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Matthew chapter 28 will use this 
occasion of the baptism of our sisters to reflect upon the Great 
Commission. That's found in Matthew 28 at 
verses 18 to 20, but I do want to read beginning in Matthew 
28 at verse 1. Now after the Sabbath, as the 
first day of the week began to dawn, Mary Magdalene and the 
other Mary came to see the tomb. And behold, there was a great 
earthquake, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and 
came and rolled back the stone from the door and sat on it. 
His countenance was like lightning and his clothing as white as 
snow. And the guards shook for fear of him and became like dead 
men. The angel answered and said to 
the women, do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus 
who was crucified. He is not here, for he has risen, 
as he said. Come, see the place where the 
Lord lay, and go quickly and tell his disciples that he has 
risen from the dead, and indeed he is going before you into Galilee. 
There you will see him. Behold, I have told you. So they 
went out quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy and ran 
to bring his disciples word. And as they went to tell his 
disciples, behold, Jesus met them saying, rejoice. So they 
came and held him by the feet and worshiped him. Then Jesus 
said to them, do not be afraid. Go and tell my brethren to go 
to Galilee and there they will see me. Now while they were going, 
behold, some of the guard came into the city and reported to 
the chief priests all the things that had happened. When they had assembled with 
the elders and consulted together, they gave a large sum of money 
to the soldiers saying, tell them his disciples came at night 
and stole him away while we slept. And if this comes to the governor's 
ears, we will appease him and make you secure. So they took 
the money and did as they were instructed, and this saying is 
commonly reported among the Jews until this day. Then the eleven 
disciples went away into Galilee, to the mountain which Jesus had 
appointed for them. When they saw him, they worshipped 
him, but some doubted. And Jesus came and spoke to them, 
saying, All authority has been given to me in heaven and on 
earth. Go, therefore, and make disciples 
of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father 
and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe 
all things that I have commanded you. And lo, I am with you always, 
even to the end of the age. Amen." Well, let us pray. Father 
in heaven, we thank you for the written word. We thank you for 
the gospel of our salvation and for the fact that Christ not 
only died in our place, but he was raised the third day. We 
thank you that he is seated at the right hand of the Father. 
We look forward to that day when he comes again in glory to judge 
the living and the dead. And may it be the case that all 
of us would be found clothed in the righteousness of Jesus 
Christ, ready to meet him on that day when you usher in a 
new heavens and a new earth. We ask now that the Holy Spirit 
would help us as we look to this passage of scripture. We pray 
again that you would strengthen us and encourage our hearts. 
We pray that you would forgive us for sin and its darkening 
influence in our minds and hearts, and help us, God, to take every 
thought captive to the obedience of Jesus Christ our Lord. And 
we ask in his most blessed name. Amen. Well, if you had read through 
the gospel according to Matthew, you would see Jesus. Obviously, 
he's the emphasis or the focus in this gospel narrative. And 
Jesus only ever did good things. Jesus went about doing good things. 
Jesus raised the dead. Jesus healed the sick. Jesus 
cured people. Jesus fed people. Jesus walked 
on the water. Jesus was able to still the waves 
and the winds. And then you get to the latter 
part of the Gospel of Matthew and you see that Jesus is taken 
by lawless hands and he's crucified. And I think at times, again, 
I try to put my mind or try to put into my head those who had 
never read the scriptures. They would be perplexed by that. 
They would be puzzled. Why this innocent man? Why this 
good man? Why is he taken away, ripped 
from the friends that he loves, and is ultimately crucified in 
the worst form of punishment, the worst form of execution the 
world has ever known? Well, all of that is in response 
to what you read at the very beginning of Matthew's Gospel. 
When the angel announces the coming of Jesus, he tells Joseph 
what he is to name Jesus. And he says, you shall call his 
name Jesus, for it is he who will save his people from their 
sins. Well, the cross, the death, the 
crucifixion of our Lord in concert with his life of obedience is 
the means by which he saves his people from their sins. And here 
we see him raised from the dead and he has all this authority 
and now he tells the church how they're supposed to function 
until he comes again in glory to judge the living and the dead. 
So that's the broader context. Let's look specifically at what 
we call the Great Commission. It is found, as I said, in chapter 
28, verses 18 to 20. And essentially what you have 
are three things. We're not gonna look at all of 
this in detail, but you have the authority behind the Great 
Commission. That's stated by Christ in verse 
18. All authority has been given 
to me in heaven and on earth. Then you have the specific focus 
of the Great Commission, where we're going to spend our time 
this morning. And then finally, you have the assurance provided 
for the Great Commission. Notice how he ends this in verse 
20. He says, In lo, I am with you 
always, even to the end of the age. So the omnipotence of Christ, 
that means His power, His sovereignty, His ability, is asserted by Him 
in verse 18. But then the omnipresence of 
Christ is given to the church in verse 20. In other words, 
Christ is always there with her while she's engaged in this blessed 
task of disciple-making. Well, let's look specifically 
now at the focus of the commission. Notice what the church is commanded 
to do. Verse 18 Jesus says all authority 
has been given to me in heaven and on earth as a result of that 
Jesus now Delegates that authority to his church to his Apostles 
and he says go therefore make disciples of all the nations 
Baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and 
of the Holy Spirit Teaching them to observe all things that I 
have commanded you So those are the specific focus or the specific 
focus of the Great Commission So in the first place we observed 
that the disciples must go The disciples are not told to stay. 
