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Please turn with me to Psalm
310. Reading from verse 1. The Lord
said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand, till I make your enemies
your footstool. The Lord shall send the rod of
your strength out of Zion, through in the midst of your enemies.
Your people shall be volunteers in the day of your power, in
the beauties of holiness from the womb of the morning. You
have the due of your youth. The Lord has borne and will not
relent. You are a priest forever according
to the order of Melchizedek. The Lord is at your right hand.
He shall execute kings in the day of his wrath. He shall judge
among the nations. He shall fill the places with
dead bodies. He shall execute the heads of
many countries. He shall drink of the brook by
the wayside. Therefore he shall lift up the
head. Another passage is Matthew chapter 9 from which we will
be speaking. Matthew chapter 9 Matthew 9 reading from verse
35 to the end of the chapter Matthew chapter 9 starting from
verse 35 Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages teaching
in their synagogues, preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom and
healing every sickness and every disease among the people. But
when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion for
them, because they were weary and scattered like sheep having
no shepherd. Then he said to his disciples,
The harvest truly is plentiful. But the labourers are few. Therefore
pray the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into his
harvest. Let us pray. Almighty God, we bow our hearts
before you in thanksgiving and praise again for your goodness
to us and undeserving people. You call us out of darkness into
the kingdom of your marvellous light. We thank you for the gift
of your son Jesus Christ who came to this world. to take on
human nature without sin, to live that perfectly righteous
life that we all have failed to live. We thank you again for
His death on the cross of Calvary by which we were reconciled unto
you. We thank you for the work of the Holy Spirit applying the
saving benefits of Christ to our lives. We are so glad that
tonight you might continue to work in our hearts. Help us that
our eyes will be opened to see the wondrous things contained
in your word. Refresh us spiritually. Draw
us close unto yourself. Lift up our eyes to heaven. Help us that we may capture the
fresh vision of your glory. So hear us, O God. Deal graciously
with your people here tonight. For we pray all this in Jesus
Christ's name. Amen. The Divine Urgency and Human
Need of Church Planting. That is the title of tonight's
message and I begin by asking you the question where is the
Great Commission found? All of us I believe will have
no problem in saying that it is found in Matthew chapter 28
verse 18 to verse 20 Now that passage is the fullest
account of the Great Commission. But we must remember it is not
the full account. There are three passages in the
Gospel. They are parallel passages which
record this commission given by our Lord when he was risen
from the dead just before he was taken up to heaven. Now the
other two passages are Matthew chapter 16 verse 15 to verse
18 and Luke chapter 24 verse 44 to verse 49. These are parallel passages.
They record the great command given by our Lord to his 12 apostles. or rather to his 11 apostles,
Judas having dropped out. Now later another apostle was
appointed but let us take note that he was given to the apostles
and therefore meant for the churches to be planted after that. Now
we know that by comparing scripture with scripture we will get a
better understanding, we will get a correct understanding of
the passage concerned. By comparing Matthew 28 with
the other two accounts we will get a correct and fuller picture
of what the Lord intend. But we must remember that whatever
is unique to the office of the Apostle is not meant to be normative,
not meant to be for us today. If we were to look at Mark's
Gospel, chapter 16, we see the record of the Great Commission
given there. Now it begins from verse 15 and
goes on to verse 18. But let us take note that verse
17 and verse 18 record the sign of the apostles the marks of
the apostles which are not meant for us today. Those are clearly
the unique, the special marks of the apostles of Jesus Christ. We must not therefore take these
verses and this promise of signs there to be meant for us today.
Now we must understand that that passage in context shows to us
that when the Lord was risen, verse 9, then they were unbelieving
concerning the news of the risen Lord. In verse 11 we are told,
when they heard that He was alive and had been seen by her, they
did not believe. Then in verse 12 verse 13 we
are told, and they went and told it to the rest but they did not
believe them either. Then in verse 14 we are told,
later he appeared to the eleven as they sat at the table and
he rebuked their unbelief and hardness of heart because they
did not believe those who had seen him after he had risen. And it was in that context, that
situation, that the Great Commission was given And the Great Commission
therefore is strictly speaking verse 15 and verse 16. It is the commission to the Church
in the subsequent age. And then verse 17 and verse 18
is a reference to those 11 apostles. They were told that they should
not be unbelieving but they should begin to carry out that Great
Commission. So what is meant for the apostles
at that time? It is not meant is not meant
for us. So we do not therefore say that
by comparing scripture with scripture we come to have a fuller understanding
of the Great Commission which therefore includes these signs
and wonders. That would be the wrong way of
comparing scripture with scripture to get the right understanding
of the Bible. Now having said that, we must
remember that of the three accounts of the Great Commission, the
fullest account is to be found in Matthew chapter 28. Nevertheless,
to get a full account, the fullest account is found in Matthew 28,
but to get a full account of the Great Commission, we need
to look at the other passages. Then that way we have a more
complete picture of what happened and what the Lord was trying
to say. Now we must remember that After the giving of the
Great Commission on that occasion, the Lord then met with the disciples
in Jerusalem and was taken up into heaven before their eyes.
