Well, if you will join me in your Bibles in 1 Chronicles chapter 16, 1 Chronicles 16. We're going to look at verses 23 through 34. And the reason we're here, next weekend I will be preaching at a missions conference in Georgia, so I won't be here. And this is what I'm preaching there. So you are my sermon guinea pigs and I appreciate the opportunity to preach this text and Lord willing as we consider this as we prayed as I prayed this morning in our time of prayer for missions that always we're thinking about missions and we're thinking about the Great Commission and the global task that the Lord has given to his church and Lord willing through our efforts and particularly with the Reformed Baptist Seminary that the Lord might be pleased to raise up men to send out into the mission field. And so we're going to consider this text this evening in light of that. Well, the story of global Christian missions is a story that hardly lives up to the romanticized, idyllic picture that is often painted when believers think about the call of God on the church to fulfill the Great Commission. Just prior to his ascension, we read in Matthew 28 that Jesus said to his disciples, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always to the end of the age. The church that Christ established has always understood this to mean that we have a mission, we have an obligation, we have a calling, we have a mandate that's been given to us by our Lord from the creator and sustainer of the universe to bring the gospel to the ends of the earth. And we believe the scriptures that teach us repeatedly that there is no salvation apart from the Lord Jesus Christ. But as we considered this morning, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. The Apostle Paul anticipates your concern here and answers the concerns that are raised from his saying that in writing, how then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? So faith comes from hearing and hearing through the word of Christ. And so what do we do? We remember the words of the Lord Jesus who said to his disciples, the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore, pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. Now, as is often the case in the sterilized environments where the gathered church often meets, we can discuss the commands, we can discuss the means, we can discuss the purposes, we can pray, we can gather resources, and all of this we must do as God's people. But when it comes time to put our feet on the ground and do the work, nearly every story you can read about with the men and women of God who he has used to bring the gospel to the nations will tell you that the work of cross-cultural missions and especially in pioneer mission settings is the most difficult and dangerous work in all the world. It's not romantic. It's not idyllic. It is painful. It is often filled with intense suffering. It is filled with discouragements and detractors and constant criticisms and even physical and most certainly spiritual attacks. I could name a dozen examples right off the top of my head right now, but one is the great missionary John Patton. Now there's a 450-mile stretch of islands between Honolulu, Hawaii and Sydney, Australia that were called the New Hebrides Islands. But since their independence in 1980, they have been called the Republic of Vanuatu. Vanuatu. Vanuatu. That's it. On November 20th, 1839, two men named John Williams and James Harris from the London Missionary Society landed on the island of Eromangia. And within minutes of their arrival, they were killed and eaten by the native cannibals. In his autobiography, John Patton wrote about this and he explained, thus were the new Hebrides baptized with the blood of martyrs. And Christ thereby told the whole Christian world that he claimed these islands as his own. In 1842, the London Missionary Society sent another team, this time to one of the other islands. And within seven months, that team was driven off of the island. Another island, Anantiam, two Presbyterian ministers from Nova Scotia and Scotland were able to see tremendous fruit from their labors. And by 1854, about half the population, in their words, quote, threw away their idols, renouncing their heathen customs and avowing themselves to be worshipers of the true Jehovah God. On April 16th, 1858, John Patton set sail for the New Hebrides from Australia with his wife. On November 5th, they reached the island of Tanna and by March of the next year, both his wife and newborn son died with fevers. Patton labored alone on the island for four years. And then in February of 1862, he was driven off the island by the natives. He then spent four years traveling around Australia and Great Britain. He was raising awareness of the work. He was gathering funds for the work in the New Hebrides. He remarried and then he went back to one of the smaller islands, Aniwa, where he and his wife labored together for 41 years until his wife's death in 1905 when he was 81 years old. Now, when they first arrived back on the island, it was very clear to Patton that his wife, Margaret, and their work would be a difficult task. In human terms, we would say it was, in fact, impossible. this was a people group of cannibals that ate their defeated foes. They practiced infanticide and they practiced widow sacrifices so women could serve