The disciples are not told to just sort of hole up, find a 
place, and hide from society. But rather, the disciples are 
commanded to go. Now, it's what's called a participle, 
but it has imparitable force. In other words, Jesus is saying 
to them, you must go. You must be about this. The church 
in the world has this function. The world is structured in such 
a way that there's an agency of violence, that is the civil 
state. They are to execute God's wrath 
in history against criminal offenders. But there's an agency in healing, 
of healing within the context of the world, and that's the 
church. And so the church needs to take this gospel out. The 
church needs to preach the truth. The church needs to be like Jesus, 
who announced, repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. 
And then he went about doing good, extolling the glory of 
God, and preaching the grace of the kingdom. The church must 
be about this. And then as we follow out what 
Jesus says here, it's very delimited. We have a theology meeting every 
other Saturday morning, and yesterday we were talking about this sort 
of stuff. And my argument is that when 
the church tries to do everything, she doesn't do what she's supposed 
to do well. In other words, what she's called 
to do is clearly defined in this passage. She's to make disciples, 
she's to baptize disciples, and she's to teach those disciples. 
She's not to entertain people. She's not to try and ameliorate 
all of the problems for the downtrodden and poor. Certainly she does 
that in obedience to the second great commandment, but her primary 
mission in the world is to make Jesus Christ known. Her primary 
mission in the world is to preach Christ and Him crucified. Her 
primary mission is to call sinners to repentance and faith. That's 
what's defined for us in this Great Commission. The church 
that tries to do everything will not do the specific she's called 
to do well. She's to be the pillar and the 
ground of the truth. She's to traffic and truck in 
sound doctrine. She's to proclaim Christ, not 
only for the salvation of sinners, but for the growth in grace and 
in knowledge of the people of God. It's really a beautiful 
commission and it's very simple as well. Sometimes churches and 
people of God seem a bit confused about their task or their role 
or what are we supposed to be doing? How about we go back to 
Matthew 28 and listen to the voice of the Master and seek 
by grace to obey His blessed Word? Because He knows what's 
best. He knows what people desperately 
need, both inside the church and outside the church. We're 
not smarter than the Master. We're not more proficient than 
the Master. We're not more excellent in wisdom than the Master. We 
ought to listen to the Master. So the first aspect that the 
church must engage in is to go. You see this in the book of Acts. 
Jesus tells his church, first, you'll witness to me in Jerusalem, 
and then Judea, Samaria, and then to the uttermost parts of 
the earth. But for the most part, in the first few chapters of 
the book of Acts, they're located staunchly in the city of Jerusalem. It was through the persecution 
of the church, specifically the martyrdom of Stephen, that the 
church then was scattered out. She didn't do what the master 
said, and as a result now of this persecution, she goes out 
and she testifies in Judea, Samaria, and then to the uttermost parts 
of the earth. So Jesus calls his people to engage in going. Now, you may not be a missionary, 
you may not be a pastor, you may not be a preacher, so how 
can you participate? Pray for those who are. Pray 
that your churches will be faithful to the commission. Pray that 
your churches will be consistent with reference to the commission. 
Pray that God would indeed let the nations be glad vis-a-vis 
Psalm 67. Pray that God would raise men 
up and send them forth as pastors, as preachers, as church planters. 
If you can't necessarily go, you can certainly pray for those 
who are going. Now notice, secondly, Jesus says, 
while you are going, you need to make disciples. Go therefore 
and make disciples of all the nations." What does it mean to 
make a disciple? Well, it means to call them to 
faith and repentance in the Lord Jesus. We can't make them believe, 
we can't make them repent, but the God that we serve is able 
to make men willing in the day of his power. And so God, or 
the scripture says, for since in the wisdom of God, the world 
through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness 
of the message preached to save those who believe. So the church 
is obedient to her master. She preaches the gospel of our 
salvation. God in his grace saves sinners 
as he does with Carrie, as he does with Catherine, as he does 
with the rest of us who have a credible profession of faith 
in Christ. He saves us by that grace. and then he conforms us 
unto the image of his beloved son. That's discipleship. One 
commentator, John Broadus, defines it this way, to disciple a person 
to Christ is to bring him into the relation of pupil to teacher, 
taking his yoke of authoritative instruction, accepting what he 
says as true because he says it, and submitting to his requirements 
as right because he makes them. If I could just sort of read 
between the lines with our dear brother, he means that discipleship 
means the disciple doesn't say, what do you mean I have to do 
that? The disciple doesn't say, what do you mean Jesus says I 
have to do that? What do you mean I have to go to church? 
What do you mean I can't go there? What do you mean? That's not 
discipleship. The Apostle John says the commandments 
of God are not burdensome. If you find that the commandments 
of God are burdensome in your heart, if it's a bondage to you, 
if it's something that vexes you and grieves you, you ought 
to believe the gospel and repent, because the true people of God 
find the law of God as their delight. The only thing that 
bugs them or grieves them is their inability to actually keep 
that law the way that pleases God. So they cry out with the 
Apostle Paul, O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver 
me from this body of death? This idea of discipleship, it's 
viewed in Matthew chapter 11. You can go there. Matthew chapter 
11. Jesus says, the church must go, 
and as the church is going, she must make disciples. Matthew 
11, 25 to 30 shows us something about discipleship. Verse 25, 
at that time, Jesus answered and said, I thank you, Father, 
Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things 
from the wise and prudent and have revealed them to babes. 
It goes along with what I was saying previously. We can't make 
people believe. We're not Muslims. We can't make 
you convert by the power of the sword or gun. We don't have that 
coercive power to bring men into discipleship. We are at the disposal 
of a sovereign God. And this is what Jesus highlights. 
I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you hid 
these things from the wise and prudent. Now, some get offended 
by that notion of God's sovereignty. They say, well, that's not fair. 