And the Great Commission was again repeated in their hearing. And we read in Acts chapter 1
verse 8, But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has
come upon you, and you shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem
and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth.
So what we are saying is that with these additional passages
we come to have a clearer understanding of what the Lord intended for
the apostles and therefore for the churches in the subsequent
generations. So there was the giving of the
Great Commission. Then we have looked at the amplification
of it in Acts chapter 1. But remember that even before
the giving of the Great Commission, after the Lord was risen, the
Lord had already mentioned about the time when
the Great Commission will be given. And that is where we come
to Matthew chapter 9. Now when we come to Matthew chapter
9 and we look at verse 37, we see that the Lord before his
death and resurrection had already referred to the time when the
disciples should go forth to preach the gospel. And in verse
37 he said to the disciples, The harvest truly is plentiful,
but the labourers are few. Therefore pray the Lord of the
harvest to send out labourers into his harvest. Clearly this
is part of the Great Commission. We have to pray for labourers
to go forth to bring in the harvest. Now we remind ourselves that
this was spoken to the apostles. And as we have already learnt,
what was given to the apostles were meant for the churches in
the subsequent generations. That is why today preachers,
whenever they come to this passage, will apply it directly to the
churches today. We have to pray for labourers
to be raised up, to be transported, to bring in the harvest. Now,
because this is a foreshadowing or initial instalment of the
Great Commission, we would want to treat it as part of it. because it amplifies on and helps
us to understand better the Great Commission as given when the
Lord was risen from the dead. Now from this passage we want
to draw out a few lessons. Now the first thing to take note
of is that the Great Commission has a temporal and a spatial
aspect. Now there is a spatial aspect
to the Commission There is also a temporal aspect to the commission. When the Lord Jesus Christ on
this occasion in Matthew chapter 9 saw the great multitudes before
him, he was moved with compassion for them because they were weary
and scattered like sheep having no shepherd. It was in that situation
that he told his apostles that the harvest truly is plentiful. but the labourers are few. Therefore
pray the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into his
harvest." Now you see now that the Lord was not just seeing
the multitude before his eyes. He saw them of course, but he
saw more than the multitude immediately before his eyes. Now why do we
say that? What are we trying to say? When
the Lord saw that multitude, He was actually saying the multitudes
across the whole globe. And He was also saying the multitudes
down the centuries, in the future. Now, if the Lord were just referring
to the multitudes immediately before Him, and no more, He could
easily have said to His twelve apostles, go now, preach to them. let them hear the gospel and
be saved, the harvest would have been gathered in. Or the Lord
could have by his divine power just spoke the word and all of
them before his eyes would have been converted. There would have
been no need for the Lord to tell the twelve apostles that
the harvest is plentiful prayer for labourers to be sent forth.
So what we are saying then is that the multitude before his
eyes was a microcosm of the multitude are found across the world and
they are a microcosm, a small representation of the multitudes
of people who are to be saved down the ages. Now, I believe
that that is how we should see it. There is the spatial aspect
to the Great Commission and there is also the temporal aspect.
Now, we are to take the Gospel to people who are everywhere,
not just those near to us. As long as there are people,
wherever there are people, the gospel must be taken to them.
And there are people also not only in this generation, but
there will be people down the centuries, in the next generation,
and the next, and the next, and the next, until Christ comes
again. And the gospel must be taken
to the future generations as well, and not just to those of
this generation. Now the spatial aspect of the
Great Commission is often noticed by Christians, but the temporal
aspect is often neglected. Now we must take note that both
belong together. Remember that in the fullest
account of the Great Commission, namely Matthew chapter 28, we
are told to go into the world, make disciples of all the nations. So the spatial aspect is easily
noticed. We are to go all to the world
to make disciples of all the nations. But remember that that
Great Commission applies to all time, not just to the time of
the apostles. Because it goes on to say, to
end with the words, and lo, I shall be with you until the end of
the age. So the Lord is saying then that it is not in just the
generation of the Apostle that the Gospel has to be taken to
the nation but in the subsequent generations the same thing has
to be done. So Gospel work is not meant for
just people elsewhere but it is also for people in the future
generation. Now how do you understand that?
