Good evening. It's a wonderful privilege to be here again and to preach the gospel, or at least preaching about preaching the gospel. Our title this evening is Preach the Gospel Until the End. My text is really just two verses in Matthew chapter 24. verses 13 and 14. But I believe that it's always good to give a context. So we're going to begin with Isaiah 66, Isaiah chapter 66. and just a couple of verses there. Again, in the context of impending judgment, which is the same context, roughly, as what we'll be reading in Matthew 24, beginning with verse 18 of chapter 66 of Isaiah, again, at the end of all this whole series of wonderful prophecies that Isaiah has given us. Now, in the context of judgment, a wonderful command implied here about declaring the glory of God. Verse 18, and we'll begin with prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for the privilege of reading your Word in our own language. We thank you, Lord, that you promised to always have a blessing with this word. This is your infallible, inerrant word. We revere the word because it tells us only the truth. and all the truth that we need. We thank you, Lord God, for the privilege of reading together so that we can amplify each other's understanding and later at some point discuss all the wonderful things that are found in your word. Strengthen us now, Lord, with this service of your word. Help us to understand what we read. As we pray this morning, may it have a converting power, a convicting power, and a power to bless us. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. God is speaking. For I know their works and their thoughts, and the time is coming to gather all nations and tongues. And they shall come and shall see my glory, and I will set a sign among them. And from them I will send survivors to the nations, to Tarshish, Pul, and Lod, who draw the bow, to Tubal and Javan, to the coastlands far away that have not yet heard my fame or seen my glory. And they shall declare my glory among the nations. And now in a more explicit way, as Jesus is speaking on the Mount of Olives, Matthew chapter 24, this is one of several parallel passages. We'll begin with verse one and just read all the way down to 35. Jesus left the temple and was going away when his disciples came to point out to him the buildings of the temple. But he answered them, you see all these, do you not? Truly I say to you, there will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down. As he sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately saying, Tell us, when will these things be? And what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age? And Jesus answered them, see that no one leads you astray. For many will come in my name saying, I am the Christ. And they will lead many astray. And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not alarmed. For this must take place, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are but the beginning of their birth pains. Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and put you to death, and you will be hated by all nations for my name's sake. then many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another. And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray. And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold. But the one who endures to the end will be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations. And then the end will come. So when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by the prophet Daniel standing in the holy place, let the reader understand, then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. Let the one who is on the housetop not go down to take what is in his house. And let the one who is in the field not turn back to take his cloak. and alas for women who are pregnant and for those who are nursing infants in those days. Pray that your flight may not be in winter or on a Sabbath, for then there will be great tribulation, such as has not yet been from the beginning of the world until now, no, and never will be. And if those days had not been cut short, no human being would be saved, but for the sake of the elect, those days will be cut short. Then if anyone says to you, look, here is the Christ, or there he is, do not believe it. For false Christs and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect. See, I have told you beforehand. So if they say to you, look, he is in the wilderness, do not go out. If they say, look, he is in the inner rooms, do not believe it. For as the lightning comes from the east and shines as far as the west, so will be the coming of the son of man. Wherever the corpse is, there the vultures will gather. Immediately after the tribulation of those days, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then will appear in heaven the sign of the Son of Man, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other." So from the fig tree, learn its lesson. As soon as its branch becomes tender and puts out its leaves, you know that summer is near. So also when you see all these things, you know that he is near at the very gates. Truly I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away. May I pray again? Heavenly Father, there is so much in these passages from Isaiah and Matthew and a few others that we will want to consider tonight. We cannot possibly do justice to all of the aspects being considered, but help us, Lord God, to seize hold of one truth or two, something that we can really take in and digest and apply. We need your assurance, Lord God, that you are totally in control of all things, that you have made promises and you're keeping those promises to the very end. You have promised to do all things, and you've given us some things to do in the Great Commission. So help us, Lord, to be assured, and to rest in you, and to delight in the love of Jesus, which keeps us. