28. Matthew chapter number 28. Go to verse number 18. Matthew chapter 28 verse number 18. And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and 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. Our Father, I pray that you would bless us today. I pray that you would guide and direct our thoughts and turn them toward you, turn them outward toward a world that needs to hear of you. Guide and direct and bless. We'll thank you for it in Christ's name. Amen. Today is the last sermon of a series of messages that I've been preaching on. I've lost the word, the final words, but it was, it was more than that final instructions, final instructions from the, uh, the, the men of God before they went off the scene. Okay. We looked at Paul. He said, finish well. We looked at Peter. He said, live well. Moses said, make sure you parent well. Joshua, make sure you choose well. And last week, David, make sure you work well. Today, we want to look at Jesus Christ and his final instructions to us. While all of the men we've talked about thus far, Final instructions were the final words that they said before they died. Jesus Christ not only died, but he rose again from the dead. Amen. So his final instructions were not given to us before he died. They were given to us after his death, after his burial, after his resurrection, and before his ascension. We call these the Great Commission. He told us to do something. He told us to witness well. Now, how many times does the Bible have to say something before we should obey it? Boy, that was a good answer, amen. You guys did a good job. How many times does the Bible have to say something? Just once. How many times does it give us the Great Commission? Five times. Do you think that Jesus Christ thought it was important what he was saying? Do you think the Holy Spirit, as he inspired the writers of the Word of God to write those words, do you think they thought it was important? He, the Holy Spirit of God, thought it was important. Therefore, it would do us well to know what he said in those Great Commissions. We begin here in Matthew 28, verse number 18. Let's go ahead and read it one more time. And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power, or all authority, is given unto me in heaven and 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. emphasis is on the process. Okay? The process of the Great Commission. Literally, in verse number 19, where it says, teach all nations. Literally, the Greek words there mean, make disciples of all nations. The word teach there carries the idea of making disciples. It is not just witnessing. It is not just seeing people saved. It is literally making disciples out of them. In the Greek language, the emphasis on the teach, the making of disciples, but then in the Greek language, it gives us what we call in English, participles. Three words ending in ing, if you will, when we Englishize it. tell us how that's done. Going, baptizing, and teaching. Does that make sense? He says make disciples by going, baptizing, and Teaching, that's a process of making disciples. We cannot do this job of going into all the world and preaching the gospel to every creature alone. Amen? We need help. How do we get that help? By making disciples. By making disciples. We are to teach them the word of God so that they will understand they need to be saved. Once saved, we are to baptize them. No, baptism does not save, but baptism is an act of obedience after salvation, which starts us on the right road of growth in Jesus Christ and submission to him. And then we're to teach them all the things that he said. What does that do? It makes another Christian. Amen. We are to be growing in Christ at all times. Amen. Learning more, becoming like him. And we are to have someone who is, we are helping in that direction. They're getting saved. We want to see them baptized. We want to see them growing in Christ so that we make another one of ourselves. And then there are how many of us? Let's say you do it, that's one. You do it to somebody else in there, how many? Two, and then those two go out and do it again, and how many are there? Four, eight, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, and I better quit. Okay, you get the idea. I've given this illustration so many times, you're probably tired of hearing it, but it's a fact. I was even fact-checked once on a calendar in the office. I went out after I said this and someone fact checked me on the calendar in the office. If you give me one penny on the first day of the month and doubled it every day of the month, so on the first day you give me, day number two you give me, and then four, eight, we just went through that. On the last day of the month you'd be giving me over $5 million. That's how multiplying works. Now, it's a whole lot faster than addition. Does that make sense? So God does not want us to simply add to the kingdom. He wants us to multiply the kingdom by doing what? Making disciples. That was the emphasis in Mark's presentation of the Great Commission. Don't just go and witness. Don't just go and