It is not only that we take the Gospel to a place further away
where there are people. And then once that place is covered,
in a subsequent generation, we go to another place and we push
further and further geographically to where people are. And once
a certain geographical location has been covered, there is no
need for us to go to that place in the future. Now that, I believe,
would be the wrong understanding of the Great Commission. When
we look at the spatial aspect, we must see that it covers everywhere
in the world. When we look at the temporal
aspect, we must remember also it covers everywhere in the world,
including where the Gospel has first been preached. Now, to
further emphasise this point, we turn to Acts 2. Now this is
a passage. that has been controverted and
often we are diverted from gaining the rich teaching that is found
in it because of the controversy. But tonight we want to lift aside
the controversy and come to Acts chapter 2 beginning from verse
38. It says, Then Peter said to them,
Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of
Jesus Christ for the remission of sins. and you shall receive
the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is to you and
to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as
the Lord our God will call. Now take note that the promise
of the Holy Spirit, the promise of salvation, is to you, those
who are immediately before me, and to your children, and remember
children doesn't mean immediate children, The Bible often uses
the word children to refer to the subsequent generation, not
just your immediate children. So it is to you and to the subsequent
generation as well as to all who are afar off. And these three
categories of people, those immediately before me and your children in
the future and those who are far off, all these three categories
of people, are then qualified with this closing clause, as
many as the Lord our God will call. This applies to you now,
if only you would repent, trust in the Lord, you shall receive
the promise of salvation. Now the same thing applies to
the future generation and the same thing applies to people
who are elsewhere and not just here. So you see now that there
is special aspect to the Great Commission and there is also
the temporal aspect to the Great Commission. And here the Lord
Jesus Christ in Matthew chapter 9, back to Matthew chapter 9,
is referring to this. He is pointing out to his apostles
and therefore to us today that there is this spatial aspect
which is not to be ignored but there is also the temporal aspect
that is not to be ignored. Now, this is perhaps the right
time also, the right place to consider. Up to when will this
end? Up to when has this to be done,
to be carried out? Now, will it end with the coming
of Christ? Yes, we know that it will end
with the coming of Christ. But when will that happen? When
will Christ come? When will the Great Commission
be not needed anymore? When will it be not necessary
to preach to people who are far off as well as people of the
next generation? Now there have been people who
say that as we preach to more and more nations then the fulfilment
of the promise of Matthew 24 verse 14 will get closer and
closer. In Matthew 24 verse 14 we read
and this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world
as a witness to all the nations and then the end will come. Now,
on face value, this verse seems to teach that as one nation after
another Christianizes, has representatives saved, then the hope will come. But we know that it is a hazardous
thing to build a doctrine on just a single verse and we must
compare scripture with scripture and as we compare scripture with
scripture we come to realise that it can't be an indication
of when the Lord is coming and there is something wrong here
with our understanding of this verse like this. Now we are forgetting
the objective of the Great Commission with the scope of the Great Commission. Now the scope of the Great Commission
is that the gospel should be brought to all, all nations,
not just to the Jews, not just people in Jerusalem, but to people
everywhere. Not just people of that generation,
but people of all generations until the time Christ comes.
The objective of the Great Commission is therefore the calling out
of the elect from the world. It is the salvation of God's
people. So by confusing the objective
of the Great Commission with the scope of the Great Commission,
we have built up a teaching that if all the nations of the world
were to be converted, then we will be nearer the coming of
Christ. Now this has been an incentive,
a way of motivating Christians to be more urgent in preaching
the Gospel. But my contention is that because
there is a wrong understanding of that passage, it follows therefore
that it is the wrong way of motivating us to be more urgent preaching
the gospel. So what then should we say about
this passage? How should we understand it?
Because all the passages of the Bible indicate that not one single
one of God's elect will be lost. All of them, without exception,
will be saved. And the objective for the Great
Commission is the salvation of the elect and not just the mere
spreading of the gospel to all nations. We can say therefore
that it is consistent with the understanding that no one will
know when exactly Christ comes. We know that as the days pass
by, the years go on, we will be getting nearer and nearer
to the coming of Christ. But no one will ever know the
exact hour when Christ will come. But if you have the understanding
that as more and more nations are converted, then we will be
nearer and nearer the time when Christ comes. Then you discover
that you will be able to measure and know when exactly Christ
will come. You will know that, well, there
are still a few nations in the world who have not heard the
gospel and you can begin to number them on your fingers. But of
course there is the practical difficulty. What does the word
nation mean? Nation there is not a reference
to political entities. but it is a reference to ethnic
groups. But then how do you classify ethnic groups? We all after all
descended from Noah and therefore from Adam. And the boundary line
between one ethnic group and another gets blurred as you examine
the various people in the world. Then we use the method of language
and we classify people according to languages. But then as you
examine closer you discover that the boundary line between one
language and another gets blurred and then one dialect and a sub-dialect
becomes a matter of contention. Actually we have been using human
standards to determine what constitutes a language group and therefore
a nation. Now we have forgotten that the purpose of the Great
Commission is for us to bring the Gospel to all without exception. We must not be limited to any
one group, not to the Jews only, not to that time only, and not
to that place only. But the purpose is simply to
reach out to all people because all are descended from Adam,
all are in sin, all need to hear the Gospel to be saved. So then,
if the Great Commission is to be understood in that sense,
that there is a special aspect in which we are to go to all
people, everywhere and then there is the temporal aspect, we have
to preach the gospel to all people of the future generation. What
are the practical implications to us? Now for one thing, we
should never be satisfied with just one or two groups of people
being saved. We should not be satisfied with
just building up our church numbers and having people around our
locality being saved. But we must always be thinking
of others who have not heard the gospel. And for another thing,
we must remember that when a nation or a community or a tribe has
been Christianized, when there are people there, even hordes
of them, the whole community have been converted, the next
generation also needs to hear the gospel. Or put it another
way, America needs the gospel. missionaries must be sent to
America, and so also to England. Even these so-called Christianised
countries need to hear the Gospel. The reason is because when one
generation of people have been converted, the next generation
are not automatically saved. Their parents and their churches
should be preaching the Gospel, but often it is that decline
sets in after the second or third generation. And we see this happening
everywhere in the mission field. In the eastern part of Malaysia,
on the island of Borneo, the hill tribes have been converted. There were two waves of revival,
one in the 1960s, the other in the 1970s. Villagers, one village
after another was converted. Whole longhouse would be converted. One longhouse after another would
be converted. And one tribe would be converted.