their husbands who died in the next world. Patton wrote of this people, he said, their worship was entirely a service of fear. Its aim being to propitiate this or that evil spirit to prevent a calamity or to secure revenge. They defied their chiefs. so that almost every village or tribe had its own sacred man. They exercised an extraordinary influence for evil. These villages or tribal priests were believed to have the disposal of life and death through their sacred ceremonies. They also worshipped the spirits of departed ancestors and heroes. through their material idols of wood and stone. They feared the spirits and sought their aid, especially seeking to propitiate those who presided over war and peace, famine and plenty, health and sickness, destruction and prosperity, life and death. Their whole worship was one of slavish fear. And so far as ever I could learn, they had no idea of a God of mercy and grace. So while Patton was there, he learned their language, he wrote in their language, he built orphanages with his wife, she taught classes to women and to children, and together they trained teachers, they translated books and the Bible, they printed them, they explained the scriptures, they ministered to the sick and the dying, they handed out medicine, and they even taught them how to use simple hand tools. Over a 15-year period, they saw nearly the entire island of Aniwa turn to Christ, and Patton wrote, I claimed Aniwa for Jesus, and by the grace of God, Aniwa now worships at the Savior's feet. Now, we read about the successes and we rejoice. However, the mission was not initially greeted by warmth and excitement. Prior to his initial journey to the New Hebrides, Patton recalls a respected elder in his church back home named Mr. Dixon said, the cannibals, you will be eaten by the cannibals. To which Mr. Patton replied, Mr. Dixon, you are advanced in years now and your own prospect is soon to be laid in the grave, there to be eaten by worms. I confess to you that if I can but live and die serving and honoring the Lord Jesus, it will make no difference to me whether I'm eaten by cannibals or by worms. And in the great day of my resurrection, body will rise as far as yours in the likeness of our risen Redeemer. Now the other regular criticism was that Patton was leaving a very fruitful ministry behind where he had served for 10 years in Glasgow, Scotland. Hundreds of people were regularly attending his classes and his services throughout the week. and one of his professors of divinity and a fellow minister made his case to Patton, and he said, Green Street Church was doubtless the sphere for which God had given me peculiar qualifications, and in which he had so largely blessed my labors, that if I left those now attending my classes and meetings, they might be scattered, and many of them would probably fall away. that I was leaving certainty for uncertainty, work in which God had made me gratefully useful for work in which I might fail to be useful and only throw away my life amongst cannibals. And so Patton was troubled by this prospect, and yet he was convinced that he had to go. Now, as I mentioned before, while on the island, Patton lost his wife and his son, both graves he dug by hand by himself. He was regularly riddled with sickness and fevers. He endured hurricanes and during one of them lost a child that he had with his second wife. He endured constant threats upon his life from the hostilities of the natives. And in the first four years, he had regular encounters with those who sought to kill him, only narrowly escaping death on multiple occasions. There is much that can be said. I'm only giving you a small snapshot of Patton's life and work, and I encourage everyone to read his autobiography. It is quite a thrilling page turner. But when it comes to missions, what we often hear about is the success and not the struggle. But this is what it is to do the work of gospel missions. Far more sorrow and suffering than triumph in most instances. Many, many missionaries have gone into the mission field with noble aspirations to win people to Christ only to find a constant flood of challenges that have led to their departure from the mission field without return. Now, this is not to disparage them in any way, for their efforts are commendable. However, it is to say that we have to have a realistic idea of what God has called his people to do. He has done nothing short of calling those who go on the mission field to give their lives. to give our comfort, our resources, our sense of security and safety, our nearest and dearest treasures, to include our very own children and our very own lives for the purpose of bringing the gospel to the ends of the earth. Now, certainly, some mission fields are safer, others more convenient and more comfortable than others, but what is universally true is that there are enemies of the gospel who will do whatever they think they can do to stop the advance of the kingdom of God. Now, I've spent all this time telling you about Patton and the trials and tribulations of missions because it's important for us to see that for us to really embrace and support and call on men and women to give their lives to this calling, there has to be a bold and confident vision. There has to be an all-consuming purpose that supersedes the valley of the shadow of death. Otherwise, no one will ever go. If they do go, no one will stay. Many people will criticize those who will willingly give it all up for missions. There's plenty to do right here. Think about your children. Think about your health. Think about your safety. And yet, the Lord instills the proper motive into the hearts of his people. What is the motivation that triumphs over all else? What is the all-consuming fire that burns in the hearts of those who will go and keep their feet on the ground even when things get tough? So let's read this passage. 