Go Ye Therefore: Evangelizing to the Nations - Joel Beeke
00:00:00.000 | All right, let's stand together. [Music]
00:00:07.000 | It's a privilege to be here.
00:00:34.000 | A few men at this conference.
00:00:39.000 | My job is to just accompany you for a number of the sessions
00:00:44.000 | as we sing the praises of our great King.
00:00:48.000 | In my church, sometimes we get a little rowdy,
00:00:52.000 | and since I'm leading, it's okay.
00:00:54.000 | While I'm leading, because Jesus is worthy.
00:00:59.000 | Psalm 67 begins.
00:01:04.000 | May God be gracious to us and bless us
00:01:09.000 | and make his face to shine upon us.
00:01:12.000 | That your way may be known on earth,
00:01:16.000 | your saving power among all nations.
00:01:19.000 | Let the peoples praise you, O God.
00:01:22.000 | Let all the peoples praise you.
00:01:26.000 | I love Abner's message.
00:01:31.000 | So many things about it.
00:01:34.000 | But at the beginning, this psalm sounds like we're just saying,
00:01:38.000 | Lord, just bless us, make us happy.
00:01:40.000 | Just make us do good things for us.
00:01:43.000 | But that's not what the psalmist is saying.
00:01:46.000 | Make your face to shine upon us,
00:01:50.000 | that your way may be known on earth.
00:01:53.000 | Your saving power among all nations.
00:01:57.000 | Let all the peoples praise you, O God.
00:01:59.000 | Let all the peoples praise you.
00:02:01.000 | And we know that's not a prayer that God will not hear,
00:02:05.000 | because, as Abner reminded us, the results are decided.
00:02:10.000 | We know the battle will be won,
00:02:14.000 | and the gospel will go to the ends of the earth.
00:02:18.000 | And what a joy to be a part of that.
00:02:21.000 | [MUSIC - "JESUS SHALL REIGN FOREVER"]
00:02:28.000 | Jesus shall reign forever, son.
00:02:35.000 | God's intercessive journey's won.
00:02:41.000 | His kingdom spread from shore to shore.
00:02:46.000 | Yes, it will.
00:02:48.000 | Till we shall last and be no more.
00:02:53.000 | To him.
00:02:59.000 | To him shall endless praise be given,
00:03:06.000 | and endless praises crown his head.
00:03:12.000 | His name, my sweet cherubim, shall
00:03:17.000 | rise with every morning's sacrifice.
00:03:30.000 | He holds the crowns of every tongue
00:03:37.000 | well on his love with sweetest song.
00:03:43.000 | And infant voices shall proclaim their early blessings
00:03:53.000 | on his name.
00:03:56.000 | Let every creature rise and bring
00:04:03.000 | honor and glory to our King.
00:04:11.000 | Angels descend with songs again.
00:04:18.000 | And earth repeat the loud amen.
00:04:28.000 | [MUSIC - "JESUS SHALL REIGN FOREVER"]
00:04:35.000 | Dwell on his love with sweetest song.
00:04:37.000 | Let's do that now.
00:04:38.000 | [MUSIC - "JESUS SHALL REIGN FOREVER"]
00:04:45.000 | [MUSIC - "WE KNOW THE DEEP, DEEP LOVE OF JESUS"]
00:04:51.000 | (SINGING) We know the deep, deep love of Jesus,
00:04:56.000 | as a measure boundless free, rolling as a mighty ocean
00:05:05.000 | in his fullness over me.
00:05:10.000 | Underneath me, all around me is the current of your love,
00:05:20.000 | leading onward, leading onward to your glorious rest above.
00:05:32.000 | Oh, the deep, deep love, all I need and trust
00:05:41.000 | is the deep, deep love of Jesus.
00:05:56.000 | Oh, the deep, deep love of Jesus,
00:06:02.000 | stretching waves from shore to shore.
00:06:06.000 | How he came to pay our ransom through the saving cross he
00:06:14.000 | bore.
00:06:15.000 | How he washes o'er his loved ones,
00:06:20.000 | those he died to make his own.
00:06:25.000 | For when he's interceding, pleading now before the throne.
00:06:33.000 | Oh, the deep, deep love, all I need and trust
00:06:46.000 | is the deep, deep love of Jesus.
00:06:53.000 | [MUSIC - "WE KNOW THE DEEP, DEEP LOVE OF JESUS"]
00:07:00.000 | (SINGING) Oh, the deep, deep love of Jesus--
00:07:04.000 | [INAUDIBLE]
00:07:05.000 | --are surpassing all the rest.
00:07:10.000 | It's an ocean full of blessing in the midst of every test.
00:07:19.000 | Oh, the deep, deep love of Jesus,
00:07:24.000 | mighty Savior and friend.
00:07:29.000 | You will bring us all to glory where
00:07:34.000 | your love could never end.
00:07:38.000 | Never end.
00:07:40.500 | And oh, the deep, deep love, all I need and trust
00:07:50.500 | is the deep, deep love of Jesus.
00:07:58.000 | Oh, the deep, deep love.
00:08:00.000 | Oh, the deep, deep love, all I need and trust
00:08:10.000 | is the deep, deep love of Jesus.
00:08:17.000 | It's a love like no other.
00:08:27.500 | This is how Paul talked about it in 2 Corinthians 5, verse 14.
00:08:35.500 | For the love of Christ controls us.
00:08:42.000 | Because we've concluded this, that one has died for all,
00:08:48.000 | therefore all have died.
00:08:49.500 | And he died for all, that those who live might no longer live
00:08:54.500 | for themselves, but for him who for their sake
00:08:59.000 | died and was raised.
00:09:04.000 | It's not manipulation that controls us.
00:09:08.000 | It's not guilt that controls us.
00:09:10.000 | It's not pressure that controls us.
00:09:12.000 | It's not a sense of our own importance that controls us.
00:09:15.000 | It's not a desire to do great things for God
00:09:19.000 | that controls us.
00:09:21.000 | It's nothing about us.
00:09:24.000 | It's the love of Christ.
00:09:27.000 | And brothers, I pray that during this conference,
00:09:32.000 | our love for Jesus Christ grows to heights and depths
00:09:40.000 | we didn't think were possible because he's the king.
00:09:47.000 | We go back to our churches with that love in our hearts
00:09:54.000 | so we can sing together, "O Church Arise."
00:09:59.000 | O church, arise and put your armor on.
00:10:05.000 | Give all the Christ our captain.
00:10:09.000 | For now we can say that they are strong
00:10:15.000 | in the strength that God has given.
00:10:19.000 | Let's still the faith and know the truth.
00:10:24.000 | Let's stand against the devil's lies.
00:10:29.000 | Let an army roll.
00:10:31.000 | Let's battle Christ's love.
00:10:34.000 | Reach out to those in darkness.
00:10:45.000 | Our call to war, to love a happy soul,
00:10:51.000 | to praise the grace of God the Lord.
00:10:55.000 | And when the storm that makes the wounded whole,
00:11:00.000 | we will fight with faith and valor.
00:11:04.000 | And face the trials on every side.
00:11:09.000 | We know the outcome is secure.
00:11:14.000 | And Christ will have the price for which he died,
00:11:20.000 | the inheritance of nations.
00:11:23.000 | We'll see the cross, where love and mercy meet,
00:11:37.000 | as the Son of God is stricken.
00:11:41.000 | Then the sea is closed by a crush beneath his feet,
00:11:47.000 | for the Comforter has risen.
00:11:51.000 | And as the stone is rolled away,
00:11:56.000 | and Christ emerges from the grave,
00:12:01.000 | his safe remarks, kept in which till the day,
00:12:07.000 | every eye and heart shall see him.
00:12:11.000 | [MUSIC - "SPIRIT OF GOD"]
00:12:14.000 | So Spirit of God, your strength in every strife,
00:12:23.000 | give grace for every hurdle that we may run.
00:12:30.000 | With faith to win the prize, a servant good and faithful,
00:12:37.000 | as saints of old still line the way,
00:12:42.000 | retelling triumphs of his grace.
00:12:47.000 | We fear the cost, and how we're for the day,
00:12:53.000 | when with Christ we stand equal.
00:12:56.000 | As saints of old, as saints of old still line the way,
00:13:02.000 | retelling triumphs of his grace.
00:13:08.000 | We fear the cost, and hunger for the day,
00:13:14.000 | when with Christ we stand in glory.
00:13:17.000 | [APPLAUSE]
00:13:24.000 | Lord, one day we will stand with you in glory,
00:13:31.000 | and it will be all because of your grace,
00:13:34.000 | as you receive the praise and the honor that you alone are due.
00:13:39.000 | Thank you that we can, by your spirit, give that to you now.
00:13:46.000 | Amen.
00:13:47.000 | Let's take our seats.
00:13:48.000 | There you are.
00:13:56.000 | [APPLAUSE]
00:13:59.000 | Well, in some ways, I feel like we could all go home.
00:14:16.000 | That was a real blessing for me, brother, and for many.
00:14:21.000 | And I do pray that the riches of this opening address
00:14:26.000 | may be with us for a long time.
00:14:31.000 | As you were speaking, I was thinking of Samuel Rutherford,
00:14:35.000 | who was once asked the question, what are the two favorite things
00:14:40.000 | in your life?
00:14:42.000 | And he said, Christ, and preaching Christ
00:14:50.000 | to the salvation of souls.
00:14:54.000 | I was thinking of Sinclair Ferguson also,
00:14:56.000 | who used to tell us at Westminster in his lectures,
00:15:03.000 | spend the best energies of your life knowing Christ,
00:15:08.000 | loving Christ, preaching Christ, and then go
00:15:12.000 | do the work of an evangelist.