converted, and then a related tribe will be converted, and
another related tribe will be converted. The highland tribes
were all converted. And there were genuine convictions
of sin. There were people who turned
from their sins to trust in Christ. Their lives were changed, and
as a result of their changed lives, there came also a change
in their lifestyles, so that they began to be more hygienic
and more hardworking, and their health was better, and their
second generation their children were taller, 2 or 3 inches taller
than their parents. And all these were the good effects
of the gospel. But the sad thing is that after
the second generation, we are now facing the third generation
and the fourth generation growing up as well. Many of them would
call themselves Christian. But they are actually not converted.
And they are just Christians in name. And these people need
to hear the gospel. The ground needs to be re-ploughed.
The seed needs to be sown again. And we must not lose sight of
this aspect of the Gospel. There is the spatial aspect but
there is also the temporal aspect. So that then is the first main
point to be drawn out from Matthew chapter 9. Now the second main
point is that the Great Commission is infused with its own urgency. See how the Lord looked upon
the crowd. We are told there that the Lord
had compassion upon the people. He saw the multitude. He was
moved with compassion for them. Now the compassion of the Lord
is something that we should not miss. In various parts of the
Bible we see him preaching in an authoritative manner. We see
him overturning the tables of the money lenders in the temple
area. We see him rebuking the hypocritical
religious leaders. But we must not overlook the
fact that the Lord had a heart of compassion for people. And
it is significant that in so many passages we see this mentioned. And how is it that we can miss
that? Just look at some examples. Now
let us look at Mark's Gospel chapter 1. In Mark's Gospel chapter
1 verse 41, we are told, Then Jesus moved with compassion,
stretched out his hand, touched him, and said to him, I am willing
to be cleansed. Then you look at Matthew chapter
6, you look at verse 34, We are told there and Jesus when he
came out saw a great multitude and was moved with compassion
for them. Then you look at chapter 8 of
Mark's gospel verse 2. I have compassion on the multitude
because they have now continued with me three days and have nothing
to eat. Now the Lord had this quality
about him that he saw people as people, he saw them in their
need. and he is constantly moved with
compassion for the people in their need. But then we must
remember also that the compassion of the Lord must not be confused
with just mere sentimentalism. Now the Lord had a love for the
lost because of knowing their true state. He knew the full
consequence of what it means to be in sin. And he was not
just merely concerned about their being handicapped or their being
poor. Remember the occasion when Lazarus,
his good friend, died and he wept? Now, look up any good commentary
and you'll discover that all are in agreement that the Lord
Jesus Christ was not just moved simply because a close friend
had died, but rather he was seeing the effect of sin. The ravages
of sin upon the human race and he was moved. No doubt Lazarus
was his close friend but the Lord's heart was not only tender
towards close friend and his sisters but his heart was that
of the Son of God. He knew the terrible effect of
sin upon the human race such that he was moved to want to
do something about it. He actually came to this world
in order to deal with the sin that is found in man. And so
when we come to see in this passage the Lord being moved with compassion
for the people, we must remember that he was looking deeper than
what is just merely sin on the outside. Here the Lord is realising
that whatever the condition of the people outwardly, there is
deep in them the problem of sin. And with sin is the effect of
consequences, the effects of their estrangement from God. When they are in sin it follows
therefore that the Holy God must deal with them. And when they
are in sin it means that in due time they will be confined to
eternal hell. They will be under the judgment
of God. And so we come to talk a little about the judgment of
God. Now, the love of God and the good news of salvation must
never ever be separated from judgment. It must never be separated
from sin and the consequences of sin. And ultimately, the judgment
of God would be because of sin. And there is something about
sin that we must notice. Now sin is not the mere action
performed, not the mere breaking of God's law at this point and
that point. We must come to realize that
it is due to the sinful nature that the person commits all these
acts of sin. So something has to be done to
that sinful nature without which we will never be saved. And so
the inability of the person to save himself is to be noted that
the Lord understood that it was impossible, impossible for man
of himself to be saved. And he realised also that left
as they were, The people before him and all people throughout
the world and all generations will ultimately be judged by
God. Now, what is the judgment of
God? God is the Holy One and He is
just. Just as He is love and He is
full of compassion, He nevertheless is a Holy God who is just and
must therefore deal with sin. And since He is the infinite
God who has been offended by his preachers, the infinite God
must pour forth his holy wrath upon those who have sinned against
him. Now the sin of the human race
must be looked upon as something that adds up and then adds up
and adds up more and more until the time comes when the full
force of God's wrath must be poured out. Now this truth It's
taught right very early in the Bible. Now you turn with me to
Genesis chapter 15. Genesis chapter 15. When God
first gave the promise to Abraham of great possessions and the
land and many descendants. He said in verse 16 of Genesis
15. But in the fourth generation,
they shall return here, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not
yet complete." Now why was it that the promise to Abraham could
not be fulfilled immediately? Was it because God had no power
to straight away give to Abraham the promises, including the land? It wasn't because of that. But
there is something which we call the divine economy. God has his
own way of dealing with things such that all things will work
out consistent with his character. God never contradicts himself.
