, he's the firstborn. He's the first among many, right?
He's the firstfruits of the resurrection. And then he's also called the
firstborn of many brethren. He has many brothers, many siblings
in the family of God. He's the elder brother. He's
the firstborn. But the point I want to make
is simply this, that The church of the firstborn has a sovereign
head. Someone said, what does that
word sovereign mean one time? And I like the way a pastor defined
it. He said, well, look at the word
itself. Do you see the word reign? R-E-I-G-N. Do you see that in
the word sovereign? Reign? Well, this is what it
means, that he reigns, he rules. over all things. The church of
the Lord Jesus Christ has a sovereign head. Notice in our text here,
he says, all power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. He's the head of his body, which
is the church. And he's also the rock upon which
he is building his church. He's a head when we think of
the church as a body, like our human body. It's pictured, the
church is pictured like the human body with many members. So he's
a head. And the church is also pictured
as a building in which all the members are living stones. And they're living because they
are all laid or founded upon the chief stone, the Lord Jesus
Christ. He is building his church upon
himself. He is the foundation stone and
he is sovereign. He is sovereign. He rules. He said, the gates of hell upon
this rock, I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not
prevail against it. And the truth is, my friends,
that the church of the Lord Jesus Christ, that God's people have
many enemies in this world. And we know that it's so that
Satan and those who follow him will do everything they can to
destroy the church, the testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ in this
world. And Satan has been successful
in bringing many innovations and inventions into this world. For instance, evolution. What
a lie. What a lie has Satan been able
to convince most of the so-called knowledgeable people in this
world of evolution. which is, we know, a great lie
of Satan, and what it does, what it's caused people to do, is
not to be thinking and concerned about God Almighty. Well, if
we came from a one-celled amoeba, if we don't have a creator that
is God, then we're not responsible unto Him, and we're not going
to meet Him in judgment. That's just one of the ways,
right, that Satan has come against the church of the Lord Jesus
Christ by spewing out the era of evolution. And when we think
about that Big Bang Theory, a man would have to be crazy to believe
in that, really. He'd have to be crazy. Someone
one time said, it's like thinking there could be an explosion in
a printing press or printing office and out came Webster's
Dictionary. How foolish, right? But yet many
people are deceived by that. But the gates of hell will not
prevail against the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's always
going to have a church in this world. And it's always a victorious
church. Though we might not believe that
at times, but it always is. And we'll see that more in just
a moment. Why shall not the gates of hell
prevail against his church? Because he has all power. Notice what he said, all power
is given unto me in heaven and in earth. He has all power. The truth is, now listen, he
has all power today. He'll never have any, he'll never
be more powerful than he is today. He has all power. No more power
can be added unto him. He has all power today as he
has had. I was listening. Well, I wasn't listening. I got
in my, vehicle one day this week at lunchtime to go to get something
to eat. And the station I like to listen
to, there was someone on there. And I heard him make this statement,
supposedly a preacher. He made this statement several
times. He said, if man will not let God save him, if man will not let God save
him. Well, listen, if I can keep God
from saving me, I doubt that he could save me. Right? If a person can keep him from
saving them, then, no, the Lord saves his people. Salvation is
of the Lord. He reigns. The church's head
is sovereign. He reigns over all. Now the Old
Testament scriptures pointed to the coming Messiah, the Christ. And some of those scriptures
spoke of him as a suffering Messiah. And then some of the scriptures
spoke of him as a reigning Messiah. And it seems like many people,
they couldn't understand that. how he could suffer, be cut off
out of the land of the living, and yet he would be a reigning
messiah, a ruling, a sovereign messiah. Well, the truth is the
Lord Jesus Christ is a mediator, and he is the only mediator between
God and man, the man Christ Jesus. He has three offices. He's a
prophet. While he was walking upon this
earth for three and a half years, before he was crucified, he was
doing his work as a prophet. He was preaching, preaching the
gospel, preaching the Word of God. Aren't you thankful for
the Word of God? His work as a prophet. But then
he did his work as a priest, right? He offered a sacrifice. That's the work of a priest,
to offer sacrifice. And he offered himself. It wasn't
like those priests that had pictured him in the Old Testament that
brought animals. Why? Because it's not possible
that the blood of bulls and goats can take away sins. But he offered
himself up unto God as a sacrifice. And the scripture says, for by
one offering, Those other priests, they offered sacrifices daily,
daily, yearly. Centuries went by, but the blood
that they spilled could never take away sin, but he by one
sacrifice hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. I like
that word perfected, don't you? He's perfected by his sacrifice. those who are sanctified, those
who are set apart by God the Father in an eternal election. He is sanctified, perfected. But then he finished that work
as a priest, you know, and one of the things that the writer
of Hebrews tells us, now he sat down. And that was to illustrate
how the Old Testament priests, they never sat down. When they
went in the tabernacle, there were no benches there. There
were no seats in the tabernacle or in that courtyard. Why? Because
their work was never finished. It was never complete. They offered
a lamb this morning, they'll be back tomorrow with another
lamb. The Lord Jesus Christ, by his
one sacrifice, hath perfected forever them that are sanctified.