00:15:15.000 | It's out of the love of Christ that we really
00:15:19.000 | are constrained to be faithful in evangelizing and doing
00:15:25.000 | missions, not just to the nations out there,
00:15:27.000 | but bringing the nations to us as well,
00:15:30.000 | as we see in an audience like this or in various seminaries.
00:15:35.000 | It's a wonderful thing to live in our day
00:15:39.000 | when we have so many opportunities
00:15:41.000 | to really do evangelism and missions,
00:15:47.000 | whether it's on an airplane, whether it's
00:15:49.000 | going to a conference in a far country,
00:15:51.000 | whether it's actually serving in another country,
00:15:54.000 | whether it's the countries coming to us.
00:15:56.000 | It's a small world today.
00:15:58.000 | And by the grace of God, we have opportunities
00:16:01.000 | that our forefathers never had, many of them.
00:16:05.000 | So we need to do the work of an evangelist,
00:16:10.000 | looking to Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith.
00:16:16.000 | Turn with me, please, to Matthew 28, 18 through 20.
00:16:21.000 | Abner also gave a wonderful introduction
00:16:24.000 | to my text this morning.
00:16:28.000 | Matthew 28, 18 through 20, the Great Commission.
00:16:31.000 | And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying,
00:16:34.000 | All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.
00:16:38.000 | Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations,
00:16:42.000 | baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son
00:16:46.000 | and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them
00:16:50.000 | to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you.
00:16:54.000 | And, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.
00:17:03.000 | Let's pray.
00:17:08.000 | Lord God, Thou art astonishingly wonderful and beautiful
00:17:18.000 | and glorious and altogether lovely, kind and holy,
00:17:24.000 | just and merciful.
00:17:27.000 | And we pray that Thou wilt be extolled by every address
00:17:31.000 | in this conference.
00:17:33.000 | Thy name lifted up, our souls encouraged,
00:17:37.000 | that we may experience at this conference
00:17:41.000 | He, Jesus, must increase and we must decrease,
00:17:48.000 | and that the wonder of the gospel
00:17:51.000 | may be increasingly astonishing,
00:17:55.000 | increasingly amazing grace to us all our lifetime,
00:18:01.000 | so that the longer we serve as ministers of the gospel,
00:18:06.000 | the more we would be astonished
00:18:09.000 | that Thou wilt use us as ambassadors
00:18:13.000 | for the Lord Jesus Christ.
00:18:15.000 | Humble us, Lord, and help us to live out of Thy promises,
00:18:19.000 | also this triple promise of the Great Commission.
00:18:23.000 | Bless us now and use this promise
00:18:27.000 | in its threefold dimension
00:18:30.000 | to encourage us to go out and do the work of an evangelist.
00:18:37.000 | We ask Thy benediction upon us and upon every pastor here.
00:18:42.000 | Lord, no matter what our troubles, our trials may be,
00:18:46.000 | may we look to Jesus and may we experience
00:18:50.000 | that He is more than sufficient for our every need,
00:18:53.000 | for Thou dost do exceeding abundantly above
00:18:57.000 | all that we could ask or think.
00:19:00.000 | And for that, we praise Thy thrice holy name.
00:19:04.000 | In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
00:19:09.000 | Well, these verses, obviously,
00:19:11.000 | are the concluding verses of the Gospel of Matthew.
00:19:15.000 | And just like the end of a sermon
00:19:17.000 | is often its most important part,
00:19:20.000 | so the end of a book, a gospel,
00:19:25.000 | is critical to understand the whole gospel.
00:19:29.000 | And it goes without saying, I trust,
00:19:32.000 | that everything Matthew's been doing
00:19:34.000 | has been leading up to these concluding words.
00:19:39.000 | All 28 chapters have been filling
00:19:43.000 | and animating these final sentences.
00:19:47.000 | And they give these sentences this triple promise,
00:19:52.000 | its force and its glory.
00:19:56.000 | And so, no wonder these are very famous verses
00:20:01.000 | called the Great Commission.
00:20:04.000 | Because in them, Jesus is not only charging
00:20:09.000 | His motley group of 11 to go out
00:20:13.000 | and win the world for Christ by the grace of Christ,
00:20:17.000 | but He's also speaking by extension to us today
00:20:21.000 | and peculiarly so to ministers of the gospel.
00:20:27.000 | So, Matthew wants this Great Commission
00:20:32.000 | to be sounding and resounding in our ears
00:20:37.000 | as his gospel closes.
00:20:39.000 | He wants to show us what it means.
00:20:42.000 | He wants to fill us with the weight, the glory,
00:20:45.000 | the promise, the beauty of the exalted
00:20:50.000 | and faithful Jesus who sends His ministers
00:20:54.000 | out into the world to do this wonderful work
00:20:59.000 | of baptizing, teaching all nations,
00:21:02.000 | making disciples by the grace of God
00:21:06.000 | for His name and for His glory.
00:21:10.000 | So, Jesus is giving this Great Commission
00:21:14.000 | at a pivotal moment in redemptive history.
00:21:17.000 | The long-anticipated Messiah has come.
00:21:21.000 | The end of the history remains to be consummated,
00:21:25.000 | but the gospel must be preached to all the nations
00:21:29.000 | before He returns in judgment and glory.
00:21:33.000 | So, the disciples find themselves here
00:21:36.000 | on the cusp of an exciting new epoch
00:21:40.000 | in redemptive history.
00:21:42.000 | Before Christ ascends to heaven,
00:21:45.000 | He instructs them about the mission of the church,
00:21:48.000 | and they see Him in His glorious resurrected body
00:21:53.000 | commissioning them as the exalted King of kings
00:21:57.000 | and Lord of lords to go forth
00:22:00.000 | and to bring the gospel to all the nations.
00:22:07.000 | So, our theme in this address is,
00:22:10.000 | "Go ye, therefore, evangelizing the nations."
00:22:16.000 | We could subtitle it "Christ's Triple Promise,"
00:22:19.000 | a promise of divine authority,
00:22:21.000 | promise of divine delegation,
00:22:23.000 | and a promise of divine assurance of His presence.
00:22:29.000 | Authority, delegation, assurance.
00:22:34.000 | We already heard a fair bit about His divine authority
00:22:38.000 | from this text, but notice in this verse
00:22:42.000 | that the church has the authority, the responsibility,
00:22:47.000 | the right, the warrant to spread the gospel
00:22:52.000 | because she receives this authority
00:22:55.000 | from the radiant, majestic, glorious Lord of glory
00:23:02.000 | who has supreme authority over the universe.
00:23:06.000 | He says, "All power is given unto me
00:23:09.000 | in heaven and in earth."
00:23:14.000 | Today, of course, many people resist authority.
00:23:17.000 | They resent authority.
00:23:19.000 | But as heralds of the King of kings,
00:23:22.000 | we must declare the authoritative message of the King
00:23:26.000 | no matter the cost.
00:23:28.000 | And God is King through His Son.
00:23:32.000 | Man is not.
00:23:34.000 | We are neither sovereign nor authoritative in ourselves,
00:23:38.000 | but we are heralds of God's truth.
00:23:41.000 | Our business is only to state
00:23:43.000 | what God has stated in His holy word.
00:23:47.000 | That's why Martin Luther once said,
00:23:49.000 | "As soon as I start preaching my own word
00:23:52.000 | and not the words of Jesus recorded in the scriptures,
00:23:57.000 | you have every right to stand up and walk out of here
00:24:00.000 | because I really have nothing to say."
00:24:03.000 | Divine authority stands behind this great commission.
00:24:10.000 | And the beauty of this is that it's the King
00:24:15.000 | who's giving this authority,
00:24:18.000 | this promise of authority entrusted to them
00:24:21.000 | to go forth in His name.
00:24:25.000 | That's the foundation of the great commission.
00:24:30.000 | Now, the disciples had been used to seeing Jesus,
00:24:33.000 | of course, for three years in His seminary
00:24:38.000 | where He was training the 12.
00:24:41.000 | They had been used to seeing Him in His humiliation,
00:24:44.000 | suffering, in agony at times,
00:24:47.000 | needing to be alone, needing to pray,
00:24:51.000 | needing to groan to His Father,
00:24:55.000 | bearing the sins of His people upon His shoulders,
00:24:58.000 | upon His heart.
00:25:00.000 | But you see, now He's risen from the dead.
00:25:03.000 | Now He's coming to them as the King,
00:25:06.000 | the King who has entered His kingdom,
00:25:09.000 | the King who's been rejected on every side
00:25:11.000 | but now sits enthroned over all the heaven
00:25:14.000 | and all the earth.
00:25:16.000 | The King with no rivals.
00:25:18.000 | He owns everything.
00:25:21.000 | He is Lord of all heaven and earth
00:25:24.000 | and even hell by extension.
00:25:27.000 | He rules over Satan.
00:25:29.000 | He rules over men and women.
00:25:31.000 | He rules over, in His providence,
00:25:33.000 | every detail in your life and in mine.
00:25:38.000 | And so they see Him,
00:25:40.000 | and they receive this promise of delegated authority
00:25:44.000 | as the King of kings,
00:25:47.000 | as the one who has all authority in heaven and on earth.
00:25:52.000 | And that's an allusion, isn't it, to Genesis 1.1,
00:25:55.000 | Jesus referencing both the highest part of creation, heaven,
00:25:59.000 | and the lowest part of creation, earth,
00:26:02.000 | to designate the entire universe,
00:26:04.000 | the entire created order.