Now he was going to give the land, the promised land to the
descendants of Abraham and they will receive the land in due
time. And it will be because God has
freely given it to them. It will not be because the the
descendants of Abraham have deserved it. It will be all by the grace
of God. It is simply because God freely
chose to give that land to them. But it will be such that that
will be the time when the Amorites are ready for judgment. The Amorites
have been sinning against God. For generations they have been
sinning against God and God here was revealing to Abraham that
their sins are not yet complete. The time will come when their
sins have reached its full point, when God's wrath must be fought
out, otherwise he would be contradicting his own character, his justice
and his holiness will be impinged again. So you see now God has
his way, his promise will be fulfilled at the time when the
Emirates sin, call out for judgment and in that way God will never
be accused of being unjust or unfair. It is simply because
the Amorites have deserved judgment of God. Now we know the same
thing happened to the human race up to the time of Noah. The human
race was sinning, sinning against God and the time came when God's
wrath had to be poured out brought down upon the human race. And
so you know the story, the human race was destroyed except for
Noah and his family. Now we see the same thing happening
to Sodom and Gomorrah. Sodom and Gomorrah had sinned
against God, sinned against God and sinned against God. Now each
individual deserves to be just by God but all the individuals
were sinning against God and the cumulative effect of sin
is such that God's wrath could not be contained anymore and
the time came when God fought forth his judgment upon Sodom
and Gomorrah. Now Sodom and Gomorrah is actually
a picture of judgment, the day of judgment to come. In many
places in the New Testament Sodom and Gomorrah is mentioned in
connection with Judgement Day. Therefore it is not wrong for
us to look at the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah as containing
lessons on what will happen in the time to come. So what we
want to take note of here is that Judgement is certain to
come upon the human race. Why? Simply because there are
always humans who are sinners and who continue to sin against
God. Now the point is this. As time moves on, as the years
fly by, we will have more and more people in this world. With
more and more people means that there are more and more sinners
in the world. And with more sinners in the world it means that we
are sinning more and more and more. So the human race is actually
accumulating the sin we are owing to God, that debt of sin. And
the time will come when God's holy anger will be burst forth
upon the human race. Judgment is certain because the
human race goes on sinning against God. The teaching on judgment
is very clear and very frightening. I refer you to a familiar passage,
Revelation chapter 6. Now there, although Revelation
is a prophetic book and in symbolic language, it describes what will
happen on that day. But nevertheless, the reality
of the terror of that day cannot be missed. Starting from verse
12, we can read on, I looked when he opened the sixth seal,
and behold, there was a great earthquake, and the sun became
black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became like blood, and
the stars of heaven fell to the earth as a thick tree drops its
late peaks when it is shaken by a mighty wind. Then the sky
receded as a sprawl when it is rolled up, and every mountain
and island was moved out of its place. And the kings of the earth,
the great men, the rich men, the commanders, the mighty men,
every slave and every free man hid themselves in the caves and
in the rocks of the mountains, and said to the mountains and
rocks, Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits
on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb. For the great day
of his wrath has come, and who is able to stand? Now we do not
want to miss the terror of Judgment Day. Now the Lord was fully conscious
of the fact that the multitude will face this judgment. Now the teaching of judgment
is given in the Bible for various purposes. Firstly, it is to comfort
Christians who are in trial. They will be delivered from that
judgment of the human race to come. And then it is meant to
warn the ungodly so that there may be those who will repent
and turned to the Lord for salvation. But it is also given, the teaching
is also given in order to spur Christians to evangelize the
Lord. Remember in Ezekiel chapter 33? Ezekiel was told that he was
set as a watchman over Israel and he had to warn the nation
of Israel. God was certain to judge the
nation because The nation had been sinning against God for
so many, many years. And Ezekiel, although knowing
that the judgment of God was to come upon that sinful nation,
was nevertheless told to warn them. And in verse 8 of Ezekiel
33 we are told, When I say to the wicked, O wicked man, you
shall surely die, and you do not speak to warn the wicked
from his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but
his blood I will require at your hand." Now there is this responsibility
placed upon God's people to bring the gospel to the lost. It is
not for us to determine who will be saved and who will be lost. God has never revealed to us
who the elect His chosen people are, until they are saved. So
the Gospel is to be preached to all without exception. It
is not for us to determine whether that person appears to be the
elect or not, or whether he is responsive to the Gospel or not.