God's not dealing with a race of innocent people. God's not 
dealing with people driven like the white snow. God is dealing 
with what looks like it looks now. You know when the snow first 
falls, it's all beautiful and it's white? My wife said everything 
gets quieter. I just kind of mused on that 
the other day. She was right. It does seem a bit quieter. I 
don't know if everybody's now sipping hot chocolate in their 
houses and they're not out making a bunch of noise, but everything 
seems quiet and the snow is beautiful and white. We tend to think God's 
dealing with that when it comes to people. He's dealing with 
what it looks like now. After a few days when there's 
slosh and mud and dirt and all that icky stuff, that's what 
God's dealing with. For Him to hide gospel truth 
is not unfair, it's justice. Christ praises the father for 
that but thou didst reveal them unto babes Praise God Almighty 
that he shows gospel truth to those whom he purposed to do 
So now notice what Christ says on the heels heels of this says 
even so father verse 26 for so it seemed good in your sight 
It was well pleasing to you verse 27 All things have been delivered 
to me by my father and no one knows the son except the father 
Nor does anyone know the father except the son and the one to 
whom the son wills to reveal him Now if you're familiar at 
all with what's called reformed theology, this is a great passage 
It highlights that God's absolute comprehensive universal sovereignty 
But one of the bad implications drawn from this is that because 
of that we don't preach the gospel No, that's not the way Jesus 
follows through on the heels of this declaration of the absolute 
comprehensive sovereignty of his father in verse 28 Jesus 
says come to me all you who labor and are heavy laden and I will 
give you rest Isn't that great? That's the good news. When he 
speaks about being heavy-laden, when he talks about needing rest, 
he's not talking about your weariness from your job. You may be a ditch 
digger and you come home at night and your sciatic hurts and your 
lower back hurts and your shoulders hurt. He's not talking about 
that kind of weariness. He's not talking about that kind 
of burden. He's talking about the weariness and the burden 
that sin brings. Y'all know that, don't you? You 
ever wake up after a night of sin or after a week of sin and 
say, boy, I feel good. I feel so robust and excellent. Sin is such a blessed taskmaster. It always leaves me satisfied. 
That's not your report. The report is, I need to change 
the way that I'm living. I need to reform some things. 
I need to get rid of some things. I need to imbibe some things. 
You see, it's Christ who gives relief. It's Christ who gives 
rest. It's Christ who is able to afford 
forgiveness for sin and to give us a righteousness that will 
ultimately avail with his Father. And so Christ invites sinners 
to come to him. It's a beautiful thing. Come 
to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give 
you rest. Now notice in verses 29 and 30, here's discipleship. 
Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and 
lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For 
my yoke is easy and my burden is light. You see, with reference 
to discipleship, we have this initial coming to Christ for 
what's called justification. And then we have this continual 
staying with Christ in what's called sanctification. That's 
discipleship. Again, we can't make people believe, 
we can't open their hearts, but we trust in the sovereign God 
who is able to do that, who reveals these things to babes. And once 
they come in faith to the Lord Jesus, we seek to instruct them, 
we seek to encourage them, and we seek to build them up in their 
most holy faith so that they'll be what Christ has purposed for 
them to be. That's the church's function, 
to make disciples. The means by which this is done, 
again, gospel preaching. Salvation is by grace through 
faith. If you're new to Christianity, 
you don't typically come to churches, you don't know what all of the 
rigmarole is about, let me tell you, People that are going to 
heaven are not going to heaven because they deserve it. They're 
not going to heaven because they're good They're not going to heaven 
because they perform well or they have an edge over you They're 
going to heaven because of Jesus Christ Christ obeyed the father 
at every point. He always did what the father 
commanded him He always fulfilled the law and Christ going to the 
cross went there not for his sins because he didn't have any 
But he went for the sins of all those who believe in him So on 
that cross, Christ is punished for the sins of His people. That's 
what the angelic reference in Matthew 121 means. For He will 
save His people from their sins. It's a beautiful thing. Discipleship 
by grace through faith in Jesus. So again, if you're new to all 
of this, you've come either out of a curiosity or a courtesy 
to family members, and you want to see what happens in the waters 
of baptism, this ain't magic. There's no potion in the water. 
Once it's over, we're going to open a spigot and that water 
is going to go right out into the parking lot. It's not magic. It doesn't convey anything, but 
rather it symbolizes what God Most High has done in the lives 
of these two people. He has saved them by His grace. He has forgiven them. He has 
washed them from all their sins, and He has united them savingly 
to His blessed Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. The way into that 
baptistry tank is not through their efforts or through their 
merits, but through the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Lord. Now 
notice what Jesus goes on to say. Well, before we move on, 
because we've been in the book of Genesis, because we've been 
rehearsing the promises to Abraham, because we read Psalm 2 at the 
outset of our worship, notice what Jesus says in verse 19. 
Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations. So there's 
this idea out there that all roads lead to heaven. They don't. 
That's a lie from the pet. Jesus said, I am the way, the 
truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except 
through me. That is exclusivistic. And yet 
here Christ says, go, as you go, make disciples, and your 
target audience is not just Jerusalem, is not just Judea, Samaria, but 
it's the uttermost parts of the earth. It's Chilliwack, British 
Columbia. It's Abbotsford, British Columbia. 
See, God made a promise to Abraham way back when, and he said that 
in you, Abraham, all the families of the earth shall be blessed. 
Well, that promise is made good because of the seed of Abraham, 
and that is the Lord Jesus Christ. What we read in Psalm 2, Jesus 
rehearsing what Yahweh says to him. He says, ask of me, and 
I will give you the nations for your inheritance, the uttermost 
parts of the earth as your possession. So Christ has this absolute authority. 