00:26:07.000 | So as we heard last hour,
00:26:09.000 | while the first Adam tragically failed
00:26:12.000 | to exercise His authority over creation,
00:26:15.000 | the second Adam was victorious
00:26:17.000 | and now rules over the universe
00:26:19.000 | and tells His disciples, "Go everywhere
00:26:22.000 | and tell the wonderful news
00:26:26.000 | that I govern heaven and earth."
00:26:33.000 | So as the Father sends His Son,
00:26:37.000 | so the Son now sends His disciples.
00:26:41.000 | The commission for the disciples to go out
00:26:44.000 | comes from the Father, through the Son,
00:26:48.000 | by the power of the Holy Spirit,
00:26:50.000 | giving them grace to do so.
00:26:53.000 | It's a Trinitarian authority in essence.
00:26:57.000 | It flows from the Father to Christ,
00:27:00.000 | from Christ to the head,
00:27:03.000 | to His body, the church,
00:27:06.000 | but is carried out by the Holy Spirit,
00:27:09.000 | whom He will soon send down
00:27:11.000 | to give them the strength, the energy,
00:27:14.000 | the power, the wisdom, the insight
00:27:16.000 | to go out and declare the name of Christ.
00:27:22.000 | So dear brother,
00:27:25.000 | you have the warrant,
00:27:27.000 | you have the right,
00:27:29.000 | you have the responsibility
00:27:31.000 | to be the herald of the King of kings,
00:27:34.000 | to proclaim His kingdom to the world,
00:27:38.000 | to invite, yes more,
00:27:40.000 | to command men and women,
00:27:42.000 | teenagers, boys and girls,
00:27:44.000 | to repent from their sins
00:27:46.000 | and to believe the gospel,
00:27:48.000 | the gospel of Jesus Christ alone,
00:27:51.000 | unto salvation.
00:27:54.000 | There's no more important vocatio
00:27:56.000 | in all the world than that.
00:28:00.000 | When I was called to the ministry
00:28:02.000 | at 16 years of age,
00:28:04.000 | my dad, who had been a ruling elder
00:28:06.000 | in the church for 40 years,
00:28:09.000 | started to talk to me often about the ministry,
00:28:12.000 | but I still remember what he said to me,
00:28:14.000 | more than on one occasion.
00:28:16.000 | He said, "Remember, if God ever brings you
00:28:19.000 | "into ministry to proclaim the name of Christ,
00:28:22.000 | "you have a vocation more important
00:28:26.000 | "than living in the White House,
00:28:29.000 | "because the White House
00:28:32.000 | "deals with the secular needs,
00:28:34.000 | "the physical needs of the citizens,
00:28:37.000 | "but you will be dealing with their spiritual needs
00:28:41.000 | "that makes an eternity of difference."
00:28:45.000 | So we have an authority, we have a right,
00:28:48.000 | we have an amazing calling.
00:28:53.000 | There's a 19th century pastor
00:28:57.000 | by the name of Pison, and he said this.
00:29:00.000 | He said, "Sometimes I just sit in my study
00:29:03.000 | "and I just clap my hands."
00:29:06.000 | I said, "How is it possible?
00:29:08.000 | "How is it possible
00:29:10.000 | "that the God of the universe,
00:29:12.000 | "the Christ of heaven and earth,
00:29:15.000 | "how is it possible he could call me, sinful me,
00:29:19.000 | "to proclaim his name to the nations?"
00:29:24.000 | It's unbelievable.
00:29:26.000 | Who am I? Who are you?
00:29:28.000 | This is more fit for angels' work,
00:29:31.000 | not for sinful men.
00:29:33.000 | It pleases God to use sinful men like you and me
00:29:37.000 | to spread his gospel and to bless it
00:29:41.000 | through the word of God.
00:29:43.000 | Astonishing.
00:29:46.000 | And then when you think about the universal scope
00:29:48.000 | of this authority,
00:29:50.000 | that he is now exalted at the Father's right hand,
00:29:55.000 | and he has authority to teach as a prophet
00:29:58.000 | through the Holy Spirit,
00:30:00.000 | moving his apostolic witnesses,
00:30:03.000 | moving his ministers today
00:30:06.000 | so that the very words preserved
00:30:08.000 | in the written word of scripture,
00:30:10.000 | we have the privilege of expounding,
00:30:12.000 | making them understandable,
00:30:14.000 | and telling people
00:30:16.000 | that nothing is impossible for Christ to do.
00:30:20.000 | He has the authority to forgive sins,
00:30:22.000 | Luke 5, 24,
00:30:24.000 | to rule his church, Matthew 18,
00:30:26.000 | to grant eternal life to sinners,
00:30:28.000 | John 1, John 17,
00:30:30.000 | to strengthen the church in her weakness,
00:30:32.000 | 2 Corinthians 12.
00:30:34.000 | He has authority over nature, Mark 4,
00:30:36.000 | over political kingdoms, Psalm 2,
00:30:38.000 | over both the old and the new creation,
00:30:41.000 | 1 Corinthians 15 and Revelation 22.
00:30:44.000 | No fragment of space or time
00:30:47.000 | evades his dominion over the universe.
00:30:51.000 | The gates of hell cannot prevail against his kingdom,
00:30:55.000 | and you and I have the privilege
00:30:58.000 | of being ambassadors of this glorious king.
00:31:04.000 | Praise God for this authority.
00:31:09.000 | Secondly, we have in this great commission
00:31:12.000 | not only a promise of divine authority,
00:31:15.000 | but a promise of divine delegation.
00:31:19.000 | We see here that we must persevere
00:31:22.000 | because Christ has delegated his authority
00:31:25.000 | to make disciples to the church.
00:31:29.000 | So the great commission
00:31:32.000 | means that we are commanded to make disciples.
00:31:37.000 | "Go ye therefore," verse 19 begins.
00:31:41.000 | "Go ye therefore."
00:31:44.000 | You see, Christ's authority
00:31:46.000 | is the foundation of the apostles' commission.
00:31:50.000 | We go out and make disciples
00:31:52.000 | because Christ's ascension, his reign, and his delegation
00:31:57.000 | promises us that this task will be successful.
00:32:01.000 | His word will not return to him void.
00:32:06.000 | Yes, there are many times we feel it will fail,
00:32:10.000 | as we heard in the last address,
00:32:12.000 | and that we comfort ourselves with the fact, don't we,
00:32:15.000 | that we've been faithful to his word,
00:32:17.000 | we've proclaimed his word,
00:32:19.000 | and it's a savior of death unto death
00:32:22.000 | as well as life unto life.
00:32:24.000 | But there's also many other times
00:32:26.000 | where we witness by the amazing grace of God
00:32:30.000 | that going and making disciples
00:32:33.000 | is not only not optional for the church,
00:32:37.000 | it's required, and we are to lead the church in that
00:32:41.000 | and exemplify evangelization from the pope as we preach,
00:32:46.000 | as we pastor, as we counsel our people,
00:32:49.000 | we are teaching them consciously, subconsciously,
00:32:52.000 | how to evangelize.
00:32:55.000 | But we're doing this all knowing that one day,
00:33:00.000 | surrounding the throne of the Lamb,
00:33:04.000 | we will meet people for whom God has used us
00:33:08.000 | and stewarded our resources in obedience to his command
00:33:11.000 | to usher in their salvation.
00:33:14.000 | What a phenomenal thing it is
00:33:17.000 | that we are co-laborers with the Holy Spirit
00:33:22.000 | for the salvation of souls,
00:33:25.000 | and that this gospel will be preached
00:33:29.000 | to the entire world before Christ returns.
00:33:32.000 | Matthew 24.
00:33:34.000 | Mark's version is even more emphatic.
00:33:37.000 | Preach the gospel to every creature.
00:33:40.000 | Matthew 16, 15.
00:33:43.000 | So as the people of God,
00:33:45.000 | we have the privilege of being part
00:33:47.000 | of that magnificent enterprise.
00:33:50.000 | Again, as we heard last hour,
00:33:52.000 | God doesn't need us whatsoever,
00:33:54.000 | but he invites us, he invites us
00:33:57.000 | to participate in what he is doing in the world,
00:34:00.000 | something far bigger, far better,
00:34:02.000 | far greater than ourselves,
00:34:04.000 | something that will endure forever in eternal kingdom.
00:34:09.000 | Now, as I get older,
00:34:11.000 | I'm sure those of you who are
00:34:13.000 | getting in the upper end of your years,
00:34:16.000 | you start thinking a lot more, don't you,
00:34:19.000 | about whatever you do, whatever you say,
00:34:23.000 | can it last beyond you?
00:34:26.000 | You start thinking about eternal consequences.
00:34:29.000 | You start thinking about how you use your time.
00:34:33.000 | I want to use as much of my time as possible
00:34:38.000 | for things that can last to all eternity.
00:34:42.000 | And that means I want to really work at evangelizing,
00:34:46.000 | because if sinners are saved by the grace of God,
00:34:50.000 | you see, that lasts to all eternity.
00:34:53.000 | So all the other kind of stuff in the ministry
00:34:57.000 | that doesn't seem to last beyond our lifetime,
00:35:00.000 | I want to delegate out as much as possible,
00:35:03.000 | because I want to use everything the Lord has given me
00:35:06.000 | for eternity, for eternal consequences.
00:35:10.000 | And that is underscored here by this command.
00:35:14.000 | Go forth, go forth.
00:35:17.000 | Go here actually means travel, depart, venture out,
00:35:22.000 | proceed on a journey to execute a command.