And he sat down. Now, he sat down at the right
hand of the Father, the place of power, the place of honor
and glory. Every knee bows to him, and every
tongue will confess that he's Lord to the glory of God. He's ruling as a king. He's a priest. In the book of
Zechariah, chapter six, there's such a beautiful prophecy of
the priest called Joshua. That really is one of the names
of Christ, right? Jesus, or Jehovah saves Joshua. How he's made a priest first.
And then he's made a king. And that's exactly what took
place. He did his work as prophet and
preaching the word, then his work as a priest and bringing
in that everlasting sacrifice. And now as a king, he rules to
apply, to apply his salvation, his work of redemption to his
covenant people. Well, that's the first point
I wanted to make. And isn't that encouraging? Isn't
it? Isn't that encouraging that the
church of which we are a member, I'm not talking about this local
church, I'm talking about the church of which it includes every
saved person, every elect person from all over the world that
that the Lord saves. We're all members of that church,
which is his body, a spiritual body. We're in fellowship with
him. We commune with him. It's mystic,
mystic communion, isn't it? When we come and observe the
Lord's table, we do that in obedience unto him. And what are we doing?
We are communing with him. We're communing with our Savior.
What fellowship we enjoy with Him. The second statement is
the church of the firstborn is given a mandate. Given a mandate,
go you therefore. Notice that in verse 19, go you
therefore. Now, go and do what? Go and do what? Well, as we look
at this mandate, I see three things. First of all, make disciples
of all nations. Now, under that heading, I want
to point out two things. First, the Lord Jesus Christ
is the Savior of the world. Some people, when they hear that,
they think that means that every person in the world is going
to be saved. No, it doesn't mean that at all. But 1 John 4 and verse 14, we
read, and we have seen and do testify that the Father sent
the Son to be the Savior of the world. He didn't come into this
world to be the Savior of just those of the nation of Israel.
He's the Savior of the world. There's only one Savior for all
of God's world. It doesn't matter if a person
was born in China, Africa, or South America, wherever, there's
only one Savior. There's only one name given under
heaven among men whereby we must be saved. There's only one door,
right? There's only one way to the Father,
and Jesus Christ is that way. He's the Savior of the world. Go you, therefore. You know,
modernists, those who take the Bible and mistreat it and misuse
it and try to make it mean things it doesn't mean, they would tell
us, well, God is the father of all men. The fatherhood of God. He's the
father of all men. Well, the Lord Jesus Christ didn't
say that, did he? He said, you are of your father
the devil to some people. No, he's the creator of all men. And all men are responsible.
You're responsible, I'm responsible unto God. And yes, there's going
to be a judgment. Man is a moral, a free moral
agent. And his actions, he's going to
give an account for. Deeds done in this body. People
may think they get away with things and they may in this world,
but there's a judgment coming. There's a judgment before which
all men will appear one day. Yes. He's a creator of all men. All men are responsible to God. He's the moral governor of this
world. But he's not the father of all
men, not in a saving way. He told Nicodemus, for God so
loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, the world. God so loved the world. And I
know men, they argue over what is meant by the word world, world
of God's elect, the world, every single individual in the world.
They can argue all they want to, my friends. But the truth
is that God, out of love, gave His Son to be the Savior of all
who believe in Him. You, if God gives you grace to
believe and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, you'll have eternal
life. If He doesn't give you that grace,
you won't. Cody Groover illustrated faith
one time like this, and I thought it was so good. When you are
asleep and you wake up, do you make a decision to open up your
eyes? Do you make a decision or do
you just open up your eyes? You're asleep and you awaken. You just open up your eyes, right?
And when God gives faith, faith is a grace, it's a gift. And
when God gives faith to a person, they believe. They trust in Christ. You don't have to make a decision
to believe, no. You believe, why? Because you
have faith. You're given faith, for by grace
are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It's
a gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. Has
he given you faith? Has he? Are your eyes open? Can
you see now what you couldn't see? You know, the scripture
says Satan hath blinded the men of this world. Lost person, he
can't see who God is. Doesn't have a clue. He's spiritually
dead, blind. But when God gives life, gives
faith, and grants repentance unto his people, we believe,
we trust in him. Go you, therefore. He's the savior
of the world. You say, well, I don't know if
he'd want me to go here. Well, he's the savior of the
world. Now he does direct preachers, we see that in Acts chapter 16,
it's brought out to us where the Holy Spirit forbade, the
scripture says, forbade Paul and Silas to go into a certain
place, but then sent them into another place. When God deserts a country, and
he's done that, That's usually the first sign he begins to withdraw
the preachers, the number of preachers who preach the gospel. He begins to take them away,
and less and less preachers are in the land. I don't know if
we ever stop to think about this, but how blessed we have been.