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Matthew 24. begins in the setting of the temple and how wonderful and magnificent it was with the huge blocks and all the gold trim and all kinds of things. So spectacular. And then Jesus shocked his disciples as they were looking and beholding all that. And he said, all of this is going to be torn down. There won't even be left one stone on top of another. It's going to be a disaster. And so being shocked, the disciples naturally asked, well, when is this going to happen? And what will be the sign of the end? Those two things were in their minds. And that really covers the scope of the entire section that we've read. When will these things happen and what will be the sign? Now, the destruction of the temple would be like the end of the world to people who saw that as the very center of Israel's life and the focus of everything in Jerusalem. And as the outward circles of the Judean world expanded, it all comes back to Jerusalem. That's so important. But Jesus is telling them of two different things. There's a multiple fulfillment of these promises. There's something to be said about Jerusalem and its destruction in 70 A.D. which would be coming within the lifetime of some who are listening there to Jesus. The destruction of the the whole economy of Judea and Jerusalem and the temple, all that would be destroyed. But that wasn't the only thing that Jesus was talking about. He was speaking about the end. The end of what? The end of the world as we know it, the end when all of the promises that God has made would come colliding together and be fulfilled. And Jesus had spoken to the disciples of other things, and we learn more in the scriptures. We think of these things, a new heavens and a new earth. When are all these things going to happen? So our questions are similar to what the disciples asked in those days. When will all this happen? And what is the sign? What is the one thing that we should look for that will tell us that, boy, this is the moment. This is when it's all coming together. Well, the answer, I think, is really in verses 13 and 14 of this section in Matthew 24. The answer that we're looking for, because of when we live and what we need to deal with, Because of the lawlessness and the love of many growing cold, there's a great time of tribulation, verse 13, but the one who endures to the end will be saved. Now, there's an endpoint. There's something that the disciples want to fasten on to. They don't want to forget about the issue of salvation because the world is in the state of emergency. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come. Surely the scope of that declaration is far greater than the mere destruction of Jerusalem and what would happen to the Jewish people at that point. That's where we focus. This gospel of the kingdom, we'll talk about the gospel in a moment, will be proclaimed, the divine passive again, throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, which is what Isaiah had prompted us to think of, all nations, and then the end will come. Then all of history will be wrapped up So the context is impending judgment and the centrality of the gospel. And then, as now, when the disciples were asking this question, there were a lot of things swirling in their minds. Jesus was giving them an answer that they did not quite expect. He talked to them about the wars, the rumors of wars, disasters, all these kinds of things happening. You know, we think of volcanoes and earthquakes and the fires in Los Angeles and whatever's happening on Santorini when they have earthquakes every couple seconds, it seems like. So they were all concerned about that, and sometimes we can be too, but. The most important thing is the gospel of the kingdom being proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come. I really only have one point in this whole message. It's really a declaration. We're not going to expound it all. But if you want three points, you've got a command that's implied by the divine passive. All the world will be hearing this gospel of the kingdom as it's being proclaimed, and it's a testimony to all nations. So that's a command, but who's going to do that? Well, God is doing it. But I'll jump to the conclusion. We are co-laborers with him. So we have a part in this, in this divine passive. He is causing it all to be done. God is having all authority in heaven and on earth, as Jesus said in the Great Commission. All authority in heaven and earth has been given to me. Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations. baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey whatsoever I've commanded. And lo, I'm with you always to the end of the world. There it is again, the end of the world. So that's the scope of this command. Secondly, there's a criterion, the end of the story, the end of history, is actually the return of the Messiah in visible ways, visibly returned as the lightning flashes from the east to the west. Nobody will escape seeing it, and this is the day of judgment and full redemption, indicating that the gospel has reached all the nations because that won't happen until the end has come. So there will be tumults, disasters, alarms, but he says don't be distracted by all of those things. Don't let them lead you astray. The end is not yet. And finally, the third point, command, criterion, and then culmination of God's plan, the chief end that will happen. Naturally, we think of the short of catechism, the chief end of man is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever. The chief end will actually be accomplished at the end when we will be able to glorify Him and enjoy Him forever. All these things fit together. Did you ever notice how everything in the Old and New Testament sort of fits together? The longer you read, the more deeply you understand the plan of the Bible and the plan of God's revelation, the more you realize there's nothing that's just sort of random. It always fits together. So that's where we are with this. I'll begin again with the divine passive. The triune God ensures that the gospel will be preached. by the body of Christ, propelled by the Holy Spirit into the harvest fields, he says, into the world or throughout the entire world and to all nations. The Great Commission, you go and make disciples of all nations. So there's something for us to do, but the wonderful confidence that we have, the assurance that we have is that it's going to get done. The job will get done, and God will equip us. So if we feel like, oh, I can't do this, he says, no, I will equip you. I can't get the job done, he says, no, I will get the job done. The gospel will be preached to all nations. How will we know when that's happened? And that's a difficult question. Has it already happened? Has the whole world not yet heard the gospel? Has the gospel not yet been preached to all nations? I couldn't help but think this afternoon of how Our friends in Nepal who were working with the Wycliffe Bible translators basically began their work in 1966. And my wife and I came in 1970-71. By 1976, ten years after the whole work had begun, by 1976 Wycliffe was asked to leave the country. When they came in 1966, there were hardly any native Nepalese believers. There were about 40 different tribes, tribal groups, 40 or more languages, but none of them really had effectively heard the gospel, maybe a few Gurkhas here and there who had been to Great Britain. There were some Nepalese Christians in Sikkim and Bhutan and Darjeeling, part of India at that point. But hardly anyone in 1966 of just sort of the general population of Nepal. But by 1976, there were thousands of Christians. Thousands had heard. By now, at least 200,000 we understand, maybe more, maybe many more. A lot of Nepalese who live in Akron, Ohio have heard the gospel. There are several churches here of Nepalese Christians. So the question is, has their sound, the sound of the gospel, has the sound gone out to all the world? Has the gospel been preached to all the world? Have all heard the testimony as if presented in a court of law when all the nations are on trial for their sinfulness and the judge is at the door and in this setting of judgment he could come any moment as he's at the door already. How close are we to the very end? The disciples would have wanted to know that. When? and what will be the sign? The sign will be when the gospel is preached to all the world, but how will we know? The question is actually, is it important that we even, that we know What are we supposed to do? Just what God tells us to do. Go out into all the world, preach the gospel, make disciples, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. We have a doctrine, we have a solid set of historical facts about the sinless life, the crucifixion, the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ Jesus. He was seen by hundreds. And ever since then, so many millions have believed. So the historical fact of Jesus is already established. The purpose for which he came was established. And the world should stand convicted of sin. What about opposition, though? What if some of the things that we feared would have happened? We'd be taken over by some totalitarian 1984 type of government that would be a surveillance state and we won't be able to do anything and we would fear the total collapse of the kingdom. Well, no, that's not going to happen. Why not? Because Jesus says in Matthew 16, I will, you know how to fill out the sentence here, I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. Wherever there has been the gospel preaching in faithfulness, there has been opposition, but the gospel has prevailed. Jesus tells us in Luke 21, verse 15, he says, I will give you words and wisdom that none of your enemies can contradict. So who's really in charge of this enterprise? Jesus is. And he's giving us everything we need, his words and his wisdom. And he already has the end in mind and the victory is accomplished in prospect. we'll see it being accomplished. In several places, Jesus repeats this. We've been reading from Matthew 24 and Mark 13, the same thing. And this gospel must first be preached to all nations. This familiar gospel must first be preached to all nations. The Lamb of God has come to take away the sin of the world. Behold the Lamb of God. He's done this. And so the king of kings will rule in all the world and over all the nations. Jesus says further in Luke chapter 24 verse 47, and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations beginning at Jerusalem. And then he says, you are witnesses. You are witnesses. Now, how is all this going to be accomplished? And why should we have great confidence that right now we're