Christ calls his church to engage in this, and he tells them, don't 
leave anybody undealt with. Go to every tribe, every tongue, 
every people, every nation. You want the foundation for the 
missionary enterprise? It's right here. Go to all nations. Don't just sit in Jerusalem, 
but rather testify wherever there are sinners who stand in need. 
So we must go. We must make disciples. Now, 
notice thirdly, we must baptize them. We must baptize them. Go, therefore, make disciples 
of all the nations, baptizing them. Now, who's the them? Who 
are the subjects of baptism? People in our church are going, 
okay, here he's gonna get a little controversial, and my friend 
or my neighbor's not gonna like this. I hope to not be too controversial, 
but I think this is the paradigm for the way the church functions. 
Notice the specific, not conspicuous, the specific order. He doesn't 
say, baptize and then make disciples. That's not the way it goes. He 
says, make disciples, baptize those disciples, and then teach 
those disciples. This shows the pattern followed 
out in the book of Acts. It's not patal inclusion in the 
covenant promises of God. It's rather preach the gospel 
of free grace to Jerusalem sinners and their seed, and whoever believes 
the gospel should be baptized, join churches, and be taught 
everything that Jesus Christ said. See, there is an order 
here. Go, make disciples, baptize. Some have seen baptism as the 
means by which disciples are made. That is to invert the Great 
Commission. And it's not just the sacks. 
It's not just those people that teach a baptismal regeneration. 
Again, I think this is fundamental in terms of a paedo-baptist approach. 
We sprinkle them as babies, and then we disciple them, and hopefully 
someday they'll confess faith in Jesus Christ. That is to get 
the commission backwards. So there's the controversy. If 
you're upset, you can complain to your neighbor who invited 
you or your friend. Actually, you can call me or 
talk to me. It's an old debate, and it's one that I'm certainly 
not going to put to rest. But we need to take heed to what 
is written on the pages of Holy Scripture. And we all talk about 
the infallible and inerrant Word of God. Yeah, not only in terms 
of six-day creation and young earthism, not only in terms of, 
you know, justification by faith alone, but for matters of church 
polity, for matters of order, for matters of discipline. Do 
we make or rather baptize and then make them disciples? You 
know, in my own personal experience, I've known Carrie Lawson since 
she was born. I visited her in the hospital 
before, the new Abbotsford Hospital that used to be on, I don't know 
if it was Cowlin or whatever, but the hospital there. Notice 
that we did not, or I did not, visit her on the Tuesday. I don't 
know if she was born on a Tuesday. I'm not that good in the memory 
game at this point, but we didn't have an infant baptism on that 
following Sunday. And not to be disrespectful, 
but a lot of infant baptism seems to me to be an expression of 
one's hope that God will, in fact, save this child. And I'm 
not discounting that hope that we as parents ought to have. 
We should all have that in spades. and act upon that and preach 
the gospel to our precious little ones. But if we ask the scriptures, 
what is baptism? Baptism isn't a sign of hopefulness, 
but it's rather a sign of confirmation. Not in the Roman Catholic sense 
of confirmation, but rather affirmation. When these sisters go into that 
water, this is a visible representation of what God has done inwardly. No hope. Now, there's hope that 
they grow in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, 
but baptism is a sign of the new covenant given unto the party 
baptized and their specific significances to it. And one of those is they 
have remission of sins. One of those is that they are 
engrafted into the Lord Jesus Christ. One of those is that 
they promise to walk in newness of life. Why? Because that newness 
of life has been conveyed through the power of the Holy Spirit 
in what we call regeneration. This is an outward sign or seal 
or symbol or affirmation of what God has done inwardly. And in 
that sense, it's most beautiful and most glorious, and I hope 
that our sisters are greatly encouraged today as they go into 
that water. And I think the text sustains 
this. Go, therefore, make disciples of all the nations, baptizing 
them. The text is clear. We don't just 
indiscriminately baptize nations. I mean, that would be an easy 
way to accomplish the Great Commission, wouldn't it? We just get helicopters 
or planes and sprinkle water over whole bodies of people, 
and we have baptized them. That's not what it is. Those 
within the nations that believe the gospel of Jesus Christ, they 
are the ones who ought to be baptized. They're the subjects. They're the persons, they're 
the ones that ought to be immersed in identification with the triune 
God. That's the emphasis. And again, 
the order of activities, we see disciple making, and then baptism, 
and then teaching. I referenced the significance 
of baptism. Our own confession of faith says 
baptism is an ordinance of the New Testament, ordained by Jesus 
Christ. That's very important. was ordained 
by Jesus Christ. Whatever covenant you're in, 
you ask the covenant head, who do we baptize? Who do we circumcise? 
You ask the mediator of the covenant for the terms of the covenant. 
And in the new covenant, Jesus Christ is head. And in the new 
covenant, Jesus Christ is said to baptize believers. Baptism 
is an ordinance of the New Testament ordained by Jesus Christ to be 
unto the party baptized, assign a fellowship with him in his 
death and resurrection. What's that Roman VI significance? 
Isn't it a beautiful thing? Paul tells you to reflect upon 
your baptism. Some say, well, baptism is just 
this empty rite. It's just this symbol. No, we're 
supposed to reflect back on our baptism. We're supposed to think 
in terms of being dead and buried and raised again with our Lord 
Jesus Christ, which baptism splendidly displays. We won't get much into 
the mode of baptism. The subjects are clear in the 
text. It's those who believe the gospel. The mode is immersion 
because it pictures that significant event in the life of the master. 