I think of my life, oh my, how the Lord sent some preachers
to me to preach the gospel to me. What a blessing, oh my, what
a blessing. Faith cometh by hearing and hearing
by the word of God. God did that. And he gets the
glory, doesn't he? Amen. Well, that's my second
point. The gospel is used in making
disciples. In Mark's gospel, the same account
is to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. When Paul wrote the letter of
Romans, he said, I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. Well,
why, Paul, why are you not ashamed of the gospel of Christ? Because
it is the power of God unto salvation unto everyone that believeth. That's why I'm not ashamed of
it, because it glorifies God. It honors God, the gospel, the
true gospel does. It shows how God may be just
and justify the ungodly. I'm not ashamed of this message. Well, Paul said it's the power
of God unto salvation. Do you think it's lost any of
its power? Over 2,000 years plus now, since Paul wrote those words,
do you think the gospel is less powerful today? Of course not. It's still the power of God unto
salvation unto everyone that believeth. Believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ. If you're here today, believe
you've never believed and confess your faith in Christ. Believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Those are
not my words. Those are the inspired words. We're to preach the gospel. The
word gospel means good news. How could we illustrate that? The doctor tells you, you go
in to see the doctor and he tells you, I'm sorry to give you this
news, but you've got probably at the most a week to live. You've
got a terrible disease and it's just invaded your whole body.
It's all over you. I'd call that bad news, wouldn't
you? But as you go out of the doctor's
office, someone steps up to you and says, buddy, I've got some
good news. What is it? I've got a pill here. You take that pill, and that
disease is gone. And he's not just some fly-by-night
shyster either. I mean, this is the truth. Wouldn't
you think that was good news? Well, that's the gospel pill. The gospel, it's the gospel pill,
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Now that Christ, while we were
enemies, died for our sins, the scripture says, that he might
reconcile us unto God. Well, here's the second thing,
baptizing them. Now who are to be baptized? Well,
believers are. That's always God's order. You
know, the, the, False religion, they tell people, well, you know,
we sprinkle babies and they call that baptism. That's not baptism.
It's not baptism at all. Baptism is immersion. That's what it is. And sprinkling
a baby doesn't baptize a baby. And that has caused a great deal
of harm, my friends. That's the only reason I point
that out. I love and I've read and I listen. I've got a pastor
right now that I listen to quite often. And I know he's sprinkled
babies. He's a member of the free Church
of Scotland. And I love him. And I believe
he preaches Christ. I believe he loves Christ and
knows the gospel. But he's wrong on that. You don't
sprinkle a baby and then call that baptism. That's just not
so. Baptizing them in the baptismal
formula is in the name, not in the names, but in the name of
the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, confessing
that God saved us. God, the Father, God, the Son,
and God, the Holy Spirit, each one. had a part in our salvation. And that's what we confess in
baptism. And then thirdly, teaching them
to observe all things that I've commanded. You know, someone
told me last Wednesday night here in our congregation, they
worked with a person and that person told them, well, I don't
need a pastor. I don't attend church anywhere.
And they said, I don't need a pastor. Well, that's not what the Bible
teaches. No. Ephesians chapter 4, the scripture
tells us that God gave gifts. The ascended Lord gave gifts.
And those gifts, pastors and teachers, evangelists, prophets,
and apostles, and all for the perfecting of the saints. Yeah. When a baby is born, it's born
Full, right? Complete. Never going to grow
another member onto its little body. No, but the body is going
to grow. It's going to mature. And that's
what we do as believers. We become perfect. And that word
perfect does not mean in the sense that's used in the scripture
here, sinless, but it means that we mature. And the way that believers
who are born again of the Spirit of God mature is through, as
our Lord said, teaching them to observe whatsoever I have
commanded you. We teach the Word of God. Yes,
we do need a pastor. You need a pastor. And the last
thing that I want to say is the church of the firstborn should
always be encouraged. Always. Why? Because the Lord
Jesus said, Lo, I'm with you always, even unto the end of
the ages. Why would we be discouraged?
Why would we ever be discouraged with his promise to be with us? I will never leave thee nor forsake
thee is his promise. Remember when he was leaving
his disciples Going to the cross, he told them in John chapter
14, I will pray the father and he shall give thee another comforter
who shall abide with thee forever. And that's God the Holy Spirit
who lives in us. As I look out on this audience
today, what do I see? Well, I see a number of things,
but I see temples. I see temples here, temples here,
temples over, temples, temples, yes, temples of the Holy Spirit,
temples of God. God dwells. The Holy Spirit dwells
in our bodies. He dwells in us. This is what
the Word of God teaches us. What an encouragement is that,
right, to know that that your body is the temple of the Holy
Spirit, that he lives in you, and he'll never leave you. He'll
never forsake you. The Church of the Firstborn always
has cause to be encouraged. Sometimes it looks like we're
just a handful, just a very small minority of people in this world
today who believe the truth, believe the gospel. And compared to other days, maybe
that's so. But you know, God can do a great
work suddenly. We've got a passage in 2 Chronicles,
I believe, that talks about God did something suddenly. He can
bring a nation forth in a day. Oh, be encouraged. Be encouraged,
all of us. God's not finished with his church.
And until he calls that last one, he's going to have a church
in this world. And what a privilege to be a
part of it. What a blessing to be a part
of the Church of the Firstborn. Well, I trust the Lord will bless
this word to all of us here this morning. I want us to sing a
hymn that We all love Amazing Grace. It's number 236. And we'll
sing this hymn and then I'll have