We have to preach the Gospel to all without exception. And
it is as the Gospel is proclaimed, that the Holy Spirit uses the
preached word. to bring about regeneration in
the heart of God's people. And then when they repent and
turn, trust in Jesus Christ, then we know Ah is one of God's
elect. So you see here that there is
that responsibility for us to preach because we know that otherwise
people will be judged. Now where then is the urgency
in gospel preaching? Now the certainty of judgment
because of the accumulation of sins of the human race should
cause us to want to preach the gospel. And connected with the
judgment of the ungodly, we must also remember that side by side
with that is the salvation of the elect. Now God's wrath cannot
be brought down upon the human race until all God's elect are
saved. We do not know when that will
happen, but we know that as the gospel is preached, God's elect
will be called out of this world. Now we referred to the destruction
of Sodom and Gomorrah earlier. Now in that passage there is
a significant verse, Genesis chapter 19 verse 22. Now the three, the angels who
went to one lot of the destruction, told him and his family to move
out of the city quickly and we are told there that Lord lingered
and the angel therefore dragged the family out of the city and
we are told in verse 22, hurry escape there for I cannot do
anything until you arrive there. Now why couldn't the angel do
anything? It's simply because Lord and
his family were not meant to be destroyed. They were meant
to be saved. But then the city had to be destroyed. But God wanted to time it such
that with the saving of the elect, the judgement of the ungodly
will take place. And here again, we see the divine
economy. There is no wastage of moves,
as we would say. You know, sometimes people do
boxing, Some people are not good and therefore they box and punch
into the air. Paul uses that illustration. We do not want
to hit the air. Now all those are wasted moves.
But God is sovereign. He is in control of all things.
Nothing catches Him by surprise. And He is in such control that
it will work out such that nobody can accuse Him of anything. So
it is the ungodly who have themselves to be blamed when they are judged.
And the elect, those who are chosen by God to be saved, have
all the glory to give to their God for saving them. So you see
that the elect will be saved by grace, by grace alone. And
the ungodly will be judged because they deserve the judgment. And
so you see here that built into the Great Commission is its own
urgency. We do not know when the Lord
is coming, but we know that up to the time that he comes, the
gospel is to be preached. And the reason is because the
world is definitely heading for judgment. Judgment is a terrible
thing. We know that people in the world
have been sinning for generations. And as the world goes on, as
time flies by, we come to realize that there are more and more
people being born into the world. And at any one moment, there
are more people born into the world than there are those born
into the Kingdom of God. Now with more people means that
more people will be sinning. And the sin of the human race
cries out for judgment. And because we are so certain
that the human race must be judged, that we are so certain that it
will be judged, and we will deserve that. We are therefore concerned
to want to bring the gospel to the lost. Otherwise, God holds
us responsible for not preaching to them. But at the same time,
we know that the elect will be called out of the world, without
which the judgment of God cannot be brought down. And so you see
here this holy tension involved. The elect must be called out
by the preaching of the gospel. There is the certainty of judgement
of the ungodly. And we who are saved want to
follow the command of the Lord. We have the heart of God in us. We want to see that the gospel
is proclaimed in order that the elect will be saved and they
are saved out of the way. and then the wrath of God will
be poured out on the ungodly. Now let us be sure that no elect
will be destroyed on Judgment Day. Not one, not a single one
of God's chosen ones will be lost. The teaching of Scripture
on this is clear. Now if you were to turn with
me to 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, 1 Thessalonians 4, again a
familiar passage. Look at verse 17. Now this is
concerning the coming of the Lord. And verse 17 says, when
then, starting from verse 16, for the Lord himself will descend
from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and
with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise
first, Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up
together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air,
and thus we shall always be with the Lord. Now take note that
there are only two groups of people referred to who are saved.
Those who have already passed away, their souls were in heaven,
Christ would bring along with them. Then those who are his
people, who are believers, they will be caught up into the air.
to be together with the Lord. Now there is no such thing as
elects who are not yet saved. There is no indication of that.
And we know that all God's elect will be saved only by the hearing
of God's Word. That is the normal way by which
people are saved. Faith comes by hearing and hearing
by the Word of God. We do not know about elect infants
and those who are mentally handicapped We know that if there are elect
among them, God in His mercy will save them without the hearing
of the gospel. But nevertheless we know that
it will be because Christ has died for them. Now what we do
not know, we do not want to delve into too much. But what God has
clearly revealed, we want to fathom and understand. And here,
God has revealed to us, very clearly in His Word, that under
normal circumstances, those who are to be saved will be saved
only by the hearing of God's Word. And therefore it is our
duty to proclaim the Word of God to everyone, everywhere,
in all generations, so that all God's elect will be saved. And
then when all God's elect are saved, then will come the judgment. So the urgency involved is in
the salvation of the elect at the same time that the judgment
of God will fall upon the ungodly. Now having dealt with that, we
come to the third point. We have dealt with the point
that the Great Commission has a temporal and spatial aspect. Then we have dealt with the point
that the Great Commission is infused with its own urgency. Then, thirdly, the Great Commission
is equipped with its own manner of execution. Now, we know that
as the world continues and as time moves on, more and more
people are being born into the world. we hear of population
explosion. Here and there we see the decline
of population, perhaps through war, through a plague, through
disease. But as a general rule, the population
in the world keeps growing. And with the growing number of
people, you see that firstly there is the increase in the
number. Then there is the condition of that two groups of people,
those who are going to be left for destruction and those who
are chosen by God to be saved. So with more people in the world
in that condition or that state of sin, we know that there will
be more sin committed and the sin of the human race will accumulate
more and more and it will be crying out for judgment from
God. And as the world goes on, as
time flies past, our concern is that that sin, that debt of
sin against God accumulating and it's accumulating and we
know that judgement is just at any time now. Then at the same
time we know that just as God's wrath is going to burst down
upon the human race, there are the elect to be called and they
can be called only by the hearing of God's word. And therefore
we want to speed forward the spread of the gospel. We want
to proclaim the gospel in order that the elect may be saved.