1 Chronicles 16, beginning in verse 23. Sing to the Lord all the earth. Tell of his salvation from day to day. Declare His glory among the nations, His marvelous works among all the peoples. For great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised, and He is to be feared above all gods. For all the gods of the peoples are worthless idols, but the Lord made the heavens. Splendor and majesty are before Him. Strength and joy are in His place. Ascribe to the Lord, O families of the peoples, ascribe to the Lord glory and strength. Ascribe to the Lord the glory due His name. Bring an offering and come before Him. Worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness. Tremble before Him, all the earth. Yes, the world is established. It shall never be moved. Let the heavens be glad and let the earth rejoice and let them say among the nations, the Lord reign. Let the sea roar, and all that fills it. Let the field exult, and everything in it. Then shall the trees of the forest sing for joy before the Lord, for he comes to judge the earth. Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever. Amen. Well, in order to understand the scope of the Great Commission as it was given by Jesus to the apostles, we have to recognize what their understanding of the calling to this commission was. And we can see here that their understanding of this calling is derived from the Old Testament scriptures. You know, we tend to think that the call to bring the gospel to the nations is unique to the New Testament. Now, most certainly, it's most prominent in the New Testament. And after Pentecost, the gospel is unleashed in a way that we've never seen before. However, God's plan has always been to have his people declare his glory to the nations. God has always sought his children from every tongue, tribe, people, and nation. Now, I could have just as easily chosen Psalm 96 here. This passage in 1 Chronicles is a song of David, and it is almost verbatim what we see in Psalm 96, with only a few minor variations. But it's a psalm that calls all the earth and all of nature to praise the Lord. And it's included here in 1 Chronicles because it reveals the celebration that accompanies David's ordering of the worship of the people of God. It also expresses David's hope that there would be a restoration of Israel's worship and it would lead to the surrounding nations also honoring the one true and living God. So we see that God has always made clear that this is His agenda, to save the nations, that the nations would worship Him. God has always had a heart for the nations. And so the first thing for us to see, verses 23 through 29, is that we must see ourselves as God's means to declare His glory to the nations. Here we see the universal focus of God's aim. He says, all the earth, all the earth is exhorted to sing to the Lord and to tell of his salvation from day to day. The emphasis is on the truth of God's uniqueness. All of the nations outside of Israel at this point in time, they had their own gods that they worshiped. And yet it is Yahweh alone who exists as the creator and sustainer of the universe. the maker of the heavens. It is Yahweh alone who is worthy of all praise and honor and glory. It is Yahweh alone to whom the earth shall sing. It is Yahweh alone who is to be feared above all others. It is Yahweh alone who has splendor and majesty before him and strength and joy in his place. It is Yahweh alone to whom all the peoples of the earth are to ascribe glory and strength. It is Yahweh alone that we are to bring an offering as we come before Him. And Yahweh is not a worthless idol like the gods of the surrounding nations. And so His glory is to be declared that all might see and that all might hear. The covenant community of Israel was never intended to be a limited group of people who were the physical descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The Great Commission is not an entirely new mandate. No, it is the natural outworking of the Lord's desire from the very beginning to have all of the nations on all the earth worshiping him alone. Now notice there are two aspects to what David writes. The mandate is to declare His glory among the nations. We see that in verse 24. That's the first aspect, but that aspect is done in order to fulfill a purpose. What is the purpose? This is the second aspect. The purpose of declaring his glory among the nations is that all the earth would sing to the Lord. We see that in verse 23. And that he would be greatly praised and feared. Verse 25. And that the families of the peoples would ascribe to the Lord glory and strength due his name. Verses 28 and 29. But there's a very clear implication here about the duty of God's people. What is it? It is to declare. Declare. In other words, we don't have the luxury