00:35:26.000 | Now, evangelism doesn't always mean going to another nation,
00:35:31.000 | although it may, physically,
00:35:33.000 | but it does mean that it requires preparation,
00:35:38.000 | which can be often uncomfortable, exhausting.
00:35:41.000 | It means hard work, preparing messages
00:35:45.000 | based on the word of God, persevering in evangelism,
00:35:49.000 | searching, begging, crying out to the Lord for wisdom
00:35:53.000 | to speak to that unconverted person sitting next to you
00:35:57.000 | on an airplane or wherever you go.
00:36:00.000 | You're called to do the work of an evangelist.
00:36:06.000 | Whenever I would go on vacation,
00:36:08.000 | I had an old elder who would always,
00:36:10.000 | when he shaked my hand and wished me well,
00:36:13.000 | he was happy when we would have a week off,
00:36:18.000 | but he would always lean forward and he whispered in my ears,
00:36:21.000 | "Don't go incognito.
00:36:26.000 | Remember, remember your master."
00:36:30.000 | You see, yes, when you're on vacation,
00:36:33.000 | wherever you are, you're looking for ways.
00:36:36.000 | You see, every unconverted person is a mission field,
00:36:39.000 | and you're looking for such people,
00:36:42.000 | and you don't bombard them rudely or belligerently,
00:36:46.000 | as we also heard last hour, but you do.
00:36:50.000 | You do find ways of talking to them, getting to know them,
00:36:53.000 | and what do you do for work, what's your family like,
00:36:56.000 | and how many kids you have, grandkids,
00:36:58.000 | and then before you know it, they'll say,
00:37:00.000 | "Well, what do you do for work?"
00:37:02.000 | Well, you tell them you're a minister of the gospel,
00:37:04.000 | and you say, "Are you a Christian?"
00:37:08.000 | As soon as they feel that you care about them,
00:37:11.000 | they'll open up.
00:37:12.000 | 85% of people sitting next to you on the airplane
00:37:16.000 | will open up.
00:37:18.000 | Maybe it's because of anonymity, I'm not sure,
00:37:21.000 | but you can get them to open up very easily,
00:37:23.000 | and you can talk to them about the Lord.
00:37:25.000 | So as a minister of the gospel, we don't only evangelize,
00:37:30.000 | we don't only have authority to go forth in our own church
00:37:35.000 | and make disciples, but it becomes our nature
00:37:40.000 | to think gospel, to speak gospel,
00:37:43.000 | to declare gospel wherever we go,
00:37:46.000 | both authoritatively from the pulpit
00:37:48.000 | and unofficially in private.
00:37:52.000 | And so it should be our prayer.
00:37:54.000 | Every morning when we get up, shouldn't it?
00:37:56.000 | "Lord, please send someone my way today
00:37:58.000 | "that I can bring the gospel to them.
00:38:01.000 | "Open a door that I can share the gospel
00:38:04.000 | "with someone today."
00:38:07.000 | Now, that sharing of the gospel, Jesus says,
00:38:10.000 | is not just a going forth with my whole lifestyle,
00:38:13.000 | but it's also a making of disciples.
00:38:16.000 | Go forth and teach all nations.
00:38:18.000 | The word teach here literally means to make disciples.
00:38:23.000 | And in biblical times, disciples were students
00:38:28.000 | of a wise master.
00:38:31.000 | They were like apprentices.
00:38:33.000 | Discipleship requires an attitude of humility
00:38:36.000 | because it's a lifestyle of submission to the master.
00:38:41.000 | So unlike vocational apprentices,
00:38:44.000 | or students merely seeking instruction,
00:38:47.000 | disciples were lifestyle students.
00:38:51.000 | They trained to resemble their master,
00:38:54.000 | to imitate their master,
00:38:56.000 | to assimilate the teaching of their master.
00:38:59.000 | In other words, true discipleship, Jesus is saying,
00:39:03.000 | is inseparable from submission to all my words.
00:39:09.000 | And so we're to teach Christ.
00:39:12.000 | We're to teach his word.
00:39:14.000 | Contrary to other forms of discipleship,
00:39:17.000 | Christ calls us to view him,
00:39:20.000 | not merely as a way of life,
00:39:25.000 | or a guide to life,
00:39:27.000 | but as life itself.
00:39:30.000 | As life itself.
00:39:32.000 | So discipleship involves taking the yoke of the master,
00:39:36.000 | which is easy and light compared to what he bore,
00:39:39.000 | and disciples are then bound together with their master
00:39:42.000 | and are identified with him.
00:39:46.000 | And that's why,
00:39:48.000 | when we act like a minister of the gospel on the pulpit,
00:39:54.000 | but don't act in a corresponding manner in private with people,
00:39:59.000 | act in a way not befitting a minister,
00:40:03.000 | we are actually unraveling what we're doing on the pulpit.
00:40:08.000 | Christ himself is the initiator
00:40:11.000 | in the disciple-master relationship,
00:40:14.000 | summoning us to discipleship through the call of the gospel,
00:40:18.000 | and then we are to go out and make disciples in his name
00:40:22.000 | and by the power of his spirit.
00:40:25.000 | So the goal of discipleship
00:40:28.000 | is not just for us to pass on intellectual knowledge to someone else,
00:40:33.000 | and not just for ourselves to know about Jesus intellectually,
00:40:39.000 | but the goal of discipleship is that we ourselves
00:40:43.000 | are with Jesus,
00:40:45.000 | and know Jesus experientially, internally,
00:40:48.000 | and love him,
00:40:50.000 | and that it oozes out from us,
00:40:52.000 | that the savor of Christ
00:40:55.000 | goes out from us, like it says of Paul,
00:40:58.000 | the smell of Christ was upon him.
00:41:03.000 | I was really convicted when I read in Thomas Boston's diary
00:41:11.000 | that he made a resolution to the Lord,
00:41:16.000 | and here's what he said,
00:41:18.000 | "I make a holy resolve that by the grace of the spirit
00:41:23.000 | "I will leave the smell of Christ behind
00:41:28.000 | "in every preaching or pastoral duty,
00:41:34.000 | "but also in every relationship I have
00:41:37.000 | "with anyone in this world."
00:41:40.000 | To be a godly minister
00:41:45.000 | means to be conscious of the fact,
00:41:49.000 | not out of false, pietistic, negative motives,
00:41:53.000 | but out of true, pietistic, godly motives,
00:41:58.000 | "I want to leave the smell of Christ behind
00:42:02.000 | "wherever I go."
00:42:05.000 | Because making disciples
00:42:07.000 | isn't only about imparting knowledge to people.
00:42:10.000 | It's not only talking about Jesus,
00:42:13.000 | but it's modeling him.
00:42:15.000 | It's showing who he is.
00:42:18.000 | By the way I talk, by the way I pray,
00:42:21.000 | prayer is a very important part of discipleship,
00:42:26.000 | especially as a pastor.
00:42:28.000 | You know, many people have a hard time praying,
00:42:31.000 | really a hard time praying.
00:42:33.000 | God has gifted you with some words,
00:42:36.000 | and when you pastor people and you disciple them,
00:42:41.000 | don't close off that meeting
00:42:43.000 | with just some little short 30-second prayer
00:42:46.000 | as if, "Oh, we've got to pray at the end."
00:42:49.000 | No, pray earnestly.
00:42:51.000 | Pray through what you've talked about.
00:42:55.000 | Pray with compassion and passion,
00:42:59.000 | and that may well be the most important part of your visit.
00:43:02.000 | That may be the most important part of your disciple-making,
00:43:05.000 | because they will be moved by your prayer
00:43:09.000 | to realize what they're missing
00:43:11.000 | and become jealous of it and seek the face of God.
00:43:15.000 | So disciple-making does not mean we call anyone to follow us,
00:43:21.000 | but instead we call them to become fellow disciples,
00:43:25.000 | and we point them to the person, the words, and the deeds
00:43:29.000 | of Jesus Christ as our Lord,
00:43:33.000 | but we do so in such a way that they can see the Lord in us.
00:43:39.000 | Now that's a humbling thing,
00:43:41.000 | and we're all going to say we've come far short of that,
00:43:45.000 | but is it our passion, is it our goal,
00:43:48.000 | is it our longing that people can see Jesus Christ in us?
00:43:55.000 | Go ye forth and make disciples,
00:43:59.000 | and then baptize them in the name of the Father
00:44:02.000 | and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost.
00:44:04.000 | The repetition of the connective and preposition
00:44:08.000 | in the original Greek makes the clause distributive--
00:44:12.000 | in the name of the Father, the name of the Son,
00:44:15.000 | and the name of the Holy Ghost.
00:44:17.000 | And so the invocation of each name of the Trinity in baptism
00:44:22.000 | implies two things.
00:44:24.000 | First, it indicates that the one baptizing
00:44:26.000 | does so in the authority of the triune God,
00:44:30.000 | and second, it indicates that the one baptized
00:44:33.000 | does so upon profession of faith in the triune God.
00:44:38.000 | So it's bookended, and both ends, by teaching,
00:44:41.000 | and through the invocation of the threefold name in baptism,
00:44:44.000 | we declare that the gospel is Trinitarian,
00:44:47.000 | and faith in the gospel must be a Trinitarian faith.
00:44:52.000 | We have a Trinitarian gospel,
00:44:55.000 | and we better have that in our preaching as well,
00:44:57.000 | or we have no gospel at all.
00:45:00.000 | The triune God is the foundation of our salvation,
00:45:03.000 | willed by the Father, accomplished by the Son,
00:45:06.000 | applied by the Spirit.