He died, he was buried, he was raised. And this watery grave 
symbolizes that for the people of God. And the confession goes 
on to highlight significances with reference to baptism. As 
well of his being engrafted unto him of remission of sins and 
of his giving up unto God through Jesus Christ to live and walk 
in newness of life. Now notice the text again. Verse 
19 says, go therefore make disciples of all the nations baptizing 
them. Now note, in the name of the Father and of the Son and 
of the Holy Spirit. This is most important that we 
understand this. This is what we call Theology 
proper. It's the doctrine of God. It's 
who God is. And I think there's some misunderstanding 
in terms of who God is. At times, I think we see God 
as just a bit of a better version of man. He's just a bit of a 
more accomplished man. He's sort of a superman. That's 
not how the Bible pictures him. It's not how the Bible describes 
him or how the Bible demonstrates it. God and man do not share 
a genus. God is creator, and we are creature. It's not the case that you have 
man, and then you have angel, and then you have God. God is 
separate from us. And the scriptures highlight 
the separateness of God in a whole host of ways. Our confession 
gets at this by telling us that God is without body. He's non-corporeal. He doesn't have a body like men. 
God is spirit, according to Jesus in John 4. He's without parts. Now, that may seem a bit odd, 
but it simply means this. It simply means that he is not 
composed. That was actually a pun for anybody 
who's following here, and one of the brothers got it. The doctrine 
of divine simplicity. It just means God's not composed 
of stuff outside of God. There's not God parts out there 
that have come and formed and become God. It would mean there's 
something more ultimate than God. It would mean that God is 
like the creature. He's composed, and he's not. 
So our confession says he's without bodies, without parts, he's without 
passions. This idea of without passions 
doesn't mean he's stoic, doesn't mean he's static. It means he's 
most loving. He can't get more loving. I think 
if anybody gets their minds wrapped around what without passions 
means, their hearts are going to explode in love for God. Because it means He can't get 
more loving to you. Isn't that good news? It's not 
like you're living your life, and on Tuesday I failed a bit, 
or I engaged in some remaining corruption, so I sort of went 
down the love meter in terms of God. But by Thursday, I really 
got back into my step. I stopped doing the things that 
I was doing on Tuesday, and I increased in terms of the love meeting. 
And no, he's most loving. He has no variation, no shadow 
of turning with God. You see, this God is what scripture 
testifies, and this God as well is triune. That means he's three 
persons, one God, three persons. And you see that reflected in 
the text. Notice what Jesus says here. Go therefore and make disciples 
of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, 
singular, I'm sorry, baptizing them in the name, singular, of 
the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Sometimes 
people hear this doctrine of the Trinity. They say, well, 
that's a contradiction. How could something be three 
and one? Well, it can be three in one sense and one in another 
sense. We're not saying God has three essences and one essence. 
We're saying God is one essence or substance in three persons. So he's three in one sense, he's 
one in another sense, and this text specifically highlights 
that. Baptize them in the name singular of the plurality of 
God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. See, this is absolutely crucial 
that we understand this. When these two sisters go into 
this water, they're not just kind of engaged in some religious 
enterprise. They are identifying with the 
triune God of Holy Scripture. They are identifying with the 
true and the living God. There ain't a whole host of gods 
out there. There's one true and living God, 
and Scripture reveals to us that He's Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, 
from everlasting to everlasting, most high, most glorious, most 
wondrous, and most worthy to be praised and worshiped. That's 
what Jesus emphasizes. There's been a lot of heresies 
in the context of the church. There are those who say that 
there's three gods. That's the heresy of tritheism. 
That's not what the Bible teaches. There's the heresy of what's 
called modalism, that God just appears in different modes at 
different times. No, that is to denigrate what 
the Scripture teaches concerning God. And probably one of the 
most popular ones today, within confessing Protestantism, is 
what's called subordinationism. That there's gradation within 
the Godhead, and that the Son is not as God-ish as is the Father. That's rank heresy, and yet it's 
being published by supposedly evangelical publishing houses. 
One man was once asked, what do you think is wrong with the 
Church's doctrine of God today? The answer was, the Church's 
doctrine of God. I don't think that was a stretch. I think we've 
got some big problems in terms of theology proper, and this 
is the most important thing. What does Jesus say with reference 
to eternal life? You ever met those people that 
perhaps they're bowling fans, and they think that heaven is 
going to be one big bowling alley in the sky? Or they love football, 
and when they die, they're going to go to that big football field 
in the sky. Or they're fishermen, and they say, when I die, it's 
going to be like one big fishing hole in the sky. I realize those 
were all man-oriented. Maybe, I don't know, woman. I 
don't want to do that. That'll be bad. That's not it. It's the essence 
of eternal life. And this is eternal life, Jesus 
says, that they may know thee, the only true God and Jesus Christ 
whom thou hast sent. Brethren, do your hearts throb 
with that reality? I'm going to heaven because my 
sins are forgiven. I'm going to heaven because I'm 
clothed in the righteousness of Christ. All that is true and 
all of that is an amen to be sure. But I'm going to heaven 
and I get to be with God. I get to see him as he is. I 
get to be in the presence of Father, Son, and Spirit for all 
eternity. I mean, the Lord's Day is great. 
Gathering together in public worship, singing these hymns 
of praise to God is fantastic. But they're simply glimpses of 
that eternal state. This is, to use the language 
of the Puritans, the market day of the soul. But that day is 
going to usher in to eternity when Jesus comes again in glory 
to judge the living and the dead. What's going to make heaven heaven 
is God. Isn't it? It's not bowling, it's 
not fishing, it's not whatever it is you think is a great hobby 
here on earth. It is the knowledge of God Most 
High. The prophet hits on this in Jeremiah 
chapter 9. Don't let the wise man boast 
of his wisdom or the strong man boast of his strength. I don't 
think that's actually one of them, but that's the gist of the prophet. Don't let the rich man boast 
of his riches, but rather let him who boasts boast in this, 
that he knows me. It's everything, isn't it? Why 
do we come to church on Sunday? Is it to charge our batteries 
and see how each other's doing in their week? That stuff happens 
by way of corollary, but we're here for Him. Church has lost 
that. Church is about coming for you. 