of sitting back and just hoping it will get done. We don't get to say, I'm sure someone will get to it. We don't get to be hyper-Calvinists and say, well, God is sovereign, so I'm sure he'll figure it out. No, God has appointed means to fulfill His ends. And what is that means? It is us. It is the people of God. Remember again, Romans 10, 14, and 15. How are they to hear without somebody preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? Brothers and sisters, we have the blessed privilege of being the means that God uses to declare His glory among the nations and to tell of all of His marvelous works among all the peoples. What does it mean to declare His glory among the nations? The Puritan Conrad Pelican writes, this means sing to the Lord alone, not to any idol, God, or divine magnate claiming honor for itself. Rather, burn the statues and destroy the altars and shrines. Withdraw their names from your prayers so that you do not swear to them in the least, but only bless the name of the Lord, the true God. Sanctify his name above all others and that alone. Make the gospel known from day to day. His salvation preached to all human beings in the whole world. The grace offered and given through Christ to believers do not ever cease from this praise, seeing that his salvation will not fail. Now, I know the lies that we are all prone to tell ourselves, and I know the deceptions that spring up in our hearts, and our immediate response is to say, yes, amen, I agree with that. The gospel should be declared to all mankind, and I'm certain all of you would agree with that. But where do we stop short? We often stop short of thinking that we as individuals really have anything to do with it. That's for the missionaries. That's for the super-Christians. That's for the gifted preachers. That's for the evangelists. Pastor, I'm not any of those things, so I will pray for the work and I will trust the Lord to use those that He has called. But I want you to notice something here. It doesn't say, ministers of the gospel, this is your task. Pastors and evangelists, this is what you are to be doing. No, this is a task for all the people of God. when you go to your kid's soccer game, when you have a conversation with someone at the park, when you're visiting the sick in the hospital, when you have your neighbor over for dinner. Now, yes, of course, the focus is primarily about global missions, but Even as we think about the nations, let me ask you this. Do you know what the Lord will do with a fitly spoken word of truth in a person's life? You don't. I don't. He can do far greater and far more abundantly than anything we could hope or imagine. Look, declaring the glory of the Lord isn't about a well-rehearsed gospel presentation. It isn't about preaching a sermon. It's about being present and making known the beauty of Christ, making known the goodness of God, making known the transforming power of God in the gospel. And so you're right, we're not all called to a foreign land, we're not all called to engage in cross-cultural missions directly. And you're right, you're going to have times when you try to talk to someone about the gospel, and you're gonna think you messed it all up, or they're gonna have rebuttals, they're gonna have arguments, and that's gonna make you uncomfortable, and maybe you'll feel embarrassed. You may not be trying to preach the gospel to cannibals who ate two people last week, and now you've come to them, But let's face it, the number one thing that keeps all of us from evangelizing others is fear. We are afraid that we will be rejected, that we will be laughed at, or that we won't do a good job. So what do we need? We need what John Patton had. We need a rock solid confidence that he is worth it, that he is worthy. Now listen, brethren, we all know what the Lord has done for us. How can we not want that for the world? How could we not want that for our neighbors and our friends and our families? Declare His glory. That's the mandate, and we are God's means. Now, of course, there will certainly be those that God calls to do that in other contexts, to give up life as they know it and step into discomfort and suffering and danger. How are we part of that? In what way are we helping them to declare God's glory? Well, by praying, by encouraging them through our contact with them, by giving to help support their efforts. You know, I think one of the greatest tragedies of modern missions is how much time and effort missionaries have to put into raising funds to be able to do the work that they're doing. If you're not called to go, fine, then stay. But if you stay, do everything you can to make as much as you can so that you can be as generous as you can to support the work of global missions. And don't give up telling others about Christ. Who knows what God will do? Who knows what future missionaries are yet unconverted that you might share the gospel with? We are God's means to declare his glory among the nations, but we also need the proper motivation. And he shows us that secondly in verses 29 through 34, that our worship of God is the motivation that fuels our desire to see the nation's worship. Missions is not an end in itself. Planting churches and seeing new converts is not an end in itself. We rejoice in these great things. We should rejoice in these great things. But the