preach. Yes, you need to do that. But understand the process is taking someone and making them, like you, a disciple of Jesus Christ. Our job is to take our Christianity, our spirituality, our becoming more like Jesus Christ, and pour it into someone else so that they, too, can do the same thing and join us in this effort to reach an entire world that needs to hear of Jesus Christ, amen. Matthew's emphasis is on the process, making disciples. What's the next book in the New Testament? Good answer, Mark. Wait a minute, nobody answered, Pastor. I knew you knew. I could read your mind, amen. Go to Mark chapter 16, Mark chapter 16. Mark chapter 16, verse number 15. Mark chapter 16, verse number 15. And he said unto them, go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. Mark's gospel is shortened when you compare it to Matthew's gospel and is Giving us the Great Commission is shortened as well. While Matthew's emphasis was on the process, making disciples, Mark's emphasis is on the plan. Proclaim the gospel. Proclaim the gospel. Now, I've told you time and time again, if you write in your Bible, and it's good to write in your Bible, it's okay to write in your Bible, to highlight your Bible, to take notes, and things like that, it's okay to do that. If you do that, what you ought to do in verse number 15, where it says, go ye, you gotta change that to go me into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature, because who is this commission for? All of us. It wasn't just for the disciples. It wasn't just for the first church. It isn't just for pastors. It isn't just for those who are involved in the ministry. It is involved for, it is, It is spoken to all of us because we are all to be involved in the ministry. Amen. So it literally is a go me into all the world and proclaim, preach the gospel to every creature. You're to preach the gospel. You're to proclaim. That's what that word preach means. It means to proclaim the gospel. Now, what is the gospel? It is the good news. of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Amen? That doesn't sound a whole lot like good news, does it? Well, in order for good news to be good news, what must there be? Bad news. Bad news. There is no good news without Bad news, we have to understand that. The good news is Jesus Christ came. He died on the cross. He was buried. But then again, he rose from the dead the third day to prove everything he said was true. That's the good news. Okay, what did he say though? He said that we're all sinners. And sinners end up in hell. and we needed to repent of that sin, and then the good news makes sense. It doesn't make sense other than that. Growing up, I grew up in a rather large church. We had Good Friday services, and we would be in church on Good Friday pretty much the whole day. We'd have several preachers in, they would preach, and it was always a, I don't know, how do I say this? There was always a darkness over the proceedings of what we would call Good Friday. Because what would they be preaching on Good Friday? The death of Jesus Christ. Does that make sense? Now, I remember hearing those sermons on the death of Jesus Christ and listening. And I did listen. And I remember hearing these things come through. And the pall that seemed to be over the entire day, it never, in my young mind, it never came around to, coinciding with Good Friday. Never worked together in my mind until I figured out the death of Jesus Christ was for a purpose. He died that I might live. He came to pay my sin penalty. He came to forgive me of my sin and save me And that truly is good news. Amen. And then all of a sudden, Good Friday made sense. While he died, he did not stay dead. He rose again the third day. And Mark says, go me, go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. Amen. We've got Matthew, we've got Mark, anybody brave enough to say the third one? Luke, we've got Luke, so turn there. Chapter number 24, Luke chapter number 24. Luke chapter 24, go to verse number 46. Luke 24, verse 46, And he said to them, Thus it is written, And thus it behooved Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day, and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem, and ye are witnesses of these things. Matthew's emphasis was on the process, making disciples. Mark's emphasis is on the plan, proclaim the gospel. Luke's emphasis are on the promises, the promises. Two things he mentions here, the fulfillment of scripture and the promise of the forgiveness of sins, amen? He said in verse 46, thus it is written, where was it written? It was written in the Old Testament. Thus it is read. He's talking about the Old Testament. The New Testament, a whole lot of it hadn't been written yet when Luke begins to write. Some of it had, not all of it. But the Old Testament was written. We think of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ being a New Testament thing, do we not? Because it's mentioned, it took place in all of the Gospels. But you know something? God talked about it in the Old Testament. In fact, the very first mention of the