And because we are not given to know who are the elect until
they are saved, we therefore preach to all. And our compassion
for lost souls like that of the Lord Jesus Christ is also because
of knowing that there is such a thing as judgment. It is a
fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. And
we therefore proclaim the gospel. Now we will be driven to despair.
as to how we are to fulfil the Great Commission if it were a
mere matter of one individual doing it. We will be driven to
despair also if it were a mere matter of all the Reformed Baptist
Churches doing it, and even all the Christians in the world doing
it. We know that our resources are
limited, opportunities are many of course, but we are limited
by our own human frailty. And we know that very soon our
life will be over. Now who is going to carry on
the work of the Gospel to the end of the age? It has to be
the next generation of Christians. Now where is this next generation
of Christians going to come from? How or in what situation are
they going to be nurtured so that they are effective preachers
of the Gospel? The Great Commission, as we have
noticed, as we have learnt already, It's a command to local churches
to plan other local churches. And in the genius of the command
lies the method of its own fulfilment. Just like when we say that there
are rules of interpreting scripture, but we summarise and round up
by saying that the scripture is its own interpreter. So also
the Great Commission contains within itself, built within itself,
is its own best way of fulfilling it. So you see now that the Great
Commission is equipped with its own manner of execution. Local churches spread the Gospel,
and when people are converted, local churches are formed. And
in those local churches, believers are nurtured in the faith, and
they in turn will preach the Gospel. to those far away, those
who are near, to those in the next generation. So this work
is going to go on and to go on and to go on until Christ comes
again. Now we see this truth also supported
by various other teachings in the Bible. We see it in the Great
Commission itself as given in Matthew 28, that when disciples
are made, they are to be baptized. And we know that there is a meaning
of baptism, there is also the purpose of baptism, the purpose
of which is to incorporate the new disciples into the membership
of the church. It is in the context of the life
of the local church that the disciples are taught all the
Lord's commands. And we read in 1 Timothy 3, verse
15, the Apostle Paul reminding Timothy that the local church,
the household of God, is the pillar and the foundation of
the truth. Now the pillar is there to hold
up the roof high. You chop away the pillar, the
roof will collapse. The purpose of a pillar is to
hold something up high. The pillar is there to hold the
truth high. Why must it be held high? It
is because the world is in spiritual darkness. And as we hold the
gospel high, People are drawn to the light, which is Jesus
Christ. And when people are converted,
what do we do with them? Their faith is to be built up,
and the church is the foundation of the truth. So believers are
brought in, and in the church they are built up in the faith. And so this will go on. As the
believers are built up in the faith, the church is more able
to reach out to others, and when others are converted, they are
added into the church. And as one generation of Christians
passes away, another generation will rise to take its place.
And the whole process will continue until the coming of Christ. Now
just think, if you are still adamant and refuse to follow
the right way of carrying out the Great Commission, you choose
only the part of the Great Commission that you like and you want to
do things your own way in God's name. You claim you are carrying
out the Great Commission, but you are doing it your way. You
do not want to follow what is taught, namely that local churches
must plant other local churches. Now, you do it your way, you
discover that when disciples are made, what happens to them?
Oh, you can give them follow-up material, you can meet with them
a few times and after that they are on their own. But even if
that person were to remain in the faith until he dies, is not
lost. Still, the work just ends there.
All your hard work is lost once that person is over. And I actually
know of a reformed man who went to Malaya, which today is known
as Malaysia, who travelled up and down the country preaching
the gospel. And I was told there was an Indian
man, a Tamil speaking man, living in the area where I lived for
many years. And he said that that man was
converted in the 1950s and the British were still in Malaya.
Try and find out if there is a Christian, a family who are
Christian. Now how do you expect me to find
such a Christian in that Indian community, that Hindu community?