00:45:09.000 | And so we teach with our words, we teach with our life,
00:45:12.000 | we teach with our prayers, we teach with our visits,
00:45:16.000 | we teach with our compassion,
00:45:18.000 | we teach even on those phone calls we make,
00:45:21.000 | asking people how they're doing
00:45:23.000 | and reminding them of certain texts,
00:45:25.000 | and they go search them out in the Bible,
00:45:28.000 | and often they're blessed, because the Word is powerful.
00:45:32.000 | We spread the Word everywhere we go.
00:45:37.000 | Disciple.
00:45:39.000 | Make disciples.
00:45:43.000 | And then finally,
00:45:47.000 | this wonderful, great commission
00:45:50.000 | gives us the promise, the promise,
00:45:54.000 | of divine presence.
00:45:56.000 | "Lo," verse 20, "I am with you always,
00:46:00.000 | "even unto the end of the world."
00:46:05.000 | And notice it's in the emphatic tense in the Greek, isn't it?
00:46:09.000 | "I Myself, I the Lord of glory,
00:46:13.000 | "I now the exalted Savior,
00:46:16.000 | "to whom all authority is given in heaven and earth,
00:46:19.000 | "who am going to now ascend into the heavens
00:46:21.000 | "and rule over the nations from the right hand of the Father."
00:46:24.000 | Daniel 7, 14.
00:46:26.000 | "I Myself am with you
00:46:29.000 | "as you go out in My name
00:46:32.000 | "to disciple the nations."
00:46:37.000 | Christ is present with us, with the Church,
00:46:41.000 | both in His divine omnipresence
00:46:43.000 | and in His communion with the Church
00:46:45.000 | through His Word by the Spirit,
00:46:47.000 | present with His people according to His divinity,
00:46:50.000 | as well as His humanity at the right hand of the Father.
00:46:55.000 | And so what that means is
00:46:57.000 | He will never, no, never, no, never, Hebrews 13,
00:47:02.000 | forsake or leave us.
00:47:05.000 | So whatever we are going through at the present moment,
00:47:08.000 | whatever we don't understand,
00:47:10.000 | whatever we say, "Lord, this is confusion.
00:47:13.000 | "Why is this happening to me?
00:47:15.000 | "Why do I have to go through this trouble with this person?"
00:47:19.000 | Or, "Why did that family just leave the Church
00:47:21.000 | "and I only have a small church to begin with?"
00:47:23.000 | Or, "Why so much agony, so much trial,
00:47:29.000 | "so much emptying process
00:47:33.000 | "from vessel to vessel in the ministry?"
00:47:37.000 | The answer is,
00:47:39.000 | "What I do now, thou knowest not,
00:47:41.000 | "but thou shalt know hereafter.
00:47:43.000 | "And all things work together for good
00:47:45.000 | "to them that love God."
00:47:47.000 | God wants to break you.
00:47:49.000 | God wants to weaken you.
00:47:51.000 | God wants to make you small in yourself,
00:47:54.000 | just a broken clay pot,
00:47:56.000 | so that He can get all the honor and glory
00:47:59.000 | through the ministry of His Word through you.
00:48:02.000 | Because if you become something,
00:48:05.000 | it will go the wrong way.
00:48:08.000 | It will go the wrong way.
00:48:10.000 | We need to be humble,
00:48:12.000 | and God knows exactly
00:48:14.000 | how many afflictions to place upon us,
00:48:19.000 | how much our shoulders can bear.
00:48:22.000 | As the Puritan George Downing put it,
00:48:24.000 | "God doesn't measure afflictions He puts on us
00:48:28.000 | "by our desires,
00:48:33.000 | "but by the strength He gives us to bear."
00:48:38.000 | Have you ever noticed that most of the men of God
00:48:40.000 | who were greatly used in church history
00:48:42.000 | were also men that were sorely afflicted
00:48:44.000 | in one way or another?
00:48:47.000 | You see, God afflicts His servants
00:48:51.000 | to make them exactly the kind of servants
00:48:54.000 | He wants them to be,
00:48:55.000 | and then He reassures them in all their need,
00:48:59.000 | "I will be with you.
00:49:01.000 | "I will be with you.
00:49:02.000 | "I will be with you.
00:49:04.000 | "My presence will never fail you."
00:49:07.000 | What you don't understand now, it's okay.
00:49:11.000 | You'll understand it later.
00:49:14.000 | And how critical that is in our lives.
00:49:20.000 | I've been broken.
00:49:21.000 | I've been broken in ministry.
00:49:23.000 | You've been broken.
00:49:26.000 | And at the end of the day,
00:49:29.000 | we do have to say, don't we,
00:49:31.000 | it is good for us to have been afflicted.
00:49:36.000 | Because Christ is with us.
00:49:38.000 | When are we closest to Him?
00:49:40.000 | When do we feel His presence the most?
00:49:44.000 | Most of the time when we are afflicted the most.
00:49:48.000 | "I will be with you.
00:49:50.000 | "Always.
00:49:52.000 | "Always.
00:49:54.000 | "Always."
00:49:58.000 | Now, it wasn't that God wasn't always with His people
00:50:01.000 | in Old Testament times, actually.
00:50:08.000 | He was always with His people from the beginning.
00:50:11.000 | He was with Israel.
00:50:12.000 | He was dwelling in the tents of the tabernacle,
00:50:14.000 | residing in the temple.
00:50:16.000 | He was above them.
00:50:17.000 | He was beyond them.
00:50:18.000 | He was over them.
00:50:19.000 | But He was also with them.
00:50:22.000 | God is a God who is Emmanuel in Christ with us.
00:50:29.000 | In the very opening chapter of Matthew 1,
00:50:33.000 | Matthew said, "Emmanuel in the flesh
00:50:36.000 | "has come for this very purpose,
00:50:38.000 | "to be with us."
00:50:41.000 | But you see, now there's a difference.
00:50:43.000 | Now it's bigger, fuller, richer, augmented,
00:50:48.000 | because now, now you see
00:50:51.000 | the radiant living King who stands before His disciples,
00:50:56.000 | Jesus Christ, in whom all the promises of God
00:51:00.000 | are eternally and irrevocably fulfilled,
00:51:04.000 | the God who has always been and always will be,
00:51:06.000 | the God who's borne the sins and put away sin of His people
00:51:10.000 | and risen from the dead and who's going to glory,
00:51:13.000 | this God says, "I will be with you forever in glory."
00:51:20.000 | Oh, what a faithful Jesus.
00:51:24.000 | You know, the thief on the cross,
00:51:26.000 | just ask Jesus for one thought.
00:51:28.000 | Just remember me when you come into your kingdom.
00:51:31.000 | And what did Jesus say?
00:51:33.000 | "Verily, verily, I say unto thee,
00:51:35.000 | "today thou shalt be with me in paradise."
00:51:41.000 | Thou with me.
00:51:43.000 | You with me.
00:51:44.000 | That's the essence of what every Christian desires,
00:51:48.000 | and that's the essence of what every minister ought to desire.
00:51:54.000 | That's fulfilling beyond anything else.
00:51:58.000 | Thou with me, this morning when I get up.
00:52:01.000 | Thou with me when I preach on the Lord's Day.
00:52:03.000 | Thou with me when I'm in a struggle
00:52:06.000 | with some member of the church who's being very belligerent.
00:52:10.000 | Thou with me in family difficulties.
00:52:14.000 | Thou with me in heartaches, in sickness, in health.
00:52:19.000 | I will be with you always.
00:52:21.000 | Be faithful to my word.
00:52:23.000 | Go make disciples, and I will be with you always.
00:52:27.000 | Heidelberg Catechism puts it so well when it asks the question,
00:52:31.000 | "But what benefits do I receive from him going into heaven?
00:52:36.000 | "He'll be so far away."
00:52:39.000 | And it says, "Oh, no, no, no.
00:52:41.000 | "With respect to his Godhead, his majesty,
00:52:45.000 | "his grace, and his spirit."
00:52:47.000 | Four things.
00:52:49.000 | "He is at no time absent from us."
00:52:51.000 | No time absent from us.
00:52:54.000 | What a delight it is to know that he's here with us now.
00:52:58.000 | That we seek no favor but his favor now.
00:53:01.000 | That we have no joy except in doing his will now.
00:53:06.000 | Only redeemed humanity enjoys this blissful presence of God.
00:53:15.000 | When I evangelize people, I love to tell them that.
00:53:18.000 | I love to say to them,
00:53:20.000 | "You know, I've had the privilege of meeting tens of thousands,
00:53:23.000 | "hundreds of thousands of children of God
00:53:25.000 | "all around this globe,
00:53:27.000 | "and I've never met a single one
00:53:29.000 | "who was sorry they were a Christian,
00:53:32.000 | "who was sorry they spent so much time in the Bible,
00:53:35.000 | "who was sorry they spent so much time in prayer,
00:53:37.000 | "who was sorry they spent so much time
00:53:39.000 | "evangelizing someone else."
00:53:41.000 | You're missing the purpose of life, my friend.
00:53:44.000 | You're missing the joy of a personal relationship
00:53:48.000 | with Jesus Christ,
00:53:50.000 | who's always with his people.
00:53:56.000 | Jesus Christ is at no time absent from you, dear brother,
00:54:00.000 | even when your faith does not actively grasp him.
00:54:06.000 | Even in your darkest hours, he's beside you.
00:54:10.000 | Like Robert Murray McShane said,
00:54:15.000 | "How would you pray differently
00:54:17.000 | "if when you bent your knees,
00:54:18.000 | "you knew that Jesus was standing right beside you?"