We're gonna tailor everything for you. We're gonna make everything 
palpable for you. That's not how the scripture 
sets it forth. The scripture says it's God's house. The scripture 
says he is the householder and he is the one to whom we bring 
worship, praise, glory, and adoration. So Christ says, baptize them 
in the name singular of the three persons of the Godhead. Now, 
if you think about this in light of the larger gospel context, 
who was Jesus according to his humanity? He was a carpenter 
who became a preacher, who hailed from Galilee. Now, the Galileans 
were looked down upon by the Jerusalemites. They were the 
hillbillies. You think I've used it before. 
They were the Eastern Kentucky to New York City. They were, 
you know, just the guys that you really didn't take seriously. 
So this Galilean preacher has now received worship, having 
been raised from the dead and associating himself with that 
name that persons are to be baptized into. It's truly amazing that 
he would say this. Who could say this but God of 
God, light of light, true God from true God, begotten not made, 
one in being with the Father, this one who is worthy to be 
worshipped and glorified. Only Christ could say what Christ 
says here, because no creature ought to have, we ought never 
to be baptized into the name of a creature. The Lord Jesus 
is the second person of the triune God, and what he says here is 
normative for the church. John Gill says, hence a confirmation 
of the doctrine of the Trinity. There are three persons, but 
one name, but one God, into which believers are baptized, and a 
proof of the true deity both of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, 
and that Christ as the Son of God is God. since baptism is 
administered equally in the name of all three, as a religious 
ordinance, a part of divine instituted worship, which would never be 
in the name of a creature." And then notice what the disciples 
must do. Four things in terms of the specific 
focus. They must go, they must make disciples, they must baptize 
those disciples, and then the disciples must teach them to 
observe all things that I have commanded you. See, that's why 
churches do what churches do. That's why they're not about 
entertainment. That's why they shouldn't be 
about all the things that civil government's supposed to be doing, 
which isn't actually all the things. There's very few things 
civil government should actually be doing. But the Church of Jesus 
Christ should make disciples, baptize those disciples, and 
teach those disciples. As I said at the very outset 
of this sermon, it's very simple, isn't it? Church has become a 
bit complicated, it's become a bit difficult, it's become 
a bit hard to sort of figure it all out. There's all these 
different denominations, there's all these different types of 
worship, there's all these different approaches in terms of how do 
we do what we do. Well, let's go back to Scripture 
and ask the question, what are we supposed to do in light of 
Holy Scripture? And the church's marching orders 
are very delimited, very narrow. She can do more. I'm not suggesting 
she can't, but she must do these things. She must make disciples, 
she must baptize those disciples, and she must teach those disciples. And notice what he says, teaching 
them to observe all things that I have commanded you. He doesn't 
say, just have Bible studies and inform them what the law 
of God says, but they're free to live in any old way that they 
like. No, discipleship does mean taking 
His yoke upon us. Discipleship does mean following 
the Master. Discipleship does mean putting 
on the Lord Jesus Christ and making no provision for the flesh 
to fulfill its lusts. Notice that great statement in 
Matthew 121 again. You will call his name Jesus, 
for it is he who will save his people from what? From their 
sins. Not to continue in their sins. The people of God are taught 
the law of God, and they, by the Spirit of God, are supposed 
to obey it. Now, thankfully, there is forgiveness 
when we disobey, but the garden variety, ebb and flow of the 
Christian people of God ought to be a trajectory of obedience. John says in his first epistle, 
my little children, I write these things so that you may not sin. 
But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, 
even Jesus Christ the righteous. So on the one hand, John is an 
idealist. I don't want you to sin. On the other hand, John's 
a realist. But when you do sin, we have an advocate with the 
Father. Brethren, as professing believers in Jesus Christ, we're 
supposed to do what Jesus Christ said. I know that's a revolutionary 
statement today, but that's the way it is. You know, we're told 
the church has to tailor its message. The church has to change 
this up. The church can't insist upon the things that the church 
used to. Why? Has the Word of God changed? 
Is it a wax nose that we mold and shape and fit the modern 
society around us? Or do we stand fast? Martin Luther 
said way back when, here I stand, I can do no other. The Church 
issues, or the Word of God issues, a particularly declarative message 
that we're not in the business of changing or tailoring or fitting 
or helping to be accepted by the majority of men in our society. No, we as God's people are to 
be taught what Jesus says, and we're supposed to obey it. Now, I had said we wouldn't look 
much at that last bit, but just let's look at this by way of 
conclusion to the exposition. Notice, "...teaching them to 
observe all things that I have commanded you, and lo, I am with 
you always, even to the end of the age." Now, this is most encouraging, 
because when the church does what's specified here, she has 
the encouragement, the consolation, the comfort, and the realization 
that Christ is with her in this. It's not about, well, if we have 
this many people, or we have this much money, or our budget 
is this... No, no, that's not how we quantify the effectiveness, 
or the obedience, or the legitimacy of a particular church. Is she 
doing what God says? If she's doing what God says, 
then we have the promise from the God-man that He is with us. 
and He will be with us even to the end of the age. It's promises 
like these that get preachers out of bed on Sunday morning, 
or even worse, on a Monday morning. The reality that Christ is with 
His people. The reality that He is Emmanuel. See, that was another name given 
according to the prophet Isaiah in Matthew chapter 1. Yes, you 
shall call his name Jesus, for he will save us, or he will save 
his people from their sins. But he's also identified as Immanuel. 