gospel is in Genesis chapter 3, verse number 15. You don't need to turn there, but where God says that through the seed of a woman, someone would come which would get his heel bruised, a temporary blow, but would crush the head of Satan. That is a prophecy of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. And you can go through the Old Testament and look at all of the types and figures of the sacrifices and the offerings and all that is there, and Psalm 22 and Isaiah chapter 53, and we go on and on and on. It all points to Jesus Christ, and he said, you go and preach that Jesus Christ fulfilled scripture. He fulfilled all scripture, amen. Now, remember, back in the 1950s, 1960s, there was a math professor who assigned his math class in college an assignment, take eight, of the prophecies about Jesus Christ and tell me the odds of all eight of them coming true. Now, we understand that there are some 300 prophecies in the Old Testament about Jesus Christ, who he was, what he would do. There are some 48 completely distinct prophecies about Jesus Christ and who he was, what he would do, when he would come, all of it's there. Okay, he said take eight of them. And what are the odds? Now understand, Jesus Christ fulfilled all of them. But their assignment was to find out what are the odds, the probabilities of Jesus Christ fulfilling eight of those scriptures. And I've told you about it before. It is the same odds as taking silver dollars, putting a big X on one of them, taking it to the state of Texas, filling the entire state of Texas with silver dollars two feet high with one of them has an X on it. And you go out there and you pick out that one. Those are the odds of Jesus Christ fulfilling eight of those scriptures. My favorite dumb saying by skeptics is that, well, Jesus Christ simply read the Old Testament and lived his life to fulfill what the prophecy said. How dumb is that? If you can figure out your family tree or the city where you can be born and live that out, then you're really good. Oh, wait a minute. You'd have to be God. Well, that's who he was. And he says, you go into all the world and help people understand this was all planned by God. He fulfilled scripture to the nth degree. Not just eight, which would be impossible, but 48, 300, all of them. Not one was left out, not one was missed. And Luke, the doctor, the most educated one of all said, he did it just like he said he would. But then he not only talks about scripture, He talks about forgiveness. Look at verse number 47. And that repentance and remission of sins. What does that word remission mean? Forgiveness. Now this is important to the Jewish mind. This is important to those who read the account from Luke. This is important. They understood remission was a whole lot different than atonement. Now, we use that word atonement a lot today to talk about the price Jesus Christ paid that we might be saved, but it's more than atonement. Atonement is an Old Testament word. Atonement meant the covering of sin. The covering of sin. On the day of atonement, the animal was slain, The blood was taken and taken to the mercy seat, and then put on the mercy seat. The cherubim overlooked that. Underneath it was the Ark of the Covenant, which held the broken law. So the blood from the substitute was spread on the mercy seat. God, who dwelt between the cherubim, looked down into that Ark, and what did he see? Not the broken law. but the covering of the broken law with the blood of the substitute. This was all a picture of their sin being covered for one more year. Wow. One more year it was atoned for. Now we've got the word remission. It's no longer covered. It is forgiven. It is gone. Amen. When you preach the gospel and people get saved, understand, they understand Jesus Christ fulfilling all those prophecies, but they can now receive not just a covering for their sin, but the complete forgiveness of sin. Amen. That is absolutely amazing. I want you to go, and before we go to John, go to the book of Hebrews. Hebrews chapter number 10. Hebrews chapter number 10. Hebrews chapter number 10, look at verse number 1. The book of Hebrews, the writer is telling us that Jesus Christ is superior to all that took place in the Old Testament. He's the fulfillment of everything. He says in verse number one, for the law, having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices, which they offered year by year continually, make the comers thereunto perfect. For then would they not have ceased to be offered. because that the worshipers, once purged, should have no more conscience of sin. What's he saying there? The offerings of the Old Testament, the sacrifices of the Old Testament, everything that took place in the Old Testament was a shadow of the real thing. The real thing is Christ. The Old Testament, those sacrifices were just shadows. Jump down to Hebrews chapter 10, Verse number 11, read the middle verses later. Look at verse number 11. And every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. Oh, they covered them, but they couldn't take them away. Verse 12, but