I asked around. I couldn't determine whether
there was a family who was converted during the time when that missionary
visited. Now, thank God if there was really
a family that was converted and continued on in the faith. But
you see, much greater work could have been done. If that family
were to be taught properly, other families are converted and they
are covenanted together as a local church and the work continued,
then it wouldn't need BS4 to, by the grace of God, found the
first Reformed Baptist Church in Malaysia in 1983. There would
have been a reformed Baptist church there in the 1950s. So
what we are saying is that all our works are not put to good
use. We have not been good stewards
of the gifts that God has given us if we do not do God's work
in God's way. So then, we see the need for
us to do God's work in God's way. The Great Commission requires
that we plant churches. Now we read Psalm 110 earlier. Now Psalm 110 is a messianic
psalm. It prophesies the coming of the
days of our Lord and His reign. It is a reference to this Gospel
age and it uses an imagery that we can all quite clearly understand. The Messiah is presented as a
king who goes conquering and subdues other kings. The king
of course has an army and because this is prophetic, it prophesies
concerning the reign of Christ in this gospel age. We therefore
have to understand that the conquest of the king is by the means of
the thought of the spirit. It is not by the means of literal
thoughts or by the means of guns and cannons. It is not by physical
force. It is the spirit changing the
lives of people as his word is proclaimed. Now of interest is
verse 3. The certainty of His crime of
the king's crime is mentioned towards the end of that psalm.
He shall drink of the brook by the wayside, therefore he shall
lift up the head. Now lift up the head means lift
up in crime. He will win over all opposition
in the world. But of interest to us is verse
3. Your people shall be volunteers in the day of your power. In
the beauties of holiness from the womb of the morning you have
the view of your youth. Now here the Lord is portrayed
as the king having an army. And that army is constantly fresh
and vigorous in the freshness of youth. And the people will
be volunteers in the day of his power. As the gospel goes forth,
as it is preached, it is as though this first line of soldiers have
moved forward and done the conquest. And if any were to be cut down,
or if they were to grow old and are no more able to go out for
battle, there will be another line of the army raised up and
it will push forward with the conquest. And so it will go on,
it will go on and it will go on. There is never a break in
that army that is marching constantly forward. Now, it's not your heart
thrilled by this thought that the church like an army marching
forward and there is no fear that the rank of the marching
army will be broken and no enemy of the Gospel will be able to
destroy the Church of Jesus Christ. The gates of Hades will not prevail
against the Church of Jesus Christ. And so it is with this thought
that we come to close this message, the divine urgency and human
need of church planting. Now there is one final thought
found in verse 38 of Matthew chapter 9. Now we have said that
what was given to the apostles were meant for the churches in
the subsequent generations. We are told in verse 38, Therefore
pray the Lord of the harvests to send out labourers into his
harvest. If you were to be invited to
my house and my wife's My wife cooked a nice meal and we enjoyed
the meal together. At the end of that meal, we would
be left with many dishes to wash. Now, in our country, we still
do not use the dish washing machine too much. So we have to wash
the dishes manually. After eating, we are contented
and happy and I say to you, now it's time to wash the dishes.
And I stand up to want to bring the dishes to be washed. Now
are you going to sit there and do nothing? As a guest in my house, I perhaps
would not say anything to you. But I think you would know that
I am rightly not so happy. When the Lord said to the apostle,
Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers
into his Did he intend the apostles to just pray that others may
be sent out? The Lord was saying, beginning
with you, you must go forth to do the work. And that is how
it happened. The apostles took up the task
of going forth to plant churches and the subsequent generations
of Christians are to follow. So by way of application, Are
you considering ministerial service? Missionary service? Or are you
just praying for others to go forth to do the harvest thing?
So may God raise up many preachers this generation. May God give
us that divine urgency to want to plant churches. Let's pray. Our Father in Heaven, we bow
our hearts again in thanksgiving and praise, for you are a great
God, you are a holy God, you are the God of love, you have
shown your great compassion upon an undeserving people. We, as
people who have tasted of your goodness, bow ourselves before
you tonight to praise you, O God, to worship you. to lift up your
holy name, to say, Lord, we love you. And we pray, Father, that
you may take hold of us and draw us near unto yourself. Continue
to work in us a mighty work by the power of your Holy Spirit.
Help us that our eyes will be enlightened, be open to see the
wondrous truths that are contained in your word. We pray, Father,
that we may constantly be students of your word. that we will never
come to the point when we say that we have arrived. We pray,
Father, that you may help us to remain humble, you may keep
us close to you, you may not allow us to go astray, whether
in life or in doctrine. Help us, Father, that we may
have that vision to see your work carried out until the end. And we pray, Father, that even
in this generation and in our midst here, you may raise up
preachers of the Word. Grandfather, that your work will
continue to prosper. That Jesus Christ's name will
be greatly magnified. Forgive us our many sins. Deal
graciously with us. For we pray all these in Jesus
Christ's name. Amen.
The Urgency and Need of Church Planting
Series Church Planting
Dr. Poh Boon-Sing is Pastor of Damansara Baptist Church in Kaula Lampur, Malaysia. He also edits the online magazine, "Gospel Highway."
These messages on church planting were given at the annual meeting of ARBCA (The Association of Reformed Baptist Churches of America) on March 6-8, 2001.
| Sermon ID | 32210121222 |
| Duration | 1:08:39 |
| Date | |
| Category | Special Meeting |
| Bible Text | Matthew 9:35-38; Psalm 110 |
| Language | English |
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