You know what Immanuel means? It means God with us. How does 
Matthew's gospel end? It ends on that high note of 
Christ's presence with his church when his church is doing what 
he commissioned her to do. most simple, most excellent, 
most beautiful, most glorious. And even if we disagree about 
the subject of baptism and the mode of baptism, hopefully your 
heart resonates with the reality that this is what it's all about. 
Disciple-making, baptizing them, teaching them so that they may 
be obedient to the master and shine as lights in a crooked 
and perverse generation and hold forth that word of truth. You 
see, our generation is messed up, isn't it? All you got to 
do is look at any news site ever or one millisecond of exposure 
to what's going on out there. What does out there need? They 
don't need to come here to be entertained. They don't need 
to come here to be amused. They don't need to come here 
to be pandered to. They need to hear of Christ and 
Him crucified. That's what the church is supposed 
to be. That's what the church is supposed to be about. Not 
only declaring His absolute regal sovereignty, but saying, come 
to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give 
you rest. That's a promise from the Savior 
to sinners today. Come in faith and Christ will 
receive you. Well, in terms of some application, 
we'll close in just a minute. For those of you new to our congregation, 
there was a boy and he was listening to preaching and he asks his 
father after the preacher says, finally, the boy says to the 
father, what does finally mean, dad? And the dad said nothing. 
It means absolutely nothing, son. Forget about it. But my finally isn't that. There 
is an end. There is a terminus. But just 
a couple of thoughts in conclusion. There's four alls in the Great 
Commission. Four alls. It's about all authority. It's about all the nations. It's 
about all the things commanded. And it's about all the days. 
This ought to occupy the attention of God's people in churches. 
It ought to narrowly define what her purpose is in the world, 
and it should shape her prayers. It should affect the way that 
she gives, should affect the way that she lives and moves 
and has her being. If Christ's concern is the discipleship 
of the nations, then that ought to be our concern as well. Secondly, 
we learn something in terms of the glory of the triune God, 
baptized them in the name singular of the Father and the Son and 
the Holy Spirit. The doctrine of the Trinity must 
be known and believed because that's who God is. The doctrine 
of the Trinity must be known and believed because that's who 
God is. You can't say, well, I have this 
sort of defective understanding, but that's okay. Now, again, 
somebody brand new converted unto Jesus Christ, they're going 
to have defective understanding. But if you've been a Christian 
for 20, 25, 30, 35 years, you ought to be able to formulate, 
at least along the lines of the Westminster Shorter Catechism, 
that there are three persons in the Godhead, the Father, the 
Son, and the Holy Spirit. And these three are one God, 
the same in substance, equal in power and glory. I don't think 
that's a lot to ask from somebody who's confessed the faith for 
25 years. I'm not asking you to confess 
the Chalcedonian Creed, though that would be very good, or the 
Athanasian Creed, or Reed Turretin and Bovink and all the great 
Reformed writers on the doctrine of the Trinity. You need to know 
these things, the name singular of the three persons, Father, 
Son, and Holy Spirit. Athanasian Creed says, that we 
worship one God in Trinity and Trinity in unity, neither confounding 
the persons nor dividing the substance. It's a great statement. 
John Calvin said, thus we perceive that God cannot be truly known 
unless our faith distinctly conceive of the three persons in one essence. What do you think these guys 
would do with the sort of theological shallowness and ignorance expressed 
in so much of Christianity today? I mean, there was a time when 
persons taught the subordinate nature of the Son to the Father, 
but those persons didn't teach at evangelical seminaries. They 
were branded as Sassanians and heretics, and they were termed 
as those outside of the church. We've got problems in Zion, brethren, 
and somebody needs to sound the alarm. Francis Turretin says, 
for it is not sufficient to know that God is, as to existence, 
or what He is, as to His attributes, but we must know also who He 
is. Of course you need to know those 
other things, that He is, what He is, but who He is. He goes 
on to say, as to the persons as he presents himself to be 
known by us in his word. Hence, whosoever denieth the 
son, the same hath not the father. 1 John 2, 23. Do you understand 
the implications of that? This idea that every road leads 
to heaven. No, if you don't have the son, 
you don't have the father. If you don't have the Son, you 
aren't going to heaven. That's what Jesus taught. That's 
what John the Apostle taught. So back to the quote. Whosoever 
denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father. And he that honoreth 
not the Son honoreth not the Father which hath sent him. And 
I think this is a great statement by Francis Turretin. He says, 
Therefore God has revealed himself as one in essence, three in persons, 
the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Thus, he who does 
not acknowledge and believe the Trinity has not the true God, 
but has erected for himself an idol in the place of God. Now, that's hard, I think, for 
moderns, but for those who are familiar with Scripture and the 
cradle confessions of the church of Jesus Christ, we say yea and 
amen to that, because they're to be baptized in the name singular 
of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. And then 
the doctrine of the Trinity must be known and believed because, 
and this is where our confession of faith, which is patterned 
after the Westminster Confession of Faith and the Savoy Declaration, 
this is where our confession, I think, shines a bit brighter. 