this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of God. Let this blow your mind. As you read the Old Testament, as you look at the tabernacle, as you look at the temple, as you read about the holy of holies and you read about the furniture that was in there, not one chair is in there. God never said make a chair for the priest to sit down. Never. There's not a chair in the building. Why? Every priest standeth daily. He can't sit down, his job's never done. That's what he's saying here. There's no chairs. Because the job of the priest of the Old Testament way of doing things, as they atoned for sin, they covered it, but it was never gone. It was never completely erased. He says, but this man, and he's talking about Christ, read those middle verses, he sacrificed himself for sins forever, and what did he do? He sat down because when he said it is finished, guess what it was? Finished. And we could now be forgiven completely of our sin because Jesus Christ paid the penalty in full. Amen. Hallelujah. What a savior. And that's what Luke is getting at. He fulfilled scripture and he provides the forgiveness of sins. Preach him. Take the gospel everywhere. Now go to the book of John. The book of John. John chapter 20. Verse number 21, Mark's emphasis was on the process, make disciples. Mark was on the plan, proclaim the gospel. Luke was on the promises of the fulfillment of scripture and the forgiveness of sins. John's emphasis is on the peace that you get when you obey, submissively, submissively obey your savior. Look what he says in John chapter 20, verse number 21. Then said Jesus unto them again, peace be unto you as my father has sent me even so send I you." This is amazing. The same job that my father gave me I am now giving to you. Wow. Why did he come? Well I think He put it best in Luke chapter 19. The son of man has come to seek and to save that which is lost. He says, that was my job. Now guess whose job it is. Let's try that again. That was my job. Now guess whose job it is. Everybody say mine. That's whose job it is. As a father sent me, even so send I you. It is now your job to do it. And what's the worst word of the commission here? It's peace. Peace. Wow. Do you remember as a child, my wife hates it when I use the word kid. Do you remember as a kid? Because you're not a baby goat. Anybody in here a baby goat? Never mind. Remember, as a young person, when you did what was wrong, and you knew you were about to get caught, you knew there was ramifications to be paid, you knew what it was coming. You know how you felt. Does the word peace describe that in any way, shape, or form? Come on, let's try that again. You know what I'm saying. Let's turn that around. Do you remember when you did the right thing? What did you have to fear? Nothing. Does the word peace come to mind there? There is this great peace that comes to you when you know you did the right thing. Amen. What's the right thing to do with people we know who are unsaved and not going to heaven? What's the right thing to do? Okay, go and tell them. Amen. We're to proclaim the gospel unto them. We're to let them know Jesus Christ offers forgiveness. He fulfilled the scripture. He will forgive them of their sin and make a home for them in heaven. That is our job to do that, amen? One day, we're all gonna stand before God. They will too. And then it will be perfect peace in our heart when we know we did the right thing. Oh, we can have it here, but we'll have it in heaven too. When we know we tried, we witnessed, we gave them the gospel, we did the right thing, we were obedient to our Savior, there's peace. I did what I was supposed to do. Because we cannot talk anybody into salvation. We cannot Use car salesman them to Christ. Does that make sense? We can't. As we present, you've heard me say it many times, it is not a presentation, it is a conversation. We're telling people how they can know the greatest thing ever, that Jesus Christ is theirs, their sins are forgiven, and heaven is their home. Amen. and there is peace when we do the right thing. I have done what Jesus Christ sent me to do. Amen. On the other hand there are going to be regrets for all of us. Let's limit those to the past and say today I will listen to Christ's final instructions and make sure I'm proclaiming the gospel to every creature. I'm doing what I'm supposed to do. Go to Acts chapter number one, Acts chapter number one. Here's the fifth time this shows up for us in the word of God, Acts chapter one. Matthew, the process, make disciples. Mark, the plan, proclaim the gospel. Luke, the promises. fulfillment of scripture, and the forgiveness of sins. John, peace, when we have that submissive, obedient mindset. Acts, the power, the Holy Spirit of God. Acts chapter one, verse number eight. But ye shall receive power. After that, the Holy Ghost has come upon you, and ye shall be witnesses unto me, both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and in the uttermost parts of the earth. All power. Now, let me explain to you something I've explained to you a lot of times but need