closer than we ever were to seeing this goal accomplished? In Colossians, you read that all over the world, this gospel is producing fruit and is growing. Is it all over the world already in the time of Paul? Well, in the Mediterranean world, of course, he was all over the place. Paul, as we learned this morning, was preaching maybe even as far as Spain, got to Rome, all of Macedonia, Asia Minor, all these areas. There were little pockets of Christians. The church was established in all of those places. But all over the world, what about Sulawesi? What about Indonesia? What about India and all these different places? It was beginning. The beginning had already happened. And now, what with Trans World Radio and the Billy Graham Crusades and all these kinds of things that have gone all over the world. The gospel has been printed in so many languages. The whole Bible has been printed in many languages. It's not quite finished. The translators tell us they've got some more projects yet to do, but it could happen so quickly. So what is our responsibility then? Well, again, a divine passive in Luke chapter 24, Jesus says, And repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. So from this one place, it expands out, especially now. Especially now, we should say that God has not given us an impossible task because He's with us. He's in the midst of it all. And He's enabling us by the Holy Spirit to use all kinds of technology and organization so that the elect will eventually respond to the gospel. How do they respond? With repentance, faith, baptism, being filled with the Holy Spirit, being discipled, being adopted as sons of God, and then carrying out individual ministries. All of the Christians being equipped with many different gifts of evangelism and support and ordinary means of grace and worship. So we preach directly to people that we know, according to our gifts, or we preach indirectly as we support the ministries of translations and broadcasts and print ministries and seminaries. And as ordinary believers employing ordinary means of grace, people are harvested into the kingdom. And we're seeing it all around us. It's a wonderful thing. You say, well, I just can't believe that the gospel has that power to go to all nations everywhere and create all those wonderful effects. Isn't there a lot of fakery and falseness going on in the church? Aren't there a lot of people who are just nominally Christians? Well, that's true. But all over the world, this gospel is producing fruit now, as it was in Paul's day, and is growing. And the gospel is, in fact, producing genuine effects. Therefore, Paul could say, and we can say again, too, I am not ashamed of the gospel of God. For it's the power of God for salvation for all, to all the Jews first and Gentiles. For in the gospel, Righteousness by God is made manifest. so that from faith to faith, I should read it properly here. I am not ashamed of the gospel for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith as it is written, the righteous shall live by faith. I think I was getting tangled up by all the prepositions. But don't you get tangled up by the prepositions. They're there. in print so we can keep going back to them. That was Romans 1, verses 16 and 17. So, we are not ashamed of the gospel of God. It is powerful, it's effective, and it's triumphant throughout the world. I say all these things tonight just to give us some measure of assurance, and also an indication that even though God says he's going to make sure that it all happens, there is something for us to do. And I like to end with this, what Peter tells us in his second letter, in 2 Peter 3, Again, he's speaking about the day of judgment and how the day of the Lord will come like a thief, the heavens will pass away with a roar, heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed. And by this point that Peter is writing, I don't think Jerusalem had yet been destroyed. So he was looking beyond those blocks and stones that the disciples were first concerned about and wondering about what the sign would be. He says, since all these things are to be dissolved, the temple, all kinds of aspects of civilization, wars, rumors of wars, everything, since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved. and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn. But according to his promise, we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells." Tell me that's no small gospel. This is no small message that we have. It covers the cosmos and all of these things. And our responsibility is simply to trust and obey. There's no other way. Trust and obey, live holy and godly lives. That is our testimony. People will see us and ask us a reason for the hope that's within us. And we'll tell them about Jesus. And some will believe. Let's pray. Lord God, we thank you that you've given us a very reliable message. and you've given us the power through your ascension and session on high to carry out all the things that you've asked us to do. And if we lack anything we need, simply ask of you and you give richly and without blaming us. We pray, Lord God, help us to be faithful to the commission that you've given us. Help us to reach out to our neighbors and our friends to be bold, whether they accept the message or not. Help us, Lord God, to love you with an everlasting love and make that love evident, prominent, even as we love one another. We pray that you'll strengthen us now with a determination to do your will and to rejoice in you. In Jesus' name, amen.