Because the last statement in the treatment on the doctrine 
of the Trinity, the Second London Confession of Faith says that 
this doctrine is the foundation of all our communion with God 
and comfortable dependence on Him. So you get this idea that 
the doctrine of the Trinity is for the theologians and the seminary 
and it's for the pastors. It's for us. It's the foundation 
for our dependence upon God, for our comfortable dependence 
and our communion with God. So if you have this idea that 
that's only for the seminaries, I would suggest to you, you're 
not reading your Bible properly. It's supposed to come to the 
Father, through the Son, in the power of the Holy Spirit, that 
God may be all in all. And then a second observation, 
in terms of practical application, in terms of Christian baptism, 
I don't think that it is the most important doctrine in the 
Bible. But I don't think it's the least important doctrine 
in the Bible either. Because notice that Jesus, when 
he commissions his church, tells them to go make disciples and 
baptize those disciples and teach them. So the mind of the Savior, 
baptism, is something absolutely crucial in the context of the 
local church. It is important. If you have 
not been baptized and you profess saving faith in Jesus Christ, 
you need to get baptized. You need to come You've come 
to the Savior. Now you need to come to the water 
to publicly identify with this one God who exists eternally 
as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. It is important. Can you go to 
heaven without being baptized? That's the wrong question. You 
get that. Can I go to heaven without being 
baptized? Why would you even ask that? Ask the scriptures. What do you say in terms of baptism? I say get baptized. Okay, that's 
what I need to do. This whole idea, can I go to 
heaven without being, can I go to heaven without, your mind 
is needing some reform here. You need to go back to scripture 
and say, well, is it biblical? Is it what Jesus wants? If it's 
what Jesus wants, then I want to do that. That's the mindset 
of the believer, isn't it? You know that your wife hates 
something. You don't say, well, I'm going 
to get that something and parade it in front of her. No, you don't 
do that because you're not ignorant. You love her. You care for her. 
You know that she doesn't want something. You don't make her 
have it. You know that she does want something. If it's in your 
means, you try to provide that for her. Why? Because you love 
her. You obey Jesus because you love Him. But as well, we see 
the subjects of Christian baptism, again, delineated in our text. 
It's made disciples, baptize those disciples, and then teach 
those disciples. I don't want to go over that 
again because that'll bring controversy back in at the very end, and 
I don't want you to have poor thoughts about the sermon this 
morning. But to Carrie and to Catherine, I want to encourage 
you. Where's Carrie? I can't see her. There she is. 
All right. It's not these that I need. But 
as I mentioned earlier in terms of the confession of faith, those 
things are true. And one of the things that our 
confession highlights that I think we don't always appreciate is 
that baptism is for the party baptized. In other words, that 
Ethiopian eunuch wasn't in a church. Don't go out and say, well, I 
can go get baptized anywhere because of the Ethiopian eunuch. 
For the most part, it's good to get baptized in the church. 
But the baptism of these young ladies, younger, youngish and 
young, ladies this morning, younger than me, these ladies today, 
it's ultimately for them. We get to witness this, we get 
to praise God alongside of them, but it's for them, and it underscores 
those confessional truths that are biblical in nature. It is 
a sign of your fellowship with Christ, it is a sign of your 
having been engrafted in Him, it is a sign of the remission 
of sins, and it is a sign of your giving up unto God through 
Jesus Christ to live and walk in newness of life. It's for 
you. It ought to be an encouragement. 
It ought to be a blessing. You ought to be able to say with 
C.H. Spurgeon, as he mused on the day of his baptism, he said, 
Oh, blessed pool. It was that blessed pool wherein 
I entered and I came out identifying with the triune God Almighty. It's for them. May it be a means 
of grace and may it be a means of encouragement and may you 
be able to look back on this day and say, praise God for the 
Lord Jesus Christ, that one who is altogether lovely, that one 
who is chief among 10,000, that one who conquered my soul by 
sovereign grace. May it be a blessing and may 
it be a hope-filled day for each and every one or for the two 
that are baptized and for all of us as we witness this. And 
if you're not a Christian this morning, it's a beautiful thing. 
God save sinners. I would imagine if I was somebody 
that just wandered in to this church, I would see people that 
dress up, and they're somewhat polished. I mean, we don't wake 
up in the morning, fall out of bed, and come here in jammies. 
That's just not the way it happens. We clean up a little bit, run 
a comb through the hair, and put the tie on, and do all that 
sort of thing. So I've often wondered, what 
do people see when they come in to a place like this? And 
they might see people that are different than me, or they do 
things differently than me. We're all the same. Every single 
one in here, we've all sinned against the Holy God. We all 
lived in rebellion against Him. We all raised our fist at Him. 
He said, do this. We did the opposite. He said, 
don't do this. We went ahead and did it. We 
were vile, guilty, vile, helpless, we. Spotless Lamb of God was 
He. Full atonement, can it be? Hallelujah, 
what a Savior. So as you look around you, if 
you say, well, you know, I don't know that I could ever be a Christian 
because I don't own a suit. You don't need a suit. I don't 
know that I could be a Christian because I don't engage in this 
particular activity. Well, you don't necessarily have 
to engage in that particular activity. The way to become a 
Christian is by looking unto Jesus Christ in faith. That's 
the way, that's the means by which sinners enter into heaven. 
Sinners even with deficient understandings about all things that were covered 
in this particular lesson. Sinners saved by grace through 
faith in Jesus Christ, having that precious blood wash us from 
all our rebellion, all our transgression, and all our sin, and then receiving 
from God that righteousness that is Christ's. so that one day 
we'll be able to stand in the presence of a holy God and hear, 
not, get away from me, you horrible, vile, wretched sinner, but we'll 
hear, well done, good and faithful servant. It's not because of 
our well-doneness or our good and faithfulness, but because 
of the Master whom we have believed in. That Master takes sinners, 
even now, That master receives sinners even now. You don't need 
to come forward. You don't need to sign a card. 
You don't need to shoot your hand up in the sky. You need 
to believe the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, let 
us close in a word of prayer. Our Father in heaven, we thank 
you for this commission given to the church.