end of missions is that the nations would bend their knees before God in humble worship. As he says here, worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness. Tremble before him, all the earth. Yes, the world is established. It shall never be moved. Let the heavens be glad and let the earth rejoice and let them say among the nations, the Lord reigns. Let the sea roar and all that fills it. Let the field exult and everything in it. Then shall the trees of the forest sing for joy before the Lord, for he comes to judge the earth. Brothers and sisters, our proper motivation is that the nations would know true communion with our God. But really you can't have much of a desire for the nations to know true communion with God if you yourself are not living in true communion with him. The context of this song in 1 Chronicles is that God is dwelling among his people. He has made a footstool his throne, the Ark of the Covenant. And it was confirmation of the Lord's presence in their midst. God has promised to dwell among his people where he would be worshiped and enjoyed. Do you know what that means? That God is with us. That God is here. God is in our presence. God dwells with his people. And so your desire for the nations to experience that presence of God, to worship the Lord, is directly proportional to your own worship of the Lord. Do you have an intimate awareness of what it means to live upon the righteousness of Christ alone? Are you feasting on the good gifts of God? Are you storing his word in your heart? Are you reminding yourself of the promises of God? Are you reminding yourself day by day that God truly loves you as his child? Listen, God is not an abstract idea that lives out there. God is an ever-present reality in the hearts of His people, an ever-present reality in our gathering here in our midst, an ever-present reality in His Word. True worship isn't about showing up to sing songs and listen to prayers and hear the sermon. Those are elements of corporate worship, but that's not worship. Worship is a holy delighting in the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Worship is a daily tasting and seeing and knowing that the Lord is good to us. This is our fuel. This is our motivation for the nations to worship the Lord. You know, when you sit down sometimes to have an amazing meal, you eat an incredible, maybe you go to some incredible restaurant and the dish you are served is the best thing you've ever had before. And what do you want to do? Well, it's 2023, of course, so what you want to do is take a picture of it and put it on Instagram. And you send it to your friends to kind of show off a little bit, but you might be generous. If you're not like me, you might be generous and give a bite to someone who's there with you. But you want everyone to see, you want everyone to taste, you want everyone to know, right? Because it's something we have tasted and we know it is good. It is delightful. It enlivens our senses. And when there's something we love, when there's something we really find joy in, we want to share it with others. And in the same way, if we're not finding our greatest joy in Christ, our motivation won't be there. But when it is, we want everyone to know. Listen to this, you and I were enemies of God. We were a people who cared nothing for our creator. We cared nothing about the one who gave us life and breath and our being. In fact, the Bible says we hated him. We did everything in our lives in defiance of him because we, like our father Adam, loved ourselves and had a wonderful plan for our own lives. And yet, what does the Bible say? While we were yet enemies of God, Christ died for us. We were rebels. We were murderers. We are adulterers. We were thieves. We were liars. We were filled with all kinds of covetousness. We didn't honor God as God. We had idols all around us. We disdained the name of God. We didn't honor His ways, His purposes, His day, His worth, or His majesty. And yet, Jesus Christ came into this world and lived a perfect life because you can't. Jesus Christ came into this world to die on a cross even though it's what you and I deserve. Jesus Christ was buried in a grave and three days later was raised again to conquer sin and death so that his enemies could have everlasting life when they turn to him by faith in humility and acknowledge that he and he alone is the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. Brothers and sisters, that is life-changing, soul-transforming. And it drives us to not only worship our God and delight in His truth and feast upon the great gifts of His hand, but it drives us to declare to anyone who will hear, because we simply cannot keep it to ourselves. Your worship of God is directly tied to whether or not your desire for others will be to put their hand in yours as you lead them to meet the king. If you're not worshiping God, you don't care so much about whether or not others are either. Remember in Isaiah six, when Isaiah was brought to the throne room of Christ and he beheld our Lord in all of his majesty and his glory, what was Isaiah's immediate response? Repentance and worship, yes, but then what? Immediately after we see Isaiah repenting, we see him worshiping and immediately after that, he says, Lord, send me. Lord, I will go. And the Lord told him, Isaiah, they're not going to listen