00:54:22.000 | His answer was, "He is standing right beside you.
00:54:25.000 | "He's omnipresent. He's right there.
00:54:27.000 | "He's right there.
00:54:29.000 | "He's at no time absent from you."
00:54:32.000 | So the church can move ahead.
00:54:35.000 | You as a minister can move ahead in your work
00:54:38.000 | with great confidence,
00:54:40.000 | for all the powers of darkness cannot destroy the church.
00:54:45.000 | Church is the only institution
00:54:46.000 | that's survived for thousands of years,
00:54:48.000 | and it will go on to the end,
00:54:50.000 | because the Lord of heaven and earth,
00:54:53.000 | the one to whom all authority is given,
00:54:56.000 | the resurrected King of glory,
00:54:58.000 | the beautiful Lord of lords, is with you.
00:55:03.000 | Now, that assurance of his presence
00:55:08.000 | is also a promise of enduring presence,
00:55:12.000 | even unto the end of the world,
00:55:14.000 | or as the Greek has it more accurately,
00:55:16.000 | all the days unto the consummation of the age.
00:55:22.000 | Do you notice in this text the fourfold all?
00:55:27.000 | What God is, God is all of what he is.
00:55:32.000 | Notice that Christ first possesses
00:55:35.000 | all authority in the world.
00:55:38.000 | For this reason, the church must disciple all the nations
00:55:42.000 | by baptizing and teaching them to observe
00:55:44.000 | all the things that Christ has commanded,
00:55:47.000 | and he will be with us all the days
00:55:51.000 | unto the end of time itself.
00:55:54.000 | What does that teach us?
00:55:56.000 | Well, the four uses of the word all teach us
00:56:00.000 | that the Great Commission is a time-spanning,
00:56:03.000 | globe-straddling project of comprehensive disciple-making
00:56:08.000 | that will keep the church busy and blessed
00:56:12.000 | until the Lord returns.
00:56:16.000 | So Christ declared that his presence would endure
00:56:19.000 | with his church until the consummation of the age.
00:56:23.000 | So we live, yes we live in the now, not yet,
00:56:26.000 | we live in the overlapping of two ages,
00:56:28.000 | but we're soon going to experience,
00:56:31.000 | sooner maybe than we think,
00:56:33.000 | the age to come where we will be with Christ
00:56:36.000 | and he will be all and in all,
00:56:39.000 | and we will glory in his fullness.
00:56:42.000 | We will be spiritual brides of the Lord Jesus Christ
00:56:47.000 | and have intimate communion with him
00:56:49.000 | beyond the intimacy of a man and his wife.
00:56:54.000 | Not physical, spiritual.
00:56:57.000 | There'll be a oneness with Christ
00:56:59.000 | that we will consciously experience in glory
00:57:02.000 | that will go beyond our comprehension.
00:57:05.000 | And so we wait eagerly for that day.
00:57:09.000 | We long for that day to come
00:57:12.000 | where the church will be one multitude,
00:57:14.000 | where the promise will be fulfilled
00:57:16.000 | that all the church given to him
00:57:19.000 | will be gathered together, all the elect.
00:57:22.000 | Not one chair in heaven will be empty.
00:57:25.000 | Every place is reserved.
00:57:27.000 | Everyone will be brought there
00:57:29.000 | and all good will be walled in
00:57:31.000 | and all evil will be walled out.
00:57:33.000 | And heaven, as Jonathan Edwards said in that famous sermon,
00:57:37.000 | will be a perfect world of perfect love.
00:57:41.000 | So brother, when you're discouraged in the ministry,
00:57:46.000 | remember your future.
00:57:48.000 | Remember the assurance of Christ's promise.
00:57:51.000 | He'll be with you always through the trial
00:57:54.000 | but also to the end and into everlasting glory
00:57:59.000 | where he will be all and in all
00:58:01.000 | and where you will be, by the grace of God,
00:58:04.000 | as holy as he is holy
00:58:07.000 | and where you'll never have to take your eyes off of him
00:58:11.000 | and you'll never be ashamed of him.
00:58:14.000 | He'll never be ashamed of you.
00:58:16.000 | You will love him perfectly
00:58:18.000 | and he will love you perfectly.
00:58:21.000 | You know, speaking of Samuel Rutherford,
00:58:26.000 | he has this famous letter to a friend
00:58:28.000 | where he says, "Here on this earth,
00:58:32.000 | "we often get only glimpses and glances
00:58:35.000 | "and blinks of Christ
00:58:37.000 | "because we're so often drawn away
00:58:39.000 | "to other secular concerns.
00:58:42.000 | "But there in heaven,
00:58:45.000 | "he will be all the focus
00:58:48.000 | "and you and your loved ones
00:58:50.000 | "and people from your church
00:58:52.000 | "will all recognize one another in heaven.
00:58:55.000 | "We will not be focusing on each other
00:58:57.000 | "but we will be focusing on him.
00:58:59.000 | "But our joy will be multiplied
00:59:01.000 | "as you will focus upon him
00:59:03.000 | "even with those you've ministered unto."
00:59:06.000 | You know why I keep thinking of Rutherford,
00:59:10.000 | but Rutherford said,
00:59:12.000 | "For other souls from Anwerth with me,
00:59:15.000 | "from my pastorate with me in heaven
00:59:17.000 | "will make heaven a double heaven for me.
00:59:20.000 | "What joy, what joy
00:59:22.000 | "to worship the lamb forever
00:59:25.000 | "with those with whom you've been bounded
00:59:28.000 | "with spiritual bonds here on earth.
00:59:32.000 | "I will be with you always
00:59:35.000 | "even to the end
00:59:38.000 | "and then forever.
00:59:41.000 | "Christ will be all and in all."
00:59:44.000 | You know, here in this life,
00:59:48.000 | we just,
00:59:50.000 | we want to know Christ better, don't we?
00:59:53.000 | We want to know so much more about him.
00:59:55.000 | We want to experience so much more of him.
00:59:59.000 | But we're so often hampered
01:00:01.000 | by so many distractions.
01:00:04.000 | "But there I will gaze upon him,"
01:00:08.000 | Revelation 19 says.
01:00:10.000 | "Gaze upon him
01:00:12.000 | "and never have to look away again."
01:00:15.000 | The altogether lovely one.
01:00:19.000 | Had a couple students walk into my study
01:00:23.000 | one day from Nigeria,
01:00:25.000 | a few years back now.
01:00:27.000 | And one was a third year student,
01:00:29.000 | the other had just arrived the day before.
01:00:32.000 | And he came to introduce him to me.
01:00:34.000 | And as he introduced him,
01:00:37.000 | he noticed, and I noticed,
01:00:40.000 | that the new student just kind of
01:00:41.000 | looked at me like this.
01:00:44.000 | He just, he couldn't stop and look at me.
01:00:47.000 | And the older student said, "No, no, no."
01:00:49.000 | He said, "You've got things all wrong here."
01:00:52.000 | He said, "In Nigeria, it's an insult
01:00:55.000 | "to look your teacher too long in the face.
01:00:59.000 | "But in America, it's an insult
01:01:01.000 | "not to look him in the face."
01:01:03.000 | And so then the poor guy tried
01:01:05.000 | to look at me a little longer.
01:01:06.000 | And was like...
01:01:08.000 | But isn't that the way you often feel?
01:01:13.000 | Oh, that I could just gaze upon him.
01:01:16.000 | Be enamored with him.
01:01:18.000 | And grow in him.
01:01:19.000 | Well, one day, it will happen.
01:01:22.000 | More and more, and more and more.
01:01:25.000 | As John Howell said, "Tis cumulative glory
01:01:28.000 | "to be with Christ forever."
01:01:31.000 | So if you have this bottle of water
01:01:34.000 | and you had a bottle that had twice the capacity,
01:01:36.000 | see, in heaven, both will be totally full.
01:01:40.000 | Your cup will run over.
01:01:41.000 | But the capacity of knowing Christ
01:01:45.000 | and growing in Christ
01:01:47.000 | and delighting in the beauty of Christ
01:01:49.000 | and communing with Christ
01:01:50.000 | and relishing Christ
01:01:51.000 | and living Christ
01:01:52.000 | will just keep growing and growing.
01:01:54.000 | Forever.
01:01:56.000 | And it will never end.
01:01:58.000 | So this little mere life,
01:02:02.000 | this little short life,
01:02:04.000 | is just the beginning
01:02:06.000 | of everlasting glory
01:02:09.000 | of the fullness of Christ.
01:02:12.000 | So do the work of an evangelist.
01:02:14.000 | Press on, live for him.
01:02:16.000 | And know, too,
01:02:18.000 | as Paul says,
01:02:20.000 | in fact, the New Testament says 13 times
01:02:23.000 | that God's faithful servants,
01:02:26.000 | ministers of the gospel in particular,
01:02:29.000 | will receive a reward for their labor,
01:02:32.000 | a gracious reward,
01:02:34.000 | on that great day
01:02:36.000 | and for all eternity.
01:02:38.000 | What a wonderful thing.
01:02:40.000 | His presence is everything.
01:02:43.000 | No matter what he sends my way,
01:02:45.000 | if I can commune with him in it,
01:02:47.000 | it is well with my soul.
01:02:50.000 | What a promise.
01:02:53.000 | So we take this triple promise
01:02:55.000 | and we use it,
01:02:57.000 | divine authority,
01:02:58.000 | divine delegation,
01:02:59.000 | divine presence,
01:03:00.000 | as we go out
01:03:02.000 | and evangelize.