to tell you again. The Holy Spirit is not the energizer bunny who comes over you and makes you do what's right. Amen? You don't become a Christian zombie. I can only do what's right. Doesn't happen. Okay? Holy Spirit is in you to help you remember what you're supposed to say, but you can't remember if you've not studied in the first place, because remembering only takes place when you remembered it the first time. You can't remember what you didn't remember. Okay, we put it in us, Holy Spirit brings it back to our remembrance. I can't even say it right now. Brings it back to our memory. There's the word. But the Holy Spirit also, works in the unsaved heart. He said, when he comes, he will convict the world of sin. I mentioned it already, I'll mention it again. It is not our job to talk someone into getting saved. It is not our job to work up this super way of telling people that we will convince everybody to trust Christ as Savior. Or to get them to pray some simple prayer and say they're saved because they prayed that prayer. No prayer's like that. Yeah, we do pray to trust Christ as Savior, but there's no supernatural, mystical prayer that you can repeat one time in your sleep and all of a sudden find yourself saved. Doesn't work. It is our job. to take the gospel, the word of God, and sow it in the hearts of people so that the Holy Spirit has something to work with in their hearts. God said in Isaiah that my word will not return void. It will accomplish the work that I sent it to, sent it to do. And the Holy Spirit takes the word of God and applies it to people's hearts. and he's the one that draws them to Christ, not us. We're witnesses. You shall be witnesses unto me. Remember, in a courtroom, who makes the argument? The lawyer. He did not say, you shall be lawyers unto me. What does the witness do? He tells what he sees, he tells what he knows. That's our job. And then we pray the Holy Spirit would work in their heart. Now let me tell you, he does his job, amen? They still have the free will to listen or to silence it, to say yes or say no. God's given us all a free will, amen? You have used your free will in your life. Because there have been times, I guarantee it, when you knew you were supposed to do something and you didn't do it. Or you knew you weren't supposed to do something and you did do it. And you know. The Holy Spirit working in your life to bring conviction. To let you know you're wrong. get it right. There are times when I've stood here and preached from this pulpit and you walked away saying, how did he know that? He doesn't. Holy Spirit of God does. And he takes the word of God and applies it to hearts that we will never see. But it's his job to draw people to Jesus Christ. Amen. And the more we listen to him in our lives, and again, it's not an audible voice, the more we listen, the more power we have in telling other people about Christ. If we're a lousy Christian, we need to keep our mouth shut in this area of witnessing, because it does nothing to draw people to Christ. But when we're listening to the Spirit of God, Help us live out the Word of God. When we speak, the words have power. As Titus put it, we adorn the gospel. Amen. We don't make it any better. But people say, with their life, that makes sense. You don't want them to say, well, with their life, that makes no sense. I don't need what they got. I'm better than they are now. Wow. The writer of the book of Acts, it's Luke again. He said, the Holy Spirit will work in people's hearts. You give them the gospel. You tell them about Christ. You witness to them. One more verse. Go to Revelation chapter 22. These were the final instructions of Jesus Christ Follow the process make disciples There's a plan proclaim the gospel There are promises in the Old Testament that he awful they fulfilled and you can have forgiveness the remission of sins You have peace when you obey and submissively give out the gospel to others who need it The power comes from the Holy Spirit of God that resides in you and will speak to them and draw them to Christ. Now look at Revelation chapter 22, verse number 20. If you have a red letter edition of the Bible, you will see that these are the final words of Jesus Christ. He spoke to his church. This is it, there are no more. Revelation chapter 22, verse number 20. He which testifieth these things saith, Surely, I come quickly. Amen. Even so come, Lord Jesus. Jesus said, even so, oh, he even said, surely, I come quickly. You know what he's saying there? You need to go and fulfill the Great Commission with a sense of urgency. a sense of urgency. Because you don't know when I'm coming back. And I'm coming back quickly. Now, it's been 2000 years. He's still coming back because he said he was. Amen. But do we know when? No. Anybody who sets a date with some kind of formula, with some kind of a system, they're lying to you. And you can almost mark it down. Jesus won't come on that day. Because he said, no man knoweth the day or the hour. We don't know. So it's our job to fulfill the Great Commission when? Today. Now. I'm coming. You