to you. They're going to be blind. They're going to be deaf. They will not listen to a word you say. They will hate you. But what did Isaiah do? He went. Why? Because he had an experience with the living Christ that he could not let go and that he could not be silent about. Have you beheld the power and majesty and holiness and glory of God in Christ Jesus? Have you shared intimate communion with God that is so compelling that you have said, here I am, Lord. Tell me where to go because everyone has to know about this. Everyone has to know who you are and what you have done. Brothers and sisters, we don't have to be transfigured into the heavenly realms to experience our God. He is with us. The curtain has been torn in two and we have full access to the holiest of holies. Do you know what it really means to love your neighbor as yourself? Do you know what it means to love your enemy? It means saying, look, I have been transformed by the power of the gospel. I have beheld the glory of God. I have worshiped at the feet of my king. I have been loved by God when I deserve to be cast in hell. My friend, I want this for you. I want you to know what that is. I want you to taste. I want you to delight. I want you to rejoice. I want you to have ears to hear and eyes to see and a heart to understand. And when we really and truly know that we are loved by this God, how can we keep it to ourselves? And so friend, if you're here tonight and you don't know this God, I don't wanna keep it to myself. Has your heart been taken captive by this great God? You can know Him. You can be taken captive by Him. You can commune with Him as you turn to Christ by faith and trust in Him. Jesus said, I am the bread of life, and whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. Everyone who looks on the Son and believes in Him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. I am the way, the truth, and the life. Nobody comes to the Father but through me. Friend, if you do not know true communion with Christ, I commend him to you, that you would come just as you are and take hold of our great God. And brothers and sisters, this is our motivation. This was John Patton's motivation. This was the motivation of William Carey, and Adoniram Judson, and Jim Elliott, and Lottie Moon, and Amy Carmichael, and David Livingston, and every other missionary who looked fear and danger in the eyes and said, it doesn't matter, send me. They need to know, they must know, and I must tell them. Jim Elliott wrote in his diary, I dare not stay home while Alcas perish. What if the well-filled churches in the homeland need stirring? They have the scriptures, Moses and the prophets, and a whole lot more. Their condemnation is written on their bank books and in the dust of their Bible covers. Missionaries are very human folks just doing what they are asked. Simply a bunch of nobodies trying to exalt somebody. He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose. This is our motivation. Nothing else will do. Nothing else will keep anyone on the mission field in the midst of all of the trials. Nothing else will open our hands for us to let go of our earthly goods and treasures. Nothing will keep us on our knees in prayer that the nations would truly be glad in Christ. Nothing other than true communion with our great and triune God will continue to fuel the Great Commission. And in the end, we can give thanks to the Lord for He is good. His steadfast love endures forever. And so my dear Christian family, let us strive with all that we are and with all that we have to worship God in spirit and in truth, that we will have all the motivation that we need to declare His glory to the nations, that they too would know of the steadfast love of Jesus that endures forever. that we can join together with every tongue, tribe, people, and nation and declare, Jesus Christ is Lord, and He alone is worthy of our worship forever and ever and ever. Amen. Amen. Let's pray together. Father, indeed, our Lord Jesus Christ is worthy of all of our worship forever and ever. And we pray, O God, that you would take our hearts captive, that we would know true communion with our God, that we would worship in spirit and in truth, setting our eyes upon the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and that you would be pleased to stir us up, to love you all the more that that love would overflow to the nations, that we would be willing to give of our very own lives for the sake of the proclamation of the gospel, declaring your glory to the nations. And Lord, I pray that you help us to be generous in our prayers, to be generous with our resources, to be generous as a church, to see to it that this great calling of the Great Commission is being fulfilled with all that we are able to give and do. I pray, O God, that you would raise up those in our very own midst who would hear the call and like the prophet Isaiah would say, Lord, here I am. Send me. Wherever you want me to go, send me and I will go. I will die to myself and I will do whatever it takes to proclaim your glory. And so we ask, O God, that you would do this, that you would be glorified by your people as we are faithful to be used as your means to make known the glorious truth of the gospel. And so we ask, Lord, that you would do all of this in the precious name of Jesus, our Lord. Amen.