01:03:04.000 | And how do we do that then?
01:03:07.000 | And so what I want to do
01:03:08.000 | in my remarks now,
01:03:11.000 | as I draw to some applications
01:03:14.000 | in closing,
01:03:15.000 | I want to look with you
01:03:18.000 | half at this address
01:03:21.000 | and then half tomorrow evening
01:03:24.000 | when I address you
01:03:26.000 | on the role of the Holy Spirit in evangelism.
01:03:29.000 | I want to look at some practical ways
01:03:31.000 | that we evangelize
01:03:34.000 | to the nations
01:03:36.000 | through our own ministries
01:03:38.000 | and through other ways
01:03:40.000 | to reach out
01:03:41.000 | and how we can stir up our churches
01:03:43.000 | also to take on some of these ideas.
01:03:47.000 | And many of them you know very well,
01:03:50.000 | but maybe some of them
01:03:52.000 | you haven't thought of
01:03:53.000 | in terms of,
01:03:54.000 | well, this is evangelization.
01:03:58.000 | Let me just give you
01:03:59.000 | a few of the typical ones today,
01:04:01.000 | traditional approaches,
01:04:03.000 | and then tomorrow night
01:04:04.000 | I want to do some more
01:04:05.000 | of the modern approaches
01:04:07.000 | very briefly.
01:04:08.000 | So first of all
01:04:09.000 | is a church-based evangelism
01:04:12.000 | where you go out and make disciples
01:04:14.000 | through the church.
01:04:16.000 | That begins with public worship,
01:04:18.000 | doesn't it?
01:04:20.000 | Actually, every sermon we preach
01:04:22.000 | in one way or another
01:04:23.000 | should have evangelistic notes in it.
01:04:26.000 | Now, of course,
01:04:27.000 | if the text is more evangelistic than usual,
01:04:31.000 | the bulk of the sermon will be evangelistic.
01:04:34.000 | But we just don't assume
01:04:37.000 | that everyone in our church is saved,
01:04:39.000 | that all the boys and girls are saved,
01:04:40.000 | that all the adults are saved.
01:04:42.000 | We preach in a discriminatory way,
01:04:45.000 | in an evangelistic way,
01:04:47.000 | we distinguish the precious from the vile,
01:04:49.000 | we teach people
01:04:50.000 | how the Holy Spirit converts sinners,
01:04:53.000 | and we teach people
01:04:55.000 | the necessity of repentance
01:04:56.000 | and faith in Christ.
01:04:58.000 | So preaching is a primary tool
01:05:01.000 | for evangelism,
01:05:04.000 | for going out and making disciples.
01:05:06.000 | Most people who've been saved
01:05:08.000 | have been saved in world history
01:05:11.000 | through preaching.
01:05:13.000 | This is the most common way.
01:05:15.000 | And so we need to realize
01:05:17.000 | that we're not just,
01:05:19.000 | we're doing that, of course,
01:05:20.000 | but we're not just comforting God's people
01:05:22.000 | in our sermons,
01:05:23.000 | we're also reaching the unsaved,
01:05:25.000 | and even as we do that,
01:05:26.000 | even as we preach evangelistically,
01:05:28.000 | we're also stirring up God's own people
01:05:30.000 | to examine themselves
01:05:32.000 | and become more and more assured,
01:05:35.000 | "Yes, I do have some of those fruits of the Spirit
01:05:39.000 | "the Bible speaks about.
01:05:41.000 | "By their fruits ye shall know them."
01:05:44.000 | And then, of course,
01:05:46.000 | you need to spearhead in your church
01:05:49.000 | support for mission work
01:05:52.000 | all around the world,
01:05:53.000 | financial support,
01:05:54.000 | prayer support,
01:05:56.000 | encouragement support.
01:05:58.000 | You need to talk about the Great Commission,
01:06:02.000 | and you need to talk to perhaps a young man
01:06:05.000 | who really feels called to ministry about,
01:06:08.000 | "Well, don't you perhaps feel to go out
01:06:12.000 | "and to bring the gospel to unreached people groups?"
01:06:16.000 | You may suggest those things as a minister to,
01:06:19.000 | now God has to confirm it,
01:06:21.000 | but there should be an eagerness,
01:06:23.000 | there should be a zeal in our ministry
01:06:26.000 | that is conveyed to our people,
01:06:30.000 | "Go ye forth, therefore, and bring the gospel."
01:06:35.000 | And then there should be all kinds
01:06:38.000 | of evangelistic community outreaches,
01:06:40.000 | whether it's a free conference,
01:06:43.000 | whether it's a vacation Bible school,
01:06:45.000 | whether it's a periodical
01:06:47.000 | you spread out in the neighborhood,
01:06:49.000 | whether you send men to preach at a homeless shelter
01:06:52.000 | or a soup kitchen or a nursing home or prisons
01:06:54.000 | or juvenile detention facilities or nursing homes.
01:06:57.000 | Make use of all the opportunities
01:07:00.000 | from within your church to go out
01:07:02.000 | and bring the gospel to your community.
01:07:06.000 | And door to door.
01:07:08.000 | I don't know if that's possible in every area,
01:07:11.000 | but door to door was a New Testament way
01:07:15.000 | of spreading the gospel with a couple people going
01:07:18.000 | and having materials with you
01:07:20.000 | and just speaking to people from heart to heart,
01:07:24.000 | mind to mind.
01:07:27.000 | Sunday school evangelism.
01:07:29.000 | In our church, we modeled it after the MetTab
01:07:32.000 | Sunday school program in London, England,
01:07:35.000 | and what a blessing.
01:07:37.000 | A couple thousand children have gone
01:07:39.000 | through our Sunday school program over the years,
01:07:42.000 | and some of them have been saved.
01:07:44.000 | Many not so.
01:07:46.000 | It's not easy work.
01:07:48.000 | 85% of them come from broken homes
01:07:50.000 | and many of them are not well-behaved.
01:07:53.000 | But when you have a Sunday school program
01:07:59.000 | and you bring children into the church,
01:08:02.000 | young children, with proper permission
01:08:04.000 | from their parents, signed statements,
01:08:06.000 | everything done in a very orderly way,
01:08:09.000 | and you bring them the gospel,
01:08:12.000 | it will also be rewarding for your own people.
01:08:15.000 | It will bond your own people together
01:08:18.000 | in the gospel faith as they minister together
01:08:22.000 | to the children of the neighborhood.
01:08:24.000 | And who can tell?
01:08:26.000 | Eternity will reveal what it will do.
01:08:29.000 | And then there's open air evangelism.
01:08:31.000 | There are many places you can still preach
01:08:33.000 | in many countries today.
01:08:35.000 | In the open air, people can hear you
01:08:37.000 | and you can have people help you,
01:08:39.000 | handing out things, talking with people.
01:08:41.000 | Who can tell what the Lord will do?
01:08:44.000 | And a big one in my life is travel evangelism
01:08:47.000 | because I'm playing so often.
01:08:49.000 | And I had a fellow professor in Grand Rapids
01:08:55.000 | who told me, he was an elderly man at the time,
01:08:58.000 | when I was in my 30s, and he said,
01:09:00.000 | "Wherever I go, wherever I go,
01:09:04.000 | "be it a bus, a train, a plane,
01:09:06.000 | "or wherever I meet people,
01:09:08.000 | "if I sit next to someone,
01:09:10.000 | "no matter how busy I am,
01:09:12.000 | "I have a holy resolution with God.
01:09:14.000 | "I will try to evangelize that person."
01:09:18.000 | It's astonishing.
01:09:19.000 | It is astonishing when you make that effort.
01:09:23.000 | And the first few times, you feel a bit awkward, perhaps.
01:09:26.000 | But as you learn how to engage people
01:09:29.000 | in conversation more effectively
01:09:31.000 | and then move it over into,
01:09:33.000 | "Well, what do you believe?"
01:09:34.000 | Or, "What church do you go to?"
01:09:35.000 | "Well, I don't go to church."
01:09:37.000 | But you talk to them about the Lord
01:09:39.000 | and what he means to you
01:09:41.000 | and what the Word of God means
01:09:43.000 | and what a blessing it is to have a guide for life
01:09:46.000 | and what I do on planes is I almost always,
01:09:53.000 | not every time, but where there's an opening,
01:09:56.000 | I will send them books in the mail afterward,
01:09:58.000 | free of charge.
01:09:59.000 | And even if they don't want to read them,
01:10:01.000 | they promised me on the spot they'll read them,
01:10:03.000 | so I send them.
01:10:04.000 | You never know what it will do.
01:10:06.000 | Never know what it will do.
01:10:08.000 | And I could tell you many stories of things that it did do
01:10:11.000 | and, of course, many abject failures,
01:10:14.000 | and I'm on my part as well,
01:10:16.000 | even though, as I was reassured last hour,
01:10:19.000 | that it's not really a failure.
01:10:21.000 | When you get rejected,
01:10:23.000 | it's really them rejecting the Lord.
01:10:26.000 | But there's one time in your life
01:10:29.000 | you're sitting next to that person.
01:10:31.000 | There's one more soul that's not saved, most likely.
01:10:36.000 | You've got to talk to them.
01:10:38.000 | That's your responsibility.
01:10:39.000 | Go forth, everywhere you go,
01:10:42.000 | proclaiming the gospel.
01:10:45.000 | And then there's media-based evangelism,
01:10:48.000 | be it through tracts,
01:10:50.000 | and I would suggest when you give out tracts,
01:10:53.000 | don't just hand them out like they used to do in ages past,
01:10:56.000 | but try to talk with the people you hand them out to.