get ready, and you make sure everyone else is ready. Do this with a sense of urgency. Now, I mentioned a second ago, it's been 2,000 years since he said this. Have there been a lot of people come and go since then? Let's try that again. Have there been a lot of people come and go since then? Okay, not many people lived to 2,000. That means their time on earth will go quickly as well, and so will yours. and so will mine. We have never been promised tomorrow. Everything we do must be done today. Now, we don't know if we will be here next week to give them the gospel. We don't know if they will be here next week to give them the gospel. And Christ says, you need to do that. Those are my final instructions. But understand, there needs to be a sense of urgency. Understand, the end will come for all of us. So we need to understand the urgency that is here with people going to heaven and people going to hell. What does he want you to do? I'd say it's pretty clear. Those are the final instructions of Jesus Christ. Will we obey? Our Heavenly Father, thank you for Christ. Thank you for our salvation. Thank you, Lorne, for this plan that you came up with that is absolutely amazing. That our sins might be forgiven, that sin would be paid for, and that God would be just in justifying the ungodly. Lorne, it's a message we need to get out to other people wherever we are. Help us to see the urgency of it. People are dying every day. You could come back at any moment. Help us to understand what we do, we've got to do today, we've got to do it now. Guide and direct and bless as we make these decisions. I pray that we would understand how important it is. Lord, work now in our hearts and help us to say yes to your final instructions. Bless, in Christ's name we ask it, amen. With every head bowed, every eye closed, no one looking around. What does God want you to do? You know, it was pretty clear. Are you going to do it? Well, the Holy Spirit convicts them so that they will turn from their sin and repentance and turn to God. He works in us. Telling us you've got to go. You've got to do this. You're going to be obedient. The eternity of those people around you are dependent on it. You need to go. This morning you say, Pastor, I'm saved. I've heard the call. I've heard the preaching of the gospel. I've trusted Jesus Christ as my savior, and I have the forgiveness of sins. Pastor, I'm saved, and I know it. Put your hand up as a testament of that fact. You're saved. You know it. Amen. God bless you. Amen. That's great. Amen. That's great. Amen. Christian, it's not over. You're still here. You've got a job to do. You've got a commission to fulfill. And there needs to be a sense of urgency as we know that he's coming back, as we know that life is short. What are you going to do? You say, Pastor, God has spoken to me. I want to make sure that I am doing my part in going, in teaching, and seeing people come to know Jesus Christ as Savior and then helping them be discipled. God has spoken to me, would you pray for me? Anyone like that, put your hand up, put it back down. Amen, God bless you, amen, amen, amen. Amen, God bless you, amen, amen. What does he want you to do? Are you gonna do it? That's the key. Maybe you're here and you say, I'm not sure I'm saved. I don't know that my sins are forgiven. I don't know, Christ, I don't know about what you talked about this morning, I don't know. Would you pray for me? Understand there's a sense of urgency. Christ could come back. We're not promised tomorrow. What you need to do, you need to do today. God said now is the accepted time. Now is the day of salvation. Wow. He's got eternity and he's worried about now. We don't. And we're good at procrastinating. Now, you say, Pastor, I'm not sure I'm saved. I don't know for certain that I've trusted Jesus Christ as my savior. Would you pray for me? With every head bowed, every eye closed, just slip your hand up. Pastor, pray for me. I'm not sure I'm saved. Anyone at all? So important. Eternity depends on it. God is working right now. What are you going to do? Our Father, I pray that you'd bless now. As we make decisions. I pray that you would work in our hearts and help us to be drawn to you if we're saved. To follow. And go as you've said that the father sent you that we would go and preach the gospel. Lord, help us to have that sense of urgency. If there's anyone here among us unsaved, show them their need and draw them to you today. Guide, direct, bless right now in every decision that's made. We'll thank you for it. In Christ's name we ask it. Amen. Let's all stand. Turn to page 130 in your hymn book. As we sing this hymn of invitation, we invite you to respond to God. Talk to him. While we sing, if you need to speak to me, I'll be waiting for you right down front. You need to be saved. You need to talk about baptism. You need to talk about the church membership, whatever it might be. I'll be waiting for you right down front. You come. You talk to God while we sing. What does He want you to do? You know what that is right now in verse number one. You come.