01:10:59.000 | Try to build a relationship.
01:11:01.000 | That's more effective in general than the other way.
01:11:06.000 | Radio, internet evangelism.
01:11:09.000 | There are so many possibilities
01:11:11.000 | for your church to get involved,
01:11:13.000 | or just even putting your sermons in your church
01:11:15.000 | on Sermon Audio or some other place
01:11:17.000 | where they can be listened to by hundreds
01:11:20.000 | or even thousands,
01:11:22.000 | who can tell what the Lord will do.
01:11:26.000 | So use these forms of evangelism
01:11:29.000 | and whatever other ones you come up with,
01:11:33.000 | and then tomorrow I'm going to talk to you
01:11:37.000 | about some more personal forms of evangelism
01:11:42.000 | and community forms as well.
01:11:45.000 | So go forth and preach the gospel.
01:11:49.000 | Go forth and share the gospel.
01:11:52.000 | Go forth in every area of your life
01:11:55.000 | and ask, "How can I reach as many people as possible
01:11:59.000 | "with the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ,
01:12:03.000 | "to his glory and their salvation good?"
01:12:07.000 | I'm going to pray,
01:12:09.000 | and then I'm going to just talk to you about books
01:12:12.000 | for just a few minutes.
01:12:14.000 | Great God of heaven,
01:12:16.000 | please bless this talk
01:12:18.000 | and do grant, Lord,
01:12:20.000 | that we would go forth as evangelists,
01:12:24.000 | do the work of an evangelist,
01:12:26.000 | according to thy divine promise,
01:12:28.000 | according to thy divine delegation,
01:12:32.000 | and according to thy precious divine presence.
01:12:36.000 | Help us to truly be ambassadors for Christ 24/7,
01:12:41.000 | to never fail to bring the gospel
01:12:44.000 | when opportunities avail us.
01:12:47.000 | And humble us beneath this gospel
01:12:50.000 | and beneath the calling we have
01:12:52.000 | to be gospel bringers, gospel sharers,
01:12:55.000 | gospel declarers, gospel preachers,
01:12:58.000 | wherever possible.
01:13:00.000 | Help us to be faithful even unto death.
01:13:05.000 | In Jesus' name we pray, amen.
01:13:09.000 | Well, you know, under the tent out there,
01:13:11.000 | there are a number of wonderful books.
01:13:13.000 | I wanted to mention just a couple of them to you
01:13:15.000 | that are evangelistic and helpful.
01:13:18.000 | One is "Turn and Live," "Turn and Live,"
01:13:21.000 | by Nathaniel Vincent.
01:13:23.000 | This is a Puritan.
01:13:24.000 | It's in a group of books called
01:13:26.000 | "Puritan Treasures for Today," PTT.
01:13:29.000 | And we're doing 200 of these
01:13:32.000 | for Reformation Heritage Books,
01:13:34.000 | and the goal is to have them translated
01:13:36.000 | in the world's 25 top languages,
01:13:39.000 | and then we're going to distribute them free
01:13:42.000 | in all these different countries and languages.
01:13:45.000 | And obviously we're raising donations for this task,
01:13:49.000 | but we're also editing each one of these Puritan titles
01:13:53.000 | so that a 13 or 14-year-old could read them.
01:13:56.000 | Every antiquated word is replaced
01:13:59.000 | with a modern equivalent.
01:14:01.000 | So gone are the days, forever gone are the days
01:14:04.000 | when people say, "I can't read the Puritans."
01:14:08.000 | 16 of these.
01:14:10.000 | 16 of these are now available.
01:14:12.000 | You can find them in the tent.
01:14:14.000 | There's a special price if you buy all 16.
01:14:16.000 | You'll love them, but they're just short books,
01:14:19.000 | 50 to 150 pages.
01:14:21.000 | They're in all different subjects.
01:14:23.000 | "Triumphing Over Sinful Fear" by John Flavel.
01:14:26.000 | "The Blessed Redeemer" by William Perkins
01:14:28.000 | is the last one.
01:14:30.000 | They are so rich and yet so simple
01:14:34.000 | and so evangelistic that I recommend them to you.
01:14:37.000 | "The Gospel of Jesus Christ" by Paul Washer.
01:14:40.000 | This is just a wonderful booklet
01:14:42.000 | on what the gospel is.
01:14:44.000 | Longer than a track, I think it's about 25 pages,
01:14:47.000 | and it just gives you the basics.
01:14:49.000 | And we sell these in packages of 10
01:14:52.000 | and give them out to your church,
01:14:55.000 | put them in your church vestibule.
01:14:57.000 | God's used them mightily.
01:14:59.000 | Over 2 million of these have been printed and spread.
01:15:04.000 | And then for you as a minister,
01:15:06.000 | "The Complete Gathered Gold" compiled by John Blanchard.
01:15:09.000 | This came out a few weeks ago.
01:15:11.000 | It's the best book of quotations,
01:15:13.000 | Reformed, Puritan, contemporary quotations,
01:15:16.000 | I believe has ever been on the market.
01:15:19.000 | And you're going to want to have that as a pastor
01:15:22.000 | to help you put more fizz in the coke of your sermons
01:15:25.000 | and be able to get a little more life in there.
01:15:30.000 | And that will help you evangelistically as well.
01:15:33.000 | And then don't forget the Family Worship Bible Guide
01:15:36.000 | because that is a way to evangelize your own family.
01:15:40.000 | And we often forget that the most important part
01:15:44.000 | of evangelism is to start with our own household.
01:15:47.000 | And what this does, as a father,
01:15:50.000 | it gives you the two major takeaways
01:15:52.000 | with a question at the end of each of them
01:15:55.000 | from every single Bible chapter.
01:15:57.000 | So when you read a chapter each day,
01:15:59.000 | and I hope you do family worship,
01:16:01.000 | then you just read these two paragraphs,
01:16:04.000 | ask these two questions, and it generates discussion.
01:16:07.000 | And by the time you get through the whole Bible
01:16:10.000 | in two, three years with this,
01:16:12.000 | you will have spoken to your children or your grandchildren
01:16:16.000 | about every subject under the sun
01:16:18.000 | because the Bible speaks about every subject under the sun.
01:16:21.000 | So I call this the best evangelistic tool.
01:16:25.000 | It's by far our number one best-selling book,
01:16:29.000 | but the best evangelistic tool for the family.
01:16:32.000 | It will help you, Dad, Grandpa, Pastor,
01:16:36.000 | reaching out to people in your own family
01:16:39.000 | and your extended family.
01:16:41.000 | God bless you. Thank you so much.
01:16:43.000 | [applause]
01:16:52.000 | Speaking of books,
01:17:05.000 | you have a box of giveaway books for you
01:17:08.000 | for the conference.
01:17:10.000 | You can pick them up anytime in the conference bookstore
01:17:13.000 | between Wednesday and Thursday from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.,
01:17:17.000 | and then Friday from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m.,
01:17:20.000 | and the location is in the southeast corner
01:17:23.000 | of the book tent, just so you know.
01:17:26.000 | And also, speaking of books,
01:17:28.000 | not only are there books in the book tent,
01:17:30.000 | but also we have Grace Books,
01:17:32.000 | which is adjacent to the church office to my right,
01:17:36.000 | knowing that.
01:17:37.000 | And as you're walking over there,
01:17:39.000 | you might notice that your shoes look shabby.
01:17:42.000 | It's very possible.
01:17:44.000 | And so we have a remedy for you about that.
01:17:46.000 | You can drop off your shoes to the new option
01:17:49.000 | that you have at the shoe--
01:17:51.000 | let me say that quickly--shoe shine station,
01:17:53.000 | and that is you can drop off your shoes anytime
01:17:57.000 | or extra pairs of shoes that you might want shined
01:17:59.000 | on Thursday or Friday
01:18:01.000 | and pick them up by the end of the day,
01:18:03.000 | which is pretty amazing.
01:18:05.000 | It comes with a new shoe travel bag and shoe inserts.
01:18:08.000 | So please refrain, however, from walking around barefoot.
01:18:12.000 | [laughter]
01:18:13.000 | This is Southern California.
01:18:15.000 | I get that, but the '60s are way behind us.
01:18:18.000 | And also know that there is a seminar today
01:18:21.000 | at 1 o'clock in the Master Seminary Library
01:18:24.000 | titled "Called to Preach--
01:18:26.000 | Discerning the Desire for Pastoral Ministry."
01:18:29.000 | For all of you or any of you that are interested,
01:18:31.000 | all other seminars will begin at 2 o'clock.
01:18:34.000 | And here's the good part.
01:18:36.000 | Lunch today is Stonefire Grill,
01:18:38.000 | which means tri-tip.
01:18:41.000 | And so it's going to be a glorious time.
01:18:43.000 | Please refrain from eating or drinking
01:18:45.000 | inside the worship center or the chapel,
01:18:48.000 | and please avoid parking on Roscoe Boulevard,
01:18:51.000 | otherwise your car will be towed.
01:18:54.000 | Let me pray.
01:18:55.000 | Father, allow these men to have a rich fellowship time together
01:18:58.000 | over this wonderful food,
01:19:00.000 | and allow their speech with one another
01:19:02.000 | to be filled with great gratitude,
01:19:04.000 | knowing Your Son stands right beside them.
01:19:07.000 | We ask this in Christ's name, amen.
01:19:10.000 | [indistinct chatter]
01:19:13.000 | [indistinct chatter]
01:19:16.000 | [BLANK_AUDIO]